Welcome to the weight loss blog

2006-06-29T02:50:00.000Z

I have moved my blog to another site:
My new weightloss blog

http://www.123.is/weightloss

2006-06-19T02:31:00.002Z

Here is how my weightloss chart looks like, after 5 and half month on my foodplan. Again this is a weightloss reached WITHOUT a single minute of physical exercise. The only thing I have done is eating balanced, normal and healthy food. In fact the only thing I can think of that I havent eaten, is anything with sugar plus fast-food. I eat loads of fat fish (those omega thingies really aid weightloss), horsemeat, vegetables, fruits plus dairy products and fats, and I eat liver once a week.

To make the numbers more interesting this is how it looks in average.
Every month I have lost an average 14.6 lbs
Every week I have lost an average 3.4 lbs
Every day I have lost an average 0.5 lbs
Every hour I have been losing an average of 0.32 oz

The last two weeks have been awesome if I look at the weightloss results, since there have been 8.8 lbs lost in those two weeks. Plus my longterm weightgoal had been losing at least 66 lbs before my 31st birthday 18th june. I reached that goal plus I lost additional 15 lbs, making the weightloss in all 81.5 lbs.

I am not sure how long this really rapid weightloss will continue. I always thought that it would only happen the first weeks as it normally does, but I am nearly half a year into my weightloss journey and it keeps on going, and some more even, I am actually losing weight now at the same speed as in my first weeks, since it has speed up. Well I am not going to wonder too much about it. I am just very grateful and fortunate.

2006-06-19T02:31:00.000Z

It is my opinion that weightloss and maintaining ideal weight can only be reached by a total lifestyle change. The reason for it is simple: If someone is overweight then the excess weight is almost always caused by eating the wrong things the wrong way. The solution for overweight has been to diet ever since obesity and overweight started to become common problems. That means that people eat in a certain way for a limited time to lose weight, and when ideal weight is reached they start to eat the same way as they did before the diet, if they havent given up on the diet before reaching the ideal weight. To go back to the old eating habits has one outcome, they made you turn fat before the diet, so you will of course get fat again!!! All those pounds that you have struggled getting off, will come back faster then it took you to lose them. It is similar as if someone is a drunk that is trying to stop drinking. If he would turn sober for a while, it wouldnt be logical to start drinking again as soon as he has made himself a sober good quality life. It is the same with the food, it wouldnt be logical to start eating the way that made you fat in the first place when you have reached the idealweight, because then you end up in exactly the same place you were in when you started dieting.

You have to make a decision on what you want in your life. On one hand you can choose to lose weight and gain all those positive and good things that you wish for, but then you have to change your eating habits FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!! On the other hand you can chose to give in to whatever food you are craving but then you will keep on being overweight with all the negative input it has on your life. You simply cant have it both ways, believe me, people have been trying all those years to eat whatever they like while losing weight, and I am pretty sure they have all found out that it doesnt work. I am even surer that you have also found out the hard way that it doesnt work either. Just face it, dieting dont work in the long run, so it is time to try something else that will work.

Dont spend the rest of your life constantly dieting with all the struggle it involves. That has just one result: making you utterly miserable because you wont get any results despite the hard work you put into it, and that will make you constantly feel like a loser and a failure. It really doesnt have to be boring and difficult to lose weight, you can make it so much easier for yourself with making a lifestyle change. I know I have written about this thing before, but I think this is a thing that can never be repeated enough.

I have been thinking of what is behind the whole overweight-dieting issue. It seems that the western world is obsessed with the concept of weight. If someone is overweight it is seen as a very negative thing, even if that person is very healthy and a productive citizen with many talents. It is seen to be more important and positive to be very thin then to be slightly overweight and healthy. The numbers the scale shows makes or breaks peoples happiness. The weight is seen as a measurement of peoples success or failure, and it this thought has very deep roots in the society and our mentality. Even I have this perception of weight, if it doesnt show good numbers i feel like a failure, if it shows less weight then I feel like I am on the top of the world. Even if its just a number, I use it as a measurement on my personal qualities, as I am worth more if I lose weight, and less worth if I gain weight.

To be overweight in todays society makes other people automatically make a perceptions on what kind of a person you are, you become a stereotype in the eyes of other people. According to that stereotype all overweight people are lazy, lack self-control, stupid etc. Thats why it is acceptable to degrade us, tease us, discriminate us, because people see only the stereotype in us. In their eyes we arent persons with feelings and emotions anymore, we are just “fatty”, acceptable target that can be ridiculed at any time without breaking the societys behavior rules, because everyone thinks the same about fat people (including us!).

Being fat isnt accepted in the society and we feel the constant pressure of losing weight, so we can look like “normal” people. Dont get me wrong, I know that obesity is very dangerous for the health and I dont encourage anyone to stay obese, I am just diving into this perception to see what its all about, and pointing out what pressure society puts on us for being fat. The bottom line is that nearly everyone that is fat wants to lose weight because they want to achieve the “normal, beautiful” body. Of course many obese people want to lose weight because of health issues, but even for them the weightloss is in some parts based on a appearance issue. We want to be “normal” because that is what society is demanding from us. I also think that the discussion about obesity health issues is very tainted with discrimination against fat people. Even if I cant pinpoint the proof for it, I can feel the dislike many people have against fat people, even if its a group of doctors discussing obesity health risks. It is the same feeling you get when people are discriminating other groups, f.ex. people of other race, people with other religious beliefs etc. If obesity or overweight would only be a health issue then why do overweight people that are very healthy feel the same discrimination.

The solution that society was putting out for overweight people (at least the last decades, it seems to be now changing gradually) to lose weight, to make the number on the scale less, was to go on a diet. Just think about all the diets that have been out there, and we are still fat!!! It is also interesting to see what most of those diets were about. There were some crazy things that were supposed to make us lose weight. All kinds of pills, band-aids, sprayes and abstinence diets. Most of them had the effect, that the body simply didnt lose weight with the method promoted because it couldnt biologically and nutritionally. They simply couldnt work because the method would never be able (unless breaking the law of nature) to make the body lose weight. But people continued to try one fab-diet after another with no results. And who did they blaim for their failure? They blamed themselves, not the diet method! So not only did all those diets not work, but they created whole generations of women (that were more overweight and miserable) that had in the end no belief in their own abilities and talents, because the failure of becoming normal according to the demands of society and not overweight failed again and again and they constantly blamed themselves and no other for it.

Just think about all those crazy ideas that were promoted and were supposed to work. It kind of reminds me of the era of travelling salesmen in the last century that were selling their “own special blend” of “medicine” that was supposed to cure everything. Of course they didnt work at all, but people kept buying those miracles in a bottle in the same way as we keep spending money on fab-diets, believing “that one will work for sure”, even though we have tried hundreds of other fab-diets before with no result. Isnt the human being a marvelous creature? I think there cant be any other race in the universe that is better in believing in things that dont work, like we are. We think that people in the middle-ages were a bunch of crazy people that believed in ghosts and witches. I assure you we are no better then them, it is just other things we believe in, but its the same madness. I guess its just a part of being human.

