skyy's shoutbox - Help.com

Hey I love ur profile. . . Thats about how I feel. . .

It’s warming and the sun’s been out lately. People are starting to smile more and the big months for business are April and May:)
I hope to travel more this summer and work less…lol.

I added you as a friend in fb. I want to see your profile,lol add me!

hey skyy! Your on facebook? just noticed your other shout…so am i! whats your user name?

want to add me on facebook?
if so, do so (I like you and would never try to do anything to annoy you in any way, although I may be slightly naturally annoying.)

Geez…I mean “be well”…it won’t quit today. I’ll have to not use anything sharp or heavy for a while..lol.

Would you believe I shouted myself…rofl..be we my friend:) Man super ADD…lol

Thanks:)..too vitamin..G..lol.
When I was in school my coach told me never to stand still, I be a target, instead of a player…lol.

Hi Sky:) Later, just pop in for a second:)

Lol, now I feel special. You seem pretty cooland down to earth yourself.

Apologies about the yankee thing! I think that’s generally what the rest of the world seems to use to refer to all Americans.

Yeah, the portion control thing really gets me too. When I do have an off day and give in to the golden arches, I always focus on how I feel after I eat too much (because I always do when I go to MacDonalds). Then when I’m eating a large portion next time I try and remember how I felt last time I ate too much and then just eat enough so I feel good and satisfied. I have also really tried to get used to throwing things out.

In our culture we are so programmed when we are young to not waste food and our parents’ often make us feel guilty about not finishing things because ‘all the starving children in Africa’ and ‘food is really expensive’. The reality is that the food wouldn’t help any Africans anyway and we both come from ‘have’ nations who typically consume too many calories with EVERY meal where the portions aren’t carefully measured.

One thing I started to do is to consciously make myself throw out food. It was soooo hard when I started and I was really surprised how ingrained it is in our heads that it’s wrong to throw out food…even when you have taked in sufficient calories. I have made it my goal to never finish all my food when eating out at a restuarant. When they ask me if I want a doggy bag I say ‘no, that’s ok.’

Also, when I order too much pizza (and when I order pizza, I always order too much), I never let myself spoil two meals because when I’m full I throw the leftovers in the garbage. (my girlfriend lives with me now and she goes crazy when I do this, lol. I need to really use my will-power when ordering pizza from now on I think.)

The scale is hard to resist, huh. You should focus more on measurements since the scale can be misleading…if you are working out a lot you could be putting on some muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat so you could be getting smaller but the scale could stay the same or even go up. That is always pretty discouraging…I personally don’t like to feel discouraged unnecessarily so if I find my weight doesn’t change much I wait until my end of month measurements before I re-examine my weight loss efforts. So don’t worry about the weight so much. You should measure your neck, bust, waist, hips, arms, and your legs every month (if you haven’t already) if you want a more accurate way to track your progress.

Here is the address to the Canada Food Guide…take a look: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-gui…

I’m lucky because I’m pretty tall so I can still eat quite a bit and lose weight (lol, sorry, I don’t mean to rub it in). I’m 6′2″ and I started out at 246lbs on January 11, 2008. I got down to 205lbs by November ‘08 and jumped back to 220lbs by not working out or eating well through Dec, Jan, and Feb this year. Now I’m 215lbs and I want to get to 185lbs. Then I want to put on about 15 pounds in muscle so I will eventually sit at around 200lbs.

Lol, there I go rambling on again. I really hope you don’t mind the tips and find them useful. I guess you probably figured out a lot of this on your own, but even if one of them is new to you and helps, well, that would be awesome. It sounds like you are doing really awesome on your own though!

Oh, another point about scales…if you do decide to weigh yourself every day you should only weigh yourself in the morning as soon as you wake up, but after you go pee. Water weight causes massive weight fluctuations throughout the day and the time when your bodies water content is usually the most consistent is in the morning as soon as you wake up. If think about it, if you drink a litre of water…which isn’t too hard to do, you are going to have an extra pound or two of liquid in your belly which isn’t fat.

