I've taught my husband how to recognize when he's bloated, and the importance of drinking enough water. I've also taught him why starving yourself DOESN'T work in the long run for weight loss.

Also, I've gotten my mother (who is trying to lose weight as well) to eat breakfast EVERY day!

What about you? What have you taught others?

I've taught my husband and parents that you CAN be a vegan athlete.

I don't think I've really taught anyone else anything. I think I inspired my sister to start exercising and lose weight, but she didn't ask me how to do it, she just did it on her own. And when people ask, I'm always happy to share with them what I did to lose weight, but they never seem to follow what I say. Mostly they lose interest when they find out that it is just counting calories and exercise.

I don't know if I taught anyone anything, but I do think I have shown people that you can gain weight, be unhealthy, have chronic daily migraines, have a child with special needs that takes up every single ounce of your energy, get very little sleep and still: make time for yourself, lose weight in a healthy manner, count calories, find time and energy to workout AND look so much better for it all! I also have inspired my husband to join me in my journey...and that has made this whole experience all the more enjoyable!

I have taught my mom (who lives in Europe) to eat the right breakfast in order to not be constipated. After me telling her many many times that my high fiber cereal (well, among other stuff) keeps me regular mom is now eating some version of oat cereal mixed with some plain yogurt and a bit of plum marmelade (it's not really a marmelade, it is not very sweet and I am just using the term for lack of a better word - think an equivalent of applesauce but made from plums) for breakfast every day. She is pooping very nicely now.

She is overweight and at the age of 82, diet is really her only option (she exercises each day for an hour but that is not calorie-burning exercise - it is mostly stretching to retain flexibility etc.) We both like to eat - the apple has not fallen too far from the tree.

I don't think I've taught anyone anything but I think I've made people aware that there is no 'quick fix' to weight loss. It's taken me over 18 months so far and the people at work are still surprised that I'm 'still going'

Not sure if i'd call it teaching, but i just had a guy from our news department tell me that i inspired him to lose weight. He says he's lost 60 pounds. I said, "wow!! that's what i've lost!!" I am always surprized when someone at work loses weight and says that i inspired them. But i do think i have taught them that is CAN be done and it can be done the healthy, long term way.

Like Lumifan I think I have inspired people more than directly taught anything. Three of my friends with weight problems have joined my gym and are working with my personal trainer. I also think I have inspired my DD as far as weightlifting goes.

I've taught everyone that you can do this SLOWLY and enjoy the ride, rather than torturing yourself to reach what might--for you and your specific situation--be unrealistic goals within too short a period of time by being so very restrictive with your food and fitness.

I haven't had to "punish" myself with strictness or say no to spending time dining out with friends because I'm making better choices EVERY day, and the weight is coming off.

Yeah, it's slow going, but I prefer that. And it's nice to be able to teach others that "going on a diet" doesn't mean becoming a raging beyotch for six weeks while starving and denying myself what I want, only to swing right back to old habits and balloon right back up again.



That's it for now, anyway.

My husband has "learned" how to pay attention to the nutrition labels on food! He now looks at everything and is happy to share with me the nutritional content of the food he eats. Before, when I'd share with him, I think all he heard was, "Blah, blah, blah, blah...."

full of grace,

I think you taught me something today. I've been living very much as you describe, choosing to making changes leisurely, pleasanty; and I've been telling myself and others (even here) that this IS a valid option, but I realized in reading your post, that I so often feel, at least a little bit, as though I'm trying to apologize or justify my choices.

And I think it's because I have felt that I was the ONLY one doing it this way.
Maybe it was more myself than anyone else that I wanted to convince that it was "ok" to do it this way.

Being not just willing to lose slowly if there was no alternative, but actually choosing to lose slowly as the preference, well it's not just an unusual perspective, it's almost scandalously revolutionary.

___________________

In my TOPS group, I have taught the group to grow sprouts at home.

