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April 7, 2005
fat as a walkers issue 
One of my non-athletic activities is eating with a bunch of foodies (and no, we're not like that awful Campbell's commercial). One of the foodies is a writer and of course has a blog, where she talked about the politically correctness around fat. We're all familiar with this, I don't need to go there.
As regular readers now, I'm now severely obese (translation: 5'5, 230#, size 20), having dropped from being morbidly obese last year (265#, size 26). It's been real work. For me, the first step in being able to start working out and losing weight was getting my emotional life in order.
I've had a problem with depression for most of my adult life, and I've been on anti-depressants for about 10 years now. Even on anti-depressants, in the last couple years, I wasn't doing so hot. Once you're in that place, you're kinda stuck—you don't have the energy to try to get out. My therapist finally was able to set me up with a psychiatric nurse who was able to tweak and keep tweaking until I was feeling better.
The difference was like night and day. Suddenly, I had some energy. Suddenly, not only could I deal with seeing people, I enjoyed it. Suddenly, work became less painful. And, suddenly, the idea of joining PFit became tolerable. Everything else fell into place. And the cycle of success built on itself. And will hopefully continue.
Of course, it's not a big surprise that Americans are big and getting bigger. Hey, we are programmed to eat, and especially to seek out salty and fatty foods. If we ate like our ancestors, whole foods, blah blah blah, and moved around all day, there wouldn't be a weight problem in this country. Is that oversimplistic? I don't think so.
One last thing: Dean Karnazes, the ultramarathoner, eats a pile of junk while he trains--because if he ate whole foods, he'd never be able to eat enough of it to fuel his runs. Think about that! And there would be all that time he'd be spending in the porta-potty too.
I'm trying to kick the high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats right out of my diet. I gave up pop last year from lent (okay, not really lent), and while I now have a pop every month and a half or so, I've been looking for guilt free soda. The sadness is, I don't have a lot of options. Izze is good, but expensive. Jarritos, good, but generally only available with mexican food. I hear that Mexican coke has no HFCS, but Mexican pepsi does. Jones Soda has HFCS. San Pellegrino has it. Orangina, yep. My favorite, Vernors, sure does.
Hey, soda companies—are you listening?
Posted at April 7, 2005
Comments
You're right on target, girl! Keep the faith and keep up the positive journey! I've taken to (in the evening) making my own personal little soda - a wine spritzer with about ~2 ounces of some good wine and then filling up the glass with lemon- or orange-flavored soda water. It hits the spot! :)
Posted by: Nancy Toby at April 7, 2005 1:41 PM
san pellegrino has corn syrup in it? you can't be talking about the water? I didn't know it came in flavours...
Posted by: Chrissie at April 7, 2005 1:58 PM
okay, strike my comment. I re-read. :)
Posted by: Chrissie at April 7, 2005 1:59 PM
Have you seen SuperSize Me? It is the Man's favorite movie and he rents it at least once a month (oh th epain) anyway it is an interesting look at our culture, a little extreme..but I got the point.
Posted by: brit at April 7, 2005 5:54 PM
i've been hitting up mendota sparkling water to curb my pop fix. its FIZZY! that helps. otherwise, diet c0ke is supposed to be coming out with a version w/splenda instead of the current sweetner (can't think of the name of it off hand). wonder if that will be any less evil? hopefully, because i could use a good diet c0ke every once in a while.
i wish high fructose never existed. sometimes its hard to not crave it. stupid high fructose!! :)
Posted by: brent at April 7, 2005 8:40 PM
VJ - I had no idea you've lost so much weight this year! Congratulations. You are a healthy role model! - Mia
Posted by: mia at April 8, 2005 7:19 AM
I'm here to confirm that Mexican Coke is indeed different -- sweetened by cane sugar rather than corn syrup. And it often comes bottled in glass, rather than plastic. It's very popular here -- and easy to get. I can't vouch for the difference in taste since I'm not a soda fan (excepting ginger ale and ginger beer). If you want some, and can't find it at any local Latin mart, I could send you some (and repay the favor of the lovely mix cd)!
I'm so glad you've hung in there and worked to get the appropriate dosage of medication. That takes a lot of perseverance.
Posted by: megan at April 8, 2005 7:36 AM
Yeah! Changes like that (medication) are great! I suffered from dysthymia (low grade chronic depression) for most of my life. The solution for me was 5-htp (the amino acid precurser to seratonin) and daily exercise. Good for you for not giving up on yourself!
Posted by: ellie at April 8, 2005 10:24 AM
VJ, it's so fabulous to hear about your success. My son is depressed and struggles mightily. Hearing about successes gives me hope that he'll get better.
And hey! I thought only Detroiters knew about Vernors! :)
Posted by: Lynne at April 8, 2005 3:52 PM