I take my coffee with three sugars.

[matt_doyle]

It is clearly not news to anyone that I am dependent on caffeine.  THAT is not what I feel like talking about, now, though.  Instead I'm going to talk about my weight.

Given my build, my healthy weight range is from 145-175, or maaaaybe 150-180.  Until I was twenty-one I never even touched the upper boundaries of that range -- my metabolism was high enough that I literally had to eat four meals a day to keep myself from losing weight.  When I turned 21 I was at 160, which was pretty much ideal for me.

From June 2005 to December 2008 I put on roughly one pound every month.  Less in the middle of summer, more in the holiday season, but the end result was that at the end of 2008 I was between 205 and 210 pounds.  Being a little overweight didn't bother me, but that was just enough that I became winded more easily, sweated more, and spent just enough extra physical energy moving around that I could do less of anything else than i was used to.  Now, I know that this does not constitute a serious weight problem and that a good many people have it far worse than me.  But at that time, realizing that every time I put on a pair of pants I wound up with a sore red band around my waist at the end of the day, I had had enough, and I made a New Years' Resolution. 

Not to lose weight.  But to stop drinking pop.  For seven months I did not drink soda so much as once, and since that point, while I have wavered and fallen off the wagon from time to time, I have mostly stuck to the rule that I have pop every now and again in restaurants, limit my refills, and at home I drink coffee to get my fix.

The coffee thing was hard to adjust to -- to some extent I had acquired the taste, but when I began the switch I needed 5-7 sugars per cup to make it taste good to me.  Thaaaaat was at least as much as there was in a can of pop, so I whittled it down, until now I'm at about 2 and a half.

Since I stopped drinking pop I have not gained any weight.

I have not LOST a significant amount -- month to month it changes, seemingly stuck in a range between 200 and 210 -- 195 to 205 if I'm lucky.  But that extra critical mass ( ha ha) seems to have come entirely from pop.

Probably, if I cut down on cheese and butter, I could start actually making a dent in this doughy tire that hangs around my waist.  But to be honest I would rather be a little chubby than give up parmesan.

Comments

[inaurolillium.livejournal.com]

BTW, there the evidence at the moment suggests that being "overweight" by current BMI standards is actually associated with a longer life expectancy than being "normal."

[matt_doyle]

I wouldn't be surprised. And I'm still not very concerned about losing weight. I just don't want to go back to gaining more. I can usually tell whether I have or not simply by how much energy I have -- I'm energetic at the 200 mark, and at 210 I'm slower, constantly tired... I'm also, underneath my slight padding, in really bad shape, which is a bigger concern for me and probably more responsible for that lethargy.

[feuervogel]

Mmm, cheese. I'm a bit on the doughy side myself (5'2", 140 lbs, though I lost a good 12 pounds with my recent medical trouble and 4 came back since I've been able to eat normally again. I can't say I recommend the nausea weight loss plan, though.). I can't cut any more food from my diet. I don't eat all that much to begin with, and I eat healthfully in general.

I also eschew artificial food products, like HFCS, margarine, and cheez. I'm one of those damn yuppie foodies. I want my food to taste good and be satisfying, not made of fake fats and ultraprocessed corn byproducts to simulate real food. So what if real ice cream has more fat than fake? It tastes better and I don't need to eat as much of it to get the same level of enjoyment. (See also high quality chocolates.)

Er, got a little ranty there, sorry. I love food, though, and there's so much "food" out there it makes me sad. Anyway. I know one of the things I have trouble with, being a writur and all, is getting off my butt. In theory, I should be practicing my tai chi for like an hour every day, and I'm taking a pilates class once a week, but it's so much easier to sit in my chair and fiddle with the computer. Granted, lately it's been harder because of this illness nonsense (I hope this second z-pak gets rid of this sinus infection for good), which saps my energy and makes me a little dizzy if I move around too much.

I have a couple friends who "went paleo" and like to evangelize it. I dislike any sort of fad diet, especially those designed to let people lose weight without exercising. I prefer methods like "take a smaller piece of cake" and "use less cream cheese on that bagel" and "eat your veggies!"

[matt_doyle]

Ha, I agree! I'm sort of a low-grade shoestring-budget foodie myself; although weirdly I have found that I dislike real ice cream.

[feuervogel]

Is it a texture thing? Real ice cream is a good bit heavier than light. Since I switched to whole-milk yogurt, I've been unable to eat low-fat yogurt because of the texture. (I've never been able to eat non-fat; that's worse than soy yogurt.) I do get frozen yogurt sometimes, though. I love the Stonyfield Farms stuff (Creme Caramel, Chai... mmm.)

[matt_doyle]

It may be a texture thing -- to be honest it's been a couple years since I last tried it, due to my dislike, so my recall is a bit fuzzy.

