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Post by Thorngrub on Jun 20, 2006 8:52:53 GMT -5
I remember when I was in London during Thanksgiving week (back in '95): I celebrated our august holiday at the Maccy Ds  |
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Post by dolly on Jun 20, 2006 8:58:03 GMT -5
Well I can't say I blame you Thorn. Better option than Pie, chips n mushy peas after all...
I had many a KFC when I holidayed in Bangkok too. To my shame.
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Post by Paul on Jun 20, 2006 10:30:35 GMT -5
PEW: Excellent post at the begining!
Wow, I've really enjoyed reading all of y'alls comments here; Layla, you had some really interesting perspectives....
I kinda struggle w/ chubbiness.....I'm not fat, but I'm not skinny either. To quote Cartman, I'm big boned (It's my German roots)...I'm 6 feet tall 190lbs...I drink too much, smoke lots of weed, and rarly exercise.
Latley, in large part b/c of my girlfriend, I've been more on a health kick.... I barely eat potato chips anymore, and I'm staying away from fried foods (that's tuff considering I was raised down South). I've been walking around a lot more (I've had a few knee surgery's so jogging isn't too good for me), and changing up my eating habits a bit....I still will eat 'junk' food, but I've cut back by at least 50% if not more. Like I used to eat bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches for breakfast, now I drink a Slim-Fast and eat a bananna. I used to eat greasy food for lunch, now I'm bringing sandwiches from home, or lower fat mircowave food (that shit is kinda gross, but I'm also trying to save money, and eating out everyday for breakfast and luch was a very expensive habit). Anyway, I was creeping up around 200lbs, now I'm back down to like 192lbs, and trying to get to around 180lbs...I don't want to get too thin, and like I said I'm big boned so I'll never be lanky, but I definitely want to shape up a bit....Plus I don't want as many health problems down the road, and now that I'm 30, I'm thinking about this stuff a lot more; and I want to stick around a lot longer to be w/ my girl.
Anyway, I guess I've rambled on quite a bit, but the bottom line and what got me started was basically Layla's post about people taken accountability for their actions, and that's what I'm doing....Oh, I've also cut back on drinking , and weed smoking. I don't think I'll ever give either up (I love bourbon, red wine, and beer too much), but I've cut back by about 30% or so....both for health and money reasons + when I'm with my girlfriend the urge to be a goon gets diminished; I've become more civilized.
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Post by Paul on Jun 20, 2006 10:50:21 GMT -5
Now I need to break the nasty habit of smoking (cigs) when I drink...I'll only have 2 or 3, but still that's too many...I never smoke at home or work, but give me a few beers, and damn, I want a ciggarette...I don't smoke often, but I probably have about 2 to 5 cigs a week....I just can't seem to help myself when I drink...I kinda like smoking now and then...the last ciggarette I had was 4 days ago...come Friday when I go out I'll probably have one or two; hopefully I'll stop that habit pretty soon.
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Post by tuneschick on Jun 20, 2006 11:12:52 GMT -5
Now I need to break the nasty habit of smoking (cigs) when I drink...I'll only have 2 or 3, but still that's too many...I never smoke at home or work, but give me a few beers, and damn, I want a ciggarette...I don't smoke often, but I probably have about 2 to 5 cigs a week....I just can't seem to help myself when I drink...I kinda like smoking now and then...the last ciggarette I had was 4 days ago...come Friday when I go out I'll probably have one or two; hopefully I'll stop that habit pretty soon. Good for you Paul - tough huh? Man, I quit smoking almost 8 years ago and I STILL get the craving for a ciggie when I drink sometimes. I'm usually good at resisting - helps that very few of my friends smoke and you can't smoke in any bars or on covered patios here. But when I catch that first whiff of someone lighting up - so tempting sometimes. |
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Post by luke on Jun 20, 2006 11:27:27 GMT -5
Saw this show called Half Ton Man on TLC about hugely obese people, particularly this one guy who was 1,000 lbs. Guy was just this enormous beast who took up an entire room. He just lay there naked, his wife bringing him more food. Eventually the hospital came, tore down the walls of his house, and took him in. They had to build a table for him because it was so huge.
Anyway, this show dealth with chronic eaters- not simply people who were fifty or a hundred pounds overweight, but people who weighed over 500 pounds.
Several of the doctors disagreed on the way to treat it, but the show focussed on one doctor who said the only cure for this is lyposuction and extensive therapy. He hypothosized that people who ate that much lacked a part of the brain that makes you feel full when you eat too much. He showed where he'd taken that part of the brain out of some lab mice, and they were hugely obese, where the other mice were normal. Basically, these overeaters never feel full.
He said that without the lypo and therapy, patients will blow back up eventually. The documentary showed one man who'd dropped from 600 pounds to 160, but then blew back up within a few years once he got the taste of a chili dog.
