To all The 'FAT' people in the world...

Hi instgr- Milk is a good thing. Have you tried 1%? I like mine flavoured - vanilla is best. :)
Healthy Choice makes some good stuff.

I know how you feel; I've been trying but...and vigorous exercise is out for me.

Years ago I used whole milk, then switched to 2%, then 1% and finally to non-fat - but that's still like 70 calories a glass... I'm trying a new "Peach Twist put out by Welches, only 10 calories (uses Splenda) but it still has a bit of an acidy after taste - maybe after I get used to it...

I really found your report about fat people and their problems very interesting.I was also glad to note that you don't drink alcohol but like milk.Milk is definitely better.As for your advice about how to lose weight I can only say eat fruit first thing in the morning eg.apples, peaches strawberries,blue berries etc.Go for organic food rather than prcessed foods and drink plenty of water all day long.Another thing,have green tea after your meals.As for exercise, walking is the BEST exercise.Another thing,eat your meals S-L-O-W-L-Y.

Well, I do share more than a few of the weight issues with you & empathize. Unfortunately there are no easy solutions & your milk issue could be one of you biggest issues. In 1999, I was diagnosed with gallstones & it taught me a lot about a food plan. I do not use the word diet, because it refers to an action you can quit once you hit your "target weight", in order to attain a better weight you have to quit eating all the stuff that can be a problem & change your food habits entirely. To begin with you should really get some of the diabetic cook books that are offered through some of the commercials that run offering the free cookbooks. Unfortunately, the bulk of prepared foods in this country basically promote diabetes & it is one reason that diabetes has reached an epidemic level in the United States. You need to begin reading labels yesterday & avoid one of the country's biggest & most dangerous food additives High Fructose Corn Syrup, it is an insidious ingredient that is in pretty much everything & it will send your blood sugar levels up way faster than regular sugar would. You also need to expand the fiber in your diet. That can be done in several ways & it is best to work with your diabetic cook book to learn which forms of fiber work best for you. You might try working with different combinations of green teas to which you can add things like milk or soy milk to improve taste. Frankly while there are a lot of prepackaged green teas on the market it is probably better to brew you own & then try to mix it with fruit juices (berry juices & berries of all kinds are best as they help your body to produce insulin) & or milk or soy milk. I used the Silk products to wean myself off of regular milk a decade ago & now actually prefer it. The truth is that none of this is easy, but your life is obviously not easy now & you may learn that you become more comfortable once you've been working with this for a while. While the diabetic cook book should help you some; there is another book that you can find in most health food stores called "Nutritional Guide To Healing" & you can find a wealth of information in that book. Bear in mind 'though, you need to change your eating habits for good, not go on some "diet" there are no easy solutions & you do need to try & choke down more water, your body needs water to be able to process & if you do not drink it you will continue to have issues. Finally there is a program on most public broadcast stations called "Sit & Be Fit" which is an exercise program that can be done from a sitting position, which you obviously need as your feet are such an issue.

The truth is had I followed my Dr.s' advice when I was diagnosed with gallstones, I would most likely be right where you are now. Instead when I was diagnosed by not one but 3 Dr.s with a "need" to remove my gallbladder; I fought it & worked with a young alternative medicine student & purged the gallstones from my gallbladder rather than let them operate on me & take my gallbladder out. Now when I slip a bit & eat more bad food than I should, my gallbladder warns me & I go back to my regular routine, but most Dr.s will never suggest this as an option & so most people have their early warning system removed, because the Dr.s do not like to suggest alternative methods. I won't tell you that these are miracle solutions that will have you back in some wonderful shape, I will say that if you work with these principles you may find a bit of success, but the truth is you spent many years creating your health issues & it will take hard work & dedication to try to improve the life you have now. Good luck, yer pal Mel Bell.

I am also a diabetic, found out about four months ago, and must admit that I am really battling to stick to the healthy diet suggested by doctors. On top of that, yes I am fat, have the diabetic neuropathy problem, had the gall bladder removed about 15 years ago, am allergic to soy products, and cracked my right hip in a car accident years ago so am not able to walk far or stand for too long.
I am at the moment able to keep my weight under control and it has stabilised but know that I need to loose about 30 pounds to reach my goal weight.
I get so sick of the usual comments from our skinny brethren re eat less and exercise more, in summer it is fine I swim and exercise in the pool so I am not having to support my weight.
I know I got myself into this but gosh give me a break, why criticise me for eating when I do not drink alcohol or smoke, I might be killing myself but at least I am not harming others.
This sounds like a good moan and maybe I needed to get it off my chest so sorry for that.
As my very fat sister asks, "Why do they have to call it skinny dipping and not fatty dipping?"
All in all life's great and even though I do get fed up with being fat I must admit I am blessed in many other ways.
God loves us fat or thin.

At your age I would say it is difficult to come up with solutions for weight loss. My best recommendation would be to just shrug it off and live with it. Once you are determined to do that, then you will see that you don't want to eat that much, rather than that you want to lose weight.

The mental frame of mind is very important. When you become okay with being fat, then you will just lose the stress and tension that keeps you eating and prevents weight loss. My advice, just chill out and stop worrying, and the way to lose weight will come naturally to you.

Recently, in large French city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tanned woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said:
THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE A MERMAID OR A WHALE?
A middle aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded

To Whom It May Concern:
Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans). They have an active sex life, they get pregnant
and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp.
They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia.
Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.
Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinian psychoanalysts due to identity crisis.

Fish or human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them not to mention how could they have sex?

