Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Dieters Support Thread

"The subject of fasting is far too complex and deserves far more space than can be allotted here. Suffice it to say, however, that there is no health routine that is more thorough, effective, or beneficial than a properly conducted fast, and no other area of healing that is more neglected, misunderstood, or unfairly maligned. Those who call fasting and starvation the same things are sorely ignorant of the physiology of the human body. It would be like calling swimming and drowning the same thing."

-Harvey Diamond,
"Fit For Life: A New Beginning"


This weekend I have family in, so I have postponed my 3-day fast. It is important to me to focus on why I am doing this. This is NOT the way I want to lose weight (although I do), but is to give my digestive system a break, let my body expend the energy it would digesting for structural repairs, and most importantly to rid my system of all the toxins that have built up these last 39 years. Everything I read from sources I trust say that fasting is a tremendously valuable method of cleaning out the body and spirit. This is not something that should be entered into lightly, and I wouldn't recommend it to people who aren't ready for it physically or psychologically. I have been reading about it for years and feel that I am ready now, so those other posters here please keep a good thought for me for the next few days. I know it will be hard to remember that I have the rest of my life to eat whatever I choose and the feelings of immediacy and "Danger! Famine!" that my body will send me are not as powerful as my will (with a little Help). Thanks, guys, for your support. Your Servant, Shan.

Good luck with the fasting Shan.

Does this mean you eat nothing at all for three days or can you eat brown rice?

I'm assuming you can still drink water?

Like I said, Good Luck.

I'm eating nothing solid. Drinking water(lots!) and fruit juice and an herbal detox tea, which is very tasty. I can't think of the brand, but if anyone's interested I can post it. The juice has to be 100% real fruit juice because refined sugar has toxins (and is mood altering, which acts against my spiritual motives), and for some reason I'm told that orange juice and tomato juice aren't good during the fast. Maybe they're too acidic? I should research that. Anyway, if I have to eat something, but don't want to spoil the fast watermelon or fresh apple sauce is ok. I've got watermelon and canned apple sauce on hand, but I have a feeling that if I need to eat I am just going to eat whatever is handy. I haven't read anywhere whether I should be taking my regular daily multivitamin or not, so this time I'm going to do without.
Thank you, walkwithcrowds for your support!

Hey, I'm always ready to offer support. As long as I don't have to actually DO anything.

How did you get on?

And (more importantly)how do you feel? Was it worth it? Or do you just feel the same?

p.s. Reading that back it might come off as sarcastic/negative. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to. I'm just interested in how it feels. CAN you actually feel a physical benefit or do you think it's partly psychological?

I'm thinking it would be both. You're not taking in any stuff that's bad for you and you will feel better for acomplishing something.

Anyway, congratulations. Is this going to be a regular thing? Do you do it once a month or just whenever you feel you need to?

There's no way I'm gonna go read this entire thread... but I did read the most recent page, and thought I'd pass on some of my own comments.

Over the course of my life, I've noticed that stress tends to make me eat more. As I often think I'm the only one in my immediate family who wasn't crazy, I've had to deal with a LOT of stress since the 60's. When my Mom yanked my brother & I out of Catholic School instead of standing fast and dealing with the growing problems there, I wound up losing ALL my friends at once. I guess it's no surprise that over the next 2 years I started putting on weight for the first time.

A nurse in the 10th grade was the one who said I needed to cut down on snacks. Over the next 2 years I went cold-turkey on them and believe I lost 41 pounds (over the course of 2 whole years, it was a slow thing). But by a year out of school, "stress" increased, MOSTLY due (as before) to my parents. Perhaps most annoying was my Dad who began repeatedly saying STUPID things like "You really oughta eat more." ALL the trouble, ALL the harrassment over being overweight, and this IDIOT was pushing me to eat more. About a year later, this SAME idiot said to me one day during a tv commercial break, "You know if you keep eating those things you're gonna put all that weight back on." He had NO IDEA why I was so PISSED at him at that moment!!!!!

A nurse who was checking for high blood pressure at work when I was 23 suggested I was "borderline" and could keep it under control without medication if I just lost some weight. I was about 220 at that point. I managed to get it down QUITE a bit, though never as low as before. Again, this was a long process that continued thru art school and after. But it seems EVERYTHING in my life was out of control by my late 20's. At one point I was working at a place in NE Philly, and my boss basically picked on me for 15 straight months, because (near as I can figure) at home his wife was the boss and I was the ONLY one he could abuse. (BASTARD.) By the time I left I'd gotten up to 249. But over the next 2 years I lost OVER 40 pounds-- again. It's been-- unfortunately, a long, SLOW climb back up ever since.

Last night I weighed myself for the first time in over 5 years. I KNEW it'd gone up. The nice surprise is, it hasn't gone up as high as I thought. I'm actually 19 pounds LESS than I was back in late 1992.

5 years ago I cleaned up my Mom's stationary exercise bike, hoping it'd help me get in better shape. SEVERE neighborhood-related stress somehow made that a seeming impossibility. I'm lucky if I ever get on the thing more than 2 or 3 times a week. But this week it's been 7 days in a row-- for the first time since I moved the thing upstairs. My blood has not been circulating well the last 2 weeks, and I'm really hoping I can muster up the willpower I USED to have back in high school and get this damn thing under control again. We'll see. (Winning Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes would go a long way... I actually PRAY for it every night!)

Prof, I am REALLY sorry to hear about all your bad times.
I can't really say anything without coming across as one of those patronizing arseholes that EVERONE hates so much.

From your post you sound like you're trying to make a positive choice, which is great. You always seem to do the sensible thing as well, in that your weight loss is a gradual thing and not some insane crash course diet.

