As Bushie's World Turns (The Update Thread)

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

Although I now see you've lost more.  Good to see - keep it up!

[patrick1]

I am in the 5th day of this Thanksgiving 2012 Diet.  I started at a weight of 263.8.  As of this morning, I am down to 257.  Nearly 7 pounds in just 4 days.  I've just been eating less.  Plain and simple.  I haven't developed or used a x-step program.  I've just been eating less.  That 257, puts me at a grand total of 28 pounds lost since I started my first diet on 14 November, 2011.

Just realize that this is likely around 90% water weight and you could be back up 5 lbs after a few glasses of water or a salty meal. This is why you shouldn't obsess on the scale.  Don't weigh yourself that often.  A real good judge of your progress is how your clothes fit.

[Smash255]

I am in the 5th day of this Thanksgiving 2012 Diet.  I started at a weight of 263.8.  As of this morning, I am down to 257.  Nearly 7 pounds in just 4 days.  I've just been eating less.  Plain and simple.  I haven't developed or used a x-step program.  I've just been eating less.  That 257, puts me at a grand total of 28 pounds lost since I started my first diet on 14 November, 2011.

Just realize that this is likely around 90% water weight and you could be back up 5 lbs after a few glasses of water or a salty meal. This is why you shouldn't obsess on the scale.  Don't weigh yourself that often.  A real good judge of your progress is how your clothes fit.

Good point, as important as losing weight is losing body fat is even more important.  You should be able to find a scale that measures body fat % for $30.

Also weight fluctuates during the day a it, so getting excited over a few pounds either way might not actually mean anything.

[Nagas]

Fixing your diet is the first step. To really see those pounds drop, it is imperative that you exercise. Walking for an hour a day will be a boon. Once you drop enough pounds, you could take up running to accelerate the process.

[BushKenya]

Thanks, guys!  My smaller jeans (size 38) are already fitting better.  In addition, my bigger jeans (size 40) are starting to get too big.  A few more pounds and the right/wrong circumstances, I could give my coworkers an eye full!  I'm about 20 lbs from needing to start buying size 36 jeans.

[Senator Clarence]

Thanks, guys!  My smaller jeans (size 38) are already fitting better.  In addition, my bigger jeans (size 40) are starting to get too big.  A few more pounds and the right/wrong circumstances, I could give my coworkers an eye full!  I'm about 20 lbs from needing to start buying size 36 jeans.

Great job!

[BushKenya]

Good Thursday Morning, folks!  As of yesterday morning, I have lost 7 1/2 pounds.  I'm down to 256.4.  I'm continuing to lose weight and I am going to keep this up all the way until at least Thanksgiving, most likely, longer.  In the near term, I'm hoping to be down to 250 by the middle of August.

[Inks.LWC Supports Chuck Hagel]

So what exactly have you done to lose weight?

[BushKenya]

So what exactly have you done to lose weight?

Just eating less, usually 1 1/2 meals a day.  I'll be honest, I've still had the hamburgers, but I've limited it to one per day.  I'm having a small snack when I get home from work.  Before, I would be eating probably 2 hamburgers a day and/or a large vanilla malt with one of the hamburgers.  I'm about to switch out of the hamburgers for the most part.  I wanted to do a step down into my diet instead of quitting every bad habit cold turkey.  I'll still have a hamburger once in a while, but not near as often as what I'm doing now.  I'll probably  be eating more Subway than McDonalds's if I go out.

[memphis]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine. Truisms about diet and exercise don't seem to be getting the job done in the real world. Moving to a walkable neighborhood seems the most obvious, but moving is a difficult, often unrealistic, step. Surrounding one's self with others who exercise and live a healthy lifestyle seems somewhat more feasible, though still a challenge. Our behavior is heavily dependent on what we observe others doing, as we are all seeking out social cues. Any other specific suggestions? I don't have as much weight to lose as Bushie does, but I wouldn't mind dumping the spare tire either.