One lady was describing her first diet. She couldn't understand the feeling she was having, and reported it to others. Turns out it was hunger, and she says, "Some people on this world have nothing to eat and have never felt full, and here I am, not knowing what it feels like to be hungry."
Another great quote from an obese lady went, "Imagine if alcoholics or heroin addicts had to take just a little bit of alcohol or just a little bit of heroin to survive every day. They'd fall off the wagon in no time, and that's what happens to us.
Obviously people with disorders are such a minority that they can't possibly fit into an argument about why there are so many fat people, but I thought I'd post about it here, seemed to fit.
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Post by Kensterberg on Jun 20, 2006 11:34:11 GMT -5
I always feel sorry for people that large, b/c they obviously have no control over their weight and it has to be a miserable way to live.
I mean, these are people who often can't get out of their houses b/c they don't fit through the door. How fucked up is that? You're sitting in your house, and can't even go outside ... and you know it's because you weigh like a half a ton, but you can't stop eating. This has to be hell, literally.
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Post by Mary on Jun 20, 2006 11:41:23 GMT -5
In poverty stricken neighborhoods, it's not a matter of "the office job" or "I'm lazy." It's a matter of "I live on welfare, don't have a car, and the only places to eat within a mile are McDonald's and Church's Chicken." I think many people don't realize that a huge (ba dum dum) portion of the obese in America are poor people who have no health education and few means to really eat healthy. We should be reaching out to these areas. Bingo. have i told you recently how much i love you, luke? feel the love. Regarding bans on soda & candy in school - I don't necessarily support an all-out ban. Teachers should be able to bring cookies & candy for students on special occasions (I always bring my students doughnuts on the last day of class). But I definitely support banning soda & candy vending machines in public schools. Cheers, M |
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Post by luke on Jun 20, 2006 11:50:01 GMT -5
Thought of you a few times this weekend, Mary, when I was hanging out in ol' Tennessee. Must've been all that love. Or at least the acid.
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Post by chrisfan on Jun 20, 2006 11:50:59 GMT -5
I know a woman who could qualify to be featured on a show like that. She is a food addict - plain and simple. She normally cannot get up off a couch without assistance from someone. If she is going somewhere, such as an auditorium, she has to map out her path to get there from the car, including several hard chairs along the way to stop and rest (have to be hard - soft low seats she can't get out of). I know of times that she has had to call someone, and ask them to call the house back over and over until her husband woke up and answered the phone, so he could be told to go downstairs and help her to stand up and go upstairs to sleep -- she' can't climb the stairs without someone (a strong man usually) to walk behind her helping her (and usually stops to rest on the landing on the way up.
Last year, she was hospitalized for weeks with severe breathing problems caused by her obesity. Fortunately, she was in the hospital when the attack first happened. Had she not been, she'd most likely be dead today. This episode should have been a wake up call for her. There really is not a better way to flash "Change your life drastically, or you will die" into her brain. Yet she's refused gastric bypass or other surgical options. She says she's dieting, but no one can see any notable change. Not to mention, it was discovered while she was sick that she'd been hiding quite a bit from her husband, since he found out then that she had diabetes, and she apparently had known that for over 10 years.
She has all the classic behavior of an addict. She's even confided in me before about the circumstances that led her to eat so much, and it sounded exactly like an alcholic talking about when he turned to the bottle. If her addiction were to alcohol, drugs, or any of the "traditional" addictions, I firmly believe that the way she's dealt with - both from her doctors and her family - would be entirely different. But there's this taboo in just flat out telling her - you're obese, you need to quit eating so much, you're killing yourself. I'll readily admit that I've caught myself resisting it -- her obesity is this (no pun intended) elephant in the room that no one is allowed to talk about.
When it comes to overweight in this country, I think it has to be broken down into several categories. There are people who are overweight through little fault of their own (hormone issues, injuries preventing exercise, etc). There are people who are overweight due to their own irresponsibility - they just like potatoes and cake and refuse to replace them with asparagus and rice cakes. Then there are morbidly obese food addicts. For those people, I just don't think that an understanding "hey, it's just the way our culture is" excuse is beneficial. There has to be a balance found between outright hatred to fat people and such sweeping excuse making.
