You will remember that I commented on a previous post about a week ago to say that my scale had finally arrived and I weighed 15st 10lbs. Well I have weighed myself today and I weigh 15st 10lbs. Net loss = 0. I consider this a great success. :-)
I explain. I have decided to weigh myself once per week, at roughly the same time of day, and under the same circumstances (before breakfast, &c.). I started dieting on Wednesday but didn't weigh myself until Thursday, when I weighed 15st 10lbs. Knowing that Nativity weekend was coming up, I broke my once-per-week rule and weighed myself on Saturday morning, to find that I had lost a pound, and was 15st 9lbs. Saturday and Sunday happened, about which we shall not speak ;-) and on Monday morning I weighed 16 st - a gain of 5lbs! One week on from my first weighing, I weighed myself again today to find that I am back down to 15st 10lbs, which means that, while my net loss is nil (due to the weekend), I have managed to lose 5lbs over the course of the past week.
With this in mind, and the knowledge that Christmass is now past and gone, I know that this is something that I can certainly do. I'd definitely like to lose at least a stone between now and my baptism.
Thanks to all for your prayers and for your e-mails and messages of encouragement and advice. They really have helped.
About Me
- Michael
- I am an Orthodox Christian and a Reader in the Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland, serving with the blessing of His Grace Archbishop Mark. I struggle along, much like most people, but I do what I can, by God's grace. I have a love for the worship of the Orthodox Church - both eastern and western - and long for the day when we have a local Orthodox Church in Britain, giving a single voice and witness of the ancient Faith of these isles to the people of these isles, with their various backgrounds and walks of life.
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29 comments:
I weigh a little bit more than you and I am a GIRL. Boohoo!
I tell myself at least I wear it well...but my health is not as up to par as it should be. :(
JOIN ME! ON MY THREAD!
-Momma
sheesh what is with these skinnier than thou people talking about needing to loose weight? :p
I've lost 11 pounds net over the past 12 days. Only 57.5 more to go.
Joe Zollars
One thing about losing weight: my usual uniform is the sweat suit. It's inspiring. Wear a sweat suit and you will want to sweat it off.
I tried to put some do it yourself furniture together yesterday. Failed. But boy did it ever make me sweat. Especially since my spiritual father taught me how to quit cussing. Just kneel and say the Trisagion several times for every cussword and you will stop, but I sweated all over my pretty new pink fleece sweat suit, with the flowers embroidered on the front of the sweatshirt.
Get something from that !Store! that sends things from the forests of Scandinavia by way of China with the holes drilled in the panels crooked. Break a couple of those aluminium bolts by using the wrong size socket spanner. Then you will sweat the weight off. You will drag around the rickety furniture until you get it right or give up. And bang your thumb and strain muscles and be in pain, like me.
Then lug the whole piece of furniture over to a carpenter who knows what he's doing, and then maybe you will have furniture by the time you are no longer in pain, pain, pain.
Leetle M. the whinger
Sore back, sore hands, sore arms, skinny and unhappy, no bookcase either. And if I was fatter I would not have all these bruises from when the furniture fell over on me. Waaaaaaahhhhh!
Well, at least I didn't have a heart attack and drop dead underneath the furniture.
Michael, I'm losing weight too (well, trying to) having put on just over a stone and a half since moving to Scotland in September due to eating at silly times, not getting much exercise, comfort eating, yadda yadda. I shall join your club as you're much more fun than weightwatchers. My ideal weight is between 10.5-11.0 stone, I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much I need to lose (which is silly, I know!) but I shall think of you next time I'm puritanically avoiding the chocolate :D
Please visit my blog! You'll realise you know me when you get there.
BTW, I have the opposite problem: I am trying to gain weight. I lost a stone between summer and December and am now down to 10st9-ish, which isn't much for someone 6'2" tall. So I'm eating (and drinking!) everything in sight!
What's a "stone?" We didn't take that measuremental form when we stole your measuring system.
I agree w/Joe.
Here's a fast weight-loss plan. Just stick to a diet of black coffee and cigarettes. It's what the French do. Add in the wine, of course. You can exercise by making jokes about how uncivilized the rest of the world is. Laughing in the French manner (can't put it into words) burns off twice as many calories as the Anglophone chuckle.
Thank you for asking, Michael, the furniture did indeed fall on me--just my right arm and right leg, so I was only half crippled...now I am much better, having spent most of yesterday in a horizontal position--a biggie aspirin eased the pain and now I can cover up the black and blue marks with tights and long sleeves, so no great harm was done.
