quartertonbubba

I am enjoying the holidays with my family this year. I have been a truck driver and for many of the past holidays I have been away except for a short time on Christmas. I am reading and studying and once the holidays are over I will be back blogging.

I am finding that being aware of my moods and habits is helping my diet. If I am upset then I have to be cautious that I do not grab a gallon of Ice Cream to make me feel better. When something causes you to do something else it is a trigger. If you are aware of it then you can plan ahead on how to avoid bad results. If getting upset triggers you eating too much overindulgent food(cake,cookies,candy,ice cream) then if you are aware of it you can replace it with a better outcome. If you get upset then go for a walk, take a bubble bath, put on your favorite song and boogey to it. Just be aware and prepare.

Since I have been home it has been easier to eat healthy. I am eating less processed and/or canned foods and more vegetables. When I was driving a truck over the road I ate fast-food 2-3 times a day. This was due to lack of cooking facilities on truck(no stove or refrigerator) and difficulty of maneuvering the tractor trailer into places. Many places you can go in a small vehicle on trips to find healthier food choices are unavailable to tractor trailer drivers. In addition more and more of the truck-stops have fast-food restaurants instead of the sit down menu style. You can sometimes get a somewhat healthy meal at fast-food places, but it is much harder.  Also you must really be careful with fast-food in that some of your choices are not as healthy as you think. One fast-food chain has a salad that has more fat and calories than their "Big Mac". If you are aware of the fast-food pitfalls to avoid that is good but it is better to totally avoid fast-food if possible. Many sit

I hate the word diet. I have tried many of them through the years. Most of them have one thing in common and that is starvation. Lots of diets allow you to eat barely enough food to keep a sparrow alive. You starve yourself for anywhere from 1-8 weeks then you go back to "NORMAL" eating. Well if you lose weight there is a good chance that once you return to your normal eating habits that caused you to gain weight in first place it is likely the weight is coming back. Sadly it is also likely that you will gain back more than you lost. This is due to the human famine starvation survival built into our genes. If there is a lack of food our metabolism will slow down to insure we survive and once we start eating our body stores all the calories as fat to prepare for future famine. Our ancestors were hunter-gathers and slowly advanced to herder and farmers. Our diet although omnivorous has always consisted of lots of roots, nuts, and grains. Meat was not to be counted on and consid

Once a person gets to be as obese as I am exercise gets to be not only hard, but can be dangerous as well. It only takes around 400 pounds to break bones in certain circumstances. At 540 pounds the impact when I walk is almost doubled to around 850 pounds of impact weight. It would  therefore be easy to break a bone if not careful. It is very important to get checked by your doctor before you start a exercise program. I had gotten to the point where walking just a short distance would have me out of breath. I have now worked myself up to being able to walk for 30 minutes without stopping to rest. The old saying of  "no pain no gain" is total baloney if you are obese. You must be careful , but that does not mean just sit on the couch. I find that the more I exercise the easier and "GASP" more enjoyable it is. I am walking and now am going to try various other exercises in addition. I am doing my "program" without joining a gym at the moment. I will explore

I have started watching Dr. Oz and several other television shows that are health related. The thing I like is how Dr. Oz gives good information in a manner that most people can understand. The topics may be scary(heart disease, cancer) obesity related issues, but he also offers suggestions to help you overcome the issues. Some of the information I have found after investigation is: 1. In 1997 Americans were 53 percent overweight and 19 percent obese(body mass index over 25) 2. Today Americans are 69 percent overweight and 33 percent obese. 3. Increasingly doctors are linking cancer to obesity. It is now believed that obesity may contribute to instances of cancer as much as smoking. 4. Obesity causes 111,900 deaths in America each year second only to smoking at 435,000 a year. 5. More people die annually from obesity than from traffic accidents(43,000) firearms(29,000) and drugs(17,000) combined. It should convince anyone that obesity is very dangerous.

As much as it pains me  to admit; these are pictures of me at the beginning of my weight  loss journey. The object I am holding is a ruler to give some prospective. I posted these pictures to show everybody I am not a fake. I am not some skinny person trying to hoodwink people. I am not proud of how obese I let myself get. I am not making excuses, but I am attempting to understand it. I will post pictures every month to show my progress or lack of it. I did not just wake up fat. I was athletic in high school then spent 4 years in the army. I weighed 230 pounds In 1993 when I started driving a truck. That was overweight, but I was still pretty active and just had a beer-belly. I started gaining weight slowly at first but over the last 10 years have really ballooned. The more I gained the harder it was to lose, so I quit trying. I have been on many fad diets over the years and would lose 10-30 pounds but just as quickly gained it back with extra pounds as a reward. I was let go by a c

In my research I am finding lots of material about the mental health aspect of obesity. I never gave it much thought but it is true that people generally are creatures of habit. It is hard wired in us from cave man days. Cave men would repeat behavior that rewarded them with food, water, shelter, and other pleasurable outcomes. The reverse side of the coin was avoidance of negative consequences. If there were bad results then it became taboo and avoided. Now cave man could not walk to the corner grocery store so their metabolism was hardwired for feast or famine; in times of irregular food availability the body would store what little was consumed as fat to aid in survival. So now us modern humans have survival hardwired into us in the form of habits and our metabolic rate. The sub conscience does not realize that a habit is good or bad it just avoids what it perceives as bad results. Truthfully to most people working out in a gym or other strenuous activity is unpleasant; you become

I talked to my doctor a few weeks ago and surprise he recommends that I drink no sodas because they are loaded with sugars (empty calories) sodium, and have no nutritional value. I have started drinking water (doctor happy) herbal tea with no sugar and cutting out all sodas. I also drink a very limited amount of fruit juice and milk. I have been doing this for 10 days and I feel much better. The average can of soda ranges in calories from 100-175 per 12 oz can or the equivalent of 10 sugar cubes per can. It is estimated that the average American drinks at least 10 cans weekly or about 1500 calories. ONE POUND of fat is 3500 calories so you are drinking 1-2 pounds of fat from sugar calories in a month if you are the average American. Unfortunately I was not the average American and drank about 2 liters of soda a day; that is about 66 ounces of soda or 5 1/2 cans a day or about 750 calories daily. THAT IS A WHOPPING 22,000 calories a month or over 6 pounds of fat. I think that from now o

Do you need to lose weight? Do you feel desperate and confused on how to do so? Do you feel alone and that no one understands you? Do you wish you had someone to talk to that is in the same situation? Well I have hit rock bottom. I weight over 780 lbs. and my obesity has cost me 2 jobs. Due to being fat it has been hard to find a job so I am currently unemployed. I was ready to give up because I did not see much of a future. Then one night I started watching "Biggest Loser" on television and it helped me to realize that I can sit here and get fatter til I die; or I can do something about it. I know it will be tough because I will not be on the "Biggest Loser" at the ranch. I do not have a lot of money so I am having to do this on a budget and smart. Hopefully together we will  explore different topics relating to being obese, living healthier, and losing weight. I am asking for everyone's help and want to help others. On This blog I will begin my journey to weig