I have been on the bike every morning and I DEFINATELY feel better for it. My problem is not the same as yours as I am only really trying to get a little fitter as I really am a "skinny wee Scottish guy".

I don't do a lot. My daily "work out" (if you can even call it that) consists of lots of stretching to loosen up, 30 press ups, 30 sit ups and then I do (only) 1km on the bike as fast as I can.

It's not a lot but, like I said, I don't have a lot of weight to lose and I really don't want to be "Mr Muscles" but I really do feel better for doing it. Maybe it's like I said to Shan - It might be a mixture of physical and psychological benefit - you get phyically fitter and you feel emotionaly better for having achieved something.

The point I'm trying to make is, if a lazy sod like me can feel better by doing this and keep doing it then I'm sure you will be able to as well.

Keep posting back to let me know how you get on.

All the best,

John.

Considering all the stress I am STILL under, I'm quite frankly amazed. In the last 2 weeks, I've managed to do my brief exercises AND bike routine EVERY day except one. (Sunday I was feeling SO wasted, I didn't even take my shower. Just stayed in bed most of the day-- THANK GOODNESS I had an ALL-DAY "marathon" on TV Land to watch. I'd never have believed I'd ever find myself sitting thru 12 STRAIGHT HOURS of Marlo Thomas! Sunday's supposed to be a "day of rest", ANYWAY!)

I've also only eaten snacks after dinner TWICE in 2 weeks (instead of every night as has been my habit).

I don't plan to weigh myself again at least a month has gone by. We'll see how long I can maintain this.

That sounds like you are taking the sensible approach - slow but sure.
It seems (to me anyway) to be a more natural way to change yourself than faddy diets and two weeks of intense work out at the gym and then nothing, as you can't be bothered anymore.
And you are not stressing yourself out by being a slave to the scales. Like you said you have enough stress in your life anyway so this is something you can take it easy over.
Keep up the good work and post back to let me know how you are getting on.

A hearty round of congratulations to everyone here. Willpower may be hard to muster, but muster it we have!

Keep up the good work, everyone

I've just joined Weight Watchers, using the online plan. Everything I've read about it says that it works really well. I know several people who have used WW, including my mom, who is a life member!

I've gone up and down over the years. Let's see how this works. I hope when I get to meet some of you in person there'll be a lot less of me!

And in my first week on Weight Watchers, I've lost eight pounds!

Exellent work RH.

But if there is less of you to meet that means there is less of you to love.

We'll just love what's there more.

Thanks for the encouragement, WWC. As of this morning, I've lost a total of fifteen pounds!

Wow!

That deserves serious cogratulations

Seriously well done Rocky.
Do you have a target you are trying for or are you just taki ng it a bit at a time, so as not to rush yourself?

Well done mate.

I do have a target, although Weight Watchers encourages starting by losing ten percent of one's body weight. As of this week, I've lost 18 pounds, which gives me six to go for that. After that, I'll have another 43 to go to my target weight.

At some point, I'll have to post a picture of me wearing the pants (that's trousers to you, WWC ) I was wearing when I started.

Hey if you want to post a picture of you in just your pants (that's underwear to you) then that's fine by me.

Go Rockhopper, go Rockhopper, go Rockhopper!

I made it to my 10 percent goal--or actually two pounds past it this week! I'm almost halfway to my target weight!

Well done Rockhopper. Keep up the good work.

So do you feel better for the weight loss.

I mean, of course, you will feel better emotionaly - but do you notice a physical difference? Do you find it is easier to make it up the stairs and stuff like that? Do you have more energy?

Also, do you find it easier or harder to stick to your new regime as time goes on?

Whatever, we are behind you and I'm still waiting for the underwear photo!!

I took a week off from the diet while I was visiting my parents, although I didn't go totally overboard.

I started back following the plan on Monday. Wednesday is my weigh-in day, so I weighed myself this morning and found I had still lost three pounds over the last two weeks! I've now lost 32 pounds and have 35 pounds left to go for my target weight.

To answer WWC's questions from a few weeks ago, I don't have to take stairs too often (My condo is a ground-level flat and my library is one floor also), but I do find stairs easier now when I do climb them.

Taking a week off was kind of fun, but now that I'm back in my routine, it's no problem at all.

There'll be a bit of a wait for that underwear photo. I'm pretty shy

I weighed in this morning and have now lost 36 pounds, with 31 to go!

I'm trying to be more careful about what I'm eating as well. I've found that I've been eating too many of those "100 calorie packs" which are great, but they're essentially a small portion of junk food. So, there will be fewer of those and more fruits and veggies.

Way to go John! I'm not using or following any kind of diet or plan but I know how good it feels to lose weight. With my changes I'm down 19 pounds in the last three weeks. I'm hoping for a couple of more as I wanted to at least lose 20 before my one month follow-up which is on the 11th.

Congrats, Scott! That's really terrific!

There's something so satisfying about all the things that go with losing weight--like having to buy smaller clothes! And just looking at yourself in the mirror and being able to see the difference!

Keep up the good work!

Men! Curse you and your ability to easily drop the pounds!

Awww, I'm just jealous. I too have joined Weight Watchers and it has taken me 5 months to lose 31 lbs. Still got lots more to go...

Congrats to everyone for their successes!

And congatulations to you, Mechana!

Some of the women I work with are also on WW and they've made similar comments about my loss.

Seriously though, 31 pounds in five months is a great accomplishment. Way to go!

I think I have a thyroid problem. The last two years I've gained weight. I could always maintain 240 and look alright. I am currently 285!!! I diet, i workout, i walk/run, i eat smart...and i can't lose weight.

My family recently found out they've had thyroid issues. My mom, her brother, and three of his kids. Guess i have to visit the doctor.