2006-06-13T00:02:00.000Z

Food addiction and self-sabotage

I think it is extremely important, when losing weight, to change our attitude towards food and eating. It is not enough to begin on a diet and expect that you will make it through on willpower alone. If you think that a healthy food is something you HAVE to eat to lose weight then you wont last long. To consider a diet as “a sour medicine you have to take to lose weight” then you wont stick to the weightloss plan. To lose weight and maintain ideal weight is a lifelong task. It is not something you do only for few months, lose the extra pounds, and then go back to your old eating habits, because there is a reason you are overweight, plain and simple, and its your eating habits. As long as you keep going back into the same tracks you are doomed to failure, and you will never lose the extra weight permanently, no matter how many times you go on a diet. It is my opinion that if you are trying to solve the problem with the same solution every time and fail, then its certainly time to change tactic. It is a fact that you cant both have the cake and eat it, nearly literally. You will never ever be able to get succeess with weightloss untill you drop FOR GOOD the old eating habits that made you overweight.

For most overweight people food has become addiction in a similar way as alchohol for drunks. You dont have to dig deep to find similarities with those two addictions. F. Ex. Why do you keep on eating food that is making you gain weight? Most often it is because you think that eating that food makes you feel better, you simply get high on food. The same with drunks. Why do they keep on drinking booze when it is ruining their life? Simply because they think it makes them feel better. Even though you feel terrible when you overeat, you simply cant stop yourself. To feel that way is the essence of addiction. Thats what its all about. When you feel that way, you are addicted to food, simple as that. In that stage, no fab diet will do any good, because you will always relapse into the life of food addiction. If you are on a diet and you are constantly thinking of food that you cant have, and that you are looking forward to eat when you finish the diet, then you are not solving anything. It is the same as the drunk that becomes sober for few months, gets his life back on track, only to start to drink again and end up in exactly the same situation as before.

When I started on my weightloss I was completely lost on how I should handle it. I expected that I could do it all by willpower and by denying myself junk-food. Soon I realized that it wouldnt work at all that way, so I started to deal with it like it was an addiction, not an appetite or self-control problem. After few months in weightloss I made the decision that I wouldnt go into my old eating pattern ever again. I said to myself, that I couldnt “eat freely” ever again. I had tried it but I ended to be 403 lbs and miserable. I couldnt be trusted to eat without control so it was very important to be always in control. I realized it was just a question on finding a method that could help me get the control back and stick to the method (foodplan and weighing all the food).

Some of you might think that it is difficult to follow such a big decision, and that it would make my life so dull and boring not to be able to eat junk again. Believe me, this decision made things so much easier. When I stopped feeling like I was doing something I HAD to do to lose weight, and changed it into something I embraced and welcomed in my life, then the weightloss stopped being a day to day struggle of food denial. When I realized that there was no X time in my life where I would start to pig out again on everything I felt like putting in my mouth, then I stopped flirting with my mind on how much this tasted great and that I wanted to eat this and that. A drunk will never stop his drinking permanently untill he makes the decision of not letting booze be a part of his life anymore.

It is not enough just to make the decision on this, you have to follow it through by doing things that are essential. First you have to dig deep into yourself and find out why you are eating. What is the thing that triggers it? As with any addiction it is very important to resolve feelings that have been kept hidden with food. When you are eating to dull your true emotions, to dull the wound in your soul that you have gotten one way or the other, then they WILL surface when you start losing weight, it is just a thing that always happens. When they do, you have to resolve them. Dont try to dull them again by quitting the weightloss or starting another addiction. I know it is very scary when you start to feel those real feelings again, and it is very common that people start to eat again when it happens, but you have to face them!! Otherwise everything will be so much more a struggle, including the weightloss. Just think it this way: When you see a horror movie, the most scary ones are those were you dont see the monster clearly. It gets to be 100 times scarier then if you get to see it in every detail. The same with hidden emotions, feelings and problems. As soon as you look them in the eyes they stop being so scary and dangerous. As soon as you start to feel the familiarity in it then it is no longer frightening.

Another thing that is important, is to expose what is really going on when you crave certain food or feel the urge to binge. Dont accept cravings as a feeling or emotion that you have to obey, that you have no control over. To say “I cant help it” is giving up on the spot, because then you cast away all responsibility of your own actions and you accept to be out of control. If you think you are not responsible over your actions then who is? To withstand cravings for food you have to debate to yourself, you have to tell yourself good reasons why you shouldnt obey to the cravings. F.ex. if you have a crazy cravings for icecream (or any other food that makes you gain weight) then you should ask yourself: Is it really worth it to throw away everything I have worked for, to lose the belief in myself, to feel out of control, guilty, a loser, failure...... just to have the taste of icecream in my mouth for few minutes? Is the taste of icecream more important then my success in life? Is the taste of icecream more important then my health? Is the taste of icecream more important then feeling good in my own skin? Is the taste of icecream worth having people stare at my fat ass everytime I go out in public? Is the taste or icecream in my mouth for a few minutes worth having people point at me and making fun of me? Is the taste of icecream good enough to risk my own health and ultimately my own life? Wouldnt it be better to have a piece of fruit instead, they taste great and they DONT ruin my life ................. Just continue debating in your mind all the reasons why you shouldnt have that da... icecream untill you dont want it anymore. It sounds incredible but this thing works!! Just remember also to tell yourself that you are in control and not that craving, and never ever never tell yourself “I cant help myself”, because then you have just made an excuse for having that icecream, not a very good excuse but just enough to convince yourself that you should eat that icecream. Do this to every craving you get, one icecream at a time, one donut at a time, one candy at a time.

At the same time you should also do the same thing to food that you should eat to lose weight, just reverse it: Say to yourself, Isnt this tomato great tasting, and it is making me feel good about myself, it is giving me success, it is helping me gaining control over my life, it is giving me my health back, it is giving me my happiness back, it is making all my dreams true, Wow, I am just so grateful and so lucky to get to eat this tomato.

To do this is very effective if you do it always when you eat healthy food, one tomato at a time, one fruit at a time. It really conditions yourself into liking the healthy food, and it helps you connect happy feelings with it, and ultimately you will start to feel the same way about healthy food as you did with the junkfood. You will start to crave for healthy food instead of the junkfood, since you are always connecting negative feelings with the junkfood everytime you think about it. It takes few months to reverse the feelings about food, but when you get to the point where you crave healthy food, the weightloss journey gets 100 times easier, because then it isnt about denying oneself the food we crave, but to crave the food you should eat. Then you dont have to constantly deny yourself of anything anymore and you stop struggling with cravings and the food addiction.

