losing weight

Hello to all who may be reading this.

I am Freda and I am 64 years old and overweight. I was always thin, never had a care about what I ate until 1996 my thyroid went completely off the chart and I gained 40 pounds almost overnight. Once the medical providers leveled me out I started walking, watching what I ate and trimmed down to a nice 129 pounds. Losing 40 pounds. At that time I learned how much easier it is to do something to lose weight if you have a partner. Someone to help motivate and you in turn motivate them. Over the years I maintained a nice weight, never a care until 2002. It seemed once on the lips forever on the hips. I was baking and cooking alot to please Bill, my husband and of course a long the way sampling it all. My sister got sick and I would make appetizing dishes to tempt her to eat and of course I had to taste it all. By the time 2007 rolled a round {just in five years} I had gained 30 pounds I didn't need nor want. I was lazy about exercise and loved to eat. The aging process kicked in so my metabolism did a complete makeoover..
My husband was overweight as well. There came a time I just couldnt breathe, I felt like the fat was choking me. WE joined weight watchers, walked, road our bike....anything to move a muscle and it worked. He lost 40 pounds and I lost 30 in a matter of just four months.
WE didn't value that accomplishment. By Christmas we were again eating too much food and got lazy about walking or anything else. SOOOO...now here we are in May 2009 over a year later we find oursleves FAT and LAZY!
Yesterday, we started our new effort in weight loss. WE will watch our portion control and walk, walk, walk! That is what I find help me the most is to have someone to share the journey with, encouraging each other to a successful visit to the scales.

Eating Right is Half the Battle!!

I was just watching Oprah as a recent show that I DVR'ed and Dr. Oz was on. They were revisiting all of her past shows with him and how he has changed many people's lives in just helping them to change a few things in their lives to help them become healthier and lose weight or get checked for cancers and be up to health on their life. It was very informative and interesting. I could not stop working out during the show in fear of getting all the things that they were talking about. I know a little over the top but there is a lot of truth to it all. We all think that our health will start to fail when we are 60 or 80 and the truth especially this day in age is that more and more people are having health issues at younger ages. We are in a time also that we have better medical treatment too so that is a plus but I know that I don't want to be the person in the hospital every couple of months trying to solve another problem with my health. So now is the time to do something which we are all doing and I am soo proud of us. Can anyone tell me what works for them? What are they doing for meals? Here is a share of my breakfast:


I make about a 1/2 of oatmeal for breakfast. I cook the plain oats because it is healthier.

I also make a smoothly.

1/2 cup of each of these frozen:
Blueberries
Blackberrries
Strawberies
rasberries

One banana
1/4 c of grape juice concentrate, 1 cup of apple juice (to make it sweeter, any juice concentrate will do as long as it is 100%)

I blend all together and it gives me my antioxidants and fruit. Sometimes when that is not enough I eat one egg cooked in a little bit of olive oil.

Some more fun food sires to check out

http://www.nms.on.ca/Elementary/10_tips_to_healty_eating_and_phy.htm

http://www.funenclave.com/fun-stuff/funny-facts-health-and-food-i-971.html

http://www.zilvan.com/funnyfacts/facts_about_health_and_food.htm

FUN AND FUNNY FACTS ABOUT FOOD AND DRINK!!

You consume one tenth (0.1) of a calorie when you lick a stamp.

A can of spam is opened every 4 seconds.

Strawberries have more vitamin C than oranges.

Americans eat more bananas that any other fruit: a total of 11 billion a year.

McDonald's salads contain up to 60% more fat than their burgers.

Coffee beans can be mixed into B type blood changing it into O type blood.

According to U.S. FDA standards, 1 cup of orange juice is allowed to contain 10 fruit fly eggs, but only 2 maggots.

Justin Timberlake's half-eaten french toast sold for over $3,000 on Ebay.

The U.S. Army packs tabasco pepper sauce in every tation kit they give to soldiers.

Lemons contain more sugar that strawberries.

Half of the world's population live on a staple diet of rice.