Therefore they don't have kids either. Not to mention who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a coffee with my friends. With time we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.

Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think,Good gosh, look how smart I am........

An "overweight" friend sent me this, enjoy.

gulping down full glasses of milk regularly is the equivalent to loading up on sugars which increases your risk of reactive hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and also increases the long term risk for type II diabetes. If you really love it, I'd recommend finding a way to make sure you are getting some good fats and proteins on board before drinking it straight.

i agree that herbal tea also comes in very handy. especially the green tea and when drinking water, squeeze a little lemon in to it.

Rice milk is where its at! I dont drink cow's milk anymore because rice milk, to me, tastes better, it lasts longer (you don't have to refrigerate it until you open it), and it is much healthier for you. The brand I buy most of the time is Rice Dream...try it instgtr

As you can see everyone has his or her own ideal of the perfect plan. The bottom line are the numbers - making the amount of calories burned higher than the calories consumed.

The first 10 or 12 is easy because it is water, after that about a poind a week is good.

It's great that you're making an effort to adopt a healthier lifestyle. If something doesn't work right away, many people give up. It's all about persistence, and making appropriate adjustments as needed. You have a good point about eating healthy. I know some of the "healthy" stuff isn't appealing, but I guess you just have to develop a taste for it. It takes some getting used to. Good luck with your quest.

I could make a few suggestions but I don't know how you would go about them. Eat plenty of fresh fruit, not fruit in the cans processed, bananas are good for the heart. Take a banana or two occasionally. When I wrote to my father to do that a few years ago he refused and wrote to me, they go right through him, he didn't like them because they cleaaned
all the trash out of his stomach. Papayas, they are good against Malaria
and other mosquitoes. Fresh milk is good but the full cream in it makes you fat. Guava, an occasional coconut and instead of drinking pure milk from the cow why not try coconut milk. Forget the soybean milk because too many soy products give you kidney stones by making your urine sticky which in turn brings on diabetes. I'm glad to say I overcame the kidney stone problem. Eat plenty of bread, try to find the grain breads with wheat husks because they are very good. You need fiber. A human body needs a certain amount of fiber every day and
older you get, the more you need because your stomach doesn't work as good as it used to in your younger days. Biscuits are good but I like salty biscuits because they do work on your apetite and reduce your eating. If you like to try herbs, go to your health food store and look for capsules titled Chickweed or Natures Iodine. I know what they
are like. I have had them both. Natures Iodine is a stronger version of Chickweed. There are no chemicals in it, and you should take one per day. I used to take it three times a day but when I used my bowels
all I could feel is oily fat coming out. They don't have them in the Philippines but may be in your country. They help you to train up your
system against fat. If after a while you take a look at fatty foods and your stomach starts turning over making you sick and you say, yak I hate all that cholesterol, then you are on your way down. If you want to fry meat or an egg, use vegetable oil instead of animal products. You may like to poach your egg in a little bit of water just
covering the base of your fry pan. Instead of frying your pork chops in any oil at all, put in a bit of water in the fry pan and cook your chops by turning them occasionally. While you are cooking them watch and see how much fat comes out of them. Don't drink the fatty water when it cools down like people tend to do but pour it in your flower bed or around your fruit trees as compost. If you have a tape measure, measure your waist at least once a month. 11/8/2009.

I could make a few suggestions but I don't know how you would go about them. Eat plenty of fresh fruit, not fruit in the cans processed, bananas are good for the heart. Take a banana or two occasionally. When I wrote to my father to do that a few years ago he refused and wrote to me, they go right through him, he didn't like them because they cleaaned
all the trash out of his stomach. Papayas, they are good against Malaria
and other mosquitoes. Fresh milk is good but the full cream in it makes you fat. Guava, an occasional coconut and instead of drinking pure milk from the cow why not try coconut milk. Forget the soybean milk because too many soy products give you kidney stones by making your urine sticky which in turn brings on diabetes. I'm glad to say I overcame the kidney stone problem. Eat plenty of bread, try to find the grain breads with wheat husks because they are very good. You need fiber. A human body needs a certain amount of fiber every day and
older you get, the more you need because your stomach doesn't work as good as it used to in your younger days. Biscuits are good but I like salty biscuits because they do work on your apetite and reduce your eating. If you like to try herbs, go to your health food store and look for capsules titled Chickweed or Natures Iodine. I know what they
are like. I have had them both. Natures Iodine is a stronger version of Chickweed. There are no chemicals in it, and you should take one per day. I used to take it three times a day but when I used my bowels
all I could feel is oily fat coming out. They don't have them in the Philippines but may be in your country. They help you to train up your
system against fat. If after a while you take a look at fatty foods and your stomach starts turning over making you sick and you say, yak I hate all that cholesterol, then you are on your way down. If you want to fry meat or an egg, use vegetable oil instead of animal products. You may like to poach your egg in a little bit of water just
covering the base of your fry pan. Instead of frying your pork chops in any oil at all, put in a bit of water in the fry pan and cook your chops by turning them occasionally. While you are cooking them watch and see how much fat comes out of them. Don't drink the fatty water when it cools down like people tend to do but pour it in your flower bed or around your fruit trees as compost. If you have a tape measure, measure your waist at least once a month. 11/8/2009.

I went from 200 lbs down to 130 and I've stayed there for a couple years. I know with confidence I'll never put the weight back on because I'm mindful now of what I eat. My diet is nothing fancy though it is low-calorie. It's all about starting to face up to the way you think and feel about food and drink. When you're mindful about what that food is and how you feel about it, all the rest will follow.