March Bandsters: MASTER THREAD

[Tess415 1]

Since we are talking about the biggest loser show... I was wondering if I could share something that has been on my mind for awhile now?

To those of you who are parents with children at home, do any of you have kids with weight problems? My husband is normal weight and can eat anything, but my 2 boys have my genes and have weight problems. I see that I wrote down that they have my gene but is it that or my bad habits I passed onto them? I know I need to make my eating changes encompass my kids too for their benefit, and up until now it has taken all I can do to take care of me for once, but now I need to embrace them into healthy eating and exercising. I think I am going to buy the family membership to the gym, and take them with me a few nights out of the week. My oldest keeps asking to go with me, so I know he's interested, however my 13 year old doesn't want anything to do with it.

Any suggestions? Or anyone else working on this with their family?

I do the shopping and cooking, so I know it has to start with me. They are such picky eaters when it comes to veggies and the good things, of course they love everything junk food wise!!

[scrappy_friend 0]

Tess I have 3 kids 2 boys 19 and 24 both of them gained weight around the age of 9-15 then lost it as they got a little older. My 19 year old is obsessed about his weight if he gets 10-20 pounds overweight he starts taking diet pills against my better judgement but not much I can do about that being that he is an adult. My oldest is somewhat over weight but he also has a lot of muscle.

Now for my 9 year old daughter shes about right where she should be on the weight chart but last summer we were moving and maybe changing her school and she was so stressed out about that and she lost 10% of her body weight and thats a lot when you are only 70 pounds. I took her to the doctor that summer and was pretty worried about her eating habits. She was taking tiny bites and would only eat small amounts and then after each bite washing her food down with a drink. Was really scary for me. As soon as we moved and kept her at the same school she was back to eating normal again. I really worry what will happen in her teen years.

My husband is also over weight but not as much as I was. I do see how the kids has picked up our bad eating habits. Now I just don't buy the junk because I don't want the temptation. So they are now eating more healthy and I try to walk most evenings 30-45 mins at a time and my daughter loves to go with us.

[HarleyGirl 1]

HEY....just looked at the date....it's my SIX MONTH BANDIVERSARY!

Wow, what a difference six months makes!

[lynnt1215 1]

HEY....just looked at the date....it's my SIX MONTH BANDIVERSARY!

Wow, what a difference six months makes!

Six months for me tomorrow and I am going in for fill # 4

It is great to see how well everyone is doing. CONGRATS to all of us!!!!:crying:

[westcoastmom 3]

Well, today was monthly support group/weigh in. I am now 2.5 pounds away from the doctor's original goal. Although I really should get down about 20 more from that - so it feels good, but slowly onward and downward...

I will "weigh" in on the child discussion. I was overweight as a child as well as an adult. I know that even as a child, whenever I had success losing weight, it came from me wanting to make a change. When my Mom would comment, it would actually make me feel bad which would in turn make me seek comfort (food). It was only when I was feeling good about things that I made healthier choices.

I do think there is a lot of genetics at work as well. I was always active and participating in sports. Even when I was eating healthy and making the right choices, I was never going to be a size 6.

Even though my Mom was active and spoke a lot about my weight, she did not always have the right choices in the house. She also didn't take the time to cook and lead by example in her own eating.

What I took away from my own childhood was that talk is cheap and that I need to just live in a way that I want me children live. I know that they saw me at an unhealthy weight for a while, but they we really only have whole & healthy foods in the house (with occasional treats). We cook together as a family and spend time talking about what foods provide what type of nutrition. We also talk about how most things are OK in moderation.

I am also very careful to not allow talk of dieting or feeling bad about how your look in front of the kids. If another parent starts talking about this, I will find a way to change the subject and talk with them later about why I don't allow this. I want to make sure that the girls understand that we are all more than what we look like - that you can like yourself and be happy independently of your weight. All talk is really just in reference to being healthy.

Now, the other side is that we don't allow TV, videos or computer during the week. And on the weekends, it is only for under 2 hours a day. It forces us all to play and get out to do things all the time. (My girls are still young - 6 & 11 - so I know I still have lots of learning to do as they move into teenagers!)

My 11 year old is actually a bit underweight. She is only about 65 pounds and almost 5 feet tall - something I certainly never had to deal with! But she has opposite food issues. She really doesn't like most foods. But I deal with it the same way as with everything - it is my job to have and prepare healthy foods. It is their job to eat it. She wants to...

[SpecialK 22]

Here's a funny one about STILL operating without electric power except by generator for limited hours ... can't see the digital scale numbers well enough to weigh myself every day.... looking for the Glass Half Full mindset here....

I bought 1 chicken breast at KFC to make myself eat some 'hard' Protein instead of Soup at dinner or something easier and I ate 1/3 of that chicken breast and was totally full and stopped. I actually practiced watching my car clock and taking a small bite, waiting for another minute to tick off the digital clock, then a next bite, etc. Saved the rest for 2 hours later and finished about 1/3 or so more after nibbling tiny tiny bites and chewing. Truly a learning experience here after months of evidently not still eating slow enough.

I'm with Scrappy and her Garfield graphic now, when I do get on that scale, I'm going to jump up and down if it hasn't moved downward after all I've been through this week. Please God, hear my prayers... I've been a good girl :-)

[Tess415 1]

Special K - after all you have been through, and still concentrating on your eating... you deserve the scale to move!!!! I hope things get back to normal soon for you!!!!

Rhonda,WCM - Thanks for sharing about your kids and families... I am still buying the junk stuff and torturing myself not to eat it, I think its because it is easier than hearing the kids complain about it now, but I think I just need to make up my mind and go house wide with the healthy choice thing, and embrace it for the whole family. Sure I know they're 13 and 16 and certainly can get junk stuff if they want to find it bad enough, but I want to make a better impression on them about eating better.