One thing to remember when losing weight, too, is that no matter how much weight =I= lose, I still have my Guinness tummy. I have a sweater with Guinness knitted into the front of it in big red letters...it should have an arrow pointing south to indicate where the Guinness went.
Burp.
I also figured out my weight in stone. Seven and a half stone (doesn't weigh a helluva lot), but I still sink like a stone when I try to swim. I can't swim worth a flip. Swimming, if you have a local pool, is an ideal way to tone the muscles.... I'd try taking lessons but I give the life guards nightmares.... if somebody isn't right there with me, blub blub blub and I sink right to the bottom. I don't know why that is...you'd think since I'm full of hot air most of the time I'd float!
Best wishes to all with your weight loss and weight gain projects. Do filter your coffee, though--unfiltered (percolator or French Press) still has, according to some nutritionists who were holding forth on my tv yesterday, oils that increase your cholesterol. The only reason I'm so thin is that my cholesterol was too high and the dr. took away everything that tasted halfway good. Whinge.
Leetle M.
Sorry for double post, but this sane diet plan just jumped out onto my screen when I was signing off--it makes good sense.
http://tinyurl.com/8gzho
Leetle M.
Hey - thanks for the compliment - I'm sure the figure is still in here somewhere, it's just somewhat buried! (like yours!)
I'll avoid the cabbage soup diet though - I did it a few times several years ago and whilst it worked from the weight point of view (I lost on average about half a stone each time I did it) I think I might have overdone things because even all these years later the thought of the taste of that horrible soup makes me want to heave! If you're into making soup, you could do worse than getting some of Carol Vorderman's detox recipes (I'm a big fan) - they're delicious, outrageously healthy, and really easy to cook.
I've been on Eric's diet for years (The coffee being replaced with more liqour).
Hmm lets see if I can put some of these skinnier than thou people in their place. My weight translated for foreigners is: 17st13lbs (as of this morning). My weight should be exactly 4 stone less (and will be by the start of Great Lent).
Joe Zollars
My family just ordered a Bowflex yesterday on sale at QVC, the home shopping channel. If we can only fit it in the basement, I'll be starting on it in about a month.
Well, I weigh enough stone to build a lovely little Anglo-Saxon (ancient) church. You ever been to one of them, Michael. I've heard there are still some Ancient Orthodox churches left in England.
Down two more lbs.
Regarding LM's post, sorry to hear of your troubles. I buy all my furniture at the local antique store. Granted its expensive etc, but my grandparents owned such a store so I am used to older pieces.
Also, am I the only one who goes walking in jeans it takes me a whole week's worth of wages to buy?
Joe Zollars
Thanks to Joe, Ian and everyone for your good wishes (and musta been prayers, too!) because I am much better after many hours of rest. Now all I have to do is catch up on my housework!
As for antique furniture, being an antique myself, I have some of that too, inherited and wedged into my tiny house wherever it will fit. I am particularly happy with one "find" I came upon several years ago in a second-hand store: a Louis XV kneeling bench designed for two people (rather small people, however; it would break if the two people were taller than my height, 5' 4", I'm quite sure). I had it reupholstered in a lovely blue brocade with a fleur-de-lis motif, and with the addition of a night-stand to hold the prayer books, it makes an ideal prie-dieu.
Gah! This was a diet thread, wunnit?
Sorry!
Leetle M.
Please be careful--don't get too skinny! One can avoid broken bones when sliding on the ice by having a bit of padding where it's needed! So if you get to be a bag of bones, watch your step!
Leetle M. - I am sorry to hear what happened! I am thinking of you since I am part Danish and notice everything Scandinivian around here. There is a Danish-Chinese furniture store with trucks going around in Chinese written under Danish names. It is quite interesting. I will forever think of you now whenever I see those trucks in Campbell, Califorina!
Jack the Lass - I covet your figure. I have seen the pictures, girly. Give yourself some credit. You look wonderful.
Ian & Michael - thank you so much for your support. I do tend to be hard on myself and think I am ugly, even when people tell me I am not. I live in the land of skinny waists and fake body parts. I find it a relief whenever I go outside of here and people are not as focused. My feet and my body need me to lose weight. I shall keep endevoring. but I do know I am loved for whom I am, not what I weigh. That is the thing I have to remember.
God bless everyone in here.
