SIS BOOM RAH

RAH LA LA

GO GIRL GO

OK, so I don't CHEER well but I do encourage VERY WELL! You are your own best friend BUT you have a world of supporters right here who are certainly going to back you I have NO DOUBTS. Your first big step was coming out of the closet... oops.... did I say that out loud? Anyway you know what I mean. It takes a brave person to admit they need help. So, you ARE one brave person... I wonder if there ARE ANY MORE BRAVE PEOPLE OUT THERE. I am fat, yes me TO me I am fat. I have a gut that I get when I don't work out enough... and I haven't been working out enough! I keep blaming it on everything around me but the right thing.... ME. My body has adjusted to the lack of exercise that I am doing even though I work 12 hours a day seven days a week, since I sit for most of that time (at a computer) my body KNOWS it is free to seek more space... so it is expounding outwards in my midsection!! So, I too need to get off my dead and on to my dying! I need to hit the gym instead of coming to my room and goofing off. So, you all do your part... a little at a time till you can do a little more and I will do mine a little harder, a little faster, a little stronger. I will check here now and then and freely give advice to anyone who wants to hear it. By the "weigh" (I love doing that) I am a cerified fitness trainer from 2003. Also, I ran the PT program for a unit I spent six months with in West OH MY GOD Virginia! I have a lot of tricks and ideas and will start anyone off by saying this...

Drink water before you eat and before you drink. The more water you drink the less of anthing else you can put in your body.

FAST Walking is the best for you to trim down FAST WALKING is the best for you to trim down. It doesn't cost much, It is easy and convient to do and great to do with friends. Working out with weights is great if you have someone who can help you. Eat six SMALL meals a day.... What ever you ate for breakfast (four eggs, six bacon, four toast one milk, one OJ.) cut it in half and it the other half two to three hours later. (two eggs, three bacon, two toast one milk) Do the same for lunch and dinner. Get a walk in first thing in the mornning.... after lunch if you can and after dinner if your still alive!!! Start out slow and short. Add distance and speed every other week until you can walk as fast and as far as you can then (months later) trade of days of walking AND jogging.... go back to slow and short for the first couple of jogs! Remeber...ANYTHING YOU DO THAT IS HEALTHY... IS BETTER THEN NOT DOING ANYTHING AT ALL! So, get out there and find something healthy and hopefully fun and JUST DO IT!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS!!

Chris

Hi Chris,

Sign me up!!!!  I was watching that show called "The Biggest Loser" where all those people go to a campus and have personal trainers and lose 100s of pound and I was thinking gee I wish I could afford me one of those trainers.  Well lo and behold, I look at the forum today and I think I found my trainer   I was having trouble taking a deep breath and was panicking because I have sleep apnea and they have me on a CPAP machine and oxygen at night and I was envisioning having to tote a little oxygen tank around with me during the day .....went to my pulmonologist and there is nothing wrong with my lungs.....its all this fat excess tummy pushing up and not giving my lungs enough room to breathe properly....so I decided enough is enough.  I have started walking which has always been my exercise of choice (cuz I could do it without croaking) and I was getting really depressed with the shortness of breath business because I would stop and go home fearing if I kept going I was going to drop dead in the middle of the block.  Pulmonologist said just the opposite...to stop and catch my breath and then head out and push myself until I got short of breath again and repeat.  So that's what I've been doing and already the shortness of breath is less.  Got a portable CD player so I can listen to music and it makes me walk faster.  Have a game plan for rainy days also.  There is a rather long strip plaza (4 blocks long) right near my house.  It has a coverered sidewalk in front of it so even in the rain I can walk and still be outside in the fresh air and not get wet and even better...it is always shoveled in the winter so I can still walk.  So wish me luck!  I will watch your posts and look for pointers (just please don't ask me to do any push ups....I am old and die easily....lololol) .

Oh, I almost forgot....i am a popaholic.  Given a choice between something to eat or something cold to drink, I would choose the latter (though to look at me you much think I preferred the food)...anyhow, I drink caffeine free diet pop which is a big step down from the old days of drinking tons and tons of regular pop.  Unless it is a really, really hot day water just does not do it for me.  I had tried some of the flavored waters and they were kind of gross.  However, I just tried another one and it was pretty good so I am in the process of adding water drinking to the plan.  I have also noticed I eat less on the days I don't drink pop...almost wonder if the aspartame or whatever they put in the diet pop is an appetite stimulant.  

