Cost of Treating Obesity Soars

Yes it does.

72 Pounds

My weightloss is finally picking up again after a long dormant stage. My trip to Texas and Arizona sort of put me off my weightloss for a little while. Didn't gain...but didn't lose. Here's to losing!

Mississippi Gains

I just read that Mississippi is at the top of the list of the most obese states in the U.S. at 32.5%. Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of obesity are in the South.

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that one out. All of my ex-favorite foods are all southern dishes and they are all fattening: Chicken fried steak, Tex-Mex, hush puppies.

Now I'm getting hungry.

Staying Focused For The Long Haul

I thought this was a great blog post by a lady by the name of Lynn Haraldson-Bering. Here is an excerpt from an entry titled, "Staying focused for the long haul."

I had so many feelings floating around in my head when I weighed 300 pounds – inadequacy, anger, and overall helplessness. I vacillated for months between accepting my body as it was and choosing to lose weight. I journaled tough questions: How did I feel about my body. How much did I love myself? Was I worth changing for? It was difficult and often uncomfortable work, I won’t lie, but once I was honest with myself and became better acquainted with the emotions that bothered me most, I was ready to lose weight.

Read it here.

1 more pound

One more pound and I'll hit a total of 70lbs lost since January 21. That's quite a milestone for me. The ability to walk further and move around easier is really pretty noticeable to me. It gives me the motivation to keep going to reach my goal weight (which is a ways off yet).

I see overweight people on the street and in stores and I just want to grab them and tell them that there is a way to take it off. It's not easy but it can be done and that they will feel so much better physically and mentally. Literally a weight off their minds.

No Extensions

I recently made a trip to my home state of Texas with my wife to visit our adult children. The last time I did this I needed a seat belt extension in order to wear one during takeoff and touchdown. Not so this time!

It was so weird not to have to ask for one and still have plenty of belt left over. Also, I was able to put the tray down from the seat in front of me without it resting on my chest. Ha! This is when it totally hit me how much weight I've lost

64

Weigh in this morning: 64lbs lost.

62 Pounds

And the weight keeps coming off! 62 lbs lost since January 21. Yes, super and duper!

60 pounds

60 lbs. Sounds like a lot of weight when I say it out loud. It is a lot of weight. I like to use my 20lb cat sand container analogy. When I buy cat sand for our 4 cats (!), I buy it in 20lb containers. Pick up a 20lb cat sand container sometime and feel the weight of it. Now imagine carrying 3 of those around with you all day. Walking across the parking lot. Climbing stairs. Getting dressed.

I say, goodbye to 60lbs. May I never see you again.

Obesity reaches down to youngest years

Nationwide, about 17 percent of U.S. children are overweight. American teens have higher rates of obesity than their peers in 14 other industrialized countries. The culprits are no surprise: fast food, snacks and sugary sodas. U.S. children also tend to lead sedentary lifestyles, spending hours in front of a TV or computer screen.

Good article here.

250s, meet Randy. Randy, meet your 250s

I weighed in this morning and the scale said 257lbs! That's 57lbs since I started my program!

Shout hallelujah and pass the nutrition bar.

53 pounds and a new website

Weigh in this morning: 261 ....can you say, "whoopee!" ?!

My new website is up: www.weightoffmymind.org and here's my personal Take Shape For Life site: www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com.

Onwards and downwards!

"Very obese fliers on United may have to buy 2nd seat"

That was one of today's headlines in USA Today.

I remember the feeling well, when a ticket taker at an airline counter told me that I may have to buy two seats. You don't know humiliation until something like that has happened to you.

In other news, I am down to 262 as of this morning. That totals 52 pounds since January 21.

www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com

Diet Pepsi and Orange Shakes - not a great combo

Where did summer go? Now it's cool and grey up here in Or-eh-gone once more. That's alright, I can enjoy that too.

I weighed in this morning at 267 lbs. up from 264. I'm guessing I'm holding on to some water. I made a mock-oriental lean and green meal last night that was a little heavy on the sodium.

I'm trying to get all my water down (The Target brand of water flavor packets are the best). I had an Orange shake this afternoon - not my favorite. I forgot to bring a can of creme soda with me so I bought a diet Pepsi out of the machine here at work to mix with the shake. Ugh! Not horrible, but not great. I hate diet Pepsi!

I'm going to try to be a little more stringent with the food plan and see if that doesn't loosen up this mini plateau a little.

www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com

The great wait

I shuffled into the bathroom this morning for my morning weigh in and shower.

Does anyone else feel a twinge of fear when you step on the scale and wait for the answer to pop up?

Back before the digital era, you'd step on the scale and the little dial would almost immediately point to your weight. Now that it's all digital, I first have to tap the scale with my foot to zero it out and then step on it and then...wait.

It's just a few seconds, but they are incredibly long seconds before the amount you weigh flashes on the little screen.

My number this morning was 264 lbs. That 50lbs in 10 weeks. Congratulations to me.

6,000 Pounds

I went to a meeting of heath advisers yesterday in Portland. There was about 200 people there. We all went up on stage and stated how much weight we had lost on Medifast. The total was over 6,000 pounds for the group!

This morning I weighted in at 265. It's really hard to believe it. 250s here I come.

And the pounds keep rolling off...

I'd down 48 lbs as of this morning...thank you Medifast for saving my life. Thank you Dave for letting me know about it. :)


www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com

Down a pound

I'm back down to 267 this morning. Wow this has been a weird week or so of weight loss/weight gain.

I'm hoping that I back in the weight loss groove again! I do need to drink more water (seems like a hassle to me).

I got my latest order of Medifast foods in yesterday. I tried the Smores bar which was new to me...really good. I also tried the cream of chicken which was also good, but I needed to mix it a little better than I did. It ended up a little clumpy.

Onward and downward!

Hovering

My weight is holding steady at 268 lbs. It's bound to break any day now, I've just got to hang in there and stick with the program.

By my calculations, I'll be down to goal weight by the end of this summer. That will be worth celebrating.

www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com

Finally shaking off this cold

I think I'm finally shaking off this cold I've had for almost two weeks. Ugh! I hate it when I get like that, 'cause it really slows me down and I don't have time to slow down!

Weigh in this morning: 268 I don't plan on staying here too long. Let's see if I can get into the 250s here pretty quick-like!

I went to Target on Sunday and bought a pair of jeans from the regular men's section instead of the "big boys" store. :) That felt gooood! I also bought a new cowboy shirt at the local western store here in Salem. Feels good to find something in a "normal" store that fits!

www.weightoffmymind.tsfl.com