Anyone had success without WLS???

Can i get my big BUTT in here?  You asked Andy, but I wanted to spout off about routine.  Unfortunately, i have never, for the record, been like you - I love to be outside, free and moving.  i hate, am so not the proverbial couch potato.  Gotta love that - i'm still fat. For the past 21 years, i have lived and died by a routine (having a family does that) In december 06, things changed for me.  I was in a mild depression, maybe perimenopause, whatever. I've become more "avante garde" as you say (love that btw) with exercise.  i only accept I have to do *something* every day.  I don't kick myself if i miss a day anymore, i just attempt to make it up. For me, gyms drive me bug****  talk about BORING. I need to be outside. Biking, walking, hiking, swimming, whatever, I have used gyms just to see what is up. But I felt even then, this SUCKS.   But I exercise exactly like I brush my teeth - now who likes that? Or flossing...or styling my pitiful hair every day?  I do it anyway. Because I believe in its benefits. I think motivation to do any of this requires the basic belief these things work over time:  controlling calories (all diets boil down to this) and exercise.  After you finally admit that to yourself, just do it.  Find your own way, but do it.  You know sitting on your butt and macking whatever you feel like does not work, and you're HERE, so there's a start!  GLAD YOU ARE HERE< TOO>  We need the shaking up.

Ahh routines.....I have one thats for sure. I live a boring life. lol. Back in December of 06' I started the routine then I slacked off from mid-Jan thru well now. But i am back into the routine. Since I have no boyfriend at the time right now and I do have friends but I hang out with them on the weekends. My life consists of the same thing every single day! Get up...go to work, work anywhere from 8am to 5pm-7pm. Eat dinner, leave around 8pm to fake and bake my skin....then go from there straight to the gym for an hour, come home watch some tv for an hour then sleep at 11pm, and get up and do it all over again. See boring life but like Neece says kinda like brushing your teeth or doing your hair.  You just kind of do it. Basically you have to make it a habit, then it just becomes your everyday life.

I forgot Christa's comments about changing habits. :) ALTER TABLESPACE life READ WRITE; DELETE FROM habits where type='NONESSENTIAL'; INSERT INTO habits (habit, interval, type) ('Exercise','DAILY','ESSENTIAL'); COMMIT; ALTER TABLESPACE life READ ONLY; Ahh, there that's better!

Sure, back dat azz up! lol  You know what's weird... I love being outside. I love being free and moving too.. I just don't do it as much. I have no consistency.  I do spend a lot of time on the couch. I love movies and they love keeping me fat. My heart and better intentions tell me to go outside, my laziness says stay in and watch tv. The easier task usually wins.   I love that word too! It makes it's meaning seem less derogatory. :)  I don't think what you describe is a bad thing. I feel it's a good thing to not dwell on your failures and move on. I also feel if you take an unconventional approach to exercise it makes you feel like it's not such a hard thing to do. In other words, you don't dwell on the task because well..it's not that big of a deal and it's not interrupting your "me time" as I call it. That's always my excuse by the way. I can't exercise because it interrupts my "me time", my crash time, my vegetate time.   I don't have time to exercise because I'm lazy, lol!   I completely agree with you about the gyms. I sometimes feel the same way about walking or any other form of exercise as well though. If I have a reason besides just getting exercise for getting the exercise I find it's much easier to do.  For example, splitting wood for the winter or planting grass seed. I'm a FIRM believer in believing that whatever you desire you will achieve or whatever you believe you can have you can have. Afterall, not to get religious, the Bible even teaches this. (Matthew 21:22, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.") Even if you're not Christian this still is true. In fact, I'm pretty sure all major religions teach this. But that's enough about religion, I hate those kind of discussions. So, in a nutshell, I need to get over myself. I've already made the commitment to lose the weight and I believe that if I believe I will do it, then I will do it. So quit stressing about failure and forget about it. Move on and just live life one day at a time! It's the small steps, not the big picture.   So in statements I understand: INSERT INTO heart (SELECT* FROM above_post); INSERT INTO mind (SELECT* FROM above_post); UPDATE attitude SET positive='TRUE'; COMMIT; ALTER TABLESPACE life READ ONLY;

