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Monday, January 19, 2009

Weight Loss Weekly: Why Did I Get Overweight in the First Place?

I would like to wear these clothes again before I get too old. So… I’ve decided to hop on the weight loss train. Yep yep yep. It’s official.
My brain says: “Oh my God! Are you crazy? Ohhhh, the pressure. What if you fail?“, “But”, I say back, “I’m not alone”. I got You. And sometimes 3 other bloggers. “This is new ”, you might say.

I thought that blogging about dieting/weight loss once a week together with other bloggers will be like having a support group and together we will entertain you with our little weight loss adventure. So hop on the train and let me introduce them to you:
Joie de Vivre: An amateur gourmet's guide
That Extra 20 Pounds: My Weight Loss Blog
Bacon is my enemy
and, yours truly.

As our first post together, we will answer the question: Why Did We Get Overweight in the First Place?

Joie de Vivre answers:
The question this week is "How did I get overweight in the first place?" I think for me, it is more helpful to look at the habits I possess that contributed to my weight gain and talk about what I'm going to do to change them.
1. I eat way too fast… To read more, click Joie de vivre

That Extra 20 Pounds answers:
I don't think it would be fair to blame the whole 20 pound weight gain on Chicken Biscuits. (More like just the last 5 lbs, hehe!) I actually think I could blame the majority of the weight I gained on dieting. Here's why... For more click That Extra 20 Pounds

Bacon is My Enemy answers: I can give you a million excuses about why I am overweight, but the real reason is ... find out why here.

1 family. friendly. food. answers:
And what’s my story? Oh, boy. Here goes…
Once upon a time there was a little girl. She didn’t like to eat, her mom didn’t like to cook, and her dad lived in the land of far far away so he wasn’t around to do any cooking. (Oh, well, it wasn’t “IN” for men to cook those days anyway). The little girl never ate breakfast and she rarely ate the food in her school lunchbox. Her mom was annoyed when she returned her lunchbox back with all the food, so she got rid of the evidence in the trash before she got home.

Sometime in elementary school there was no lunchbox anymore. Mom thought the little girl is not-so-little so she can make her own sandwich by herself. Turned out that mom and the girl were not so interested in food those days, so she got the habit of not eating anything most of the days before 2 pm.

OK, this is making me tired, writing in third person, and I’m sure you have figured out by now that the “little girl” is me. Anyway… jumping forward to high school years.

Oh, I do remember looking at those boys in high school… with hungry eyes… they had big fat sandwiches that their Mommies made for them. But still no food for me, and back then I also used to walk A LOT. To school, to friends living on the other side of town, to the grocery store, downtown… You name it, I walked there. Since I was living in the city, I did not own a car until I was 30!

Because I did not eat most of the day and I burnt all that energy with lots of walking, when I did eat, I ate whatever I wanted and how much I wanted, I never had limits or self-control. I would eat a whole batch of cookies, a whole package of whipped cream with strawberries, a plate full of crepes, 2 servings in a meal, I drank juice and soda… and I was thin. What I learned from that is that I could always eat like this and be skinny. For 30 years I ate and lived like that. Then my life style has changed but not my eating habits. And I can’t do this anymore.

I started gaining extra weight about 5 years ago because:
· My bad eating habits, in the past and present, including no portion control, eating fast, relating to eating as another daily task (I’m a very task-oriented person), and eating alone (besides dinner).

· These days good food is more accessible. I’m a very good cook and baker and I bake every weekend (See cake for the weekend). It’s hard to stop eating and not take another bite, and another, and another.

· I had 2 pregnancies. Can I blame it on the kids? It is baby fat??? Well, it was a turning point.

· I’m not as active as I used to be. I moved to the suburbs and I’m not walking much anymore, mostly driving. Last time I danced was at my wedding! I do Pilates once a week but I always make excuses why I drive my son to school instead of walking 10 minutes.

Thank God that at least we have stairs at home.

Oh, and don’t worry. Even though I'll be on a diet, there are still going to be cakes and cookies here, as well as other delicious food, like always.


PS – since I have finished writing the last draft for this post, I have walked once to my son’s school. It was 44 F degrees outside but no rain. I put on my down coat. It was really nice and felt very good.

6 comments:

Sunny said...

Can you imagine how great we would all look if we all had to walk everywhere, no cars? :)

Joie de vivre said...

When my son was born, I had this funny book called "The Diaper Diaries", they had a picture of "Baby Fat" (a woman holding a baby" and "When it is no longer Baby Fat but just Fat Fat" (That same woman with her son at high school graduation). I laughed at you looking at the high school boys with hungry eyes because of their sandwiches. When I was in high school, I too looked at the boys with hungry eyes, but for different reasons entirely!

Anonymous said...

I love this post!

Anonymous said...

Losing weight is not just for vanity or for looking like a standard of beauty. Weight loss, whether by diet or weight loss challenge, should be done for the sake of health.

Nurit "1 family. friendly. food." said...

Good point, Colon.

My crazy crazy life said...

I have the same exact story as you. I never would eat and I was skinny as a rail growing up and burned off everything I ate and then some. I got married and had a baby and it was all over.
And I read your comment on Sunny's site...I love the name Chicken Biscuit too...so cute and sound so harmless...RIGHT!!!