Weight/Exercise angst
Thursday, 29 January 2009 08:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earthbelow
I've been working out with the Wii and my weights since the weather lately has not been conducive to my usual morning/walk jog, plus I wasn't getting the results I wanted.
I mean, when you only eat 1000-1200 calories and walk/jog three miles each morning and you're not losing a single pound, then you can rest assured that something isn't working.
But I'm not sure I'm getting the most out of my weights. I feel like the exercises I do with them (bicep curls, lunges, etc) aren't being done right, or maybe I'm not doing them enough. I'm not sure. I can't seem to find any references on the internet for weightlifting that aren't geared towards steroidally enhanced Ahnold wannabes.
If anyone knows of a good place to get information on this, please fire off a comment.
One thing I'm really frustrated with is that every where you turn, there's this emphasis on losing weight by eating a good diet and exercising. Whenever someone is overweight, there's this immediate outcry that they're a lazy slob who should stop eating Big Macs for every meal and get off the couch and exercise. Because of course, if you're overweight/obese, that's exactly what you do. Never mind that there are plenty of people who live your exact same lifestyle and manage to be a regular weight. Never mind that perhaps you, like me, have been eating rabbit food and low fat, 80-calorie yogurt for breakfast (with nothing else) for eight months and have lost nary a pound.
You're obviously just a slob who's lazy and would kick the weight if you'd just get off your big, stupid, good-for-nothing ass and exercise.
But all these people who are practically screaming at you to exercise never tell you how to exercise. They never tell you what to do when a gym and a personal trainer aren't available to you. They just assume that everyone can afford a pricey gym membership. So, if you're obese and lower class or living near poverty (and statistics say this is rather likely), you're apparently just screwed.
They certainly don't tell you what to do when you get to the gym, should you actually be able to afford to go to one. Believe me, there is nothing more intimidating than walking into a big building where the speakers are playing music more suited to a nightclub than a gym and all you see are a bunch of machines that could double as instruments of torture from the Spanish Inquisition and people walking around in spandex with bodies you can only envy giving you the stink eye as they pass, because obviously you have trespassed into Beautiful People territory.
These same people certainly wouldn't even offer you an ounce of moral support when you find yourself, in your old teeshirt and whatever available shorts you have, standing on a treadmill that has more buttons than my TV remote control, feeling ashamed of yourself and wanting to crawl in a hole and die because the perky blonde running a marathon next to you who isn't ninety pounds dripping wet seems to get it and after three minutes of walking, you're pouring sweat and praying for God in heaven to just, "PLEASE TAKE ME NOW! MAKE IT END!"
Neither do any of those people tell you how to go about exercising when you're overweight or obese. Exercising when you have ten pounds to lose is not the same when you have a hundred and ten to lose.
Despite what shows like The Biggest Loser try to tell you, it's not as simple as just hopping on a treadmill and getting your jog on until you lose the weight. Those people have dieticians and trainers there to make sure they're doing things right, to design exercise programs for them. And if you asked them, I'm sure they'd tell you that designing that program means taking different factors into account than designing one for Christian Bale when he wants to get buff for the next Batman movie.
There are a lot of extra considerations you have to make when you're overweight/obese and are trying to start an exercise program.
They don't consider that if you have diabetes or blood pressure problems or joint pain issues or nerve pain problems that you can't just get on the stairmaster and step away the pounds. Sometimes it hurts too much to continue. Sometimes doing so actually does damage to your body.
This is to say nothing of the fact that trying to find exercise clothes that are comfortable for working out in is near to impossible. Lane Bryant has no problem supplying the big women of the world with fabulous empire waist tops, but I have yet to see practical sports bras or clothing meant to be used during a workout in their stores.
In fact, I have yet to see any line of exercise clothing targeted at larger women or larger people in general. You'd think somebody would do this, because these are the folks who arguably need that type of clothing the most.
I certainly don't see any of these very vocal critics coming up with exercise programs or strategies that are friendly to people of size when they yell at them to get off their fat asses and exercise already.
I'm not using this as an excuse. Yes, there does come a point where it's up to you to motivate yourself and take your health/weight issues by the scruff of the neck and deal with them. I'm dealing with mine as best I can. I'm trying to exercise, eat healthier - but it's been hard and fraught with frustration.
And when people keep throwing obstacles in your way, it harder. It's like when you scream at a homeless guy who asks you for change to "Get a job!" - it's because you're not thinking about how practical that actually is for him at that moment.
I mean, where is he going to get nice clothes for an interview? What address and phone number can he put down on an application? He can't just walk into somebody's office, smelling like a sewer, dirty, and missing teeth and say, "I'd like a job please" and get one. Nobody would hire him in that state.
So unless your next statement to the guy after you tell him to get a job is, "Come on down to my office, we've got a position waiting on you!", you can't just shut your mouth.
Same way with criticizing people for being fat. Unless you're going to come to me (or that person) with a diet/exercise program that I can actually do and you're going to supply me with a nutritional expert and a personal trainer, you just go get your daily recommended serving of STFU.
