Twinmom,

I re-read your post and I do take your post very seriously. You are spot-on about the dangers of under-nourishing oneself.

We recently had a story in our local newspaper on a young man who had a gastric bypass go terribly wrong. He started out at 467 lbs and hit 180 in one year to the date. This man really paid the price though.

Like you warned, muscle degeneration is a very real risk as he found out. Short version is for whatever reason his surgery made it impossible to keep down any food. He was virtually living off his body fat for an extended period of time and in the process his muscles degenerated to the point of uselessness even including speech.

Right now he is recovering through therapy and is walking with the aid of crutches and is learning to talk again.

To be honest, I never felt like I have under-dieted or had any ill-effects from my plan and I really think I have been eating better food now than I ever have. It was established on day one that I knew the diet would have to be the stronger focus to compensate for my lack of exercise ability. I ultimately hope to obtain a body that will be more exercise cooperative and I can and will increase more calories later on.

I do appreciate the feedback and I never take these things personally.

Oh and btw, I know my doctor would be thrilled right now and would probably tell me to keep on keepin' on

Hey, I just read your reply. I'm glad you did not take offense. I still hope you will at least talk with your doctor. My mom an my brother both work in the medical field. They have both told me stories about treating patients - or sending patients on to the morgue - who came in with heart problems related to weight loss gone wrong. It's scary stuff.

I am a biologist, so I knew quite a bit about physiology coming into this. Many people do not. Massive weight loss like ours (I'm working on 100 pounds myself) is a major body transformation, and one of the most drastic things you can do to yourself, healthwise. The benefits can be ENORMOUS, but so can the risks. I love the support I have found on this forum, and I try to give back by waving my red flag of caution from time to time.

I know you are psyched, and you will definitely reach your goal. I just really do hope that you will double check with your doctor. If there is one thing I do know, it is that I don't know everything! But I usually know who to ask.

I just love all you guys on here !!

I wish I had found this place on my day one or even sooner, maybe I would've started sooner but be it as it may I'm fast getting addicted to reading this forum and wow the support on here is incredible.

If I come across as "In control" or "this diet thing is easy" or "My diet is the bomb and your's isn't" I'm here to say that I have struggles, cravings, bad days and weakness too. I have been blessed (or a curse ) with the "I want it bad" syndrome.

Keep on keeping me in groove people, I thank you all !!

Hey there...... welcome.... Sorry it took so long for me to say hello. Its been a rough couple of weeks lol.......

Hello, trucker. What is catabolics?

I am so impressed by your resolve. Congratulations on your continuing success!

I am diabetic also. How often do you test? What are your blood sugar levels on your diet plan? The doctor told me to lose weight. My triglycerides are 800! I'm 5'1" and 155 pounds. He wants me to lose at least 40 pounds.

Your advice for a post meal walk is a good one. I love pasta and rice but it shoots up my numbers!

My aunt eats nopalitos (cactus) and it gets her numbers really low--80-90. My mom drinks a lot of water and it lowers her numbers, too. I haven't tried anything yet.

Anyway, what is catabolics?

Hello Hope,

Sorry to keep you waiting and first thing is WoW !! your triglyde's are off the chart !! that definitely needs some attention and I would ask a doctor for an A1c test while you're at it. You need to get your blood saturation levels under better control. It's possible some new medication is needed along with a change in diet for sure.

Hope I test once a day now, for a two year period up till I started my diet/lifestyle changes, I only tested once a week if that and that was simply wrong. I did test 3 to 4 times a day in the first 2 months of my diet so I could monitor the affects of diet and exercise and the consistency of both the high and the lows. My advice is test often until you know the affects of your changes.

My medication is down to 1000mg of Metformin a day after a steady 2 years of 2000mg a day and my BG is rarely over 95 in the last 8 weeks.

Catabolics are:

A list of foods that burn up more calories through digesting than their caloric value at consumption.

Example: A raw carrot many be 25 when you eat it, but the body will burn 75 calories digesting it leaving you with a negative balance of -50 calories.

Catabolics as a whole are IMPOSSIBLE to gain weight with by themselves. The trick is utilizing them enough times a day while enjoying other foods that will assist your diet because generally a person can't live off of catabolics alone. They are boring and there's only so much you can do with them with adding rich dressings and other sauces that ruin their affect in their best value for dietary purposes. You will have to find protein sources in larger quanities outside the catabolic group but the catabolic family offers lots of nutrition and vitamins. Everything on the list is good for you, it's just a matter of selecting what you like and putting them in your plan.

The List:
Under Fruits are apples, kumquats, apricots, strawberries, limes, tangerines, blackberries, nectarines, currents, peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe, mangoes, and about twenty other fruits. Listed as vegetables are asparagus, green beans, cucumbers, peas, string beans, dandelion greens, celery, dill pickles, beets, carrots, leaks, lettuce, mushrooms, and almost every other common vegetable

If you google 'catabolics' you will find a lot of sites that try to extract money for a 'catabolic diet', send them nothing, there is no need to. No one can be successful on a catabolic only diet for very long but the trick is during your diet and long after you hit a target weight, catabolics will be a great choice to keep in your day to day life till the end of time for so many reasons.

To be honest Hope, I've felt sooooo un-diabetic lately, it just scares me I waited so long to take control of my illness and eating abuse.

