Obesity Discussion Forums

[heidrun]

Hey everybody
First I want to introduce myself. I am Heidrun, a 30 year old female from Iceland. I have battled with obesity my whole life and in january 2006 I had become a whopping 403 lbs. Then I changed my lifestyle with a food-plan that is really working for everybody. As of today I have lost in all 81.5 lbs in all, and thats without a single minute of exercising. I feel more great then ever in my life. Not only mentally but also physically because my food-plan has such an amount of fruits and vegetables and that stuff really makes you feel much better in every way, energywise and moodwise. Had no idea that healthy food could really have such dramatic effect. I have a weightloss journal with many articles I have written about what has helped me the most to continue losing weight, and there are some before and after 75 lbs. pics.

These are some of my thoughts on weightloss and the affects of fab-diets vs. Lifestyle change that I wrote tonight. Enjoy!

It is my opinion that weightloss and maintaining ideal weight can only be reached by a total lifestyle change. The reason for it is simple: If someone is overweight then the excess weight is almost always caused by eating the wrong things the wrong way (there can be many emotional reasons behind the overeating, and they should be addressed also to succeed in losing weight). The solution for overweight has been to diet ever since obesity and overweight started to become problems. That means that people eat in a certain way for a limited time to lose weight, and when ideal weight is reached they start to eat the same way as they did before the diet, if they havent given up on the diet before reaching the ideal weight. To go back to the old eating habits has one outcome, they made you turn fat before the diet, so you will of course get fat again!!! All those pounds that you have struggled getting off, will come back faster then it took you to lose them. It is similar as if someone is a drunk that is trying to stop drinking. If he would turn sober for a while, it wouldnt be logical for him to start drinking again as soon as he has made himself a sober good quality life. It is the same with the food, it wouldnt be logical to start eating the way that made you fat in the first place when you have reached the idealweight, because then you end up in exactly the same place you were in when you started dieting.

You have to make a decision on what you want in your life. On one hand you can choose to lose weight and gain all those positive and good things that you wish for, but then you have to change your eating habits FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!! On the other hand you can chose to give in to whatever food you are craving but then you will keep on being overweight with all the negative input it has on your life. You simply cant have it both ways, believe me, people have been trying all those years to eat whatever they like while losing weight, and I am pretty sure they have all found out that it doesnt work. I am even surer that you have also found out the hard way that it doesnt work either. Just face it, dieting dont work in the long run, so it is time to try something else that will work. Dont spend the rest of your life constantly dieting with all the struggle it involves. That has just one result: making your life utterly miserable because you wont get any results despite the hard work you put into it, and that will make you constantly feel like a loser and a failure. It really doesnt have to be boring and difficult to lose weight, you can make it so much easier for yourself with making a lifestyle change. I know I have written about this thing before, but I think this is a thing that can never be repeated enough.
I have been thinking of what is behind the whole overweight-dieting issue. It seems that the western world is obsessed with the concept of weight. If someone is overweight it is seen as a very negative thing, even if that person is very healthy and productive. It is seen to be more important and positive to be very thin then to be slightly overweight and healthy. The numbers the scale shows makes or breaks peoples happiness. The weight is seen as a measurement of peoples success or failure, and it is this thought has very deep roots in the society and our mentality. Even I have this perception of weight, if it doesnt show good numbers i feel like a failure, if it shows less weight then I feel like I am on the top of the world. Even if its just a number, I use it as a measurement on my personal qualities, like I am worth more if I lose weight, and less worth if I gain weight.


To be overweight in todays society makes other people automatically make a perceptions on what kind of a person you are, you become a stereotype in the eyes of other people. According to that stereotype all overweight people are lazy, lack self-control, stupid etc. Thats why it is acceptable to degrade us, tease us, discriminate us, because when people see only the stereotype in us we become in their eyes simply stereotypes, instead of persons with feelings and emotions. We are just "fatty", acceptable target that can be ridiculed at any time without breaking the societys behavior rules, because everyone thinks the same about fat people (including us!).