And God bless you, dear Duchess! I suspect that Scandinavian furniture makes a person feel slimmer--it's got slim legs anyhow. And when it falls, it falls less heavily than Louis XV! Was it Louis XIV, XV or XVI who wore a corset and fancy satin brocade suits with knee breeches and white stockings and shoes with high red heels???? All three Louis certainly seemed to be fashion-conscious, didn't they....
I get quite fashed when my friends go around thinking they are not beautiful. Let me say, here and now, that every single one of my friends is beautiful! We can lose weight, gain weight, work out at the gym, try to be D-I-Y devotees, or whatever, but the core of it all is God's love for us and our love for each other.
In the meantime,
Cabbage is good, but cabbage needs ham
And because of ham, I'm the way I am.
The doctor took my ham away
He took my sausage, he claimed I'd pay
With my very life for eating food
That tasted even halfway good.
So I abode by his advice
Ate nothing that even tasted nice
And now I'm just a skinny hag
A hank of hair, a bone, a rag;
With wrinkles underneath my chin
And more time to repent of sin.
I pray to her who's full of grace
"Please put a smile on my sad face!"
Leetle M.
:-)
You may be right about the gin, Ian. Although I'm told that I should really convert to vodka now. :-) I may try that thing that was suggested to me, where people stick the bottle in the freezer for an hour or so and the vodka turns into a sort of syrup. It's supposedly quite nice.
Go with the bike idea. A bit of additional exercise doesn't hurt. We have a branch of Tesco (supermarket chain) about a 10-minute walk from here, but lately I've taken to walking to Sainsbury's (another similar chain), which is 3 miles away. It has really helped.
Joe, well done! You're doing really well. Go on, then. What's your secret? I suppose if you have nice jeans, you just have to go walking in them. :-)
Duchess, those are the wisest words I've heard for some time. (Well, perhaps second only to 'If everything seems to be coming your way, you're in the wrong lane'). You are loved for the person you are. I can relate a little to how you feel. I occasionally visit Manchester's gay quarter with friends and I'm often surrounded by men who spend their days in the gym. It's all too easy to start comparing yourself to that socially-idealised way of looking, and then to feel bad. What helps me is when I see those who overdo it, and have 6-inch waists and legs that look like stalks of celery, and think that this is attractive. There is a culture which supports this, and Leetle M gives good advice in telling us not to get too skinny. Baby steps.
Leetle M, I've re-read something I said earlier and feel rather bad now. I wasn't laughing at your misfoprtune and I'm glad you're feeling better. I was laughing at the wonderful way in which you expressed yourself. Your use of language really is wonderful. I think it's the poet in you. Speaking of which, thank you so, so very much for that poem. My housemate loved it. I must admit that, sitting here, eating graoefruit while he's having sausage, bacon and eggs, really makes it tough, but we'll get there.
Eric John, I'm not ignoring your question about churches, but I shan't answer here. You've given me an idea for a new blog post. :-)
I'm not going to add any new posts about weight, as I tyhink that we're doing really well in commenting on this one, so I'll put a link to this post in the sidebar of my blog, so when it gets pushed back off the front page, we can continue.
Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for the link, Michael, and I do want to assure you that I was never the least bit upset with anything you said! You have a gift for language that =I= envy, and I must tell you, I get so much out of reading your blog that I check it each day so I can learn more!
You are gonna be a great asset to the Orthodox Church! On this beautiful Feast, may you know we pray God grant you Many Years!
Love,
Mary
All furniture fixed and in its proper place!
Leetle M, what a lovely thing to say. Thank you so much for that. It's good to know that my witterings are useful. :-)
Sadly, if I am to be asset to the Orthodox Church, I'm afraid that there's about 8lbs less of me for you to take than there was this time last week. I'm now 15st 2lbs, which I work out to be 212lbs. Yay!
Having learnt yesterday that I'll be baptised in nothing but a pair of swimming shorts, I'm very pleased with this development. I don't want to go traumatising those who come to support me.
Mmmmmm!
I've just had three hard-boiled eggs, and do you know what?
I really don't care. I mean, not at all - not the slightest amount of guilt.
They were lovely!
Good for you michael! I've lost 5 lbs myself over the past two days. Granted it was waterweight, but I can say that it has something to do with teh 5 miles of jogging a day (now if only I could jog 5 miles a day then I would be skinny).
This means I'm down 16.5 lbs from the start of the year.
