Truth Time
Well, I know there are people out there who believe that a blog is akin to their personal diary; a place where they can get their thoughts onto electronic paper. I've always held the belief that this is NOT true. While this is a place where I can put my thoughts out there, it's definitely not a diary. A diary is a private book, where it is unlikely that anybody else will ever read it. A blog is definitely not that. It is open and exposed to anybody who happens to come across it even-though there are many people that you know who read it. If you're looking for a place to put your private thoughts without any scrutiny, a blog is NOT the place to do it.
I've always stuck to this philosophy, but I'm going to venture out a little bit here. For the most part, I do not write about anything I don't care if other people see. But, I'm going to venture out a little bit here with something very personal.
I have been married for about 7 months now, and I have fallen prey to the first year curse. I have gained weight. Well, let me be more clear. I started gaining weight while planning for the wedding; due to the stress. I thought that after the wedding, things would get back to normal, and I'd take the weight off. Nope. I just kept gaining. I didn't succomb to the "Freshman 15" of college, but I've fallen into the "Freshman 15" of marriage. I've put on about 15-20 lbs. Now, I know it's not like I've gained 100 lbs, but I am a small petite person; not much more than 5 feet tall. When some-one that small puts on even 5 lbs, it's noticeable. There's really no place for it to go. So, 15 lbs is a lot for me. It would probably be akin to some-one of average height gaining 30-40 lbs. A person of my height and bone structure should weigh any-where between 100-120 lbs. With me, my healthy "get real" weight is between 110-115. Anything over that is bad. So, when my last weigh in was a little over 120 lbs, I knew I was in a lot of trouble. Needless to say, it's a lot for me.
Let me also give you some background information. I've been a skinny person for most of my life. The last time I was over-weight was when I was between the ages of 10-12 and a half. At the end of 6th grade, I developed stomach problems. This was right around the time that IBS was first discovered and diagnosed. Since the doctors didn't really know what wrong with me, they gave me this booklet of foods that people can be sensitive to and told that I could not eat anything that was in the book in order to verify what was wrong. A trial and error of sorts. Well, I had to stay on this "diet" for a while. Because of it, I lost over 30 lbs in under 3 months. It happened so quickly that I didn't even notice the weight loss until one morning I tried to put on my uniform skirt. After I had zipped and buttoned it up, I started walking, and the skirt just slipped down. It had become that big on me. Only a few weeks before that, it had been tight on me. I told my parents that I thought I needed new clothes, and, sure enough, everything that was hanging in my closet had become much too big on me. Because of my stomach problem, there was a lot of fattening foods I couldn't eat, and I had devolped severe lactose intolerance, so severe that eating only a little bit of milk could send me to the hospital. So, the weight just stayed off. I never really had any issues. I could eat more carbs than most people could without gaining weight because there were so many other things I couldn't eat.
Fast forward to last year. The symptoms of my IBS and lactose intolerance really decreased, and I found that there were a lot of foods that I could handle that I used to not be able to eat. I guess I went a lot over-board with these new found foods, foods that I had lost all hope of ever eating again. That's when the weight started coming back on. And, now I've found that I can't fit into 3/4 of my clothes.
So, what's a girl to do? Well, exercise and eat moderately and healthy of course. I'm looking to get healthy, not skinny. I have worked in the fitness industry since I was 15, so I know my stuff. My biggest problem has been the realization that I can't as much of the stuff that used to sustain me and not wonder whether I'd gain weight. It used to be that I could eat pasta and bread every day, two or three times a day with no problem. Why? Because it was my only energy source. I lived on carbs because I couldn't really eat much else. That's not the case anymore, and it's been very hard getting used to. It's hard to subsidize your diet with other things when you've lived off one thing for more than 10 years. But, if I want to get back in shape, that's what I have to do.
Why am I admitting all of this now? Well, I have some selfish reasons. The biggest one being to reach out and see if there's anybody else out there struggling with the same problem. Are you guys out there? Will you be honest enough to step forward? I also wanted to see if there was anybody out there who would be willing to join me in the fight to get healthy. I believe if I have help, this can be achieved faster and better for all involved. Is there anybody who wants to join me?
So, there you have it. A personal story. It doesn't get much better than that. Thanks for listening.
I've always stuck to this philosophy, but I'm going to venture out a little bit here. For the most part, I do not write about anything I don't care if other people see. But, I'm going to venture out a little bit here with something very personal.
I have been married for about 7 months now, and I have fallen prey to the first year curse. I have gained weight. Well, let me be more clear. I started gaining weight while planning for the wedding; due to the stress. I thought that after the wedding, things would get back to normal, and I'd take the weight off. Nope. I just kept gaining. I didn't succomb to the "Freshman 15" of college, but I've fallen into the "Freshman 15" of marriage. I've put on about 15-20 lbs. Now, I know it's not like I've gained 100 lbs, but I am a small petite person; not much more than 5 feet tall. When some-one that small puts on even 5 lbs, it's noticeable. There's really no place for it to go. So, 15 lbs is a lot for me. It would probably be akin to some-one of average height gaining 30-40 lbs. A person of my height and bone structure should weigh any-where between 100-120 lbs. With me, my healthy "get real" weight is between 110-115. Anything over that is bad. So, when my last weigh in was a little over 120 lbs, I knew I was in a lot of trouble. Needless to say, it's a lot for me.