Usually, that means it's time to try it again and see if my tastes have changed...

[kitashla.livejournal.com]

People have been telling me for years, that if I stop drinking soda, the weight will just "fall off". It's always been the magic fix when I've explained that I keep dieting and exercising and it isn't going all that well. (I allot myself one soda when dieting because I need the caffeine and I just can't do coffee.)

I've tried it many many times. Nothing ever happens.

Which is not to say that it doesn't work for other people. It totally does. I've seen it happen.

But I am not one of those fortunate people, so it just goes to show that it doesn't ALWAYS work.

[matt_doyle]

Fair enough! I didn't mean to imply that I had any sort of magic fix for other people, and I'm sorry if it came off that way.

SECRETLY I LOVE THESE POSTS

[derogatory]

Cut out butter entirely. I could never give up cheese but butter's easy, switching to margarine or getting rid of it completely. Are you using pure sugar for your coffee, there are prob better subsitutes you can be using there. What's your excercise regime?

Re: SECRETLY I LOVE THESE POSTS

[matt_doyle]

Ahahahaha exercise regime.

Cutting butter out of cooking would actually be a big change for me, and margarine doesn't really cut it as a cooking substititute IME. Yes, I am using pure sugar for my coffee.

But really, yeah, an exercise regimen is what I need, and am staaaarting to work on.

[sharaith.livejournal.com]

I don't drink soda that isn't diet, so that's not an issue for me. If I stopped drinking sugar in my tea and coffee though, I think it might make a real difference. (I can't bear to give it up, though!)

On the plus side, my body chemistry has changed completely these past few months. I became mildly lactose intolerant at the beginning of this year, which basically means that if I eat dairy I lose my appetite completely. Which is awesome, because before that my appetite was out of control. Because of that, I've been losing weight lately without even trying.

I've stopped really caring about the weight - getting in shape is much more important to me. Too bad I have pretty much no time to exercise here...

[kitashla.livejournal.com]

Oh no, no, no, no. I didn't mean it in that way at all. I was more cosigning your personal experience that removing soda from your diet did not always lead to the weight falling off in big dramatic numbers.

I didn't think for a minute that you were touting it as a magic fix.:)

[eleventh-guard.livejournal.com]

The corn syrup used in most soda pop is poison, at least when it comes to weight management. I was 180 lb at the end of high school - sounds good, except that my healthy range is 105-130. Dumping the corn sweeteners, and replacing them with calorie-free or very low-calorie beverages, got me to 155 almost effortlessly. Staying under 130 is more of a challenge, but it's a little scary to think that half of my clinically excess weight was due to HFCS.

[eleventh-guard.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that doesn't apply to young and young-ish adults. Those statistics come largely from older adults, who are rarely underweight unless it's caused by illness. And cigarette smoking, associated with shorter life expectancy, is also associated with slightly lower risk of being overweight.

So if you're 60, being a little overweight is a sign that you don't have an illness that makes you lose large amounts of weight and can kill you quickly. If you're 30, those illnesses have much lower incidence and the extra weight isn't doing you any good. But merely being overweight, not obese, can be nearly harmless, if you're active and don't eat a lot of crap.

I say this as someone who is 10 lb over ideal, as calculated by height and frame size (BMI says I'm OK, but that doesn't take into account that I have a freakishly small frame and am 6" shorter than normal and upper-normal BMIs are too much for very short folks.) I should lose those 10, but if I don't, as long as I don't gain more, it's not a medical catastrophe.

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

i forget whether i've mentioned this. but my fiance (you can tell it's a month and a half away, because i shudder at the term) gave up sugar AND went vegetarian--and he dropped perhaps 15 lbs. the end.

i halved my drinking and threw in what varies between 0-350 sit-ups and sundry other exercises a day, and seem to have settled at what is, for me, not HORRIBLE, but not ideal; roughly 130. i would definitely prefer to lose another 15 lbs, which is my semi-goal when the Evil Wedding of Doom is over and expenditures involved in said EWoD are over, so i can join water aerobics thrice-weekly in a saline-only pool. (it's not even a semi-goal, honestly. what i WANT is to be fit and to SWIM. to be thin? that would be AWESOME. but i'd rather be fit and SWIMMING.)

also my mother is bringing my mountain bike out when she comes for the EWoD. so i'll be doing some of THAT, too.

i think the real difference is not so much saying 'okay, i'll get this out of my diet' (unless you're eating deep-fried bacon-wrapped twinkies daily) as it is, sadly, fix your diet AND get off your ass. my fiance hasn't been willing to make that sacrifice yet. and to be honest, neither have i.

...but i'd rather be a little bit chubby than cease my moderate self-medication of beer...