And people who are all about gastric bypass surgery can also go get a supplement of STFU and GTFO. I'm so tired of the commercials that show sad fat people who can't live their lives because they're fat - but if they get an expensive surgery that comes with risks and complications, then they can be thin and beautiful and do everything they want in the world.
Being thinner isn't going to make you happier. If you were depressed when you were fat, you'll be depressed when you're thin. If your marriage was on the rocks when you were fat, it'll still be broken when you're thin.
I don't exercise and try to lose this weight because I'm inherently unhappy. I'm not. I have a great fiancee, I'm about to finish a novel that I'm going to submit for publication, I live in NYC, so on and so forth.
I want to do this because it's an investment in my long term health and well being, it's an investment in being able to continue being happy without the medical problems. That's why I'm doing it.
In conclusion: I need more help and information, but don't know where to get it and people who want to wrap everybody's weight issues up with a neat little bow of their intolerance and ignorance and come right over here and get my fat ass up their foot.
I mean, when you only eat 1000-1200 calories and walk/jog three miles each morning and you're not losing a single pound, then you can rest assured that something isn't working.
But I'm not sure I'm getting the most out of my weights. I feel like the exercises I do with them (bicep curls, lunges, etc) aren't being done right, or maybe I'm not doing them enough. I'm not sure. I can't seem to find any references on the internet for weightlifting that aren't geared towards steroidally enhanced Ahnold wannabes.
If anyone knows of a good place to get information on this, please fire off a comment.
One thing I'm really frustrated with is that every where you turn, there's this emphasis on losing weight by eating a good diet and exercising. Whenever someone is overweight, there's this immediate outcry that they're a lazy slob who should stop eating Big Macs for every meal and get off the couch and exercise. Because of course, if you're overweight/obese, that's exactly what you do. Never mind that there are plenty of people who live your exact same lifestyle and manage to be a regular weight. Never mind that perhaps you, like me, have been eating rabbit food and low fat, 80-calorie yogurt for breakfast (with nothing else) for eight months and have lost nary a pound.
You're obviously just a slob who's lazy and would kick the weight if you'd just get off your big, stupid, good-for-nothing ass and exercise.
But all these people who are practically screaming at you to exercise never tell you how to exercise. They never tell you what to do when a gym and a personal trainer aren't available to you. They just assume that everyone can afford a pricey gym membership. So, if you're obese and lower class or living near poverty (and statistics say this is rather likely), you're apparently just screwed.
They certainly don't tell you what to do when you get to the gym, should you actually be able to afford to go to one. Believe me, there is nothing more intimidating than walking into a big building where the speakers are playing music more suited to a nightclub than a gym and all you see are a bunch of machines that could double as instruments of torture from the Spanish Inquisition and people walking around in spandex with bodies you can only envy giving you the stink eye as they pass, because obviously you have trespassed into Beautiful People territory.
These same people certainly wouldn't even offer you an ounce of moral support when you find yourself, in your old teeshirt and whatever available shorts you have, standing on a treadmill that has more buttons than my TV remote control, feeling ashamed of yourself and wanting to crawl in a hole and die because the perky blonde running a marathon next to you who isn't ninety pounds dripping wet seems to get it and after three minutes of walking, you're pouring sweat and praying for God in heaven to just, "PLEASE TAKE ME NOW! MAKE IT END!"
Neither do any of those people tell you how to go about exercising when you're overweight or obese. Exercising when you have ten pounds to lose is not the same when you have a hundred and ten to lose.
Despite what shows like The Biggest Loser try to tell you, it's not as simple as just hopping on a treadmill and getting your jog on until you lose the weight. Those people have dieticians and trainers there to make sure they're doing things right, to design exercise programs for them. And if you asked them, I'm sure they'd tell you that designing that program means taking different factors into account than designing one for Christian Bale when he wants to get buff for the next Batman movie.
There are a lot of extra considerations you have to make when you're overweight/obese and are trying to start an exercise program.
They don't consider that if you have diabetes or blood pressure problems or joint pain issues or nerve pain problems that you can't just get on the stairmaster and step away the pounds. Sometimes it hurts too much to continue. Sometimes doing so actually does damage to your body.
This is to say nothing of the fact that trying to find exercise clothes that are comfortable for working out in is near to impossible. Lane Bryant has no problem supplying the big women of the world with fabulous empire waist tops, but I have yet to see practical sports bras or clothing meant to be used during a workout in their stores.
In fact, I have yet to see any line of exercise clothing targeted at larger women or larger people in general. You'd think somebody would do this, because these are the folks who arguably need that type of clothing the most.
I certainly don't see any of these very vocal critics coming up with exercise programs or strategies that are friendly to people of size when they yell at them to get off their fat asses and exercise already.
I'm not using this as an excuse. Yes, there does come a point where it's up to you to motivate yourself and take your health/weight issues by the scruff of the neck and deal with them. I'm dealing with mine as best I can. I'm trying to exercise, eat healthier - but it's been hard and fraught with frustration.