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Post by Paul on Jun 20, 2006 12:00:11 GMT -5
Now I need to break the nasty habit of smoking (cigs) when I drink...I'll only have 2 or 3, but still that's too many...I never smoke at home or work, but give me a few beers, and damn, I want a ciggarette...I don't smoke often, but I probably have about 2 to 5 cigs a week....I just can't seem to help myself when I drink...I kinda like smoking now and then...the last ciggarette I had was 4 days ago...come Friday when I go out I'll probably have one or two; hopefully I'll stop that habit pretty soon. Good for you Paul - tough huh? Man, I quit smoking almost 8 years ago and I STILL get the craving for a ciggie when I drink sometimes. I'm usually good at resisting - helps that very few of my friends smoke and you can't smoke in any bars or on covered patios here. But when I catch that first whiff of someone lighting up - so tempting sometimes. Thank you Tunes  I was proud of myself Saturday...I drank a whole bottle of zinfandel and didn't have one cig! I wanted one soooo bad, but I fought the urge. Hopefully that trend will continue....My friends are about 50/50 w/ smoking; half do, half don't...it's tough when I'm partying w/ the smokers, that's when I cave...lately I've been just taking a few drags of a friends cig, and that helps...I get a quick fix without smoking a whole cigarette. |
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Post by tuneschick on Jun 20, 2006 12:19:10 GMT -5
Thank you Tunes I was proud of myself Saturday...I drank a whole bottle of zinfandel and didn't have one cig! I wanted one soooo bad, but I fought the urge. Woohoo! That's a good start. It's funny, I quit smoking cold turkey and didn't smoke at ALL while I was drinking for about 3 years. And then the cravings just started to come back, but only when I was drinking. I've never had an urge to start up again full time (and always feel horrid the morning after I have any at all) - but man, a ciggie goes so well with a beer sometimes. I've been good lately - but a week before my wedding last year, a bunch of colleagues took me out to celebrate and my former boss (a heavy smoker) bought me a pack. Smoked about half the pack and then a few cigars on top of that. I died a long, painful death the next day. Awful. Never again. |
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Post by Paul on Jun 20, 2006 12:29:53 GMT -5
^^^
Cigs/Cigars definitely add to a hangover....When I had knee surgery (I tore my ACL playing basketball) the doctor told me to quite smoking b/c the cadaver wouldn't take if I continued smoking...I told him I only smoke occasionally and he said it didn't matter; I had to stop cold turkey for 6 months....Ever since (that was back in the summer of 2003) I've just smoked ocasionally....When I went for a follow up a few weeks after the surgery, I asked the doctor why I had to quit, and if a had to quit all types of smoking (wink wink nudge nudge)....He told me that smoking/niccotine restricts blood flow, and the cadaver wouldn't take to my body if the blood was restricted...When I asked about the 'other' kind of smoking he said "oh, you like the wacky tabbacky do you", and I said "yep", and he told me to go ahead and smoke "the grass" it will have no effect on my healing process...as soon as I got home I rolled a big fatty; it worked better for pain than the pain killers did....
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Post by Paul on Jun 20, 2006 12:32:38 GMT -5
but man, a ciggie goes so well with a beer sometimes.
Very true....Oh, the doc also said b/c smoking restricts blood flow it increases the hangover feeling...I've noticed when I party and have like one cig, I feel fine in the morning...when I party and have like 6 or 7 cigs I have a headache....
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Post by tuneschick on Jun 20, 2006 12:38:01 GMT -5
^^^ Cigs/Cigars definitely add to a hangover....When I had knee surgery (I tore my ACL playing basketball) the doctor told me to quite smoking b/c the cadaver wouldn't take if I continued smoking...I told him I only smoke occasionally and he said it didn't matter; I had to stop cold turkey for 6 months....Ever since (that was back in the summer of 2003) I've just smoked ocasionally....When I went for a follow up a few weeks after the surgery, I asked the doctor why I had to quit, and if a had to quit all types of smoking (wink wink nudge nudge)....He told me that smoking/niccotine restricts blood flow, and the cadaver wouldn't take to my body if the blood was restricted...When I asked about the 'other' kind of smoking he said "oh, you like the wacky tabbacky do you", and I said "yep", and he told me to go ahead and smoke "the grass" it will have no effect on my healing process...as soon as I got home I rolled a big fatty; it worked better for pain than the pain killers did.... Yeah, hangovers always felt so much worse when I reeked of smoke and my throat hurt. Yech. Did you find it hard to quit cold turkey, Paul? Or did you find it harder to quit smoking weed? Strangely enough, I quit smoking both ciggies and pot 8 years ago and haven't had pot since, nor wanted it. I never enjoyed it that much to start with - never did much for me except make me sleepy. Ciggies on the other hand - sometimes when I'm sitting out on the deck on a hot summer night at about 2 in the morning having a beer, I still think a cigarette would be absolutely perfect. I always loved smoking at night, especially outside in the summer. Weird. |
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I was proud of myself Saturday...I drank a whole bottle of zinfandel and didn't have one cig! I wanted one soooo bad, but I fought the urge. Hopefully that trend will continue....My friends are about 50/50 w/ smoking; half do, half don't...it's tough when I'm partying w/ the smokers, that's when I cave...lately I've been just taking a few drags of a friends cig, and that helps...I get a quick fix without smoking a whole cigarette.