Old fat guy must lose weight

First things first. A diet never works! It must be a lifestyle change, BUT one that is doable. Start small and cut out one or two unhealthy things a day. Start by eliminating liquid calories. No sugar pop or espresso or anything with calories. Water, plain iced tea, sugar free lemonade, coffee with nonfat creamer and splenda, things like that are good. Next, eliminate salt in your diet. Cut back on frozen and processed foods like tv dinners, fast food, and pizza. All full of salt and unhealthy fats. Try and cut back on simple carbohydrates too. Things like pasta, noodles, white bread and flour are all things your body doesn't like. They raise your blood sugar quickly and then let you crash shortly thereafter. This all sounds like fun right? Oh yeah. Once you get the hang of eating healthy, it's very doable and easy. Also, eating 5-6 times a day, but small meals of course, helps keep you full all the time. Breakfast could be 2 eggs and a piece of wheat toast or bowl of oatmeal. Then have a can of tuna or chicken and some frozen veggies 3 hrs later. Cottage cheese and pineapple is good. Chicken and brown rice. A higher protein, low glycemic, low fat diet is very effective at letting you feel full and satisfied everyday. Also cutting out carbs in the evening lets your body burn fat overnight instead of making more. All this comes with time. And don't forget to excercise some way, shape, or form. Just walking will make you feel better. You did not put on weight in a short time, and you will not take if off quickly if you want to keep it off. I promise if you take small steps and stick with it, you will start feeling better and seeing results in short order. How long depends on how important it is for you to make this a turning point in your life. I just recently started lifting weights again and working out after years off, and am already seeing drastic results in 2 months. In 2000, at 6'3", I went from 312lbs to 247lbs over the course of 2 years. Then gained back some to around 280 for years, got married and had a child, gained more weight again, and now decided I want to be able to live healthy and be there for my wife and son in our future. I let myself get up to 330lb, and in 2 months am already down to 308 lbs. I wanted 320 lbs by my b-day (today), so I have already exceeded that goal. I want to be at 275 lbs by the end of the year, and then go from there. Totally achievable and reasonable, because I want to do it, and will! Stay with it, make small goals, it is not hard if you want it. Stay motivated. Good luck.


Jay

Hi Jon, I feel your pain brother. About 4 years ago my doc told me the same thing. Weight loss truly is a life style change. He suggested the Southbeach diet. I gave it a try and it worked. Fortunately it recommended most foods that I already liked, just didn't eat them often enough. I've lost about 45 lbs. It's a low fat GOOD carb plan. It won't be easy, especially the first couple weeks. No more beer, cake, cookies, pie, pasta, rice, white sugar or most any fast food. After that you'll realize you CAN survive without them. I still have ice cream. Once a week instead of every night. Now instead of a handful of Oreo's at bedtime, it's a small handful lof grapes. Eating smaller portions with a healthy snack every 2 hours or so helped me thru the hunger pains (no donuts allowed). My weight & blood pressure are both down. I look forward to many years enjoying my grandkids & retirement.

Loosing weight is a mass balance problem where overall energy 'out' has to be greater than overall energy 'in'.
deadeer gave a lot of good advice - but he left one thing he left off:

Moderation.

The Oreo's, ice cream, doughnut, cookies, etc... are OK to eat in moderation. Which means one here and there, not a doughnut in the morning, some Oreo's at lunch, some Doritos for a mid afternoon snack, and a little ice cream before bed. If you want to succeed in changing your eating habits, you still have to eat food you enjoy. Which for me, does not include salads. I would rather use the salad as bait to catch the rabbit, then eat the rabbit.

Remember you aren't on a diet, so if you do have a cookie every once in a while you aren't cheating on your diet. When you do change your eating habits, don't starve yourself. To loose weight you don't want your body to think you are starving, it's counter productive. The body will go into starvation mode and decrease its metabolism. Eat small portions multiple times a day for three or four days, then have a big meal.

Also. your goal should be to drop a couple pounds a week. Don't check the scale everyday. Anymore than once a week will just discourage you.

I recently modified my diet to cut down on carbs, eat smaller portions, only have one or two soft drinks a week. I've dropped almost 15 pounds since mid April. Of course, I have also increased my physical activity and I'm doing a Mud Ninja race in July, which is basically a 3.1 mile muddy obstacle course in the hills of southern Ohio. I was already in decent shape, I just needed (and still do) to get ride of the spare tire, not because a Dr. told me to, but because I was not happy to get fat as I grow old, and my younger cousin invited me to do the race with him. Now I just have to beat him...

With all this advice, I'm a shoe-in for success!

I wanted to photograph one of those mud challenges, but always missed the ones in Indiana. Have you done one
before. I've seen photos; it looks tough. I've heard the ones in the spring can be cold.

This is easy for me to say, I know... ...but, regular exercise will give you more energy. When I make myself workout after a long, tiring day at work, I am always glad I did because it gives you an endorphin boost and creates more energy. It's just super hard to convince yourself of that when you are dragging at the end of the day. Some prefer to workout before work, but I hate working out early in the morning. Find a time of day that works for you. Start slow, but try to do 20 minutes of some kind of cardio (fast walk, jog, bike, treadmill, etc.) at least every other day.

Rubs won't start making rubs in earnest until the second half of October. A few bucks may rub a little to shed some velvet or just make half-hearted rubs in September, but they will start tearing trees up good in late October on through November.

For your first question: early velvet rubbing may be somewhat itch related as velvet is coming off, good question, I'm not sure. The primary rubbing is pre-rut/rut related. Bucks leave their calling cards by rubbing trees and making scrapes and urinating in them. All part of establishing their place on the block, so to speak.

Second question: Toms will gobble throughout the year, but it is much less common outside of the early Spring breeding season. In the early Spring they will gobble many, many times a day. Most of the year they won't gobble very much, but you may hear an occasional "shock gobble" when they will gobble in response to a loud noise, such as thunder.

I'm doing well on my diet (lifestyle change). I seem to not think much about food or eating anymore. I must say that the joy of eating has diminished. However, I did smoke a nice turkey breast on the 4th. This was my first attempt at smoking meat. I'll do it more often.

I go back for blood tests on Tuesday the 9th, and then see the doctor two weeks later. I do not weigh myself. I don't like variability, so I want them to weigh me on the same scales. I feel better and seem to have more energy. I went crow hunting with predator hunter on Wednesday and moved around a lot. He's 31 and fit, so I was a bit worried where he'd want to take me. I slept 10 hours that night, not sure that I rolled over; I was out.

I've heard, but haven't seen where they got the data, that one can create or change a habit in 21 days. A habit is one thing, but we have to eat to survive. My entire perception of food must change. Humans really don't like change. I'd like a change for the better though. :-)

Yes, once the skin burned off, I couldn't keep the rest of it lit. :-)

Good one parson!

I like humor.