I was on diets since the age of 9, always the biggest in the class and struggled my whole life, and always will to some degree. I even remembering hiding food wrappers under my bed as a teenager, my dad found them and boy was I embarrassed. Of course my parents were mad at me which just added to my being a teen, so I would sneak more junk food. I don't want my kids to be on a diet... but rather make better choices and get more exercise. When they were younger I had them playing everything I could sign them up for, now that they're older they aren't interested in those sports anymore so they won't play. My younger one does like to golf, so he does do a spring/summer league, but nothing in the winter.

I am going to buckle down and get some new healthy recipes that they will have to try or starve!!! LOL

[SpecialK 22]

I have electric power as of about 6pm when I got home from work! Yippee! I am going to cook something in the microwave to Celebrate since I haven't been able to use it in 4 days.

[westcoastmom 3]

I don't want to make it sound like we don't have "junk food" in the house. We just try to make it! We just made fudge - I know I have had more than my kids. But it does help me talk with them about whole foods and to look at labels. I think my older child is starting to think about serving sizes and understands why we try not to get foods with high fructose corn Syrup and partially hydrogenated oils.

And I know it is a only a matter of time before she stages some sort of sit in to demand American Idol viewing...

[Fenton 3]

Congrats on returning to the Grid, SpecialK! Electricity is FUNdamental!

Only one person in my family - out of two parents and five children - has not had weight problems. I think we were normal weight for much of our childhood, but bad habits kicked in later in life, and it seems that we all turned to food as our instant cure-all. While there have been genetic links to obesity proven, I'm sure that in our case it's more a question of behaviour - you slip into choosing your drug, and we chose food.

It's a pattern that starts pretty young, I think. It always worries me when I see parents doing what mine did: using food as a reward when bad things happen. Fall over and skin your knee, an ice cream cone will make you feel better. Someone's mean to you, a cookie will make you happy again. And in the end, it becomes the treatment for every crisis.

The hard part, of course, is changing your reward patterns, particularly when, if you don't eat, you'll die. The band helps with the actual quantity you give yourself; I expect that also it will help with the behaviour, as the momentum of weight loss is a strong motivator.

But for me, also, eating badly has its own momentum. A small cheat turns into a blown day, and then I blow days, weeks, and finally, about a month or so. Urk!

I don't know how much restriction - if any - I have from my fill, but I've gone back to being in the groove. My body feels so much happier there, I have to say, and I think it's more than just psychological. Good luck to me!

And congratulations on your Bandiversaries and great weight loss, all of yaz!

Edited September 19, 2008 by Fenton

[Tess415 1]

Fenton - You are right about food being used to make things feel better, I have been battling that addiction for so many years. It's a long process to undo all of that programming. But, every time we stop and identify that we are reaching for emotional comfort and not actual hunger, its like breaking a small thread in a large communication cable in our brains... eventually we will have the benefit of it not being a subconscious event, but actually make the decision for ourselves not to feed our emotions. This has been by far my biggest struggle!!!

Sounds like you're not feeling to much restriction? Glad to hear you are back in the groove, its tuff to get back in the mode... but you can do it and we will be seeing your ticker hit over that 100 pound loss soon!!!

[Tess415 1]

Hey, I had a NSV to share with everyone... We are the proud parents of a kitten that we rescued from being under a car in the parking lot where I work. Yesterday, I was down on the floor playing with her, and crawling around and when I got up I didn't even have to think about how I was going to do it... I haven't crawled around on the floor like that in a long time, and being able to get right up without any difficulty!!!!!! 63 pounds makes a difference!!!!!:thumbup:

[HarleyGirl 1]

I guess I'm some sort of a freak.....I was the only fat one in my family! My parents and my brothers were normos. My brother is 60 and still wears the same size he did in high school....disgusting, really.

My kids are all average weight, too. My son has picked up a few pounds as he's gotten older, but nothing close to being obese. My daughter is a tiny little minute......sigh, it's a struggle I get to do alone here! It's good though, she's teaching ME good habits. I swear, the kid can make a bag of M&Ms last three days....WHO DOES THAT?

I am glad that I made this change before sending her out on her own...she'll know how to fix healthier meals, how to choose healthier things eating out....at least I hope so!

[mylah 0]

my kids are all toothpicks.My moms family are small but all have to work on there weight.If they did not watch things they would be big as well.They have way more willpower than me.

I'm doing well have 43lbs gone now,had another fill on wed. I thought I was near my sweet spot but you guys know the drill stopped losing could eat more again.This is the first fill I had that I don't feel like it added any more restriction.I uaually always feel something different for the first few days but not this time.

Pat

[hopeinapril 1]

Howdy folks!

My story- I was fat by 10 and went up and down the scale many times after that. Both parents were chunky and my brother gained a ton of weight by the time he was out of high school.

My son was underweight for many years. He is now 11 and is getting a small tummy. I allow him to eat what he wants, because he self-regulates. I also encourage him to go outside and ride his bike. The sad thing is that many days, he is the only kid outside on the bike. We have no video games in the house, but he is allowed to watch tv and DVDs. So far, so good. I do monitor him closely because no way do I want him to go through what I went through.

Different note. I seem to be changing a bit. At almost 6 months with the band, I am glad - sort of. I have been a little upset (work issues) lately. Instead of jumping into the nearest bag of bad stuff, I have lost my appetite. You have no idea how weird this is for me. I have struggled the past few days to get in my Protein. (I resorted to having Protein shakes to get it in!) I always wondered what special kind of stupid the people were who "forgot to eat". Now, I am becoming that person. It is enlightening to me!