Simone32

Soy milk with sugar is definitely not what you want to drink when you intend to lose weight. But soy milk is also available without sugar.

As for the comparison with milk, many will tell you that a diet without animal protein and without animal fat is a lot healthier than with this stuff.

However my experience with regard to weight is not so much about what you eat as moreover how much you eat and how much calories you burn via physical activity...

To eat less and move more, motivation is the key. Wanting to stop being lethargic and not wanting to die to soon sounds like an excellent start to me ;-)

All the best!

Thanks Gizmo,

For sure the exercise has to improve. Its embarrassing when you tell people that you used to be a marathon runner,and they look at you and say - really? Worse, when the steel frame bicycle you rode 28k's a day on not so long ago has a crack probably because of your weight. Motivate! motivate! regards.

You are both absolutely right, Tim and Gizmo. Motivation is the key, but where to find it? I used to be a fat child, and by the age of 16, I weighed around a 100 kilos. Which seriously shocked me at that time, and I started to diet and to do sports, and to bring my weight down to 70 kg. Since then, it has been going up and down and up and down, but I have never reached the 100 kilos again. What I gained from that is a an early and pretty good insight of the mechanics of the brain, motivation and dieting and all that stuff. And although I consider myself quite experienced, I still have the times when I gain weight again until a point where I could hit the mirror when I see myself. And although I can see myself growing and the trousers not fitting anymore and so on, and I am aware of it and even becoming more frustrated, because I cannot do anything. That means I don't have the motivation to do something and prefer to eat and not to move. And I know exactly that physical exercise is necessary, as well as a healthy diet, to lose weight. And I even know that I usually feel good after a heavy exercise. My recent phases were like this. From about 2.5 years ago until last December, I have studied for an MBA part-time via online program while I have been working full-time. This means sitting around 80% of the day and having not much time for nothing. Last year, I was in the dissertation phase, and by then I had reached that point again that I mentioned above: I was way to fat again, with little chance for change. Around may, I was stuck in my thesis project and so frustrated, that I increasingly spend time exercising, at first purely to avoid the studies, but then more and more as a daily routine that I really enjoyed and I was looking forward to during work. Around September, when I had lost probably 3 sizes and was, maybe for the very first time in my life, in an excellent shape from the muscles and everything, I figured I had a problem. I was extremely behind with the studies, totally NOT motivated to do anything else but sports, but I had no choice. So I forced myself to stop the sport completely (I tried to do both things but it didn't work) and to finish my thesis. Soon, I came back in my daily routine of studying, and with all the pressure at the end I became motivated again and submitted the final paper mid december, before the deadline. Then was Christmas break, and in January, I figured I have plenty of time, no obligations to study, and no motivation to exercise. dam_n! I have been trying from the beginning of January to motivate myself again, postponing my intended training start from one week to the next, and seeing the belly growing again, week by week. Now, today is the third day I am exercising again - at least I will after I have submitted this post. I need to force myself, to be honest. My body and muscles are paining again from the last 2 days' exercise, but nevertheless I have the power again to force my lazy body to make push-ups, sit-up's and to use the dumbbell and so on. It has been since last September that I have done nothing, and with every day of not doing something it becomes more and more difficult. The first days will be painful and requiring you to force yourself to do something. Tim, force yourself for a run or at least a walk, even if it is only half a mile or a mile in the beginning. Force yourself to do it everyday, and since human beings are quite habit-oriented, maybe it becomes a habit soon so there is not so much need to find the motivation after a while. And possibly the comes from itself then? This is what I hope for in my case. So I have to do something now, and believe me, I really don't want to. But I know once I have started, I know I stop thinking about not wanting to.

All the best,

Simone

Simone,

That was one of the best posts I've read on tv and a really good insight into motivation. Thanks very much. As serendipity would have it yesterday was the first day I got out the heavy duty bike and went for a ride. Only about 4klms and it nearly killed me, but easier to do this morning, so the distance will increase. I did an ankle in some years ago so can't jog, but I love cycling. Like you I should know about health, diet and exercise as I've worked for most of my life in the health sector. I've found in the past that motivation works best when there is a reason for it. Unfortunately or fortunately I was a country boy in Oz at a time when there were not many health services in rural areas. So you had to be tough, and you were taught to be stoic. So I learnt to put up with pain, illness and gradually becoming overweight. Over the years any health problems have had to be life threatening before I would do anything. I've had a couple. So I almost need to believe that I will die if I don't lose weight. At around 130kgs that's a possibility. For me that's a motivator. My ex wife died last year, quite quickly from cancer, so my sons said to me, 'Dad we don't want you to die as well -lose weight!' So that's a really good motivator. But your right I have had to force myself to take the first step.