I also found out that a medicine I have to be on for the next 5 years has a side effect of increased appetite.  The last couple of months I could have eaten the kitchen sink if it wasn't chained down.  I could not understand why I was constantly, constantly hungry and I was really beating myself up over it because I gained about 15 lb something I had not done in a very long time...have been maintaining my weight even if it was way too much of it.   However, when I went for my checkup at the cancer center, the physician's assistant told me it was the medication I was on and since I don't have a choice about taking the medication, I will have to work very hard if I want to keep from adding weight (oh lordy, we don't want any more weight) and even harder if I want to lose (which I do) so got my work cut out for me.

yikes...people are going to be thinking this is way TMI so I better quit while I am ahead.

I've been reading your posts right along Chris and have thoroughly enjoyed your wit, humor, and most of all your poetry.  Keep up the good work!!

Rosemary

Chris and all

We are doing a Biggest Loser competition at work. our Employee charitable campaign is doing it as a fundraiser, but we get the side benifit of being healthier! This is the 2nd year of doing it. We do teams or individuals and go by % of body weight lost. (I think) Anyway, last year I lost 11 pounds in 3 months, and I was so happy! My husband and I are still plugging away and the event started again in February. I have been backsliding this time though. But I am trying! I told my Dr I wasn't going to try, I was going to do it, so I have to do it a lot better than I have been! I am going to pass your wonderful words of wisdom on to my team to help keep us motivated. Thanks for the posts! You rock! (but not just because of the posts, of course!!)

Heidi

Hello Rosepeddles!

That is an awesome story! You have and are overcoming so much! You can win if you just stick to it. Take it each day at a time and turn a day into a week and a week into a month and a month into a year and a year into a lifetime!

Here is a tip You ARE NOT WORKING OUT ANYMORE! Now you LIVE A NEW LIFESTYLE! Your new lifestyle is all about a healthy way of life. If it is good for you... you are going to try it. If it is bad... DROP IT LIKE A HOT POTATO BABY!! Everyday of your life when you wake up, First... thank God that you are awake.. AND MEAN IT! Next get out of bed and right there beside your bed stretch for five minutes... this is YOU time by the way. Get to know your body by seeing it IN THE FLESH so to speak. Slowly reach up to the sky (touch the ceiling if you can) push your fingers out so far you... are standing on your toes. Slowly come down and bring your hands gently to your side. Now with your legs shoulder width apart bring your chin to your chest and stretch your neck as you burrow your chin into your chest. Now roll your head over and lay your ear on your shoulder... can you hear the blood rushing through the veins in your shoulder? NO? THEN your not pushing your head hard enough to your shoulder. STOP I was just kidding... your ear can't touch your shoulder (on most of you). Now roll your head over to the right side and stretch again. Oh by the way, I hope you have been breathing through this process... nice slow long deep breaths!  Ok now give your self a big hug... you are going to start the day and you need encouragement. Try to touch your fingers behind your back squeeze your self tight and reapeat after me... "I LOVE YOU!" Yes, you just told yourself you love yourself... if you don't love YOU... how can you even be happy with anyone or anything else? So say it and say it LOUD! shhh don't wake your spose up Silly!!

All you have to do.... is do a little more everyday until it gets too hard and then you start doing a little more every other day until it gets too hard and then you start doing a little more every week and then when that gets too hard you start doing a little more every other week until it gets too hard then you start doing a little more every month until that gets too hard and then it is every other month... GET THE PICTURE? You just keep going and going and going... sound famaliar? You go little Bunny You go!

Walk and water... water and Walk. When you feel froggy.... leap. When you feel turtelly slow down.. when you feel rabbitty RUN!!!