Wishing you the best of luck in mastering the discipline to whip your weight and the diabetes. I know you can do it !!

I printed some information about catabolics to take to my doctor's visit next week. I hope he approves, I'd love to have some of the foods on there!

Thanks for sharing Trucker!

Epi,

After seeing your menu, I pray to the Diet Gods Above they bestow the catabolics into your plan.

Don't hesitate to contact me on either messenger if you have any questions.

Better yet, just move in with me and I'll have you in a bikini by the time our South Pacific Christmas vacation is ready for departure

hehe, don't ever take a trucker serious unless he's one foot away from your rear bumper

Hey T2, I hardly recognized you with the face lift...I mean avatar change!

Hope you had a good day,

Danke Schoen M2M and I hope you had a wonderful sun-baked day in sunny (and toasty) so-cal.

LoL, I'm like that on forums, always goofing around with my sigs and av's. If you need an av made for here, gimme a holla, i'll fix ya up

Pretty lite day here:

B: banana and coffee - 140c

No MS

L: 1 box of strawberries - free

MDS: 2 raw carrots and a mittful of olives - free

D: sauteed mushrooms in EVO and garlic with a can of peas added. this is a hard one to attach a calorie value on because the mushrooms and peas are both catabolic but carry 360 c's collectively and the EVO is about 100c's, * A note to the nay-sayers, please understand this is a 1.5 POUND meal with ample nutritional values I'm serious, this is a belly pleaser by sheer volume alone.

NS: My standard popcorn - 60c


Walked 2.5 miles tonight, perfect weather too, hi-humidity and busted out a major sweat and plenty of H2O on-hand


Mmmmm, I miss trucking out in Cali - I don't miss the traffic but I do love the 101 visuals

Thanks for the info! Keep up the great work! I'll keep checkin' in.

I just hope I have the willpower and resolve you do. The first thing I need to do is revamp the way I cook...or find another activity to enjoy--there are plenty, I guess. I love cooking and dining at ethnic restaurants but maybe it's time to enjoy non-eating pursuits.

Oh, one more question, Trucker dude...do you ever get hungry?

Sure I do just like everyone else that diets. The hunger part is much easier to deal with than the cravings. Those are two different animals and each need to be understood accordingly.

Hunger: I address my hunger about 50% of the time and here's why. Answering every whim would set me up for failure, not responding at all would be an even bigger mistake so I convince my mind we can compromise on this issue. The key (for me) is I take on catabolics for those 'gotta eat NOW' moments, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little depending on how soon my next meal is. Knowing catabolics are a safe choice I still have to tell myself not to eat everytime I get the urge. I feel this is a very important part of the psyhcological success of dieting.

Cravings: This is the hardest part of my dieting day. We simply can't erase the memories of the foods we loved that got us fat. They were an everyday part of our life. Cravings are for a specific food, like the Big Mac Value meal or a pizza or a tray of nachos smothered in cheese and chili. In my world, these were the foods that made me obese and knowing if I go back to them, I will probably fail. Cravings MUST be fought off, hunger doesn't.

I have not had one 'fast food' meal or a pizza since "D" day and nor will I for sometime to come. I attribute a lot of my success to fighting of the junk food cravings and now that I'm into the 4 month of doing without those foods, the cravings aren't near as frequent so it does get a little bit easier over time.

I'm rooting for you on your way to better food selection and growing up in an Italian enviroment, I can relate to what your saying.

Good Luck and hold the wheel with both hands.

*Burp*

Excuse Me !!

B: banana & coffee - 140c

MS: 1 Great Value Light Yogurt Raspberry - 80c

L: Romaine Turkey wrap (2 slices of meat) w/ spicy mustard - 40c

MDS: 2 carrots - free

S: Awesome Huge Chicken Salad as follows:
Quarter head of lettuce
1 chicken breast (skinless/cooked/patted dry) - 300c NO carbs
3 Radishes
1 Carrot
Kraft Caesar Parm Vinegarette - 60c 1g carb

Make a bed of ripped lettuce on a standard 10" dinner plate, slice in the 3 radishes, shread in 1 carrot, dice up the chicken breast, add dressing sparingly and toss.

Sometimes I like to add a small handful of penne noodles (add 10c per noodle) and cherry tomatoes with a light sprinkle of grated parm and fresh ground black pepper.

Going walking in an hour (too full from salad to move right now).

Ok, I'm gonna give catabolics a try. Just picked up some veggies that were on the list. I'm SO glad you made mention of the difference between hunger and cravings. I'm so bad. I give into my cravings and whims all the time!

If I see something on TV or at the movies, etc., I'll have to have some. I've got to learn to fight the cravings!!! How do you fight them???

A former neighbor had a heart attack and told me that when he feels a craving for something he shouldn't have, like his favorite cheesecake, he reminds himself that, "I've had my share." In other words, he doesn't feel deprived because he ate his lion's share of cheesecake already and he can go through the rest of his life without any more. I thought that was nice.

I'm going to keep my pantry stocked with stuff I can eat so I don't feel left out.

I just don't know what to do when the cravings hit though...

Anyhoo, your stomach must have really shrunk to feel so full on a salad. It didn't seem like a huge salad to me!

Maybe we have "DD" cup chickens up here