I also want to say something about self-sabotage when you are trying to lose weight. I see so many are struggling in the beginning of the diet, when they have lost the initial 10-30 lbs. It seems that nearly everyone that starts to lose weight panics in the beginning, including me. I remember when I had lost the first 20-30 lbs I nearly freaked out for a few days. I got such a strange feeling when I realized I was losing weight, I got really scared and anxious, and I started to think constantly about reasons to quit the diet. Luckily I kept my head clear and started to dig deep into those feelings, because I saw they could ruin my weightloss. What I ultimately found out was that I was probably panicking because I was afraid of leaving a part of my life behind. I had been overweight for so long that I didnt really know any other reality. I was miserable in the life I led, but on the other hand it was the only thing I knew. I knew exactly what it meant, what could happen, where my place in the world was, it was simply very familiar and in a strange way I felt safe in this misery of a life. All my extra weight was my shield towards the world and I was starting to lose that shield so I felt very vulnerable and afraid. I knew that I was on my way to a much better life but it was so scary because I really didnt know what to expect, what would happen, where my place in life would be. I think this fear is very common and understandable because it is just a part of being human to be more at ease in a situation that is familiar, no matter how much you suffer or sacrifice in that situation. To move on is just scary, no matter where you come from or where you are going. The strange thing is that I didnt realize this untill I had thought a lot about it. I just felt scared and anxious without a clue why I felt like that.

To get through weightloss all the way to ideal weight is filled with all kinds of self-sabotage. The thing I mentioned above is just one thing of many. It sounds incredible that people that dont wish for anything else then to lose weight would sabotage their own weightloss, but it is happening all the time. Most of it happens on a subconcious level and has its roots in old and painful emotions that are dug deep with all the food we have eaten to dull that emotion. They are emotions like self-hatred, low self-esteem, to feel worthless, to feel like a victim of life and all the other feelings that are negative and destructive against oneself. They sabotage the weightloss by making us feel that we arent strong enough to go all the way, that we are a failure and not worth the success, that we deserve being in a miserable place in life. Those emotions are the ones that whisper in your ear “come on, eat that cake, you will fail anyway, just pick it up and put it in your mouth, to eat that cake is what you REALLY want, it is what you NEED, I promise it will make you feel better!”

This is why good self-esteem and to love and accept oneself is so important to have when you are gaining control over the eating. If you have a bunch of negative feelings about yourself and your appearance, it is much harder for you to take control of your life. If you dont trust yourself and if you dont like yourself you wont obey yourself and take control. If you dont like that person you are, you really dont want her to be in charge because you think the negative feelings about yourself are more valid and true then you, so you listen to them instead. It sounds complicated but I hope you get the point.

Here are the latest weightnews: I have gone from 335 lbs to 325 lbs in 3 weeks, so my weightloss in all is 77 lbs in 5 months and 10 days (161 days). To make those numbers interesting:
I have lost over 14 lbs every month, 3.45 lbs every week, a little under 0.5 lbs a day or 0.25 oz an hour. Imagine that!! I am losing every hour 0.25 oz of fat that is a similar amount I use to butter my bread every day, or around 1/3 of the of fat portion I eat every day. AMAZING!!!

2006-06-07T12:09:00.000Z

This is a photo taken in july 2005. I got to be even fatter!!

This is me in the beginning of the diet, 4th january 2006, 403 lbs

This is me 5 months later, 4th june 2006, 75 lbs gone forever!!!

And another pic of me 4th june 2006, 75 lbs gone in 5 months!!!

2006-06-04T23:34:00.001Z

Advice on maintaining weight loss

To lose weight is not only a physical thing. It is one thing to start to eat the right food and exercise, but to maintain the diet and succeed in your weightgoals is another thing. To get to ideal weight requires time and patience, simple as that. There is no way that you can get to ideal weight right away, it takes time to shed pound after pound and you should prepare yourself that to lose weight is not something that you do in few months and then get back to previous eating habits. To lose weight is just one thing, to keep it off is another thing. Face the fact! There is a reason that you are so overweight, and the reason is obvious! It is the eating habits that you currently have and you will not solve your weightproblem by dieting and then eat exactly like you did before. To solve weightproblems PERMANENTLY you have to change your eating habits and diet FOR GOOD! Just look at it this way: Take someone who is alchoholic and loses everything because of his/her addiction. One day that person would decide to stop drinking, and starts to get everything back that was lost and live a good life. Then on the day when he/she has gotten everything back he/she decides to start drinking again. It is exactly the same with our eating habits. If you are on a diet and lose all the excess weight, then it is not so smart to start to eat junkfood again. Of course by eating the way that made you fat, you will eventually gain everything you lost and probably in shorter time then it took you to take it off. Diets dont work if you dont make it a lifestyle change. The proof for it is all around us, even in you. Just think about all the diets you have been on, and they didnt even work, did they? If you want to be on one more diet, go ahead, but I think that it is time to change tactic, because the things you have done dont work. (If you have already made a lifestyle change, just fastforward over this section J ).

There are many things to do to achieve in weightloss, here are a few that have helped me a lot:
Dont look at your diet or lifestyle change as something you HAVE to do to lose weight. Make eating healthy food FUN!! If you think that the healthy food is boring and something you HAVE to eat to lose weight, then you will give up on your diet very soon. Healthy food actually tastes great, and in my opinion better then junkfood, and if you are making boring food with no taste, then you are doing things wrong. Experiment in the kitchen, collect recipes, use your imagination. Instead of eating junkfood, eat food made out of the best ingredients you can find. Buy fruit and vegetables that are in high quality, just think about all the money you spent on junkfood and candy. You are investing in your health, happiness and life, so you deserve the expensive stuff!! If I want something really yummie then I buy lobster. I know it is expensive but it is food that I deserve. It is so important that you use your love in food and eating, to create delicious food that is actually good for you. Like I saw somewhere: Instead of being a garbage truck, stuffing junk into you, then you will become a princess, just eating the best of the best in small amounts.
I know it is very important to exercise, but my advice is to first get the food in order. It can be very strenuos to change your eating habit and the type of food you eat. The first weeks are the toughest, and in my opinion to change diet AND exercise just gets to be too much for most people, so they give up on everything. In the beginning of weightloss it is most important to get control over the food, get used to the new diet both mentally and physically and make it a routine, and when you get to that point you should look into getting some exercise.
You have to change your additude towards food, because if you dont then dieting is much more difficult. I think the main reason why people cant control or withstand temptations is because they link food with emotions. By that I mean that people generally connect happiness to certain food, that they will feel good and get happy if they eat sweets or junkfood. As long as you make emotional connections to food then it is extremely difficult to avoid eating those, because we as human beings really respond to our emotions. As soon as you realize that food is food and taste is taste, no more, no less then you are able to disconnect emotions to food. As soon as you analyze cravings as something your mind is creating then it is so much more easier to withstand it. You can also use this connection to emotions for your benefit. That is creating emotions to your healthy food. Just think everytime you eat healthy food how good it tastes and how good it makes you feel. After a while then you start to connect healthy food to happiness, its just a question on training your mind. You can even train your mind into making junkfood “bad food”, just think about how bad it makes you feel after you eat it, and make that thought pop into your mind everytime you see junkfood.
Never feel sorry for yourself because you have to diet. If you feel so sorry for yourself not to be able to stuff everything that you get your hands on in your mouth, then it is not so difficult for the thought to pop into your mind that you should eat some junk because you are such a “victim of your diet”. It is so important to feel grateful and fortunate to be able to eat all this healthy food, that is making you succeed in life. I always think about how lucky I am to be able to eat all this good food, and how lucky I am to be able not allowing myself to eat junk that makes me feel bad. Dont sob because you cant eat candy. Just think about all the people that have so much disaster and pain in their life, and there you are feeling sorry for yourself not being able to eat chocolate!!!

