Ritz

How about a recipe for that roasted pepper?

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

Don Gwinn

It's pretty rough. You light a pile of charcoal. Then you slice a large bell pepper in half and place both halves on the grill. When the bottom gets slightly blackened in a few places, turn it over. When the other side gets small areas of black, take it off the grill and put it on a plate.

She and I are very different. She loves casseroles and pasta salads. I want something SIMPLE. She can't stand spicy food; I coat everything in pepper and curry. She can't stand fish; I love it.

Her real problem is that she's allergic to all dairy products (not LI, but actually allergic--it's soy or nothing most of the time) and artificial sweeteners. I don't know how it works, but she's literally allergic to aspartame, saccharine and even Splenda. So she can't even have a diet soda or some sugarless candy. Plus she's got me and twin 9-year-old boys to chase around. But we're all working at it.

Don Gwinn

Just a note--my wife lost three pounds last week. And she walked four miles with me last night. She's great!

Gary W. Graley

Excellent Don! I'm back on the path starting this weekend myself! Finally!
Last summer I let the rain wear me down and halt my progress, this weekend
I decided to kick it back into gear!
G2

Big Lug

323 !

Ritz

Keep up the good work everyone! I'm knuckling under and re-focusing my efforts. With our help... America will no longer be thought of as the fattest nation on earth.

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

juf2m

I had my sister and dad over for a week....no cycling. Lots of eating & red wine. Too afraid to weigh myself!

Big Lug

just get on the scale and get it over with!! Your allowed some weekends like that! But you gotta bounch right back into routine!

Don Gwinn

JUF2M, you might as well weigh yourself. You might be suprised!




I had hernia repair surgery this morning, so no cycling for awhile. But that will be the first thing I bring back after walking (for exercise, I mean. . . . I can walk to the bathroom and the kitchen without much trouble.) I'll have to start slow and work my way back up, which is not that big a deal since I was still a complete n00b anyway. I'd like to get up to riding a century by next fall (2006)
In the meantime I'm just working on eating well without sticking so tight to the no-carb thing while I recover. It's gone well today; we'll see.

I think this is going to be good in some ways. The weight loss has made this 100% easier than the same surgery last June. Last time I had real breathing difficulties when I came out of anesthesia; this time, nothing! Last time getting in and out of chairs and especially automobiles was a real struggle every time. I know I was putting all kinds of pressure on the repair and the incision every time I did it. Now that I weigh almost 100 lbs less and have taken a good 8-9 inches off my waist, everything in my life is easier. Everything.

One silver lining in the surgery is that my wife was starting to hint that she'd like to get in shape, too, but she's afraid she can't keep up with me and especially that she's too fat to ride a bike. I don't believe it, but there you go. Now we can both ease into it at a slow pace, and it will be as if we started at the same time. She's even said maybe when I get a better bike we can fit my old bike to her. I think she could get hooked.

Oh, and I found out my scale worked. It said 309 this morning, and the hospital's scale said 308.8. Awesome. The nurse asked me "Did you say you think you might have lost some weight?"
"Yep." I replied. "You guys weighed me at 396 last June." The look on her face was priceless! The anesthesiologist told me he walked past me because he was "looking for a 300-pounder."

WonkerJaw

Grrrrrrr!
Just when I was ready to get back on the bike and get back on track the Texas Legislature is back in session. So I will not be able to really ride for another month. Why dose this effect my riding? There is no way I can make myself presentable after a ten mile ride in 80 degree temps. and 80-90 percent humidity. My place of employment does not have any showers. I need to start hitting the gym after work and stop making excuses. Another problem is that I have not acclimated myself to the 100+ temps. for the afternoon ride home. Funny... the less I do (activity wise) the worse my nutritional intake will become.

But one plus… my weight is currently holding at 264 lbs.

Good job to all who are on the winning side of this battle. Let's all get after it!