One other thing I do... is work out everday. EVERYDAY? ARE YOU CRAZY..... I GOT TO LIVE.... I GOT TO REST.... WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ARE YOU AN INSAN-I-ACT?!! Well... I know that on some days I will wake up and thank God and THEN say NOT TODAY. Some days you just don't feel like it. Well if I had a set day OFF and I took a "I don't feel like it today" day off that would be twice. Then there are the days that you wake up and thank God and go throw up because your sick. Well if I take a "I don't feel like it today" OFF and a "throwup" day OFF am I really even LIVING MY NEW LIFESTYLE? So, I work out everyday. I wake up and I thank God I am alive. I stretch out and then hit the floor for twenty pushups, twenty crunches and twenty legs lifts. Then it is a count to thirty 1...2...3.....4......5.....6......7.....--- 30 and start all over again until I have done five sets. Then I go out and run for two miles on one day and walk for three on the next. I do this everyday that I can and when I can't.... HEY, I get a day off!!! IF I throw up the next day... HEY, I get two days off!! Extreme I know, but I am not asking you to do any of that. I am asking you to start walking for 15 minutes a day and when you can... turn it into 20. Later to 30 and eventually to 60. Once you get to 60 minutes of walking a day look to see how far you are walking. Not in terms of miles but just what ever it is you are starting and finishing at. Do you start at your house and in sixty minutes walk to the high school and back? Are you walking at some kind of track and it takes you 60 minutes to walk around it 20 times? Do you walk around your small block 83 times in 60 minutes? OK, once you get it figured out walk it for a week. Your up to sixty minutes of walking and you walk the same distance 5 out of 7 times in that sixty minutes. Let's say it takes you sixty times around a track in sixty minutes and you have done it for a week. On your second week push a little harder (there he goes with that "little bit more" stuff again) and make all seven days (or so) in 59 laps... a little faster of a walk means a little shorter of a distance BUT now you know you have improved. Keep up that pace for two weeks or a month even and then lite the fire again and PUSH a little bit more! Make that same sixty minute walk equal FIFTY EIGHT laps around the track. EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS..

I love you all!

Hello Heidi!

BIGGEST LOOSER!!! MY wife and I LOVED that show and watched it all the time!

That is where I got one of my "tips" from. Lets say you are a hundred pounds overweight and you start walking for your health. Now, being that you do have a little extra weight to loose, you loose the first ten pounds in a week and a half of GOOD HARD walking. Your second week and a half passes and you have only lost 3 pounds... WHY?

With out going into the MANY various reasons why (not walking as hard or fast, eating more then the previous period, shhhhhhh, being on a period) (OK so I went into a  few). Well, think about this... Your body was carrying a 100 pounds extra, you ate smart and you walked hard and fast... you lost ten pounds. Now your body is only carrying 90 pounds extra. If you spent the next period of time doing anything different your body will react differently.

Well what if every week (or better yet MONTH) you weigh yourself and you take the weight you lost (YEAAA) and you put it back on your body (BOOOO) in the form of weights (OH????) A weight vest is a great thing for walking because it adds to your centeral balance instead of say, dragging your legs like leg weights. So, you take that ten pounds and you put it in a vest and now you have a 100 pounds extra again. You walk hard and fast and in TWO weeks you loose another ten pounds, put that in the vest and you are still carying 100 pounds extra.

NOW, as you go trough the weigh loss process the weight is harder and harder to come off. THAT IS NATURAL. At first you had a lot of excess, now you have less and less to loose so your body tries harder and harder to hold on to it! You have to out smart your body. As you loose more and more weight you will be able to do more and more. Of course if all you are doing is that same piddly walk you started three months ago your body has adjusted and it is harder to loose. At three months you should be walking that piddly walk AND going bowling or golfing IF you didn't do that before. Or what about swimming or tennis? You have to live your new lifestyle like you want to live forever... or at least do everything you can until the time comes!!

Can I ask you a question?

Do I talk err... type too much? lol

Ya'll take care now Ya here?!!

Come back again when you can't stay so long!!

TTFN!!

Chris, to answer your question: 

NO you don't talk--err type--too much!!  Are you an in-san-i-ac??  LOL

motivational, inspirational and just plain FUN--yep, that's YOU!  We are all SO glad you're here with us!!

No way do you talk...err..type too much! We are supposed to be giving you inspiration and here you are, simply oozing it out to US! Thanks SO much!

Heidi

NO, you do not talk/type to much. 

OK.... well in between my next health TALK/TYPE and TRYING to get you all to talk/type MORE here is my next instalment of poetry... in the form of another song.

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

When I'm with you baby

You always understand

The way I feel inside

And who I really am

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

It feels so right

To hold you tight

All through the night        

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

You make life worth living 

You make me feel like a man

When you're with me honey

I hope it's good for you

It feels so good to me

Just to be alone with you

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

You make life worth living

You make me feel like a man

By Chris Dunn

1996    

Nice Chris.  Keep em coming.

Hi again Chris! I just got my forum registration approved and wanted to say hello!