Thats all what I could think of this time. I could keep on writing for many hours, but I have to stop sometime.

2006-06-04T23:34:00.000Z

This is how my weight looks like after 5 months and 1 day of dieting. In less then 2 weeks I have lost additional 6.6 lbs. You can read more about what I eat every day, but I am certain that you will be amazed on the amount that I eat and the weight I have lost. I do not exercise at all in any form or way. I work in a petshop and that is basically the only physical thing I do. It is not a miracle that I am losing weight by eating a lot, not exercising and including fat in my diet. The thing is that it simply doesnt function to eat less, exercise and avoid fat when you want to lose weight. If it did, then why do SO many fail to lose weight, why are there so many people out there that are doing everything right according to their diet, but dont lose weight?

The answer is that it is absolutely essential to eat fat to lose fat. I had two grueling weeks in the beginning of my diet, where I didnt include the fat portion in my diet. I ate exactly like I always do now, except I didnt eat the fat. Those two weeks I didnt lose ANY weight, but as soon as I started to eat my fat portions I started to lose weight. Furthermore I have noticed that the weeks and days where I eat fish with a high fat content I lose the most weight. Sardines in oil really do make me melt, literally, and I always eat them 1-2 times a week, directly from the can with the oil and everything and I always lose 1-2 lbs the following days. I am even seriously thinking of eating sardines in oil every day for a week and see how much weight I would lose.

I have gotten all kinds of response when I talk about how I am losing weight. I have heard everything from "this only works for your body type", I was even scolded for telling on a message board that exercise isnt neccessary to lose weight. The thing is that I am not the only person in the world eating according to this diet plan. There are thousounds of people in north-europe eating according to this diet plan and they have the same experience. They are losing weight rapidly without ever feeling hungry. They notice that if they skip the fat they dont lose weight. They notice that if they eat fish with high fat content the lose more weight. They notice that if they dont eat the full portions of food (eat less) they dont lose weight. They notice that it isnt neccessary to exercise to lose weight. They, like myself, get enormous health benefits from the food we eat, and by that I mean that I have heard people get cured from everything from high blood pressure, to astma, to diabetes, allergies, chest burn plus our appearance changes dramatically.

You can just check the photos I posted on this blog. My skin looks 10 years younger, my hair is amazing, my eyes have gotten brighter color and people always say that I have this special glow now. Besides all this I am filled with energy all day. I have to sleep less, I wake up immedietely, I dont feel sleepy at all during the day, I dont have any problems going to sleep now (it always took me several hours to sleep before), and I sleep like a baby. And all this is not because of I take some pill, get drastic surgery or other dramatic things. No the answer is that I eat a lot of normal healthy food. It is so simple!!!!!!!!! The answer is not on the bottom of a pill glass, it is in the food I eat!!!!!!!! I avoid eating frozen dinners or prepared food. I simply buy meat, fish, vegetables, oils, milk products, fruits, and cook from scratch. The only food I dont eat anymore is anything with sugar and junkfood. I am eating normal food, a lot of vegetables and fruits, enough meat and fish and I think I have never in my life eaten so much of such wonderfully tasting food, and I am losing weight faster then I ever thought was possible plus gaining my health, looks and energy back.

2006-05-30T19:57:00.000Z

Believing

During the time I have been loosing weight, I have wondered how do I do it? How am I able to stick with the portions of food I am supposed to eat? Why am I able to avoid eating sweets now? Why have I gained such control over my appetite and cravings for foods? How am I able to persist in every aspect of the diet? Why can I do all of this now, when I couldnt gain any control of my food intake before? I think the reasons are many, and some arent very obvious but have a major affect on my success. I think that the least of it are physical factors, and I am certain that most of it lies in my mind. What I have found out is that weightloss is not a physical thing, it has much more to do with the mentality and values that you have or that you will gain during the weight loss process.

The thing that was crucial for me in the beginning is that I acknowledged that it was my responsibilty to do something about things that were negative in my life. Before I started the weightloss I had fought many demons, specially the addiction I had to so many things. I was an alchoholic and pothead at a point in my life, but I won over that addiction. I smoked cigarettes since I was 13 years old, and I managed to quit those. I had mental problems that I won over so the weight is the only thing left I have to do something about. I had gotten so obese because I was addicted to food, and used food as a drug, so to reverse that fact I had to deal with it like it was addiction, and the experience of battles with my other addictions helped me a lot.

What I realized very early on was that I had to change my attitude to food. I had to train my mind to like the “healthy” food. I had to stop linking sweets and junk food to emotions. I think many of you recognize that, when you see a chocolate and you automatically think “Wow, if I eat that chocolate, it can make me feel so goooood”. When you think like that, you are linking happy emotions to a chocolate!!, so in fact you are training your mind to crave chocolate, because it links happiness to the experience of eating chocolate. The fact is: Food is food, taste is taste and food doesnt have small molecules of “happy-atoms” lodged in it, it is all in your mind!! And believe it or not, you ARE able to control your own mind and feelings! What I started to do was to be grateful for every piece of “healthy” food that I ate. I simply repeated to myself “mmm, I am so lucky to be able to eat this, it tastes great, it makes me feel so much better and it makes me loose weight”. You dont have to say that word for word, just think of the food with gratefulness and choose the words that work for you. After some time this mentality becomes automatic, and it really works! Now I love my healthy food, and believe or not, sweets, cakes and junkfood doesnt move me a bit. I can look over a whole table filled with sweets and cakes and the feeling it gives me is similar to look at a flower decoration, it simply doesnt move my emotions, because I have cut off the emotion connection. Before that kind of food would have screamed at me from the table “EAT ME, EAT ME.....” but no more, because it all lies in your mind. Now it is just food that I dont eat, I know how it tastes but I have no craving to eat it, because taste is taste, food is food, no more no less. I simply dont feel its worth it to eat this food just to taste something, I would rather taste the “good” food and keep on feeling so damn good, because the junk food and sweets dont make you feel good, they are just taste that you have linked with emotions, and thats why you think it makes you feel good.

