Geez, Mr Harper. You certainly know how to get under people’s skin, lol. I sat here for an hour with tears rolling down my face – major emotional impact but didn’t reply bacause I wasn’t sure how much was genuine emotion and how much was fever induced (I’m waiting for Mum to pick me up to take me to hospital for an all inclusive holiday and some IV antibiotics for cellulitis :-S).

I saw my brother and 2 yr old nephew yesterday. A 2 yr old’s laughter is infectious. A 2 yr old who weighs about 35 lbs/16 kg is a lump! He kept wanting me to pick him up and I could barely manage it. I couldn’t get down on the floor with him when he wanted me to. Having said that, we still had fun. I thought afterwards …

“I’m carrying around 7 times his body weight more than I’d like to be …”

Seven 2 yrs olds attached to my body 24/7. That’s a lot of body (obviously!!!)

Seeing this post, going through what I’m going through right now and what happened last night? No, it’s not worth the pain staying where I am.

I found this post when I was looking for blogs about why we self-sabotage. When Craig wrote “You might think you want it enough now but I can tell you, you don’t,” I was blown away. That is the truth that almost nobody talks about.

We get stuck when we think we are are *bad* for not wanting it enough…it’s a vicious cycle. And the question is not “how” because we all know how. The question is “why?” or even “why not?”

I blogged about this post on my own blog, where I discuss the “why” question, at http://www.weigh-2-go.org (“A Painful Truth” http://weigh-2-go.org/?p=283 ). Thanks to both of you for the inspiration!

Veronica

Glad to hear that Mandi has been spoken to re this.

Interesting comment from that gentleman littlejohn; blown me away with his views.

Mandi if you see this post, you have taken the first steps towards the path were you want to go, you’re a legend “)

Mike

I have a little tactic which works for me when I feel that craving to eat something unhealthy, especially late at night………….go and clean your teeth! The fresh feeling in my mouth takes away all desire to eat or drink anything else for a long time.

Good luck

Kathy

If you are after some mentors, I think you have found some. Let Craig post your progress! I found solace in the immortal words of Yoda……”do or do not, there is no try”. I don’t know why they help me but they do. I think Bob from the Biggest Loser said something similar like it in his winning speech. I won’t wish you Good Luck…you don’t need it. You will make your own. Look forward to hearing your progress

Having yoyo’d my entire life (was first on weightwatchers diet at the age of 11) I have tried every ‘diet’ under the sun, including JC and the meal replacements. Could stomach them long term tho – the thought of another meal replacement shake makes me want to heave, 20 years later lol. But I guess they can be useful short term to get you started – but I would rather eat real food personally.

My current diet (note this is a long term maintenance diet, and more relaxed than my weight loss diet) includes butter, bacon, steak, chicken (including crispy roast chicken skin), cashew/pistachio/peanuts, cream, sour cream (not the lite stuff), lots of eggs and cheese. I don’t eat a lot of bread, maybe a slice or two of grainy bread every 3-4 days. I don’t eat potatoes, I’ll have a small amount of kumara (sweet potato) instead. I don’t eat cereal, maybe a bowl of porridge every month or two. I do have the occasional chocolate bar if I want one – but my tastes have changed so instead of caramello or a moro bar I’ll choose a peanut or almond slab, or some good quality dark chocolate. I avoid sugar, and processed carbs – I get the carbs I do eat from fruit, veges, seeds and nuts. I avoid anything with a heart tick, it’s a symbol of a product with lots of sugar. Carb IS sugar once it gets into your body.

I know I sound like a bit of an evangelist but having a) lost the weight myself EASILY and then b) learned the science behind it and why it works, I really want to share it with other people who are struggling with the same battles I used to struggle with on a daily basis.

And it’s not just me either, one sister lost 40kg, another lost 20kg, her partner lost 25kg, and another family member started the same plan earlier this year and has lost a lot so far (don’t know the numbers). More significantly (to my mind), my (tall, slim) Type 1 diabetic husband started eating my maintenance diet more or less, and from being a ‘well controlled’ diabetic who would have episodes of hypoglycaemia every couple of days, he now uses less than half the units of insulin and only has hypos on days where he eats processed carbs – maybe once every 3-4 weeks. This is significant in terms of avoiding the long term effects of diabetes – if not eating carbs will save him from blindness and/or amputations, well it’s a no brainer really.

Yes you do still have to have your head in the right place, which is where Craig and his motivation comes in. It’s not easy to eat differently to the norm, especially in a social setting – but if you are diagnosed with a food allergy you’ll stop eating that food no matter how good it tastes. Think of it as an allergy to carb/sugar if that helps – it’s not far from the truth!

And Craig it is certainly true that nothing tastes as good as being in shape feels, but there is more to it than merely wanting it. I never wanted or liked being fat, I tried really hard not to be, but you just can’t ignore that biological survival response to EAT NOW when you are literally starving your cells because you are eating the wrong foods. It makes me really sad that so many people are suffering due to the misguided vilification of saturated fat – when that is what our brains and bones (marrow) are made up of, and that is what our bodies crave, it’s what makes us feel full and satisfied and energised. Humans were simply not designed to eat such huge quantities of carbohydrate, and it’s making us ill.

/rant

Mandi I do feel for where you are at the moment but you absolutely can successfully lose the weight without feeling hungry and miserable, and you absolutely can be proud of your body again. I wish you every success

@Howard – what an awesome goal!! You should watch Fat Head too – I’m sure it will help you in understanding our ‘diseases of civilisation’ or as you put it ‘western lifestyle diseases’. All the best with your journey, it sounds amazing!