During a lifetime the average person consumes 35 tons of food

Vitamin A is known to prevent " night blindness," and carrots are loaded with vitamin A

The longer that fruits or vegetables sit around waiting to be sold or eaten, the more nutrients they lose. But fruits and vegetables grown for freezing are usually frozen right after they're picked. Therefore, they have less time to lose their
nutrients.

When a source of Vitamin C (orange, lemon, grapefruit, strawberry, tomato, potato, etc.) is eaten with meat or cooked dry beans, the body makes better use of the iron in the protein food.

It Takes 3500 Calories To Make A Pound Of Fat!

The Average Person Eats Almost 1500 Pounds Of Food A Year!

Good Websites To Be Aware Of....

I wanted us all to be aware that on the Biggest Loser website, there are all sorts of tips, recipes, inspirational stories to help keep us motivated so be sure to check it out when you can at:
www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/

Also there is another neat thing that they are doing on Biggest Loser called Pound for Pound.
For every pound of weight you lose, Pound For Pound will donate 10 cents to feeding America. Which is enough to provide one pound of groceries to a local food bank. It is free and helps. Log onto: http://pfpchallenge.com/

Lastly if you are in a major rush while out and about shopping, Subway has a great weight loss program that is both healthy and tastes great. It is called Subway Fresh Fit. Go into your local Subway and check it out or go onto http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/

Another great tip I recently learned, if you do feel like going out to eat and want to eat some junk food. Almost all fast food places have a healthier choice. I went to Taco Bell Recently and got the Fiesta Taco Salad. Instead of eating it out of the fried tortilla bowl that they put it in, I just asked to have the salad without. Also at In and Out Burgers, you can order any burger without the bun and they will wrap it up in lettuce for you.

Anyone have more tips to share??? I would really love to hear them.

e pound of groceries to a local food bank.

See below for program details.

For every pound you lose, Pound For Pound will donate 10¢ to Feeding America™ - enough to provide one pound of groceries to a local food bank.

See below for program detai

Mia's weight loss story

Soo I know that I am the only one on here now but I am excited to lose this weight. I know there are different things that work for different people so I am not going to try and say that one way is right. For me I will tell you my story though. Cause everyone has one. Sooo here it goes.

I was always a big boned girl but never overweight. I had a lot of muscle growing up and was always playing sports. I am 5'7 and always was about an size 8-9 which is very good for my body type. In January 2008 I went off of sugar for a while and went back on during summer and felt horrible. Started to get sharp pain in my stomach that would last for about 24-48 hours. Let me tell you that was worse than child labor pains. Soo since September I have been on my own weight loss program. I did weight watchers for a while but found out that I was too healthy for that even the core plan. Was making me dizzy. I am highly sensitive to foods and soo I created my own plan. I suffered for the last 10 years of panic and Anxiety disorders and depression. And consider my self a hypochondriac a bit too. Also Rapid heart rate and fluttering which scares the crap out of me. SOO, here is what I have done since September:
I cut out sugar completly. Even garlic salt has sugar in it. Started reading all labels. No MSG, no sugar, no syrups, no evaporated cane juices, none of that. Also nothing with Partially Hydrogenated oils in it. Not much butter. 99% of the time I use Olive Oil or Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (very good for you with no cholesterol or trans fats). So none of that and no white flour or wheat flour. I switched to Kamut flour and Spelt flour which is a type of wheat but not as harsh on your digestive system as the normal two. And no yeast. I started going to an accupuncturist who also put me on probiotics (the best thing for your digestive tract). I don't eat a lot of red meats. Mostly chickens and fish and sometimes turkey. So mostly my diet consists of: Meat, fruits and vegetables. Most of the fruits are berries. Some of my food is nuts (no peanuts), and very little milk products (yogurt). No regular salad dressings (i use olive oil, fresh lemon, salt and pepper).

Needless to say I have lost almost 40 lbs since Sept all diet. Now I have added a lot of exercise and doing well. Mia

WELCOME!!

Thanks for joining Biggest Loser West coast. I hope this blog will give you a place to vent, encourage others and give good recipes. I am sooo excited to be a part of this and hope that you will utilize this site to help you get a one up on your weight loss. If you have interesting articles or anything, please post on here too. Good luck and see you on the other side.