Another thing I think is important is the respect you have for yourself and your body. If you dont like your body, no matter how it looks like, then you dont have respect for it. Many overweight people, specially women, think that by hating their body, by thinking it is gross and disgusting, can help you loosing weight, because it is a motivation not liking the body you have. That is a big misunderstanding, because when you hate your own body, then you dont respect it, and if you lack respect for your body then you dont want to do respectful things to it. At the time when I hated my body I used it just to please my mind. I used my body like some biological piece of meat, just good enough to put things in it to “feel better”. Whether it was drinking, dope, cigarettes, promiscuity or junk food I put in it I didnt care, because I couldnt care less what happened to it. When I finally got respect for my body I started to do respectful things for it. I stopped drinking, smoking and everything that was disrespectful to it and it was much more easier to do it because I wanted to show respect for my body that I now liked. To have a body that is not perfect in some ways doesnt automatically mean that you should hate it, in order to make it better. Again it is all in your mind. I could have the hottest body in the world but if I didnt like it it really doesnt matter how it looks. To have a great body doesnt mean that you automatically would like it, and to have a flawed body doesnt mean that you automatically should not like it. Looks are not a universally fixed idea of perfection. It varies between eras, cultures, groups and people, so in fact there is no ideal, just the perception of it. If you are fixed on having an “ideal” body, then it will have no end, because no body is perfect, so in fact it is not possible to achieve an “ideal” body.

Thing that is also important to continue weightloss is to believe in yourself, and that is a thing that so many women struggle with. To believe in yourself is very closely linked to having respect for yourself, and it is a fundamental thing in achieving things, everybody knows that. If you believe that you CAN loose weight then it is so much easier to withstand temptations and to stick to your food portions, because you have decided you can do this! If you are doubting yourself all the time, then you will also fall into the first cake that comes your way, because you are simply doing the thing you expected would happen, you expected to fail and of course you will fail because you already decided that you would fail. To doubt oneself is also closely linked to the “victim-mentality”. If you look at yourself as a victim of your own weight you subconciously want to keep on being a “victim”, therefore sabotage your own weightloss, simply to keep on being the “poor woman that cant help it”.

In the beginning of my weightloss I experienced just that. I started to panic when I started to loose weight because subconciously I wanted to be a victim of my own weight. The situation I was in wasnt good, but it was familiar and I knew what to expect. To change ones situation, specially by loosing weight, can really cause you to panic in the beginning of the diet, because you are going into an era that you are not familiar with, and frankly you get scared. I think that is the main reason why so many people start to diet, but give up in the beginning when they experience the shedding of the first pounds. By god they want to loose the weight and they certainly hate the situation they are in, but they panic when they realize that the life as they know it will change and they have to face new situations and emotions. It is just a part of human nature to be comfortable in a situation that is familiar, no matter how bad it is.

What is your opinion on this matter? Feel free to comment :)

2006-05-25T19:30:00.000Z

De danske vægtkonsulenter

I want to give you an idea what I am eating that has given me such great results in my weightloss. I will not reveal the whole diet plan since it is my understanding that its copyright, but if you are interested into getting into this diet then I know they have a website in english and I am pretty sure they have an online course in english. This is the link:
http://www.weightconsultants.com/
It is not my opinion that this is the only way to eat to loose weight, there are also very good diet plans out there, but there are also a bunch of really poor ones. What I think is so clever with this diet plan is that you can eat all kinds of food (except for sweets) and the nutritional value of the food you are consuming is so balanced that you not only loose weight but you also get very healthy and it is a fact that many people on this diet plan have had health problems that are now solved. I for. Ex. Had several food allergies that are gone. I always had rashes on my hands and they are gone, I had a chronic chest burn, thats gone, I had chronic pains and aches in my body, they are gone plus I was always tired, didnt sleep properly but thats all changed. I have also met people that have gotten better with their asthma, allergies, exems, blood pressure, diabetes and the list goes on. I would have never believed that nutrition was such a huge influence on your health and well being, but it is, fuel for the body matters.

Well back to the point. This is what I eat everyday:
2 oz of bread
3 teaspoons of marmelade that has no sugar added (the type is called st. dalfour and it is only made with fruits with no sugar added, it tastes amazingly well, just like a normal marmelade)
0.9 oz of camembert or 2.6 oz cheese with low fat content (11% or lower) or 1 egg or 0.7 oz cereals
4 fruits (and I can exchange one fruit a day if I want and have 3.88 oz potatoes or 2.6 oz rice/pasta/cous-cous or 1 oz bread)
8.4 - 10.2 oz of either meat or fish, and I can also have eggs, cheese and beans in a fixed weight.
21 - 35.2 oz of vegetables every day
17.6 oz of skimmed milk or a milk product with similar fat content or 8.8 oz of sourcream 10% or a milk product with similar fat content.
0.7 oz fat or oils or bread spread (if it is a "light" spread then the daily amount is 1.4 oz)
Plus all this I am also allowed to have extra everyday 3 teaspoons of ketchup/soya sauce/oyster sauce/flour/cacao/stock etc. I can use those extra freely, that is I have a weekly amount of 21 teaspoons and I can either use them during the week or save them all for a week and use them in one day (for. ex. if I want to bake a cake).

This nutrition is divided in the day and here is how I normally eat the meals:
Breakfast: I always have 1-2 slices of bread, light spread, marmelade and sometimes I eat 0.9 oz camembert cheese or 2.6 oz of cheese with low fat content or 1 egg. Then I always have myself one fruit.
Lunch: I always eat 4.2 oz of meat or fish, and I can also combine the proteins with egg or cheese. I always eat 10.5 oz or more of vegetables, most often tomatoes and cucumbers. I also eat one slice of bread. At todays lunch I made tuna salad, with fresh tuna, 1 egg, 0.5 oz of light mayonese and 1.8 oz of sour cream.
Afternoon: Most often I eat one fruit and sometimes I eat some extra vegetables if I feel like it.
Dinner: I always eat 6 oz of meat or fish and 10.5 oz or more of vegetables. I always make dinner at home, so I often use the milk products to make sauce. Either a cold sourcream sauce or a warm sauce with sourcream, stock and spices.
Evenings: I Most often have 2-3 fruits left and most often half or all of my milk products. With that I like to make really yummie things. Sometimes I bake cake (with cous-cous and fruit), sometimes I make puddings out of the sourcream and cut fruits into it. Sometimes I make chocolate sauce with the fat that I have left to eat (then I melt butter, put cacao in it and sweetener and a little bit of sourcream, its really yummie and tastes like real chocolate). This evening I had fresh strawberries with 8.8 oz of vanilla icecream. Of course not a normal vanilla icecream, its a brand that is sold by the diet plan company and contains no sugar. Seriously this icecream is so yummie that it reminds me of italian icecream. Sometimes I even make apple cake to eat with it. Or if I have little time I cut an apple in half, drizzle cinnamon over and put in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. That thing is yummie beyond belief!!!!!!! Tastes exactly like a normal apple cake.