I have shared my view that dieting can be a way of pampering rather (as full of grace has said) than punishing. For example, I told everyone on Monday that Ranier cherry season is here (only a couple weeks, usually in Mid-July), and I intended to splurge (as they can be rather expensive, but are well worth it).

I did a program for my group on healthy restaurant eating. That was a lot of fun.

I had mentioned my favorite Thai restaurant, has the most "diet-friendly" options on the menu. Well I told the owners of the restaurant that today, and the wife (and only cook in the restaurant) actually gave me a few more tips, as many of their dishes can easily be modified to be even more diet-friendly. For example their spring roll, is a soft rice wrapper (very thin) with slices of shrimp, roast pork, fresh mint, cilantro, basil and leaf lettuce and rice noodles. She said that they will replace the noodles with bean sprout and/or more green onion. She told me of a viatnamese lady who is a regular who always substitutes the bean sprouts for noodles in all of the noodle dishes.

I guess I never thought of those tiny asian women being weight-conscious, because they seem so naturally slim, but I guess in the modern world, there are very few "naturally" slim folks, everyone (or at least every female) is well aware of the need to be aware of what we're eating.

I love learning, and I love passing it on. I love this group, and I love my TOPS group. It's so amazing to be in groups of people who not only understand, but WANT to share and learn.

Exactly.

At first, I felt ashamed to post here if I had a "slow loss week" or didn't move the ticker at all.

And then I thought to myself, "Who you doin' this for anyway, Grace? ... YOU!"

So, that changed my perspective.

I'm doing this for ME and that means I needn't be ashamed of how long it's taking.

I've DONE the yo-yo dieting many many many times over. I've gained and lost THOUSANDS of pounds in my lifetime and have dropped weight FAST and put it right back on FASTER doing all manner of things that other folks may find works GREAT for them. Good for THEM.

For ME, it's working this way. And I love it.

The other night, a friend I've known for a few years asked me what I was doing to look so good lately. "Being smart," I answered.

He wanted to know WHAT I was doing. Gym? Diet? What?

And I said, "Really, I'm just being smart. I'm eating less, I'm moving more, I'm making good choices every day, and I'm balancing out my 'play' choices--like social drinking--with extra exercise or an adjustment in calories, etc. I'm eating great food. No fast food... but if I wanted to have it I would have it. I'd just make another choice to balance it out to keep heading in the right direction."

But that's not as exciting as some trendy magic overnight drop-tons-of-weight type thing.

So, YOUR POST makes me see that really what I'm teaching people--outside of the specifics of my plan and how it's okay to go slowly--is that sensationalistic stories are fun to hear, but boring ol' me is quite happily over here dropping weight, getting healthy, and HAVING FUN.

(Life's too short, y'know?)

Yeah. You know.

Anyway. Thanks.

Wow, Kaplods -- you just taught me something!

One of my diet-friendly restaurants is Vietnamese. Usually I order pho (a soup) and I ask them to leave out the noodles. It's served with a big pile of bean sprouts so I just add lots of them. But I never thought of asking them to substitute bean sprouts for noodles in the fresh spring rolls. Thanks for the tip!

In general, I haven't tried to teach folks things. But I have pointed out to my husband why I feel action-oriented goals are superior to results-oriented goals, at least for me. His notion was that results-oriented goals were better because they maintain accountability. For me, results-oriented goals provide a redundant award structure, but action-oriented goals always provide motivation.

I taught a huge chunk of my family that you don't have to do Atkins to lose weight. People in my family are Atkins addicts!! and The fact that I had lost 20 pounds with just limiting my portions was scandalous to them. My aunt kept on saying to me "So you still eat bread?" over and over until I showed her my diet journal.

I (hope) I've taught people that exercise, particularly weight training, is a vital component of not just losing weight, but a healthy life. And that weight loss and maintenance is the same- a chain of good choices where the links of food and exercise choices join together to become so much more than each single link.

I've also taught them quite a few really bizarre exercises which they probably weren't thanking me for the next day

Mel