Ant

Well, I started riding in April @ about 218 lbs. or so to get in shape for Motorcycle Track Season. Well, it worked but I have since had a bad accident and given up motorcycles for the time being but kept up with the bicycles. I'm down to about 202 or so and feeling great.

Ritz

I'm switching my rides to after 5PM!

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

Don Gwinn

I kid you not: I weighed 309 first thing in the morning on Monday, when I was leaving for my surgery.
The hospital confirmed this weight.

Yesterday in the middle of the afternoon I got the urge to weigh myself, so I did. In a pair of ultra-lightweight lounge/warmup pants and a pair of light socks, I weighed 320 lbs.

Whoa! I thought. That can't be right. So this morning I weighed myself first thing (as I usually do) in the same pants and what did I weigh? 323! WTF?

Anyway, all kidding aside, I'm not going to worry overmuch about it. I've been continuing to produce ketones through Monday and Tuesday, so I should still be burning fat. I've actually eaten very well since the surgery. The only things I've had that I normally would skip are whole-wheat crackers and sugar-free pudding. Of course, I've been completely inactive, but there's no way I genuinely put on 10-14 pounds of fat in that time. There's more going on here (some of it involves toileting, and you don't really need the details.)
Hell, my beautiful wife took me to see Fantastic Four yesterday and I had ONE piece of popcorn! Not one handful, one kernel! There's no way this is genuine, long-term weight gain. I would guess it's water plus the toilet problem that comes along with abdominal surgery.

Gary W. Graley

This year I'm determined to gain/lose back the weight that I lost before
taking the job I currently have, the stress of it's initial start caused me
to lose my focus and return back to poor eating habits out of stress.
I had lost a bit over 50 pounds but in this new job I gained 30 pounds back
not a good thing! My main goal is not so much weight but to get into
size 32 waist pants again, which I had JUST attained prior to being directed
into the new position, now I'm into 36/38 so I have a ways to go!

Towards that I'm riding my bike at lunch time, do run my errands and excercising
at night as well as cutting out a lot of nasty things I've taken to eating lately.

I also made a small sign that I put on my fridge last night, made my wife and
youngest daughter chuckle but for me it will be a constant reminder of my
goals. I also have an 8 x 10 posted on my wall at work too! Here is a screen
capture of what that sign looks like



To everyone else that is trying to battle a weight problem, I wish you much success, one book that I've use with good results is Harvey Diamond's 'Fit for Life" one and two
G2

Don Gwinn

You don't eat protein and carbs in the same meal? What's that about?

And why won't that alien quit staring at me?

Big Lug

ditto!

juf2m

I find that I am more full and satisfied longer when I eat protein and carbs together.

Toefuzz

Don: Did you ever see the Seinfeld where Kramer lost a Junior Mint while watching a surgery... Perhaps they left something heavier, like a bone saw, inside of you?

In all seriousness... This is a great thread and one I will be checking in on regularly. I started riding again today, though I haven't weighed myself. I was at the Dr. for a sleep study a few weeks ago and I know I was close to 265 so I'll use that as my baseline until I can find a decent scale.

Ya'll are truly an inspiration!

Don Gwinn

Go for it--I'd sacrifice a child to be at 265 right now!

(Don't look at me like that. . . . I'm not talking one of my kids or anything. . . .)

WonkerJaw

I started back to the gym late night with a 40 min. spin class. I guess it went ok. I did fine for the first 30 min. and ran out of gas for the last 10. But I feel good for first time back in.

The best thing is that I'm back to cooking my own food. It’s been almost a week and I feel so much better than when I was eating out all the time.

A little disappointing news… My last weigh in was not correct at 264lbs. I weighed over the weekend and it was 271lbs… OUCH!

But I'm back on the right road and will see some results soon.

Hang in there everyone!

Gary W. Graley

Hehe, the alien is there for support, don't heckle him/her too much

As to Protein and Carbs, the theory behind that is we have two types of
Enzymes in our stomach to digest foods properly,
One for Protein
One for Carbs

When you go and eat both at the same meal, they sort of cancel each other out
and as mentioned above by juf2m, you get that full/satisfied but heavy weighted feeling after the
meal because it's not being digested properly.