I have found out that the most important thing to do if you want to loose weight fast is to be very careful that you consume all the fat. If I dont eat the 0.7 oz of fat each day I dont loose weight, simple as that, and everyone that has bailed on the fat has the same story. If I eat fat fish as often as I can (ideally everyday) then I loose weight REAL fast. The lean fish doesnt do this, just the fish with high fat content, like salmon and sardines. I even eat every week sardines in oil, and I dont even bother to drain the oil properly, and the next day I start to loose weight real fast.
I hope this gives you a good idea of the food I eat. I know its really amazing that I loose weight by eating this amount of food, but this diet plan focuses on getting the metabolic system in full burn by eating all the time, instead of cutting down the food because then the body burns a lot less calories. It is a fact that if you starve yourself then you dont loose weight and you put on weight really rapidly because it takes time for the body to start to burn calories according to the amount of food you are eating. Sugar is also a big NO-NO in this diet plan, because it seems that if you eat sugar then you burn less calories, not to mention on how sugar affects most overweight people, that is it makes people high so they want more and more sugar and food. I havent eaten sweets since 2. january and I dont miss it a bit, because sugar made me depressed and it made me battle with my appetite constantly. To starve yourself is the WRONG way to diet, because then your body gets the message its starving and starts to keep a tight hold on your body fat supplies and starts to burn less calories, so in fact you will loose fewer pounds if you dont eat, then if you would eat a large amount of properly balanced food. To starve oneself is also pretty painful and there are only two ways that are the results. Either you give up (and that would be the good outcome) or you will start to like to starve yourself and develop an eating disorder, anorexia that you simply can DIE from. (that would be the bad outcome). You would get thin, thats for sure, but the side affect of it is that you will also become DEAD, thin yeah, but dead allright.

It seems that I have lost additional 3 lbs since monday, so I am really on a roll these days J The thing that is also amazing about this weight loss is that I dont exercise at all. I dont even go out to walk. The only exercise I get is, is at work, and its a petstore!!! I am planning to maybe start exercising when I loose more weight, or if I stop loosing weight, but it doesnt seem to be necessary at this point, besides I would just ruin my body exercising being so heavy. I really thought that to loose weight it was very important to excercise, but it doesnt seem so in my case. I have been thinking of all the people that slave in the gym many days a week and dont loose weight, because they havent changed their diet. My advice based on my experience is: Focus on your eating habits and diet and get control over your food intake before you start going to the gym. Dont start both at the same time, it will only make you give up on everything, food and exercise. Get used to your new diet and use time that you would spend in the gym to cook, look for recipes, and to schedule your new eating habits. The food intake is so much more important and is the thing that will give you results. Then after some weeks or months when you have gotten 100% control over the food intake, you can start to get to a gym and exercise.

2006-05-24T00:17:00.000Z

Winner........

What have I got
Makes thing happen
How can I become....
Looks at the positive
Finds ways
Acknowledges responsibility
Takes guidance
Sees always wins ahead
Listens more....
Creates goals for him/herself
Learns from mistakes
Forgives..........
Long distance runner...patient
Favors....

Victim....

What havent I got.........
Waits for things to happen
Why cant I?........
Focuses on the faults
Finds excuses......
blames others...
Knows all.......
Sees always looses ahead...
Talks more........
Creates obstacles for him/herself
Looses from mistakes
Holds a grudge...
Short distance runner... burns out
Blames....

I think this list says it all, it gives you a clear idea what is the essence in the difference of a winner and victim. I made the huge mistake in my life to become a victim. I thought that because I had a bad past it was neccesary to feel sorry for myself, and because of my bad past other people should feel sorry for me 24/7. I really thought that if people just felt enough sorry for me that my emotional pain would go away. If only I could get a person in my life that would listen to my story about my bad past and just feel sorry enough for me, then everything would get better. When things just got worse I blamed the people in my life for not fulfilling their task of feeling sorry for me, and I remember how disappointed I was that people simply wouldn’t feel sorry enough for me, and I craved for this idealized person that would feel so sorry for me and solve all my problems. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The fact is that no one is capable of feeling enough sorry for a person, simply because there is no person in the world that can make things better when you are not doing anything about it yourself.

Empathy has never cured any personal or mental problems in anyone ever. My opinion is that I think empathy triggers our “behaviour mirrors”. That is if you get empathy from others you start to act the victim role and you start to feel worse because you want to reflect this idea that person has of you as being a HUGE victim. So with every person that feels sorry for you, your victim role is strengthened and with it you throw away any responsibility for your own emotions and behavior. Everything you try to achieve in this victim “mode” is doomed to failure because you have to proof for yourself constantly that you are so much a victim that everything fails and then you have one more thing to feel sorry for yourself about and that strenghtens even more the victim inside you.

The thing that is also amazing about this is that you are totally oblivious about what is really going on. The selfdeception is so great, everything evolves around to be the ideal victim so you don’t even see that you are creating the problems yourself. When you a are a victim you never take responsibility for your own feelings, behaviour and mental state, you simply blame the “others” for it if things arent great, the “others” are bad because they don’t feel sorry enough for you and treat you badly. You feel the whole world is against you, when in fact the problem starts and ends with this self deception, the lie that you have gotten so clever to tell yourself. You make yourself think that you are a helpless victim to your own bad emotions, that the depression you feel is simply something that comes out of thin air and that you cant do anything about it.

Again I was so wrong….. In the end of this “victim era” as I call it, I had become a part of the mental patient system. I was diagnozed having a borderline personality disorder, and oh how I treasured that… It was the final proof that made me into an ideal victim. A mental patient.. it doesn’t get better then that right!? To have a written proof that I was suffering inside, poor me. Now I could throw away all responsibility of my own feelings because “I couldn’t help it”. Instantly after the diagnosis there came a time when I went on “the quest for the holy pill” as I like to call it. Trying all kinds of medicines that were supposed to “cure” me, and I was disappointed again, because I was waiting for a pill that I could pop and BOOM feel good instantly, no strings attached. Of course there are no such pills like that, but, as expected, I took the failure of getting “cured” as another proof that I was a victim. Well I went on many kinds of medicines anyway and became a zombie for a while. For about 3-4 years when I was on big doses of some knock out tranquilisers I had no opinion at all, I didn’t laugh, I didn’t cry, I didn’t talk, I didn’t feel anything, yup I didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t feel good either, frankly I didn’t feel at all!! The only thing I could do was to sit in front of the television (I guess because it is more acceptable to stare at the TV then to stare at an empty wall) and eat and eat and eat with my brain wrapped up in pink clouds made by pills.

