Has anyone gone from very unhealthy life style to a healthier one?

[GLC1968]

Joyful - keep at it! From your original post, it looks like you've been at this for about a month, right? If so, my guess is that you are almost through the woods in terms of the diet issues. I can't speak to the smoking thing because I never picked it up (growing up with a smoke-stack for a mom, kept me off it), but I had some AWFUL unhealthy diet and sleep habits. Almost 3 years ago I was at my highest weight (just shy of 170 on a 5'4" body) and I was WAY out of shape. I'd used to be an athlete too...so it was terrible knowing what to do to be healthy but then not doing it. I was addicted to sugar and caffene...I was sleeping like crap...I was stressed beyond normalcy...

Then one day, I got up, did an early morning workout (I picked an 'easy' one and it just about killed me!) and immediately felt emotionally better (even though I was sure I'd puke any second). The first month was awful...I got bigger, I weighed more, I was sore all the damn time, I was sleeping even worse and I was literally dragging my *** through my days. And then the clouds parted and birds began singing...well, sort of! There was definitely a clear point when I woke up one day and felt 'healthy'. I don't know what threshold I'd crossed, but it was definitely there. My guess is that you are also almost there.

Keep it up...it only gets better from here on out! I still struggle almost daily with the sugar addiction and I haven't completely given up caffene, but I am 200% improved. There isn't an athletic activity out there that I would shy away from right now...even though I'm still 25 lbs away from my goal. You have made a lot of tough choices, but you are doing it and you WILL get there. Patience is truly a virtue!

[latelatebloomer]

Joyful, first of all, thanks for those kind admiring words to us big women who are making changes. That did my heart good today. I think I speak for all of us big'uns when I say that some of the lessons we learned that made our changes possible were:

1) Try not to let yourself get frustrated. That's probably the thing my trainer says to me most often, right after "Drink some water for me." Changes take time to become apparent. Trust that you are doing the right thing and don't keep rushing to check for results. Not easy, I know.

2)Don't berate yourself for not doing better. Everything you are doing is fantastic. Setbacks? They happen to everyone. Shake it off and keep moving forward.

3) Sweet talk your body, don't treat her like the enemy. Sounds like she's been a battleground - how smart you are at 27 to decide to turn her into your haven. I waited until I was 44!

By the way, I ate and drank (and i mean bottles of wine and pitchers of cocktails-drank) my way to almost 300 lbs. I joke that cycling really cuts into my drinking. Cut into my eating, too. Now a half-full bottle of wine can sit in the fridge for days, and I think about pedaling uphill when junkfood is around. Suddenly chips & dip look like the devil himself!(Now I realize I should cut down on coffee. Man, it's the only organized religion I have left!)

There's a great tenet of Buddhism, "In having compassion for myself, I reconcile all beings." Have compassion for yourself. I think the process of change (healing) is tiring in and of itself. Let yourself rest and relax. Another think my trainer (my friends call him my Obi-wan) says is "rest is as important as work." And he's won something like 12 races so far this season, so it must be true!

hugs from LLB

[JoyfulGirl]

I Tri-I'm going to have to do alot more reading up on all the things you mentioned. After that I'll probably have to email you to straighten all the info out in my head Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I did start taking a general once a day vitamin thing. Lord only knows what's in it though. yikes.

Barb- The riding doesn't make my lungs revolt so much as I'm really sucking to get oxygen. My legs are killing me and burning. I get some winded. Not as much an issue on flats as on hills.. But what kills me is I just think of how hard it is. Then wonder how much easier it'd be if my lungs were operating better and my muscles were better oxygenated.. and then ya know it plays hell on the heart too.. So I start grudging the cigarettes what they do to my body all in all. Best wishes to your boyfriend in quitting. The patch and wellbutrin are cool and help physically.. It's all the triggering things and the physical action of smoking that make me wonder if I'll ever really quit. uhg. I'm just being pleased with myself for cutting back for now.

KnottedYet- Really, I'm not a quitter, I don't get any kudos so far <G> I'm a uhm. Reducer I guess. I'm glad you quit when ya could though. I WISH i was a pack a month smoker though. lol.

SnapDragon- Thank you for letting me know you felt like crap too. I feel silly cutting back on smoking so much but not quitting. I feel like hell AND I'm still a smoker. The best of both worlds <G> or maybe not. baby steps baby steps baby steps.

maillotpois- Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that story. It's hard to think of what else to say after reading that. I guess I'll complain a bit less. I'd like to know how that ride turns out for her if you don't mind sharing later...Thank you.

Luv'nAustin- Hurrah for the diet changers Does eating in the morning make you queasy? I just have a hard time stomaching food for the first few hours after I wake up even at the best of times. Not too sure what to do about it.

Fredwina- Hey, huge congrats on the weight loss! I could handle the slow results if I didn't feel so rotten in the mean time. <G> It's not great incentive to keep it up, I felt -better- livin' unhealthy. Go figure. Oh well. I figure as long as I keep biking and exercising everything else will follow. And Even if it doesn't I'll still be way better off just for the exercise.

Pachyderm- Thank you for the words of encouragement. For the last year+ I've been Supa' Sedentary Girl.. Before that I was actually pretty active. Kind of what makes this embarassing. In school I romped through most organized sports. Was in track, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading<it's a sport, it really is> did things on my own like inline skating, swimming, I'm still really addicted to snowboarding. As I got older.. Eh. life happened. and I bounced between sedentary and overly active that resulted in some injuries which led to me being a sloth. That's the history of me. Trying to be reasonable about getting into shape. I'm the type that hops up and decides to go run 20 miles after lounging in bed for months.. then wonders how on earth did I get a stress fracture? Trying to be more reasonable and make more long term positive shifts this time around... I'm going to be positive now and say, I know we're BOTH going to get feeling better soon

GLC1968- Yeay for both of us Once active and healthy people who are getting back at it. Emotionally this exercise thing is the bomb. I woke up one morning and was actually crying in my coffee. Figured there wasn't any reason I couldn't cry while I biked.. Might as well do SOMETHING positive. By the time I got home from it I felt great. It's a wonderful thing. I just want to feel that well physically too<G> Glad someone elses has crawled through the other side of the tunnel and can say it WILL get better. I have to admit though, no intentions of totally giving up my caffiene, No shame in my heart for some sugar either. But I don't want it to be to the exclusion of the healthy things I do need. Maybe someday I'll see that as being necessary for feeling better but for now.. Just not gonna sweat it. Just glad someone else can say, "then the clouds parted and birds began singing...well, sort of!" that brought a smile to my face

latelatebloomer- Glad it did your heart good.. Losing weight's a great thing, the lifestyle changes that bring it about really impresses the heck out of me... more so than the numbers on the scale.
I'll keep your advice in mind. I'm not really looking for any specific results, and I don't really beat myself up over having a smoke, eating my icecream or even skipping a ride if I'm still tired from the last one.. But #3 really got my attention. I have been looking at my body as a warzone lately. She feels like it. I will be nicer to her. In having compassion for myself, I reconcile all beings.. I like that.


I just wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to respond. Been kind of running around like a chicken with my head cut off these last few days. House sitting and dog watching for the next few weeks. Was getting settled in. I think me and the dogs are going to go for a nice long walk in a few minutes. It's funny though, I'm in a house out in nowheresville, it's really pretty up here.. but not a store with smokes for miles, a kitchen packed full of healthy food, and my job for the next few weeks is to take long walks with dogs regularly. Ask and you shall recieve I guess. Universe has a funny way of delivering.