It's a bit like 'the wall' at around 13 miles in a marathon. If you're running on a road the effort to lift your feet six inches onto a pavement at that point is almost too much. But once you have, you feel like you can run forever. So now that I have started to exercise, and enjoy it, and have changed the diet to mainly non meat fish,vegies,and fruit, I think I can keep it up...

I also had one of those light bulb moments the other day along the lines of - I'm really tired of being fat, and as tolerant as I may be, I'm just a bit tired of my Thai friends and family in their naive, but so accurate way, telling me "Your very fat now". When all the local schools for the first time in your 9 years in Thailand, ask you to be Santa Claus, you do get the message. So I hope this does become a habit, but,there is the other problem with habits -boredom. However, I have enough variety in both diet and exercise that I hope will take care of that. Best Regards

Hi Tim,

I am very happy to hear that you really went for a ride with your bike, this is so cool. And NO, it is not "only" 4 km's, it is "even" for km's. How long has it been with daily rides of zero km's? So I guess even one single mile would have been much more than in those days. I can only encourage you to go for a ride as often as you can, and if you do, you will see that in no time, 4 km's will not even be remotely enough to warm you up. From that point you might be bored - but I am sure not from (the habit of) cycling, but from only 4 kms, so you will go further until you have this feeling of nearly being killed by over-cycling again. You mentioned that you enjoy the exercise, and I do so, too. Even though I still need to kick my own butt to do something, it has become less painful and more habitual, and I hope in a couple of weeks there will be no more inner dispute of doing it or not, but simply do it because it has become purely habitual. And the fun of doing it will not disappear, even the contrary. It can be nice to challenge oneself sometimes. In my case, it is something like "if I manage to do 25 push-ups now, how long would it take to do 50, 80 or even 100 - or is this something I cannot do?" I don't want to answer with no, because it should not be impossible. But I know if I keep on exercising and I would see in 6 months that I would really be able to do 50 push-ups and remember that I did it in 6 months, then you can be sure that I would be motivated like hell to arrive at the 100 in another 6 months time. Exercising simply feels good, particularly afterwards, when the body is tired and the brain full of lucky feelings, and in our cases probably also with pride of ourselves, because believe me, this is something we can be proud of. I have also noted in the past few days that I am much less stressed, from work and from life in general. I don't know how to say, maybe I feel more balanced? And since nothing has changed in my life but the fact that I exercise again and eating more healthy, I can only relate it to those 2 things. And I really hope you find the fun again on exercising, and I would be most curious to hear your updates, how it goes for you, and if you perceive the changes of body and mind as nicely and satisfactory as I do.

I also cannot imagine that a motivation to loose weight has to be something life-threatening, as you mentioned. Having said the above, maybe you can try not to focus purely on loosing weight? If you focus on exercising and to do it regularly and the joy of doing it, as well as eating healthily, then the weight issue will be tackled automatically as you will see yourself shrinking. And this, dear Tim, will actually become a real motivator. I know the beginning is the hardest part, and the first 2 or 3 weeks are the most painful. The body is aching like hell after exercising, the stomach is constantly hurting and screaming for all kinds of food, and then slowly, it adapts. After the exercise, there are no more paining muscles, and the stomach is happy with much smaller portions of much healthier stuff. And after the body has adapted, you will start to see and feel the changes. I think in your case (if your weight is 130 kgs), it might go fairly quickly in the beginning, and you should have visible changes after a few weeks. And from the point that you are able to see the changes yourself, and where you see that you need to make your belt tighter and tighter every week and your trousers not fitting anymore, then you probably become really motivated. And if you succeed to loose 10 or 20 kgs, then why shouldn't you simply keep on going (provided you start on the way of really enjoying the exercise) and easily go below the 100 kgs, or any weight you want to have?

