Obesity

[Don Gwinn]

Hi, my name is Don, and I am obese.

 

Hi, Don!

 

I am 6'1" tall and well over 300 pounds. Well, well, well over. Now that that's out of the way, here's why I'm obese and what I'm doing about it.

 

1. Inactivity. I was a football player in high school and college and worked out insanely hard. I also ate enough for a clydesdale. I was between 230 and 260 during this time, and 230 was very lean for me. I ran a 5.9 40-yard dash at that weight, which I thought was decent. When I quit football, I tried to keep working out for awhile, but tapered off. When I graduated and became a teacher, my whole day was sitting or standing in a class, and I was exhausted when I got home and had no interest in working out.

 

2. Eating. I stopped working out when I stopped football, but I did NOT slow down the calorie parade. I ate mostly healthy food, but in obscene amounts. Once I graduated I ate unhealthy food in large amounts. My lunch hour (25 minutes) was just barely enough to get home, let the dog out, put her back in, and get back to school, so it wasn't long before my daily lunch was from the vending machine--20 oz Mountain Dew, a candy bar, and a bag of chips.

 

What am I doing about it? Well, I joined a dojang. I also do Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning exercises, with the exception of Hindu pushups which I am too obese to do properly. Rather than do two sets of very heavy squats per week, I try to get 50 Hindu squats every morning. Next week I plan to begin running in the early morning as well. I attend the TKD classes four nights per week and work my ass off. I also practice on my own time, performing my poomse every morning as soon as I get up.

 

The diet has been a harder battle. I'm a food addict with a sweet tooth. I love Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, and milk. One of the things I've tried to do is to find better ways to cook good meals, and one way is to learn to use Thai and other Oriental spices and sauces. Many of these, like Tandoori, add very few calories to dishes like baked chicken but make all the difference in the world as far as flavor. Beyond this, I just try to force hunger on myself before I eat. I eat by habit a lot of the time, so it's a matter of stopping myself, having a glass of water and thinking about whether I'm actually hungry.

 

I've basically given up soda (which was not easy, as I used to live on Mountain Dew) but have not broken myself of sugar in my iced tea yet. I'm working on it.

 

I'm taking a picture every Thursday evening to document my progress. We shall see.

 

One of my problems was that when I was a little bit overweight I looked OK to myself. I only looked at my front in the mirror, and I have very (in fact, quite abnormally) large bones and wide shoulders. Even at way over 300 pounds, I have a fairly tapered shape from the front. Then one day you see yourself in a photo or a mirror and think "My God! What happened!"

 

 

I don't blame McDonald's or any idiot thing like that. They sell the stuff, I didn't have to buy it or eat it. It's not their job to tell me what I can and can't do, and if I choose to be obese, that's my right. Now that I choose not to, that is my right as well. I will never be the "ideal weight" off a chart. But at 220-230 I would be very lean as well as large and strong, and that would be fine with me.

 

 

 

[unknown]

if people wanna be obese let them. i personally choose to be in shape because it is my choice.

 

if somebody wants to sit in front of their computer all day and eat fried chicken well that is their choice.

 

you cannot get down on them for that.

[ckdstudent]

Fried chicken tastes so good though.

 

 

[Mankr]

problems with being obese is a very high chance of becoming type 2 diabetic

 

i go to the biggest gym in my town theres quite a few overweight people go there and they say there trying to lose weight but they do the easiest workout possible.

 

i think it mostly comes down to being pure lazy

 

[ This Message was edited by: Mankr on 2002-07-08 16:29 ]

[shaolinprincess]

Quote:

 

It also lowers a kids self esteem.

 

So true, especially in the teenage years.

 

We definetly need to get rid of fast food. Replace them with health food products. Do it slowly so no one notices. Get rid of the bad stuff from the stores, there are good tasting HEALTHY stuff.

[nonpuritan]

Hi my names Zach, im 14 5'9 and 140 LBS. Just one year ago I was about 5'6 and about 160lbs. It was due to the adicitve game they call DAIBLO II. Its video games like these that makes alot of kids fat these days. Last year my shchedule was" wake up play diablo for an hour before school, go to shcool and think about Diablo all day, get home and play diablo for 7 hours untill bedtime. It was HORRIBLE, it was like worse than drugs. You get sucked in, even if you dont think you are. At the beggening of this year I still played but my male hormones kicked in (puberty) and I started noticeing something more amazing than diablo, girls! With this new obsession I quit diablo and started getting excercise and what not, and Ive lost about 20 lbs this year. Me and my friends look at my picture at the beggening of the year and me now and we all go "what happened?, that doesnt look like you!" Kids these days are getting fat because of parents who dont have enough time due to work to cook them a proper meal so they just them a pizza, and the new game craze of online games. Its sick if you ask me, look at the world 50 years ago, nobody was really obese, kids were all the same basic figure. It scares me to think of what this world will be like in 50 years......

 

[ This Message was edited by: nonpuritan on 2002-07-13 05:26 ]

[KickChick]

First of all I want to for Don! Good going my man .... (I especially like that you chose Matt's exercises ... good choice for you ---- one day you will be doing those Hindu push ups!)