Being fat isnt accepted in the society and we feel the constant pressure of losing weight, so we can look like "normal" people. Dont get me wrong, I know that obesity is very dangerous for the health and I dont encourage anyone to stay obese, I am just diving into this perception to see what its all about, and pointing out what pressure society puts on us for being fat. The bottom line is that nearly everyone that is fat wants to lose weight because they want to achieve the "normal, beautiful" body, become normal and accepted. Of course many obese people want to lose weight because of health issues, but even for them the weightloss is in some parts based on a appearance issue. We want to be "normal" because that is what society is demanding from us, by letting us now constantly that we are not accepted. I also think that the discussion about obesity health issues is very tainted with discrimination against fat people. Even if I cant pinpoint the proof for it, I simply feel the dislike many people have against fat people. It is the same feeling you get when people are discriminating other groups, f.ex. people of other race, people with other religious beliefs etc. If obesity or overweight would only be a health issue then why do overweight people that are very healthy feel the same discrimination and pressure to become thin.

The solution that society has been putting out for overweight people (at least the last decades, it seems to be now changing gradually) to lose weight, to make the number on the scale less, is to go on a diet. Just think about all the diets that have been out there, and we are still fat!!! It is also interesting to see what most of those diets were about. There were some crazy things that were supposed to make us lose weight. All kinds of pills, band-aids, sprayes and abstinence diets. Most of them had the effect, that the body simply didnt lose weight with the method promoted because it couldnt biologically and nutritionally. They simply couldnt work because the method would never be able (unless breaking the law of nature) to make the body lose weight. But people continued to try one fab-diet after another with no results. And who did they blaim for their failure? They blamed themselves, not the diet method! So not only did all those diets not work, but they created whole generations of women (that were more overweight and miserable) that had in the end no belief in their own abilities and talents, because the failure of becoming normal according to the demands of society and not overweight, failed again and again and they are constantly blamed themselves and no other for it. Just think about all those crazy ideas that were promoted and were supposed to work. It kind of reminds me of the era of travelling salesmen in the last century that were selling their "own special blend" of "medicine" that was supposed to cure everything. Of course they didnt work at all, but people kept buying those miracles in a bottle in the same way as we keep spending money on fab-diets, believing "that one will work for sure" even though we have tried hundreds of other fab-diets before with no result. Isnt the human being a marvelous creature? I think there cant be any other such race in the universe that is better in believing in things that dont work, like we are. We think that people in the middle-ages were a bunch of crazy people that believed in ghosts and witches. I assure you we are no better then them, it is just other things we believe in, but its the same madness. I guess its just a part of being human

[Obesity Discussion]

Amazing post Heidrun! Incredible to say the least! I agree with everything you have up there, especially about the diet part. Diets are only short-term fix, and a lifestyle change is needed to have a permanent impact.

The one thing that pains me to see are people who diet by almost starving themselves. What they don't realize is that yeah they are losing weight, but some of that weightloss is from the loss of muscle weight. Muscle burns calories (about 50 calories per lb. of muscle), so any muscle you lose reduces your bodies ability to burn calories. Once you get off the starvation diet, you'll not only gain the weight back, but more due to the fact that you're body cannot burn as many calories as before due to the loss of calorie burning muscle.


And most importantly, welcome to our community and congratulations on your progress so far!

[William Wallace]

Welcome Heidrun! I must say, that is the best introduction I've ever seen!!!!

What part of Iceland you from? Reykjavik? I have heard it is very beatiful up there! If you don't mind me asking, what's it like?

[heidrun]

Originally Posted by William Wallace

Welcome Heidrun! I must say, that is the best introduction I've ever seen!!!!

What part of Iceland you from? Reykjavik? I have heard it is very beatiful up there! If you don't mind me asking, what's it like?