I also tend to not drink during the meal, as most meals have enough juices to
supply the moisture needed to not gag, if you drink with the meal that also can
tend to dilute the enzymes from doing their job on the food and can slow down
digestion, my wife goes crazy because I don't drink in the restuarants but for me
it works, I drink later on or if I really need a drink but usually not during the meal.

And a week's gone by, clothes are fitting a lot looser now and biking is going faster
with less pain in the thighs on the hills, on my way up or rather down to size 32 pants!
G2

Don Gwinn

Hey, if it works for you, I won't argue with success. I don't think I could eat without a drink most of the time, so maybe I eat really dry stuff.

Went back to the doctor today for my post-op checkup and everything seems to be healing nicely. I think I should be back on a bike doing leisurely rides in less than a week, though I still can't do any heavy lifting (defined here as more than 15 pounds, so really any lifting at all, not just the heavy stuff) for another three weeks at least. I'm going to have a much bigger scar this time, but it's going to be well worth it.
Someday it will just add a bit of emphasis to the crease in the center of my six-pack.

I was 305 lbs. today both at home and at the surgeon's office, and my surgeon actually noticed before he weighed me that I had lost some weight since the last time he saw me (or at least, saw me upright and conscious.) That was a great feeling. And it means that I've now lost over 90 lbs. minimum from that recorded weight of 396. In terms of Chevy, I've gone from big-block to small-block! It's just unfortunate that my narrow bore tends to cause pinging . . . .

Oh, and I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I've dropped the low-carb diet. Maybe the nagging here had an effect, but mostly, once I started tracking my food intake I noticed that the calories were really, really low--too low not to lose weight no matter how many carbs there were. The only fear I had left was that I would lose control of my cravings for sugar and starch, but I gave it a shot, and I found that now that it's my habit not to gorge on sugar like the queen ant anymore, I simply don't. In my class tonight (we're all schoolteachers) the instructor passed around a Basket of Oreos. I kid you not, a big ol' basket full to the brim of Oreo cookies! I haven't had an Oreo since November.

Well, I'd missed lunch and although I'd just polished off a Subway chicken sandwich and some baked chips, I had a LOT of calories to spare for the day, so I took ONE Oreo. That is HUGE for me! I ate it, I enjoyed it, and the next time the basket came around, I passed it on without even looking. I used to be able to sit down and literally eat an entire bag of Oreos on a Sunday morning while I read the paper. I wouldn't even notice that I had polished off half the bag, I'd just keep dipping them in milk and shoving them in my mouth, two at a time. It must have been incredibly disgusting. And when I look back on it, I can't help but wonder why I did it at all. What did it do for me? I mean, they taste good going down, but that's all it is, it's just a nice taste. I think I'm finally starting to find my way free of this sugar thing.

Gary W. Graley

I was reluctant at first but now it's second nature, you may want to have a
glass of water at the ready for sips, but you can easily just enjoy the meal
without washing it down, unless it's all saltine crackers and dry flour?

Sounds like you're on your way back, hope your recovery goes smoothly and
quickly for you!
G2

Big Lug

Awesome Don stick to it man you can will do it the recovery i am sure will go fine and just remember take baths this time and it wont get infected

recursive

I started drinking a lot of water all the time, including while eating, and I still lost weight when I took up biking without really trying to. Some people swear by drinking lots of water for weight loss to promote a "full feeling" and flush out the system, whatever that means. This is the first time I've ever heard of reducing water consumption for weight loss, but apparently people have had luck with just about every strategy you can think of. Hell, there are plenty of people using the goofy Atkins scheme.

Mostly, it's common sense and discipline. Exercise and avoid excess fat and empty calories. All the other little techniques people come up with may or may not affect the result, but as long as you stay consistent and get the basics right you will be in good shape.