|
Post by bbbearsmom on Sept 23, 2020 23:22:05 GMT
I guess I could add I was thin as a child, so thin that people commented on it all of the time and I would get excited when I gained five pounds at my time of the month. When I got married the first time I married into a family of eaters and taught myself to overeat. Then I got to 30, got a sit down job and gained some more. While I was overweight/obese I was oblivious to doing something about my weight. I use to say and it may be true that since I seemed to be naturally thin when I was young I didn't learn any healthy eating habits so didn't know what to do when I gained weight.
|
|
|
Post by susan092907 on Sept 24, 2020 0:26:28 GMT
I wasn't thin growing up - just average. We didn't have soda in the house and desserts were mostly fruit. After school snack was milk and a limit of 2 cookies. No other sugary or fatty foods were in the house. Gaining the 10 lbs my freshman year of college and starting WW to lose it set me off on a very long journey of weight highs and weight lows. My lowest weight - when I graduated from college - was 103. My highest weight - when I rejoined WW for one of the million times that I did - was 163. I'm very short - and these were really weight extremes for me.
|
|
|
Post by cherryt38 on Sept 24, 2020 1:20:35 GMT
mac, I eat a variety of veggies, a lot of times stir fried with some olive oil and I usually have two or 3 or more cooked together. I like potatoes so I have a small one quite often. I try to have fish/seafood at least twice a week and chicken on another day or two. I'll eat probably half of the chicken and the same for fish, depending on its size. Some days I don't eat any meat, just vegetables and beans or lentils. I throw an egg into the mix some days and have that instead of chicken or maybe for breakfast or lunch. Once in awhile I'll eat part of a pork chop or steak or hamburger. I eat toast, peanut butter and fruit for breakfast, or oatmeal and berries. Sometimes I'll make a smoothie for breakfast out of yogurt, a little milk and frozen fruit, dark sweet cherries is my favorite. I'll have a piece of toast with that. I'll often have fruit with lunch and dinner or a snack. I eat nuts for snacks too, along with fruit. And I do indulge in a couple of those little Dove Chocolate Promises during the day or evening. Sometimes I'm not hungry for lunch and either don't have it or have something very light, like fruit, cheese and maybe a couple of crackers. My mealtimes are sometimes erratic because I don't eat until I am getting hungry. I don't consider myself vegetarian and I guess I follow more of a Mediterranean style diet.
|
|
|
Post by finreporter on Sept 24, 2020 1:41:29 GMT
i was extremely thin as a kid (my brother used to joke with my mom that when the wind blew too hard, they better hold onto me or i'll blow away). i gained 10 lbs when puberty hit and then lost it pretty quickly through watching what i ate, and then when my friends and i got our drivers licenses at 16, now having the freedom to go off campus for lunch meant eating out for lunch every single day, mostly to fast food. i packed on 30 lbs by the time i graduated high school and have yo-yo'd ever since.
|
|
|
Post by mac on Sept 24, 2020 13:33:11 GMT
cherryt38, Thanks for responding to my question on your diet. You've done an amazing job on getting down to 150 pounds! It looks like you eat almost a whole foods diet which is very healthy, also good that you have a small treat each day. I lived on whole foods back in the 80's and am trying to get back on it again. I was very ill then and cured whatever I had by eating a whole foods diet as I believe I have food sensitivities. Have you ever thought about the disease you struggle with being related to food sensitivities?
|
|
|
Post by DebDoesWW on Sept 24, 2020 13:48:44 GMT
Thank you ladies so much for sharing your very inspiring stories. β€οΈ Wow!
|
|
|
Post by finreporter on Sept 24, 2020 16:44:52 GMT
i remember my mom going to WW meetings when i was a kid. she was on the fish and liver and powdered milk diet. it sounded just awful. she never made me try to lose weight though even when i got to age 16 and really needed to! i think it's because her mom (who was always petite and weighed 90 lbs her whole life) made her feel bad growing up for her weight (my mom was born plump and it never left her, she ended up obese for most of her adulthood until the last 10 years or so). so i truly do appreciate that my mom never made me feel bad about my weight. if anyone made me feel bad, it was me. even my boyfriend in high school loved me for me no matter what i weighed and i was thin with him and heavy with him. same with ex-husband, he met me at one of my high weights and loved me for my "winning personality" haha.
i think in a way, never having anyone make me feel bad for weight made me never think i looked that bad so in my head i was always confident in what i looked like even when heavier. which is good in that no one ever made me feel bad and i still felt good about myself. but bad in that even when overweight, i thought i looked just fine and didn't see myself as it turns out i truly was. i was like shallow hal but on myself!
|
|
|
Post by bbbearsmom on Sept 24, 2020 16:45:12 GMT
jbird, Great story, thanks for sharing.
|
|
|
Post by mac on Sept 24, 2020 16:45:23 GMT
Hi Jbird, Thanks for sharing your story, congratulations on figuring out what you needed to do to achieve goal and maintain it! ππ€ββ€οΈπ
I also played flute and picallo in band and orchestra during my school years.
Interesting that you also cannot tolerate sugar as I have the same problem. In the eighties I became sick, went to Mayo Clinic 6 times and finally diagnosed me with fibromyalgia, I then went to an allergy clinic and found I was sensitive to everything but sweet potatoes, came home and went to library, found a book on low blood sugar, took it to a new doctor and requested a diet. Seven weeks after starting the diet I felt wonderful. That doctor still gives that diet out!
