[Leigh]

Originally Posted by Yellow band

Hi everyone......hope I can drop in like this.

Mathew, honey, I worry about your heart. I just read in another thread the changes that you want, are happening! (GREAT) then i scroll through and see you have diabetes. Please go for a walk every day, that T scares me all by itself.

I have neuropathy in my feet, both feet. Not from diabetes, from frost bite. yes, perfect! my feet turn blue and the pain is insane. Its called reynauds. When I was in the hospital (for the burns) they had me in therapy with the diabetics so I could learn about neuropathy. Going from the hot outside into an airconditioned store will set it off, its bizarre, so I always have socks on. Why am I talking about neuropathy except to say..you don't want that, its part of diabetes. (I do not have diabetes)

Another thing to warn you about is kidney issues.all that soda, and diabetes is REALLY hard on your poor kidneys. YOU have to take care of yourself dude. Your embarking on a new life....do you want to start out sick?

So go for a walk, and take water with you, and drink it while you are walking. Its the best place to start.

I agree with you 100%, and after all of these years of not taking care of Myself its about high time that I do. I'm at an exciting time in My life, increase in T and possible surgery in the future, but with that I need to work on taking better care of Myself. I have been doing alot of things lately that I never did before, including a good number of chores around the house (I was always so used to just sitting around, its taking getting used to). But I have to admit I'm proud of Myself for cutting down dramatically on My intake of cola over the last couple of days, have gotten out for a couple of walks over the past 3-4 days and have not allowed Myself to just sit down and do nothing.

Little changes, but I'm proud of Myself :-)

Originally Posted by Tommi

Water is my good for me Mantra....

I used to struggle to get a glass down. Partially because I was a Diet Coke addict, thus water was boring. I quit buying Diet Coke by the case. Now it is infrequent, and usually when I know a huge bowl of popcorn is the selection of the night.

Now, water is easier, straight, on the rocks, or with a packet of Crystal Light of some kind. I am getting about 60 to 80 oz /day now versus zero.

Vegetables and fruit are now part of my daily diet too. Learning to cook, making veggie soup with kale in almost everything.

Kale was recommended by a nutritionist at the cancer mentor program I go to. She made smoothies with banana, kale, and almond milk. It was awesome. So I now own a blender and make smoothies too.

Water is the one thing I can't seem to get used to drinking, even the flavoured stuff. I'm working hard on just getting the stuff down but I just tell Myself to simply drink it, I may not like it but if I want to work on getting healthier I just have to do it. I've been wanting to get a blender for awhile now, and I think now the next time I have extra money I will invest in one instead of wasting it on cola and chocolate as well as other things that are bad for Me!

Originally Posted by lillith

OK...I think I need to subscribe. In the last 6 weeks, I have lost 10lbs. I cut out the soda, and last Sunday, cut out most high bad fatty foods. I also started walking a mile everyday. I weighted myself this morning and saw that I lost two pounds, and it made me almost cry. I have been a fluffy girl for 13 years, and I didn't think I would see the scale move even one pound less. Today is about affirmation, and I believe in every single one of you who are seriously out there kicking ass. I am proud of our community and what we do to support each other within it! Thank you.

I think this is one of My biggest problems, I'm so used to being "fluffy" that I've been sabotaging My attempts at weight loss just cuz I'm afraid of big changes. I'm working on this because I don't want to end up having something bad happen to Me, all because I was too stubborn to actually do the work ....... slowly but surely I'm getting there, and it feels pretty good :-)

Originally Posted by Medusa

Congrats to the folks losing (and winning!)! This thread has been pretty amazing for support and encouragement and it is at the top of my 'thankful' list lately.

I decided to make a splurge today and went out to Whole Foods before heading out to lunch with guihong. I love me some Whole Foods but only buy certain things there for its propensity to become "Whole Paycheck".

Here's what I grabbed:

a can of garbanzo beans (I don't know if I like these so I'm going to try them. Any yummy recipes accepted and appreciated!)
several different kinds of wheat pasta
a nice sundried tomato tapenade
a sugarless, saltless peanut butter
dehydrated strawberries
2 pounds organic sweet cherries
black cherry concentrate (to add to the club soda I also bought)
a chipotle ranch dressing
some sticks and twigs (pretzels with chipotle flavor!)
more chocolate almond breeze
2 huge bottles of banana juice (on sale for $2!)
2 huge things of coconut water (I've never had this and don't know why I bought it other than it was on super cheap and I've seen a lot of people hooping about the potassium bennies)
a 4-pack of diet Izze black cherry (NO aspartame!)
dried apricots
dried pineapple
limes

I got all that for $70. Yes, really.

A lot of it is stuff I've been wanting to try so I went ahead with it. I think it's super important for me to keep the food interesting and entertaining. I get bored very easily eating tuna fish and salads every week so having some pretzels or something interesting to drink will make all the difference.

I'm still completely off the sodas and I have to say, it's not nearly as bad as I had thought. Granted, I've been slowly tapering off but I'm almost 4 months clean off the Diet Cokes!! WEE!

I appreciate all of you talking about your "process". I think that has been the single-most helpful thing for me in this entire thread.

Sounds like you got alot of good things, and thats not a bad price to pay for everything. Congrats on being off the Diet Cokes, I'm still working on being off of the colas too but I'm starting to slowly ween Myself off them. Its a slow process since I was drinking almost nothing but pepsi all day everyday, but even just small changes are good :-)

Originally Posted by EzeeTiger

Today was my weigh in day for WW. I was getting myself all keyed up for a big loss on the scale. I have noticed I can already fit into some things I wasn't really comfortable in even just two months ago and my jeans are loose! At the meeting the scale only showed a 1lb loss so I admit I was a bit disappointed. I realized as the day went on it wasn't that big of a deal. I've continued going to the gym and a diligently tracking my points and staying on target. And I know I'm doing all the right things.
Next week is SD Pride and I realize that sadly I will not be a size 34 with abs of steel by then! It's ok I realize that it took awhile to put on these extra pounds and it will take a while to lose them. Tonight I relaxed and had a glass of wine and even had dessert. Tomorrow I will be hard at it again counting points and eating healthy.
I hope everyone is hanging in there and working their program, stay strong friends!

I know its very easy to get discouraged when there is either no weight loss or only a loss of a pound but even just a pound means thats a pound less than you had before. I know for Me personally I get discouraged easily but I'm trying not to, any small victory is a greater part of a whole new Me and thats most important. As long as your doing things right and sticking to what you need to do, you will be successful :-)