[ZuWo]

You are off to a very promising start. Congratulations!
Now you have to make sure that you don't get discouraged if you experience a couple of days where your weight doesn't move downwards. It is completely normal if you are trying to lose weight and is no reason to give up and to return to your old eating habits. Indeed, if you are able to overcome such critical moments you will be on track to lose quite a bit of weight.

[BushKenya]

You are off to a very promising start. Congratulations!
Now you have to make sure that you don't get discouraged if you experience a couple of days where your weight doesn't move downwards. It is completely normal if you are trying to lose weight and is no reason to give up and to return to your old eating habits. Indeed, if you are able to overcome such critical moments you will be on track to lose quite a bit of weight.

Thanks, ZuWo!  I feel I am off to a good start.  I need to continue it, though.  I know I'll have days where I will hold steady or even gain a bit.  Those days don't bother me unless they become a trend, then I know it's time to either change what I'm doing or go back to what I was doing that saw the weight drop.  I know I'll probably gain weight in the morning, simply because I had a cheat day with my parents taking me out for Mexican.  That's okay, as I'll get back on it tomorrow and press on.

[ilikeverin]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Behaviorist?!?  Dude, go back to the 30s

[BushKenya]

Im on my way to losing the weight I gained on Thursday. I had gained 3 pounds on Thursday, but as of this morning, I've lost 1.5 lbs of the weight gained. I am sitting at 259.0 or 5 lbs since last Friday.

[memphis]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Behaviorist?!?  Dude, go back to the 30s

I'm no psychologist. Perhaps I used the wrong term. What I mean is what actually works to get people to change their poor habits. Just about everybody who tries to lose weight and keep it off fails. It would be nice to know how to change that beyond platitudes about eating better and being more active.

[BushKenya]

I've been off work the past two days because I've been in excruciating pain for the past 9 days.  I'm not going to say what I have, because that's not important.  It's been extremely painful to sit, stand, or lay.  I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning at 8:00 and see what they can do about it.  The pain is just now starting to ease up as I believe what I had is starting to go away.  Generally, the only way to get rid of this particular ailment is surgery.  So, I might be going under the knife in the near future.  I'm pretty sure I can avoid it, but there is still a chance I may be given surgery to make sure there is nothing major going on.  Your prayers and thoughts would be highly coveted as I head to the doctor tomorrow morning.

[oakvale]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Behaviorist?!?  Dude, go back to the 30s

I'm no psychologist. Perhaps I used the wrong term. What I mean is what actually works to get people to change their poor habits. Just about everybody who tries to lose weight and keep it off fails. It would be nice to know how to change that beyond platitudes about eating better and being more active.

The reason that happens is because people think of it as a "diet" and when they "finish", they revert back to their old terrible habits. You're not going to find someone who made a permanent lifestyle change yet magically gained back whatever weight they lost.

Oakvale's Not Very Original Generic Diet Plan For Atlas Posters

1. Add a zero to your weight. If you're 190 pounds, for example, that's 1900.

2. Eat that many calories a day.

3. Religiously count your calories for at least a month, report back.

If you don't want to feel bad you should also consider the nutrient side -


Protein: IIRC the general advice is to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight - so in this example you'd be eating 190g of protein.

Fat: According to the internet, you should multiply your calorie goal as worked out above by 0.25, then you divide that number by 9. Eat that many grams of fat a day. Using our example, that works out to ~52 grams of fat a day.

Important - get your fats from good sources like cheese and eggs, don't pig out on a bucket of lard or something.

Carbohydrates: The general recommendation is to eat no less than 100 grams a day. Anything under can make you sluggish, although if you're going for a low-carb thing go ahead.

There's probably at least one bit of advice here that's very wrong, I'm just going from memory and some quick googling to refresh the gaps. But stick to this and you will lose weight. It's mathematics.