Then something happened…….. When I look back at the things that changed my world, I can see many things that worked together to get me on the right track. Some are even not of this world. It all begun when my mother laid her hands on me, and I mean she started to take me to sessions where she put her hands on me to heal me spiritually. It is not quite healing in a christian way, just healing using the spirits that help her. In one such session some major thing happened, she had her hands on my head and suddenly I felt a very sharp pain in my neck that felt exactly like a string pulled through my neck. When we talked afterwards, my mother and me, she told me that she had had the feeling that she was pulling some strings with dark filthy things tangled in it from my neck, exactly what I had felt! Then at every session I went to I always got this sharp pain in my neck at some time. Then I started to go to a therapist. She was an old woman educated as a pshyciatric nurse, but took people into therapy, and someone had said to me that she really made miracles. So I went to her and I told her all my “victim” story, and she also questioned me about my family (not my close family but back to greatgreatgrandparents etc). In the end of the session she leaned back and then she told me the truth, that I was making myself sick, that I was a much stronger personality then to waste my life in selfpity, and in fact I had the full responsibility over all my emotions. I cant remember what exactly she said but the bottom line was that I should stop feeling sorry for myself, stop being constantly a victim and it was all up to me to start to feel better. WOW it was a big shocker…….. At first I was so angry that she didn’t feel sorry for me, and I thought she was a very bad person to hurt my feelings that way, and I was also certain that I would never ever go to that fu….beeeb bi…..beeb again.

The self deception was so great that at first I couldn’t understand why she said those things to me, and I thought it was such a mean thing to do because “I couldn’t help myself” feeling this way, and that she “didn’t know me”. But I went back to her and because I was so utterly tired of myself and my mess of a life I was totally open to everything she said. In all her sessions I felt the string being pulled from my neck, and in the end I felt the string being pulled nearly everyday for a week. The pain in my neck was so real, it was exactly like a string with some hard things attached to it being pulled from my neck. I had felt when I met her the first time that I had to get things fast because she wouldn’t be in this line of work much longer, because frankly she was very old. In all I think I went to 4 * 2 hour sessions and that was all I needed. This woman totally changed my life and it bothers me I couldn’t thank her properly for it, because I was right, she wouldn’t be in this line of work for much longer. She died last april of cancer but I am convinced she is still helping people, and hopefully I will meet her when my day comes and then I can thank her properly.

It took weeks and months to let the things she said filter through my brain and to see that it was in fact the truth, and believe me those were some hard weeks and months. Imagine having to acknowledge that your whole life was a lie!! That the emotional pain I was constantly suffering from was in fact selfmade, and in fact something I could easily control. WOW it sure felt I had wasted my life on something worthless. But I just felt bad about that for a few minutes because if I felt bad about it then I would be nurturing the victim inside me, so I decided to be grateful for this self deception because it was a life experience and made me eventually into a better person with a better understanding of myself.

It sounds like all the changes came overnight but believe me they took many months and years, gradually understanding myself, understanding what the “victim mode” did to me, and slowly changing my way of thinking and perceptions of things. To take control over myself and my emotions took also a long time to practise, and it is a thing I have to think about everyday to get through the days without falling into the “victim mode” again. The keyword is never ever never feel sorry for yourself…… If I allow myself to feel sorry for myself in any situation then I automatically feel bad and depressed after a short time. Self pity always creates negativity, that’s a simple fact, and your mind will be filled up with depressing, sad, negative thoughts if you allow yourself to indulge in self pity. It is a fact that I havent felt sad for I don’t know how long (I think for years) simply because I don’t allow myself to feel sorry for myself. There are so many situations that can make you feel sorry for yourself. For. Ex. I found out why I felt sad after arguments or confrontations. The reason was that I thought the persons I argued with had said or done bad things to me so I felt sorry for myself. As soon as I was aware of it, I stopped letting myself feel sorry for myself in that situation and now I don’t feel sad after arguments. I think it has even helped me in my weightloss, because I don’t allow myself to feel sorry for myself not to be able to stick what is at hand up in my mouth. I am grateful for all this good, great tasting food that I am able to eat, and I know if I would feel sorry for myself because I cant eat candy, then I would very quickly convince myself that because I am such a victim not to be able to eat sweets, I should eat sweets to show myself I am not a victim. I know it sounds far fetched but I am sure this would be the line of thought I would think, and I am sure many of you recognize this lame excuse to give up on your diet.

I would never have believed it could be so simple to live a life in harmony, peace and happiness. You just have to take responsibility of your own emotions and feelings, to look at the positive sides of everything, to have the winner attitude always in all situations, to acknowledge that it is in fact up to you how you handle things life throws at you. If you have the winner mentality then it doesn’t really matters what life throws at you, you make problems into tasks that you work on and solve. It is just so much easier to look at things in a positive way, even things that frighten you, that seem so unsolvable. It is a fact that if you don’t see the monster in a horror film then the film gets so much scarier. As soon as you get to see the monster close up it stops being so scary. The same with problems, if you simply look at them straigth in the eyes, examine them closely, get familiar to them, then they stop being so scary.
Well what has this winner, victim thing have to do with loosing weight you might ask? Well I think it has everything to do with my weightloss. To free myself from the “victim mode” and to get the winner attitude made me into a person that can really do anything she wants. Including facing the old demon: FOOD. It gave me the courage to look at the problem straigth into its eyes, examine it closely, get familiar to it, and you know what; it stopped being scary!

2006-05-22T20:43:00.000Z

Here are the latest weightnews. I went to a weigh-in-meeting today and it seems that I have lost in 2 weeks 4 kg!!!!!!!!! So now I have lost in all 31 kg in 140 days. That is 1.55 kg á week or over 6.5 kg every month. If I convert the numbers into pounds (for those of you that dont have the metric system) then I have lost 8.8 pounds in 2 weeks, in all 68.2 pounds in 140 days, that is an average 3.4 pounds a week or 14.3 pounds every month.

The thing í did differently in my diet those two weeks was to be careful about the amount of fruits i was consuming (never over 4 fruits), I had fat fish nearly everyday, and I even had sardines in oil one day. I didnt even bother to drain the oil properly and then my weightloss TOOK OFF. The only thing I havent paid close attention to was my fat intake. Most days I consumed 1-3 teaspoons extra of fat (plus I had my daily amount 3-4 teaspoons), plus I had fish with a high fat content. On the other hand I was very careful not to exceed my daily intake of fruits and bread.