And when people keep throwing obstacles in your way, it harder. It's like when you scream at a homeless guy who asks you for change to "Get a job!" - it's because you're not thinking about how practical that actually is for him at that moment.
I mean, where is he going to get nice clothes for an interview? What address and phone number can he put down on an application? He can't just walk into somebody's office, smelling like a sewer, dirty, and missing teeth and say, "I'd like a job please" and get one. Nobody would hire him in that state.
So unless your next statement to the guy after you tell him to get a job is, "Come on down to my office, we've got a position waiting on you!", you can't just shut your mouth.
Same way with criticizing people for being fat. Unless you're going to come to me (or that person) with a diet/exercise program that I can actually do and you're going to supply me with a nutritional expert and a personal trainer, you just go get your daily recommended serving of STFU.
And people who are all about gastric bypass surgery can also go get a supplement of STFU and GTFO. I'm so tired of the commercials that show sad fat people who can't live their lives because they're fat - but if they get an expensive surgery that comes with risks and complications, then they can be thin and beautiful and do everything they want in the world.
Being thinner isn't going to make you happier. If you were depressed when you were fat, you'll be depressed when you're thin. If your marriage was on the rocks when you were fat, it'll still be broken when you're thin.
I don't exercise and try to lose this weight because I'm inherently unhappy. I'm not. I have a great fiancee, I'm about to finish a novel that I'm going to submit for publication, I live in NYC, so on and so forth.
I want to do this because it's an investment in my long term health and well being, it's an investment in being able to continue being happy without the medical problems. That's why I'm doing it.
In conclusion: I need more help and information, but don't know where to get it and people who want to wrap everybody's weight issues up with a neat little bow of their intolerance and ignorance and come right over here and get my fat ass up their foot.
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no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 15:12 (UTC)Most people also need a lot more than 1100 cal a day.
And, last bit of unsolicited advice, there is the possibility that your body is doing fine. You are active and I assume eating well and for a good number of people that does not always translate into thin or wt loss. It's possible to be very healthy and medically overwt.
no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 22:58 (UTC)Well, except it's not and I've known this for a while. I can't have periods without being on these meds, and the inability to menstruate regularly is a BAD THING. Especially when you go over a year without so much as spotting. I realize that some people can be healthy and overweight, but I'm not one of them. My body specifically is just not meant to be this weight.
The "medical" goal weight for me is 130, and I don't think I'll ever get there, nor do I believe I need to. I can be plenty healthy at 160 or so, but that's where I want to get to.
I'm not doing this because I'm all, "ZOMG! MUST BE SKINNY!" but because I don't want to deal with what insulin resistance will do to my body over time. I don't want the heart damage, the circulation problems, the risk to my kidneys. I certainly don't want to develop full blown diabetes. My grandfather died a very agonizing, drawn out death long before he had to because he was a diabetic who didn't take care of himself and smoked and didn't make the investment in doing things that were good for him.
My body, in developing insulin resistance and not menstruating, has said that SOMETHING is wrong, and SOMETHING is not working and that either I'm going to have to start changing what I do and eat or bit by bit, things are going to fall apart. Maybe not today, tomorrow, or next decade - but time flies and soon enough I'll be fifty or sixty, and I want to be a fifty-year-old woman who looks like she's in her thirties and can be active and do all the things I can do right now. I want to be that way when I'm sixty and seventy and eight and ninety, god willing.
My great grandparents are in their 90's, living independently, and doing pretty well. I have the genetics to go the distance, but I also have genetics that want to work against me. So I have to deal with that.
I could honestly care less about what dress size it puts me in or whether it makes me more conventionally attractive, but I do want to be able to do things I want to do without being restrained.
no subject
Date: 29 Jan 2009 23:01 (UTC)I guess I wanted to clarify my reasons, because a lot of times people's motivations for wanting to lose weight are cosmetic and guided by being fatphobic and self-hating rather than out of a desire for better health. And that's sucky. :)
will write code for food
Date: 29 Jan 2009 15:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Jan 2009 03:04 (UTC)Alternately, my mom used to work for them when I was small (and by small I mean "Nickelodeon was still running original series"), she may have some pointers.
Thirdly, I don't know if this is still true or not, but are you trying to stretch out meals as long as possible in between? Your body does tend to hoard the calories it does get if you have them at funky intervals.
Weights are good for strength training, but for burning calories, you want something that's more cardio-vascular in nature and lasts at least 30 minutes. (In fact, last I read, they were recommending several bouts of 30 minutes of exercise a day.)
And exercise clothes: Um, I usually just go with old, loose sweats. (Or Carleton sweat pants once my gym clothes all wore out.)
no subject
Date: 31 Jan 2009 07:05 (UTC)Otherwise, I don't have any brilliant suggestions, but I want to throw a whole lot of love and support in your direction. *hugs*
no subject
Date: 30 Jan 2009 09:31 (UTC)I was just checking because that made an enormous difference for me. You know, back when I did stuff.