I will send the papers I have had ready for you when I go inside post office one day soon as it has the papers on low blood sugar.βΊοΈ
|
|
Kitty
Transcendent Member
Posts: 1,447
|
Post by Kitty on Sept 26, 2020 20:02:51 GMT
When I was writing my blog I was going to write "my story" and it was to start with me saying I became overweight in junior high. But when I looked back at pictures, I really wasn't. I had a somewhat poochy stomach that bothered me when I wore a two piece bathing suit, but, honestly I was normal weight. My mother took me to a diet doctor who gave some type of pills and put me on a diet. He made a comment that well I would surely like to have smaller thighs. I had a skirt on and I was offended because my thighs were actually totally fine. It was just my slightly thick middle. Still irritates me. We stopped after a couple of visits with him and I never lost anything. Never really sure why my mother took me to him.
When I was living at home in the 1960s and 1970s the eating environment was different. We rarely ate out. My mom allow me one 6 1/2 ounce Coke a day (occasionally a 10 ounce). We didn't have a lot of snacks at home. Occasionally but just not much. We ate our meals mostly with an occasional dessert. School cafeterias didn't serve soft drinks or french fries or anything "fun."
I really started gaining weight when I went away to school at 21 and was living in an apartment, unfettered.
Later when I struggled for years with weight and people said weight was genetic I was sure that I was unlucky in the genetic lottery. Likely my parents were overweight, surely. I was adopted, so didn't know but that seemed to make sense and sort of took the guilt off me. It wasn't my fault if I got it genetically.
Well. Over 20 years I found my birth mom. She was 5'1" tall and struggled to get to 100 pounds. She is now in her 90s and still struggles to get to 100 pounds. She told me my birth father had been normal weight when she knew him, but I figured that maybe later in life he was overweight.
Well, a few years ago through DNA I found him. He was deceased but I contacted some of his family and got pictures and they told me about him. No, he was not overweight. He was on the thin side.
|
|
|
Post by mac on Sept 26, 2020 20:55:47 GMT
Kitty, Thanks for sharing the above post!β€οΈβπ€ I really appreciate everyone who has shared a story and hope more people will step up to post their stories, we're all in this together! ββ€οΈπ
|
|
|
Post by bbbearsmom on Sept 26, 2020 23:12:41 GMT
Kitty, Interesting story about connecting with your birth families. I love those stories. I use to be obsessed with genealogy.
|
|
|
Post by finreporter on Sept 27, 2020 1:40:44 GMT
kitty, thanks for sharing more of your story! i love that.
|
|
|
Post by luvvinlife on Sept 27, 2020 22:22:19 GMT
My first memory of anything related to my weight and/or body-image was when I was about 9 years old. I was physically mature for my age. I remember complaining to my Mom about my size and she would say "Oh you're not fat. You're pleasingly plump." By the time I was 12 she was shopping for me at Lane Bryant's. The clothing was too big but the mainstream clothing stores (Lord & Taylor's, Saks, B. Altmans, Sterns, Lerners,) didn't carry clothing for children in my size (14). By age 16 I was determined to join Weight Watchers. I went to a meeting that was held at a hotel in my neighborhood on Saturdays. After my first meeting I ran home, sat down and realized very quickly, that it was too complicated for me to follow. That was when you had to have the liver, count your servings of eggs, milk, hotdogs, beef, vegetables, etc. I continued to gain weight until age 21. At that point I was in college fulltime, working part time. I was able to find clothing to fit but they were all frumpy-looking. I finally decided to go on my own diet. I cut out bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and sugar. Breakfast was bowl of Wheaties with skim milk and Sweet n'Low, lunch was lettuce and tomato with a can of plain tuna and a boiled egg & 1 pkt. of melba toast, dinner was whatever protein my mom cooked and vegetables. I joined Elaine Powers Fitness Center. I lost 40lbs. in 4 months. I felt spectacular!
I got married 3 years later. Socializing took the front seat in my life and the lost pounds came running back. 3 more years and I gave birth to our first child. I was determined not to continue carrying the 40lbs that I had gained while pregnant with her. Back to WW I went. This time the program was easier to follow, I was doing the grocery shopping and my husband was very supportive. I lost the weight, got to goal by the time she was 1 year old and all was well. So, I stopped going to meetings. I thought "I can do this on my own." That worked for a while. After having our second child, 6 years later, I gained 60lbs. After his 1st birthday I returned to work. There was an ATWORK program, so I joined. They only lasted in 12 week cycles. Of course, I found excuses not to re-up when the next cycle began. Again, the weight came back.
Finally, after 25 years of bouncing up and down on the scale, I realized that I had changed diet plans (WW, Scarsdale, Atkins, Ayds Candies, etc.) but I hadn't really changed my habits. I decided to give it one more try. At that time, CORE was an option that worked well for me, without exercising. I lost 25 lbs., became a leader and figured that this would keep me on track. Ummmmm....NOPE! I moved, which involved a 4+ hr. daily commute, & compressed work hours. after 5 years of that and 1 more to go before retirement, I was so afraid that I would find myself back at my original weight and living a sedentary life, unable to be comfortable in my clothes or playing with my grandchildren. All was not lost though.
I joined a fitness bootcamp at my office, I joined the WW Atwork , led by my former Co-Leader, got back to goal and retired, a happy girl...
I live in a rural area. I do not like driving, at all. There was a meeting 15 minutes from my house so my husband would take me weekly. However, there weren't enough members to keep the cycle going so eventually it discontinued. I expressed my concerns on the old WW boards and Judy lead me to the Beck Book Review. I've gone through it several times. During the pandemic was the most recent. I feel much better in my skin and in my clothes. I understand my body better, even as it changes it's response to what I give it. I've learned to accept the rollercoaster rides that weight management can cause. Most of all, I realize that I don't have to fit in a mold, I don't have to tough it out, and that support strengthens us!
Thank so much for sharing your stories....
|
|
|
Post by mac on Sept 28, 2020 0:50:25 GMT
Luvvinlife, First of all I love your board name! Second, thank you so much for sharing your weight journey on here!ββ€οΈ
|
|