This proves even further that fat intake is crucial for weightloss. Of course fat in large amounts is not beneficial in losing weight, but to consume no fat at all prevents the human body to loose its body fat. You can also see the proves in statistics. If you look at the nutrition of people in the “rich” countries then you can see that the fat intake as actually gone down, while sugar and carbohydrate intake has gone through the roof. I am convinced that the fat intake is not the cause of obesity. Its rather the carbohydrates intake (bread, sweets, pasta, pizza etc.) that is the main reason for obesity. What is your thought on this? Is it a fact that all the things we thought we knew about how to diet is wrong? Is it a fact that the reason for that normal diets dont work is not in the lack of willpower, but that they simply dont work?

2006-05-22T00:46:00.000Z

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Heidrun and I am an Icelandic woman that has been struggling with weight all my life. As you can see in my profile my start weight was over 400 pounds, now I am down to 337 (but I think I have lost an additional 2 pounds this week). I have lost in all around 66 pounds since 2. january 2006 or over 3 pounds every week or around 15 pounds every month. The method that I have used to loose weight is simply to change my diet, and I eat according to a nutrition program that originated in Denmark.

I think a major thing that has helped me with my weightloss is to get control of my food addiction. The method that I used to get rid of my food addiction is to eat no sugar or sweets of any kind, and I havent eaten sugar since 2. january. Its a fact that people that are struggling with their weight and specially people that are morbidly obese are also food addicts, and the food addiction is the major fact why we have gotten so overweight. For me sugar has been the main trigger for eating. If I eat just one piece of candy I am not able to stop eating more and more and more untill I am completely full and even then I want more!! It is simply an addiction just the same as drug addiction or alchoholism. I am simply not able just to have one piece of candy, the same way as the alchoholist isnt able to have just one beer. But unlike the alchoholist I just simply cant stop eating, but I can have control of myself if I avoid food that triggers my food addiction, and that is sugar!! For other people starch, flour, fat or even some fruits can also be a trigger, you just have to find out what is the thing that gets you started eating and avoid to eat those things.

In the beginning I thought I would never be able to stop eating the food that I loved so much, the sweets and fast food, but I decided to try to change my eating habits and you know what? Its much more easier then I ever thought was possible. By avoiding my trigger food: sugar I was able to control my appetite and food intake. I was finally in control of myself and it felt awesome. The thing that also surprises me is that I dont even miss eating sweets. For me the fruits have replaced the sweets and frankly I think fruits taste much better then the sweets I used to love. Its like the fruits taste real and the sweets taste fake, hope you understand me. What I mean is that normally sweets are so full of articificial flavors and things so their taste is nearly overwhelming, while the fruits arent the same shock on your taste buds, they have a more caressing flavor and I love that. My taste has also changed. Before after having shocked my tastebuds for years I thought fruits had little taste, but now they taste so sweet. Eating a banana now is like sucking on a sugarcube, they simply are so sweet.

Now after nearly 6 months on healthy balanced food I have noticed that I have stopped having food constantly on my mind. Now I always eat a fixed amount of food on the same time, and it has really helped me control my nutrition. I think of it like: I cant be trusted to eat what I want, see where it got me, so I have to accept that I eat my food in a structured way, same amount every day. When I started my diet it was hard for me to see food commercials, or walk by a bakery or similar places, but now looking at a bundle of sweets and food I once craved doesnt move me at all. I could be looking at a flower decoration, the food simply doesnt affect me, and that is a freedom that is like no other, and I am so happy to be in this place specially when the road to this place has been much more easy then I thought it would be. I frankly think its easier to eat according to a program then having to struggle with the food cravings and sugar addiction each and everyday plus all the negative and destructive feelings it gave me, not to mention the 400+ pounds I became.

I am not on a diet for X months to loose X pounds. I have chosen to change my nutrition for life and I am never going back to the food I used to eat. Not only have I lost pounds I have gotten so many health benefits already. The food that I eat (a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits) has given me non-stop energy, I sleep much better, I have healthier skin and hair, free from chest burns, food allergies, rashes etc. Oh yeah I forgot to mention I dont even exercise with this diet. I dont even go out to have walks. The only exercise I do is doing my job as a sales clerk in a pet shop!!

It is also a mind/body affair to get control of your food intake. It is so important in believing in yourself. Well it sounds like a overused frase "believing in yourself" but it is so true. The thing is that if you dont believe that you can loose the weight and if you have no faith in yourself you will fall for the first candybar that gets in your path, simply because you are fullfilling the idea you have of yourself that you are such a looser that cant accomplish anything. Dont look at your weight as synonymous with your "worth". Look at your overweight as a task that has to be solved, not a proof that you are a looser, a failure. Dont think of yourself in a negative way, dont refer to yourself as "fatty" or "blubber" or whatever you use to humiliate yourself. To hate yourself for what you have become doesnt help you one bit in solving the weightproblem, but rather makes things more difficult, because as long as you look at yourself as a looser, you will think like a looser, a victim, and you will never become a winner unless you "loose the looser" attitude.

Dont be a victim of yourself. Dont be a victim at all!! I spent many years being a "victim", and it made my life miserable, but as soon I started to behave and think like a winner then I started to unravel all my personal problems. I dealt with alchohol addiction, mental problems, cigarette addiction, and I won every battle. The last thing to do in my life was to deal with my food addiction and now I am loosing weight in a healthy way FAST! My success in dealing with my old enemy, the weight, has given me courage to face all the things that I could do better in my life. I have returned to life as a winner and I will keep on winning every battle I will have to face simply because I am determined to do so, and now it doesnt matter what life throws at me, I look at it as just another task to do, and I am thankful for difficulties because they will simply make me stronger and a better person.

There are so many things that I have discovered in these months, its simply incredible. Both about my own person and about life and human behaviour. I have found out my worst enemy was myself, and no one lied as well to me as myself. The self-deception of a person can be so strong that your whole life is a self-destructed lie. If you are lucky then someone can make you acknowledge your own deception, and that is always the beginning of a better life. It is of course the harder thing to do, but the path leads you to a much better place.
Well I will write soon more about my thoughts, hope you keep on visiting my blog, tomorrow there will be weight news, since I will go to a weigh-in-meeting. Take care untill then :)

2006-05-21T23:52:00.000Z

This is my starting point, 183 kg (402.6 lbs). This picture is taken 4th january 2006, already been on a "diet" for 2 days and that is probably the only reason I am smiling. As you can see at this time I was simply exhausted, tired and depressed. The thing I am holding is my Bengal cat, Vicky that jumped in my arms at the same time this picture was taken.

Here I am 4th may 2006, having lost 28 kg (61.6 lbs). As you can see its like this is a different person. If you didnt believe this diet makes you feel and look healthy then I think this pic says it all.

2006-05-16T23:39:00.000Z

This is the ruler for my weightloss. I have lost 30 kg in 4 and a half month (changed my diet 2. january). As you can see there is plenty more kilos to loose but I am determined to get to my ideal weight by the beginning of the year 2008.