The story with your Thai friends or family who tell you that you are fat is another thing. I have always enjoyed to make people stunned and surprised. When I was a teenager, I probably did it with weird hair cuts and colors and piercings, but since then there has not been so much I could people impress with. But always when I had a time when I lost weight, I really liked when people came and stared as they hadn't seen me in a while. And I really wish that the naive "you are fat" of your friends will get stuck in their throats when they see you one day, and you exercised so much that they barely recognize you. As I said, I would be truly grateful for an update every now and then on your progress

All the best,

Simone

Soy milk with sugar is definitely not what you want to drink when you intend to lose weight. But soy milk is also available without sugar.

As for the comparison with milk, many will tell you that a diet without animal protein and without animal fat is a lot healthier than with this stuff.

However my experience with regard to weight is not so much about what you eat as moreover how much you eat and how much calories you burn via physical activity...

To eat less and move more, motivation is the key. Wanting to stop being lethargic and not wanting to die to soon sounds like an excellent start to me ;-)

All the best!

Thanks Gizmo,

For sure the exercise has to improve. Its embarrassing when you tell people that you used to be a marathon runner,and they look at you and say - really? Worse, when the steel frame bicycle you rode 28k's a day on not so long ago has a crack probably because of your weight. Motivate! motivate! regards.

You are both absolutely right, Tim and Gizmo. Motivation is the key, but where to find it? I used to be a fat child, and by the age of 16, I weighed around a 100 kilos. Which seriously shocked me at that time, and I started to diet and to do sports, and to bring my weight down to 70 kg. Since then, it has been going up and down and up and down, but I have never reached the 100 kilos again. What I gained from that is a an early and pretty good insight of the mechanics of the brain, motivation and dieting and all that stuff. And although I consider myself quite experienced, I still have the times when I gain weight again until a point where I could hit the mirror when I see myself. And although I can see myself growing and the trousers not fitting anymore and so on, and I am aware of it and even becoming more frustrated, because I cannot do anything. That means I don't have the motivation to do something and prefer to eat and not to move. And I know exactly that physical exercise is necessary, as well as a healthy diet, to lose weight. And I even know that I usually feel good after a heavy exercise. My recent phases were like this. From about 2.5 years ago until last December, I have studied for an MBA part-time via online program while I have been working full-time. This means sitting around 80% of the day and having not much time for nothing. Last year, I was in the dissertation phase, and by then I had reached that point again that I mentioned above: I was way to fat again, with little chance for change. Around may, I was stuck in my thesis project and so frustrated, that I increasingly spend time exercising, at first purely to avoid the studies, but then more and more as a daily routine that I really enjoyed and I was looking forward to during work. Around September, when I had lost probably 3 sizes and was, maybe for the very first time in my life, in an excellent shape from the muscles and everything, I figured I had a problem. I was extremely behind with the studies, totally NOT motivated to do anything else but sports, but I had no choice. So I forced myself to stop the sport completely (I tried to do both things but it didn't work) and to finish my thesis. Soon, I came back in my daily routine of studying, and with all the pressure at the end I became motivated again and submitted the final paper mid december, before the deadline. Then was Christmas break, and in January, I figured I have plenty of time, no obligations to study, and no motivation to exercise. dam_n! I have been trying from the beginning of January to motivate myself again, postponing my intended training start from one week to the next, and seeing the belly growing again, week by week. Now, today is the third day I am exercising again - at least I will after I have submitted this post. I need to force myself, to be honest. My body and muscles are paining again from the last 2 days' exercise, but nevertheless I have the power again to force my lazy body to make push-ups, sit-up's and to use the dumbbell and so on. It has been since last September that I have done nothing, and with every day of not doing something it becomes more and more difficult. The first days will be painful and requiring you to force yourself to do something. Tim, force yourself for a run or at least a walk, even if it is only half a mile or a mile in the beginning. Force yourself to do it everyday, and since human beings are quite habit-oriented, maybe it becomes a habit soon so there is not so much need to find the motivation after a while. And possibly the comes from itself then? This is what I hope for in my case. So I have to do something now, and believe me, I really don't want to. But I know once I have started, I know I stop thinking about not wanting to.

All the best,

Simone