response 35 of 77:

Feb 15 05:08 UTC 1999

Yes, I just used some for filling in an apple pie.

response 37 of 77:

Feb 16 04:43 UTC 1999

Ehhh. It caught up with me. I am up about a pound and a half. But some 
of that's probably water. I didn't eat well all weekend, definitely too 
much fattening things. It's showing in my skin too. Why did I 
deliberately do this to myself?

response 39 of 77:

Sep 9 05:21 UTC 1999

Interesting item.  I just discovered it.

I'm guessing the pound or two bees was talking about having gained
probably wasn't anything significant.  When I've had regular access to a
scale, I've found myself fluctuationg by that sort of amount very regularly.

Anyhow...  I dont' own a scale, in part because I've never gotten around to
buying one, and in part because I've never been convinced that weight alone
was a terribly good indicator of health.  However, I was discovering last
winter that in addition to looking fatter than I had ever looked before and
having a lot of my older clothes fitting quite tightly, long walks or climbing
stairs were rather difficult.  This became especially noticable when visiting
my parents in their London townhouse, with every room on a different floor,
such that I was constantly going up and down stairs.  I found the first couple
of days to be rather exhausing, before I started getting used to it and having
an easier time of it.  In the couple of years before that I had gone from bike
racing, and training for that a couple of hours a day, to being mostly
sedentary, and eating whatever horribly fatty food was available when I
remembered to eat, which wasn't on any sort of regular schedule.  I weighed
myself at that point, and discovered that I weighed around 190 pounds (up from
120 when I stopped getting taller, and 140 the last time I had been living
a "healthy" lifestyle).  I set out to get myself back into shape.

That trip to London helped a lot in getting started.  The constant running
up and down stairs forced me to get into some semblance of shape very quickly,
as did walking everywhere.  Visiting people who were eating reasonably healthy
food on a fairly regular schedule helped as well, since after a few weeks my
body started expecting that.  By the time I left there, I was already feeling
much better physically than I had when I got there.  When I got home I started
eating on a much more regular schedule than I had been before, eating
breakfast (which I hadn't done on a regular basis in years), lunch somewhere
close to lunch time, rather than forgetting about it all day, and dinner at
something resembling a usual dinner time, when I previously would have finally
been getting around to eating lunch.  Without even thinking about it, I cut
out almost all of the vending machine junk food I had been eating before,
since eating on a more regular schedule meant that I wasn't getting hungry
for snacks in between.  I think I'm now eating more food than I was when I
was gaining lots of weight, which seems counter-intuitive, but I've read that
the body starts storing lots of energy as fat when it doesn't know whether
it's going to get fed again anytime soon, so eating on a regular schedule
probably helped with that a lot.  I think I'm eating a lot less really greasy
food than I was before, mostly because when I'm exercising regularly greasy
food stops tasting very good, but I haven't been ebing very picky about what
I eat for my meals, as long as I'm eating something.

The other piece of what I started doing was regular exercise.  The biggest
thing has been lots of walking (at least an hour, sometimes a lot more, almost
every day).  The time I've been spending walking is time I previously would
have spent at work or watching TV.  I seem to have downgraded the importance
of my job in my time priorities.  Being less of a workaholic is probably a
good thing in general.  I also started biking again, which I hadn't done much
in the last few years.  I haven't managed to work biking into my week day
schedule much, but lately I've been doing an hour or two of road riding on
one weekend day, and a few hours of mountain biking on the other weekend day.

It's now been eight months.  The most important change from my perspective
is that I now feel a lot better than I did before.  I'm also finding that I
have a lot more energy.  I haven't weighed myself recently, but I'm assuming
I've probably also lost a considerable amount of weight.  I think I look a
lot thinner, and clothes that were quite tight a few months ago are now rather
loose.  I'm assuming that if I were to go back to my previous sluggishness
and poor eating habits I would probably once again start feeling like a slug,
and would once again start gaining weight quickly, but I have no plans to do
that.

response 41 of 77:

Sep 10 04:17 UTC 1999

I've been off track lately. I had more free time and was more sedentary 
during the summer, and it's taken its toll. Now school has started back 
and I have less free time and am forced to do a lot of walking. The 
first week was hard... my classes and work are on the fourth floor and 
the elevator's too slow to bother with. Now I need to incorporate the 
gym again, I haven't been in over a month. I am thinking of trying a 
yoga class too.

response 43 of 77:

Sep 11 02:56 UTC 1999

Well, I've been working again at losing weight...eating a bit better, trying
to get more walking done on a regular basis....And managed to drop 8 lbs. in
3 weeks so far.  Just need to drop two more by next Sat. for the 10 I wanted
to drop by my brothers wedding.  And once those ten are gone, I'll go for
another ten....:)

response 45 of 77:

Sep 13 11:19 UTC 1999

Wow.  Well, that *is* the way to go.

response 47 of 77:

Oct 11 00:20 UTC 1999

er...that should have been "47". Musta lost some brain cells, too. <gulp>
Anyway, I'm on steriods right now for breathing purposes, and they do two very
nasty things. 1) they make me incredibly hungry. 2) they make me all puffy
and fluffy; my face looks like a chipmunk's.
For the appetite, I've been having half a piece of fruit every time I just
know I'll die without food. Also drinking a glass of water before I eat
anything seems to help.
For the Puffies, there's nothing I can think of but to grin and wear fat
pants.

response 49 of 77:

Oct 18 14:54 UTC 1999

Not having lost any more weight in a long time, I've not been posting
new responses to my "weight loss diary".  At least I'm not gaining any
back, which is a good thing.

Although I'm now at a weight that is considered "not overweight" by
current standards, I would like to lose another 5 or 6 pounds.  Sigh, I
think that means I'll have to start working out a lot more intensively
than I have been.

response 51 of 77:

Oct 18 18:40 UTC 1999

Vanity, sheer vanity.

response 53 of 77:

Oct 19 17:28 UTC 1999

Thanks, but the outcome of that wouldn't make any difference in my
attitude, since it's just a vanity thing.  I've measured a different
way, using a tape measure, and I'm within the acceptable range.

response 55 of 77:

Oct 27 16:56 UTC 1999

I suggest incorporating more exercise into your ordinary life, rather than
doing an exercise program.  For instance, scrape and paint your own garage.
(Thanks for the leftover paint, we have been using it as primer).
Grind your own flour. Make your own bread without a machine.  If you have a
lawn do not own a power mower, or snow blower, or leaf blower.  Bike places
that are too far to walk.

response 57 of 77:

Oct 28 10:21 UTC 1999

I believe in paying people to do the work we don't want to do.  That
leaves us free to enjoy our time off doing exercise and other activities
we enjoy and allows others to make money.  Anything involving electricity
or being two stories off the ground on a ladder gets contracted out to
someone with good health insurance.  ;-) 

response 59 of 77:

Oct 28 21:52 UTC 1999

Another couple years at -16 lbs./year and you'll start taking her
advice more seriously!