Thanks, thats so nice of you!!
I am from south Iceland and I was brought up on a farm near Selfoss (that is the biggest town in the south except for the capital area). Its a 40 min drive east from Reykjavik. Now I live in a small village by the sea 10 min drive from Selfoss, and 40 min drive from Reykjavik. I work in a petshop in Selfoss and I really liked that work. I am a big time animal lover, and I own 6 cats. 2 regulars, 1 deaf norwegian forest cat, A standard Bengal female and a snowbengal female plus a Maine Coon male. I take the Maine coon with me to work and he loves it. He spends the day "stalking" the animals and birds, that means just looking at them for a long time, probably wondering how they would taste with some nice cream sauce. Then he is very busy being adorable the whole day, and that can be strenuous at times, so he always takes afternoon naps. He is such a character. I have even been able to teach him tricks. He knows how to "give me five!!" and to chose between closed hands with his paws, always chosing the one that has the treat. Now I make him chose everything, but it can be difficult with toys. If I let him chose between toys that he likes then he simply cant make up his mind which to chose. He lifts up his paw but looks like he is having serious dilemma on what to chose, simply the smartest cat around.

Well that was wayyyyy OFF-TOPIC, and back to your question. Yes Iceland is very beautiful, and in my opinion a great country to live in and raise a family. We have very low crime rate here, maybe 1-3 murders a year in the whole country, there is enough employment, the air is clean, the water is plenty and clean there is certainly enough space etc. The only thing that isnt so great is maybe the clima that is pretty cold, but we have high hopes to global warming When you are used to a cold climate then its not so bad. We have days in the summer that are pretty hot and the winters are relatively mild considering the position of the island. At least we dont have really big bug issues or other problems that follow hot climates. Besides you can always put on some warm clothes but in extreme warm you just have to deal with it or get into a house with air condition. Now is my favorite time of the year. In these months we arent having any nights, its bright all night. It is a fact that Icelanders are seasonal manic-depressives. In the winter when its very dark everyone is kind of depressed and sleep through the winter, but in the summer everybody is perky and joyful and sleep a lot less. I am now not getting more then 4-5 hours sleep, I simply dont need more sleep, besides I can sleep as I want next winter.
Hope that gives you some idea on how it is here.

[William Wallace]

Wow, that sounds amazing! Both the lifestyle and your personal zoo at home! Do you have any good pictures of your cats? I'm a cat lover myself.

On a side note, your crime rate is incredible? Then again, where can you run? You're on an island

I did hear there were some wonderful hot springs there which helps keep the climate fairly mild; any truth to this?

[heidrun]

Originally Posted by William Wallace

Wow, that sounds amazing! Both the lifestyle and your personal zoo at home! Do you have any good pictures of your cats? I'm a cat lover myself.

On a side note, your crime rate is incredible? Then again, where can you run? You're on an island

I did hear there were some wonderful hot springs there which helps keep the climate fairly mild; any truth to this?

Nah it is not because of the hot springs we have mild climate. It is the cause of the gulf-stream, it is basically a hot sea that comes from the south and travels the south coast of Iceland, making the sea warmer and therefore the climate better.

Here are some links to a pet message forum in Iceland, where you can see pics of some of my cats, you have to scroll down a little to see the pics:
http://www.tjorvar.is/spjall/viewtop...364&highlight=
http://www.tjorvar.is/spjall/viewtop...640&highlight=
Here is my Maine Coon cat in the petshop.
http://www.tjorvar.is/spjall/viewtop...235&highlight=

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by heidrun

Nah it is not because of the hot springs we have mild climate. It is the cause of the gulf-stream, it is basically a hot sea that comes from the south and travels the south coast of Iceland, making the sea warmer and therefore the climate better.

Here are some links to a pet message forum in Iceland, where you can see pics of some of my cats, you have to scroll down a little to see the pics:
http://www.tjorvar.is/spjall/viewtop...364&highlight=
http://www.tjorvar.is/spjall/viewtop...640&highlight=
Here is my Maine Coon cat in the petshop.
http://www.tjorvar.is/spjall/viewtop...235&highlight=

Yep, you are dead on about the gulf stream! Regarding your global warming comment, before you know it you'll be living in a tropical rainforest


Your cats are beautiful! The pics of the Coon checking out the store animals is very cute. I have two cats at home myself. Nothing special though, just 2 boys I picked up at the animal shelter. I'm so jealous that you have Bengals! I've always wanted one!

I couldn't imagine having all sun or no sun, that would drive me nuts! The City of Seattle has a similar depression issue since it's always very rainy and gloomy there.