Thank you to Wee Mama for the name of our support group and thank you to Lineatus for the idea of a support group.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Welcome to the first WHEE official diary, on Saturday morning, July 18. Please meander over the jump for more.
Here's to the start of what I hope is a long term series, covering weight loss, gain and/or maintenance plus exercise and fitness improvement. I've shared my story several times, but I'll cover it once again for our official WHEE kick off.
I've always been overweight. I've tried a large variety of diet programs - Weight Watchers several times, Jenny Craig, vegetarian (hoping that would do it, but it doesn't if all you eat is cheese and eggs), Atkins, and others.
When I was 25 and morbidly obese, I was on Optifast - the same program that Oprah did. She and I each lost a lot of weight, and gained it back fairly quickly, since the (doctor administered) Very Low Calorie diet (where we 'ate' 5 protein shakes a day) lowered metabolism and did little to teach how to eat once off the program. It took some time to gain it back, but (with effort) I did.
In October 2006, I started Medifast. Similar to Optifast, there are (to me) some important differences. First, I had swore I'd never go on an all liquid diet again. For their five meals a day, Medifast does offer shakes, but they also offer hot drinks, cold drinks, oatmeal, soups, puddings, and bars. In addition, along with those 5 meals a day, Medifasters (or "MFers") have a "Lean and Green" meal, made up of vegetables, protein & fat. Typically, I have a 'big salad' with lettuce, maybe spinach, a little (or a lot!) of cottage cheese and chicken and/or a boca burger.
Between that October and January of this year, I lost some 220 lbs. However, in January I hit a very rough/hormonal patch (PMS after several months of no period) with out of control eating and a lot of depression. Gained some back, spent some time in the hospital, met a guy in the Psych Ward (he became my first boyfriend, I call him 'Garrick' here, restarted and stopped my diet a couple of times.
I started again on Tuesday, and things are going ok. I purchased a fun fitness device on Friday (will diary about it for Fitness Monday... WHEE combined diary.)
A few things are triggering hunger right now. One is that I'm wide awake at 1:fricking:30 in the morning. I don't know why. Another is the fitness device I bought. I want to play with it. Another is that Friday was Garrick's and my 4-month anniversary. He spent it at work - I left before 6 am, and he didn't get home from a dinner meeting until after midnight. In addition, I got gifts (and cards) for each month's 'celebration'... last month, I gave him 6 leather leads (he kept misplacing leads. We now have a surplus.) This month, I gave him some 'favorite things' like macadamia nuts, sugar wafers, Kaliber N.A. beer, and circus peanuts (which is most unfortunately, one of MY favorite things), plus 5 sessions with his personal trainer.
Like last month, he told me he's a heel. And that he's sorry. And that he loves me. I don't need anything - and the thing I wanted, I went out and got. Well, he knows I really want a puppy... but that's not going to happen anytime soon. And while I feel sad that he didn't call over the day to wish me a happy day, or get a card or something, it is what it is and can't be changed. But that he feels bad for it makes me feel kind of sad, squared. And all that makes me feel hungry.
But, too bad, so sad. I have 98 days until I see Arlo Guthrie. That's 12 weeks. I can be very close to my goal on Arlomas, with determination, focus, and the help of you wonderful people.
The current members of WHEE are:
1864 House
3rdGenFeminist
anotherCT dem
anotherdem
askew
batgirl71
bfitzinAR
bluesophie
Brimi
CA coastsider
chicago minx
Chocolate Chris
coigue
CONEFLOWER42
crystal eyes (?)
cusoon
debbieleft
Dragonladykatie
Ebby
econlibVL - cheerleader
Ed G
Edward Spurlock
Embee
Fabian
fiddler crabby
flor de jasmine
freesia
gchaucer2
GoldnI
Greasy Grant
jiffykeen
Ken in Tex
kkbDIA
lineatus
Lisamoe - cheerleader
louisev
luvsathoroughbred
matching mole
Munchkn
Oke
Pandoras Box
Proylance (?)
RLMiller
roses
RunawayRose
SallyCat - cheerleader
Shayle
sheddhead
StrangeAnimals - cheerleader
supenau
Tenn Wisc Dem
trs - cheerleader
volleyboy1
webranding
Wee Mama
xysea
Planned diaries:
Sat PM - bluesophie
Sun AM - louisev
Sun PM - Stage Stop (weekly, unless otherwise noted)
Mon AM - Sheddhead (since this will be a joint diary with fitness Monday, if someone wants to take Sunday PM, please let me know)
Mon PM - cusoon
Tues AM - help
Tues PM - help
Wed AM - Edward Spurlock
Wed PM - Sheddhead
Thu AM - StrangeAnimals (I owe you an email!)
Thu PM - help