 I scanned through some of the posts here and I was impressed with what you said about walking around a house for exercise. I have a double wide mobile home and that is precisely what my doctors have recommended for me! Start out with just one time around as often as I can handle it. Of course, the neighborhood cats don't appreciate it but hey, they can find somewhere else to hang out!

Robyn

WAY TO GO MRSMAC (lol) Thats right, you have ALL heard it before... everything MORE you do then you did yesterday and one step closer to being fitter. Tired of circeling the parking lot just to get that perfect spot... park in the back where there is no one to bump your car when they open their door and then enjoy the HEALTHY walk to the store. Skip the elevator for the first flight and then rest in the elevator the rest of the way up. Do two flights on the way back and then rest the rest of the way down. When your child asks if you will take them to the park GO GO GO!!! To many things in life are NOT as important as time spent with a child in a park. I hate myself for the times I have told mine no, but am happy I told them yes three times as many as I said no. Don't have kids... go to the park and steal someones!!  Just kidding... but you can go walk around in the park and enjoy the kids... even better if you take your spouse with you!!

My wife and I have been married for fifteen years. She is the love of my life to say the least. I have been a darn good husband and she knows it. But, we like many other couples have had our problems and close calls. She has loved me through it all, put up with me through it all and supported me through all my military trainning....three schools and three deployments. I am very good about telling her I love her and I appreciate her. But, it never seems enough. The other day I wrote this poem for her and just gave it to her today. I hope you all will enjoy it too!

  Dear Lynn,
God saw the mess
I made with my life
So He sent you
To weather the STORM

You came and brought
Sunshine into my life
A woman of undying love
In a true goddess FORM

by Chris Dunn
15 April 2008

Chris,

 Thanks for the kind and encouraging words.  I'm off to start my healthier lifestyle.

Donna

OK, I have to say this... I did not start this thread to turn into a fitness corner... BUT I am happy that it is! I have had several people write to me directly and tell me thanks and because of something that they read here has enspired them to start working out again. Of course I congratulated them all and I congratulate you if you have read something and decided to move even the smallest bit in a healthier direction. BUT, I need some help. If America is over weight (and it is) then there are a lot of people out there who need and want help but are afraid to admit it. If you are taking a step... then step here first. Just drop in and say hey and that you are going to begin. There is power in numbers and the help here is FREE! So, if you agree with anything we're talking about here please let us know. If you are joing in for the long haul please let us know. I was 205 When I weighed in two months ago... that is up from 183 before I came left to come here. What with working every day now and beign sick with at least four different things now I haven't been able to workout much at all. I did start walking and the last time I weighed in I was down to 200. I have been sick again for six days now with a stomach virus and for three days I didn't have anything but two peices of pizza, an orange, and two bowls of ceral! My stomach does not feel like it is any smaller, but when I weigh tomorrow I hope to be down to 195!! I'll let you know.

I led four different groups in a physical fitness program for three months while I was in West "MY GOD" Virginia. I worked with each group and had them scheduled so that one was in the mornning and another that night. The third would be the next mornning and the fourth would be that night. So they worked out everyother day and only three times a week but I was working out twice a day six days a week! I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT! And, I still wasn't in the best shape I had ever been in. That was a year before then when I spent 10 months at Guantanimo and ran five miles a day and swam for countles miles and worked out in the gym as well as took a spinning class. THAT WAS AWESOME!! There is actually a picture of me on my "myspace" address... no1dunn@myspace.com (or however it is?) from that time. Feel free to take a look if you can find me. I want to one day get back to that shape again but I got to get over some things and maybe even home from here first.

So, we all have something we can work on. While we are working on them we can come here and share encouragement and success stories to each other. BUT ALL OF YOU HAVE TO GET OVER YOU SELF CONCSIOUSNESS. How many times in your life have you said S(^%W IT! and just did what you wanted to do? Well, just say S(^%W IT! again and put some words on this thread and lets help each other!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE ALREADY STEPED UP HERE AND FOR THOSE WHO HAVE AT LEAST STARTED ON THEIR OWN!! Take it one day at a time and do something a little better every day and we can make it together!!

I am not the vehicle that will get you their... I am just your tour guide along the way. It will be YOU who will do all the hard and win all the victories! WE will just be here to share in your ups and down and your ins and outs. We can laugh together and we can cry together, but we will always BE TOGETHER!!

 GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!

Yes, I too find much encouragement and practical advice in your postings. I am embarrassed to say just how bad a shape I am in, but you do inspire hope- even for me.

Thanks, Mom