no chris, you are totally missing my point. the idea is moderation, not a complete change in everyting. you should not have to cut anything out of your plan - all foods have a place in a balenced and health eating plan. i'm not saying to give your taquitos, but perhaps only have one instead of two. or 3 times a week instead of 6 days a week and alternate them with a bowl of cereal, peanut butter sandwich, whatever.  if its the lifestyle change you fear, then it will be hard to find long term success, using WLS, diet + exercise or any other plan. if this is a personality issue, therapy would help you. yes, i do recognize the irony of being anti-diet mentality but included diet in the title of the program. the idea of the diet mentality is corrosive and destructive - this is the idea that there are good/bad foods, that you either good/bad because you ate good/bad food, the all or nothing attitude that causes people to say "whoops i had a bad lunch, i might as well go all out for dinner and pig out on ice cream and get back on track tomorrow" rather than saying "whoops i had a bad lunch, but i understand what happened and i will not beat myself up. i will make it my goal to have a balenced dinner" i can completely relate to your dislikes - when i started at duke, the only fruit i ate was grapes and bananas. the only vegetables i ate were peas and corn (which of course, really aren't veggies anyway). oh, and onions. my mother was always telling me i needed to "learn" to eat vegetables, whatever that means - this was especially difficult for my parents since my family owns a vegetable/packing company! post-duke, slowly over time, i started to add things, try new things. use spices and different methods of cooking. i am still VERY picky and don't eat raw veggies, beef, seafood, mangoes, tangerines, plums, nuts, pineapple, eggplant, asparagus, peppers, pears, whip cream, raisins etc etc. i'll stop there....point is, i've "learned" to eat cooked veggies by making them in a way that i don't have to taste much of their real flavor - i buy the shredded carrots and chop up brocoli heads REALLY small and throw them all in a stir-fry with asian sauces. its really easy to hide all sorts of random veggies in spaghetti sauce as well. perhaps you should look at the "stages of change model" and assess where you are  http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000301/1409.html it doesn't sound like you're completely sure making the changes or "sacrifices" as you say are worth it. perhaps you are in in contemplation or preparation rather than action. again, personal therapy could help you understand what keeps you from moving into the action stage and deal with these roadblocks. is it fear of failure? fear of unknown? fear of rejection even if you are thin? fear of new clothes? who knows? but i believe there is a reason for everything. 

Contemplation Stage During the contemplation stage, patients are ambivalent about changing. Giving up an enjoyed behavior causes them to feel a sense of loss despite the perceived gain. During this stage, patients assess barriers (e.g., time, expense, hassle, fear, "I know I need to, doc, but ...") as well as the benefits of change.

Preparation Stage During the preparation stage, patients prepare to make a specific change. They may experiment with small changes as their determination to change increases. For example, sampling low-fat foods may be an experimentation with or a move toward greater dietary modification. Switching to a different brand of cigarettes or decreasing their drinking signals that they have decided a change is needed.

another thing, since you mentioned having difficulty rationalizing paying money for a diet program (although from what i saw, i think the online program is very reasonable and cheaper than weigh****chers) - you have to think long term. like health insurance - if they would pay for diet programs and therapy for people, they wouldn't have to spend so much money on WLS and all the problems that accompany obesity. think about how much extra you spend now - larger clothes cost so much more than regular clothes. buying two airplane seats instead of one. buying fast food taquitos for the same cost as a full loaf of bread ($1), a can of peanut butter ($2) and a pound of bananas ($.59). its much cheaper to go for a 2 hour hike in the park than to go to a 2 hr movie. being healthy is cheaper is many ways. and if you are going to spend money, wouldn't you rather have it be a on well-researched and validated weight loss method (like WW or ediets) as oppposed to the gargantuam cost of diet supplements with all their empty promises and lack of FDA endorsements? think about it, this is an investment in yourself, your future, your family. isn't that worth whatever sacrifices you have to make? change cannot happen until you decide that you are no longer willing to live this life, that the costs are too great and the benefits are not enough. till you hit rock bottom and are faced with that ultimate decision. hopefully this happens before you face a major health crisis or otherwise, but only you can make the choice to change your life.

Chris,

In your second post you wrote:   I keep looking for a panacea, a simple 1 liner answer to my weight problem. I know it doesn't exist but I have hope! There IS a one word answer to our weight problems - DEATH. The pressure we are putting on our internal organs is killing us.  Period.  If I want to live to see grandchildren I HAVE to lose 100 pounds.   When I look at things I want to eat, I look at it in 'years off my life'.  I ask myself - do I want to give up seeing those grandkids graduate?, or do I want to give up seeing them learn to read and write?  Things like that. For me, using that kind of motivation is the only way I am able to stick with this 'change of lifestyle'.  I have implemented the 'healthy' lifestyle into my family's daily lives, too.  My 16 year old daughter loves it.  Her acne has completely cleared up, and she is thanking ME for helping her!   And like the lady said above make yourself accountable for every day.  Good luck!

That is one thing I need to learn to do as well.  All my life I've been extremely healthy. I rarely get sick. I'm blessed in this area but it's also a curse. I never worry about my health. I recently developed hypertension and a thyroid condition, even those don't bother me. It's almost like I need to be laid up in the hospital to not take life for granted. There is one thing though but I'm not sure if it's because I'm obese. I have VERY bad knees. They often pop out of socket and I can't do activities like knee-boarding, skiing, anything that requires being on my knees. For now, I'm going to use the motivation of wanting do very strenuous activities, putting less stress on my knees, sweat less, ride theme park attractions, and most of all stop teaching my wife how to overeat. I feel so horrible about that. As I said in another post I taught her how to overeat. She went from 114lbs to 180lbs. Luckily she decided to do something about it recently and she's down 10lbs but she is having a VERY hard time kicking the overeating without trying to starve herself. Thank you for the reminder.