 

Hey it took a long time to get to the weight you are, with patience and hard work you'll reach your goals ... (just make sure they are attainable in your mindset .. what you perceive for yourself is of great importance on the road ahead.

 

Hope you are doing cardio also as part of your slim down routine ... start off slow and increase duration of your workout each week .... (even if you start off fast walking to a jog ... ) Remember you need to rev up your metabolism in order to lose the weight! Which means small nutricious meals through the day on top of exercise.

 

Lack of exercise and poor nutrition ... with a lack of self -esteem.

 

Sometimes I think I have way too much self-esteem --- I am to the point where I think I obsess about the way I look, --- but I think I'd much rather be overly health conscious than not at all.

 

Don --- check out the weight loss tips in this H & F forum.

 

_________________

 

KarateForums Sensei

 

1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF)

 

Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr.

 

[ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-07-13 08:06 ]

[KickChick]

Nutrition should be easy not only to understand but also to live with. Fact is, it isn't for some ... so here goes plain and simple!

 

Many people just stuff food in their mouths without even knowing what is in it! Now that almost every food product must have the necessary nutritional information on it, take advantage!

 

An example is yogurt. In nonfat or light yogurt, we get about 90 to 100 calories per serving. Not bad. But if you look closely at

 

regular yogurt, it can clearly be discovered that there are over twice as many calories for the same portion size!

 

So, 2 light yogurts=1 regular yogurt

 

The artificial sweeteners in the light yogurt make it possible to reduce the amount of carbs, and thus calories, without sacrificing taste at all.

 

Look at the information on the back of all food products and take a huge step toward better eating habits.

 

Most people eat carbs all day long and into the wee hours of the night without paying any attention to protein. Get more protein! Think of protein as the toolbox for the body and carbohydrates as the immediate fuel.

 

Americans get too much of this fuel which, by the way, can cause severe problems over the years such as diabetes. So substitute some of your daily carbs with foods that contain a higher protein content.

 

Look at the labels!

 

Here are some examples of protein rich foods as well as carbohydrate rich foods:

 

protein - turkey, chicken, beef, cottage cheese, fish, beans, protein powders.

 

carbohydrates - breads, rice, potatoes, cereal, ships, candy, regular soft drinks, donuts.

 

And fat is good!

 

That doesn't mean rush to McD's and commence guzzling mass amounts of super-sized Big Mac meals down your throat until the natural volume capacity of your stomach screeches to a halt. When I say fat is good, I mean that a sensible diet is fine as far as fat intake goes, look at the labels!

 

...and now for my favorite word! Moderation!

 

That's all you have to remember. Super-sized meals are a major no,no. Here's why, in simplistic terms. Basically, when you eat, food is utilized as energy for bodily functions, so when a huge amount of food in ingested, the body uses the extent it needs to function and stores the rest. Make sense? However, how does the body store this energy? FAT. So, when you gorge down five hamburgers and a soda, the body is going to take what it needs and pack the rest right down there in that "problem area."

 

A good way to prevent this is to keep yourself from getting ravenously hungry. Pick good snack(protein) throughout the day for in between meals. I love protein (Slimfast) bars!!!

 

Most people eat dinner and have four to five hours until bed time ... this is when an attack of the munchies sets in. They are not a bad thing. Think of them as a helper to remind your body to keep your metabolism going and, in effect, burn more fat!

 

The term munchies has become associated with chips, popcorn, or any high-carb snack. Not an intelligent late night snack. Think of it like this: Carbs are the body's immediate source of energy. So, when you eat a lot of them, the body uses them right away to fuel all activities. Now, what happens to carbs if the body does't need them right way, like at nighttime when you sleep? It stores them! And what does it store them as? Fat! Get the picture!

 

The point is that a low carb, high protein snack at night is ok. Again, look at labels, especially until you get a sense of what foods have what in them.

 

Good Snacks:

 

1. Cottage Cheese - High in Protein, low in carbs. Eat lowfat or nonfat to cut the calories.

 

2. Beef Jerky - Yep. The same beef jerky that has been at the checkout counters all the time! Just check the labels to make sure it isn't fat-filled. A little fat is okay, but some are really bad. Makes a great snack in between meals!

 

3. Eggs whites - perfect protein. Having a 5 egg white + 1 full egg omelett for a snack once in a while is good.

 

4. Tuna - high in protein and low in carbs Make sure you get it in water, not oil.

 

5. Turkey - Turkey is an excellent, lean meat. Stick to the white meat in order to stay away from excess amount of fat.

 

The five wonderful miracle foods that make great high protein, low carb. snacks and meals. Happy eating!

 

 

 

_________________

 

KarateForums Sensei

 

1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF)

 

Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr.

 

[ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-07-13 08:33 ]

[Radok]

If you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight, period. People with slow matabolisms need to eat less. And excercise more,

 

 

[KenpoChick87120]

Well done don!! If you ever need support or encouragement just drop me a line. Your doing a realy realy good job, and you just inspired me to go for a run!