Let me also give you some background information. I've been a skinny person for most of my life. The last time I was over-weight was when I was between the ages of 10-12 and a half. At the end of 6th grade, I developed stomach problems. This was right around the time that IBS was first discovered and diagnosed. Since the doctors didn't really know what wrong with me, they gave me this booklet of foods that people can be sensitive to and told that I could not eat anything that was in the book in order to verify what was wrong. A trial and error of sorts. Well, I had to stay on this "diet" for a while. Because of it, I lost over 30 lbs in under 3 months. It happened so quickly that I didn't even notice the weight loss until one morning I tried to put on my uniform skirt. After I had zipped and buttoned it up, I started walking, and the skirt just slipped down. It had become that big on me. Only a few weeks before that, it had been tight on me. I told my parents that I thought I needed new clothes, and, sure enough, everything that was hanging in my closet had become much too big on me. Because of my stomach problem, there was a lot of fattening foods I couldn't eat, and I had devolped severe lactose intolerance, so severe that eating only a little bit of milk could send me to the hospital. So, the weight just stayed off. I never really had any issues. I could eat more carbs than most people could without gaining weight because there were so many other things I couldn't eat.
Fast forward to last year. The symptoms of my IBS and lactose intolerance really decreased, and I found that there were a lot of foods that I could handle that I used to not be able to eat. I guess I went a lot over-board with these new found foods, foods that I had lost all hope of ever eating again. That's when the weight started coming back on. And, now I've found that I can't fit into 3/4 of my clothes.
So, what's a girl to do? Well, exercise and eat moderately and healthy of course. I'm looking to get healthy, not skinny. I have worked in the fitness industry since I was 15, so I know my stuff. My biggest problem has been the realization that I can't as much of the stuff that used to sustain me and not wonder whether I'd gain weight. It used to be that I could eat pasta and bread every day, two or three times a day with no problem. Why? Because it was my only energy source. I lived on carbs because I couldn't really eat much else. That's not the case anymore, and it's been very hard getting used to. It's hard to subsidize your diet with other things when you've lived off one thing for more than 10 years. But, if I want to get back in shape, that's what I have to do.
Why am I admitting all of this now? Well, I have some selfish reasons. The biggest one being to reach out and see if there's anybody else out there struggling with the same problem. Are you guys out there? Will you be honest enough to step forward? I also wanted to see if there was anybody out there who would be willing to join me in the fight to get healthy. I believe if I have help, this can be achieved faster and better for all involved. Is there anybody who wants to join me?
So, there you have it. A personal story. It doesn't get much better than that. Thanks for listening.
posted by Olah Chadasha @ 2/22/2006 02:50:00 PM
Read Me By E-Mail
9 Comments:
What do you mean?
Wish you hatzlacha in your goal
Thank you, Ivn. I really appreciate it. I did a really good workout today, but I let myself down by eating some french fries. I've gotta work on that.
-OC
I think IJA didn't see the 'continue' button. (I'll admit, it's a bit of a confusing way to have it.) Did I owe you an e-mail?
Oh, I put on like 40 or so in my first year of marriage. But I'm not sure I count. :)
OC: I was super skinny for ages. Had great metabolism. Could eat an entire pizza pie for lunch and be hungry at supper.
It caught up to me one summer when working in Chutz Laaretz (going back and forth from Israel to the US)...and I was always paranoid that I woudln't have enough to eat since I was in an area with almost no kosher food. I ate so much i gained 25 lbs. Which never left me.
For my son's bar mitzva, I decided to lose the weight...and although probably not the healthiest of things to do, I stopped eating lunch. I started drinking lots of water, stopped all junk food, stopped all coke and drinks but water. The first 2 months were awful, but I've lost 20 lbs and feel great. Now I'm slowly starting to eat again...dieting and excersize are the key.
And lots of willpower.
For starters I'd like to highly disencourage you from not eating lunch. They actually have it right in Israel from a health stand-point having that meal as the large one. It allows you to spend the rest of the day working it off instead of having a big dinner and going to sleep.
While I'm not having quite the weight gain problem, i was working out every night before getting engaged and then just quit. It's two years later and with my sedentary life of sitting infront of a computer all day I've been feeling sluggish and tired almost non-stop (let's not even talk about getting winded on stairs, though i rarely take elevators). My husband has a friend who dropped around 100 lbs in a year simply by not snacking or taking seconds. That's much healthier than not eating. I'm happy to join your crusade towards healthyness and in fact just joined a gym. Here's what i've been trying to do 1) not snack on nosh but rather things like carrot sticks, celery, snow peas, apples etc. 2) not take seconds, this is extremely hard for me since i love food :-) 3) french fries, truth is i talk about quiting more than i actually do but it's amazing how bad for you they are 4) no soda & 5) some sort of exercise a day, via the gym, running up the apt. stairs etc.
It's really the little daily habit changes that make the difference and the weight will actually stay off rather than just crash dieting. No elevators, no oily snacks & waiting b/4 seconds to let your food settle, it turns out the food really isn't going to disappear if i don't shovel it in. We've always been a great team, i bet nothing will stop us now :-)
Ez, yeah, you do owe me an e-mail.
OC: I whole-heartedly wish you success with your attempts to loose weight and deal with your digestive problems/sickness. I'm not personally aware of any solutions since I've never had this problem(others I've had:)
May you feel/weigh better in the nearest future, Eitan.
Eitan, I've been working hard on my medical problems, but I've had them since I was 12, so I have my tricks. Nothing serious, don't worry. Thanks for all your kind words. They're whole-heartedly appreciated.
-OC
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