EDIT: Due to the curse of water retention, there'll be days and weeks where you plateau. That's normal, don't give up. It'll sort itself out. You're still losing fat, it's just being hidden. Also, drink water. Tons of water.

[BushKenya]

I'm home from the doctor's office.  It's looking like I'll need surgery.  He's given me some medicine to help out in the mean time, but it's looking very likely I will be going to the Indian Clinic in Ada, Oklahoma this Friday, 3 August 2012 to have the surgery done outpatiently.  At least this surgery will cost me nothing as far as money is concerned.  As far as it being pain free?  Forget about it.  There is an oldie's song entitled See You in September that may fit this criteria...  I could be doped up on pain meds for a while.

[Grumps]

Well we hope you get better......does this now kill Xerox?

[BushKenya]

This doesn't kill Xerox as I talked to my supervisor this morning and updated her on the situation and she said I can combine a string of however many consecutive days I miss into just one occurrence (or point).  I have 4 points to play with, so this will just be 1 point even if heaven forbid I have to miss the first half of August.  She told me my job is guaranteed when I get back.

However, there is a dead rat starting to smell about Xerox, but has nothing to do with my illness, but that story is for a little later.

Stay tuned - there is about to be yet another twist on this Update thread - the writers are gathering their sources and information.  The twist could come later today or it could come in the next few days.

Geez, this Update thread has more twists than all the seasons of Big Brother has ever had... combined...

[Stranger in a strange land]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Yeah. Lay off the fried food and fast food (except maybe Subway), drink coffee in the morning and UNSWEETENED green tea in the afternoon, and have fruit or a salad with every meal. 

[BushKenya]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Yeah. Lay off the fried food and fast food (except maybe Subway), drink coffee in the morning and UNSWEETENED green tea in the afternoon, and have fruit or a salad with every meal. 

I'll be doing most of this with the specialized diet I'm needing to go on for this condition.  I'll need a high fiber diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables and calorie free lemon lime soda (Sprite Zero)

[Yelnoc]

Does anybody know if there has been any behaviorist work on what makes for an effective and sustainable weight loss routine.

Yeah. Lay off the fried food and fast food (except maybe Subway), drink coffee in the morning and UNSWEETENED green tea in the afternoon, and have fruit or a salad with every meal. 

Try running a lot.  Like...5 miles a day.  Keeps the pounds off, I'll tell ya.

[patrick1]

So like what you have shingles or the piles now...? You were presumably healthy enough to tell us about going out for Mexican food but miss work for extended periods.  You just make no sense whatsoever and this fits your pattern. Didnt you also have had a heart attack but were perfectly fine enough to post on this forum without a peep.

[BushKenya]

No, Patrick, I'm going to be very blunt with this and hope I don’t get called down for being too personal.  I have an external hemorrhoid.  I have been in such severe pain for the past 11 days and it was a struggle making it through work last week.  I finally had to break down and call the doctor on Friday to get an appointment for this morning.  I was in so much pain just from sitting on my bottom that I couldn’t go to work Saturday or Sunday.  I went to the doctor this morning and he gave me some medicine to help get rid of it and told me to stay off it as much as I can the rest of this week.  He also said that this medicine may not work and that I will probably need to go to the Emergency Room at the Indian Hospital in Ada, Oklahoma to get this lanced and drained.  I initially thought he meant full hemorrhoid surgery which would have likely put me on the shelf until at least September, possibly October.  Then, I remembered what he did say (after I posted earlier today) which was lancing and draining which may shelve for no more than another week instead of a month or longer.  The surgery is still a possibility depending on several factors and the doctor did caution me that it may be needed down the road at some point because this draining is only temporary, not a permanent solution like the surgery is.  There is a good chance they will come back at some point, but I’m still not sure it’s worth being in excruciating pain for an entire month or longer and missing work for nearly a month.  It’s a decision I’ll have to weigh when and if the time comes.