Joe Zollars
Leetla, great visual picture! :D
Michael, here in Silicon Valley, the straight men just as much as the gay men have the equal pressure on them to have tiny waists, legs of steel, etc. It is truly sad that the ideal thing has crossed over from women -> gay men --> straight men. Ethnic people usually are not as infected with this ideal but sadly they took succomb after a bit of time.
I personally like a little bit of love handles on a man. Just a wee tiny stomach peaking over as he ties his shoe laces, something about that drives me wild.
I know, I am weird.
Well, the tv nutrition experts claim that back in the days when we were all cave-persons, we used to eat a lot when food was plentiful so as to have a bit of fat to sustain us through the winters when food was scarce. That (they say) let to a "fat gene" especially in people who came from families that had endured various forms of privation, such as wars, famines, etc. So some of it is heredity, and some of it is more or less cultural.
I was a "depression baby", and I can remember hearing people comment on how healthy and =fat= a baby I was! Actually I was quite scrawny even then, but I had a round, rosy face. But it's true, fatness used to be considered a sign of health. It meant that you were rich enough not to be starving!
Leetle M.
Did you know that in times of famine, Russian peasants used to put sawdust into their bread, just so it would make them feel as if they were "full"....it played havoc with their lower digestive tracts.
8lbs - well done Michael, I'm very impressed! I'd better get losing a bit more before you overtake me!
duchess - thanks for your kind words, you're so sweet. I think I manage to hide the weight quite well, so people are surprised when I tell them what I weigh, but for health reasons I really need to shift a couple of stone. My blood pressure is too high (but not so high I need meds, thankfully), as is my resting heart rate, and the only way I've got them down to a good level is when I was below 11 stone. Even at that weight I'd still have curves - I'd look awful without them - but feel so much better about myself when I'm not carrying around the excess.
And I totally agree with you about men's love handles! Phwoar.
AMEN Sistah! roooarr!
BABY!
Having read that one really ought not to do the cabbage soup diet for more than a week at a time, and having been on it for a fortnight, I decided to give myself a grace period. So I've been eating as normal for the past week or so, and put two pounds on in the process. I'm back up to 15st 4lbs but not really that bothered. The diet resumes today.
One of the better results I saw from my fasting experience was that I have more self control over my eating habits. I have always been a binge type of eater. After my fast, I felt like I could restrain myself easier. It is proberbly a mental attribute. I mean I can go without eating for 7 days then I sure can keep myself from eating something I shouldn't.
Link to this site. vitamin b12 weight loss
Fasting today and thinking of this section of your blog Michael.
I also want to highlight the recent post I put on SoF in the Trimming Fat thread. "I can’t
tell you how many “skinny” models or actresses I’ve worked
with that when we do a body fat test they are in the 38%
range classifying them as get this…obese. While I have
larger clients that are active and fit that are in the 28%
range, normal. Yet if you judged by outward appearances
you would be completely wrong." - from dinonowak.com/newsletters/newsletter/2465650/20437.htm
Joel, good to see you here! :-)
(Fancy replying to m e-mail :-p ) Long time no speak and all. x
Thanks, as well, duchess.
I'm encouraged by both of your fasts. I'm still settling into the Orthodox fasting structure, and finding it remarkably useful. I've got Wednesdays and Fridays sorted now. Can manage those without much difficulty. The care has to come when agreeing to visit friends or to have people round, to make sure it isn't a fast day. I can hardly invite guests round and then not feed them properly! :-D
From what you said, Joel, it seems your fast was complete abstinence from food. Was that the case/ If so, hats off to you. In Orthodoxy, only monastics are required to do that and then only on certain days.
For the rest of us, fasting means abstaining from all eggs, dairy, meat, poultry, seafood*, wine and olive oil. We should fast every Wednesday and Friday, (except in the weeks after Holy Nativity and Pascha), for 40 days before Nativity, for 50 days during Lent and for a shorter period before certain other feasts. Some days are relaxed fasts, when wine and oil, and sometimes fish, are permitted, but never are we expected to abstain from all food. I wish I could do that! I might shift some of this weight. ;-D
I agree, though, that it does put things into perspective with regard to what we really need and what we have grown so acustomed to indulging ourselves with that we think we need it.
*By an ancient and time-honoured custom, only fish on the bone is included in the fast. Crustaceans are allowed, although I never get to take advantage of this as I don't eat shellfish :-(
Oh! I'm down to 14st 10lbs now!
I want chips! Fish and chips.
That's all.
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