And sorry, I’m going to get a little technical with you, I am a little bored at work so I’m unapoligetically rambling now. But when it comes to weight fluctuation:

Keep in mind that your body likes to store some excess glycogen in your muscles for quick energy. Glycogen is a sugar and sugar alone can’t be stored in body tissue, it has to be suspended in liquid. For every molecule of glycogen, the body needs three or four molecules of water to suspend it in. So most people’s bodies have 5 to 15 pounds or so of this retained water that suspends glycogen in their muscles.

Now, when people start an exercise program the body uses up these glycogen stores first because the human body naturally resists burning its fat stores. When you burn this glcogen in your muscles the body no longer needs the water that it was suspended in so it is excreted. This is why people lose quite a lot of weight when starting an exercise regieme or diet. They think ‘this is awesome’ and it encourages them to work really hard and stick with their exercise and/or diet. Then, when the excess glycogen is burned off, and the suspending liquid has all been flushed from their systems, their bodies begin burning actual fat which occurs at a much slower pace. They stop losing weight as quickly as they had been and they get discouraged and pick up a couple of pizzas.

Now, the thing to remember is, when these people are actually beginning to succeed in burning fat they quit and when they go back to their old ways they put the weight back on very, very quickly because it wasn’t actual fat they had lost previously. It was just basically, sugar and water. One pound of fat has roughly 3500 calories of energy stored in it. On the strictest diet you can be on without triggering your bodies starvation mode you can lose about 500 calories a day with exercise and restrict your diet by 500 fewer calories. You would be losing 1000 calories a day. So to burn one pound of fat, it will take you 3 and a half days…or you will lose 2 pounds a week.

So think about that when you find that the scale isn’t moving much and don’t get discouraged. When things do slow down you are actually doing more of what you set out to do; provided that you don’t cheat too much on your exercise and diet program.

Lol, so now that I have written a novel! I had better get back to my studying that I have been avoiding. I hope you’re having a great night and I’ll talk to you later. Keep up the great work!

Dean,

Lol, of course I didn’t forget about you. I haven’t been on here as much because I have been studying quite a lot lately.

It is like a game…you can’t give up though. I have been playing for about 8 years and I have finally just figured out how to win.

A couple of years ago I noticed myself saying certain things from time to time…it would be my birthday or when I got invited to the waterpark or where ever and I found myself always like “if I would of started working out 6 months ago like I was going to I would be looking pretty damn good now!”. I always had it on my mind and I just never started…finally, I set a goal to be in shape for summer so I wouldn’t be embarassed to hit the pool so I finally decided to make a real commitment.

Since I had picked a time 6 months down the road I wasn’t too worried about getting those ‘instant results’ that everyone talks about when it comes to weight loss. I did what I had to, dieted, worked out, and weighed myself once a week and measured myself every month.

Sure enough, things slowly started to come off and people started noticing that I was losing weight. Then, in the summer, a group of my friends that I hadn’t seen since I started my mission wanted to have a little reunion and we planned to go out to a pub. I finally wasn’t able to say “I wish I had started 6 months ago like I was going to”. I wasn’t exactly where I wanted to be, but I finally had a flat stomach and no more friggin’ double chin (I hated my double chin…probably most of all.) I’m not a big attention seeker or anything, in fact, I usually like to fade into the background and do my own thing (something that seems to rarely happen despite my best efforts I should add, lol.) but everyone couldn’t believe how different I looked. It felt pretty damn good.

I’m a little mad at myself…I have struggled with a back injury for a while and I tweaked while working out in November ‘08. I used that as an excuse to eat like a mad man until about 2 weeks ago. I gained back about half what I had lost which is hard, but the secret is to get back on the wagon ASAP. Already I’m down about 5 pounds and I have about 30 pounds to my ultimate goal. I should be able to reach it by the summer if I stay on track.

I found that following a strict eating plan for a while really helped me to learn proper portion sizes which is KEY to losing weight. I recommend checking out the Canada food guide. (I know you’re American and I’m sure you Yanks have your own food guide, but I don’t have any experience with it and I know that the Canada food guide works because I eat the same portions it encourages.)

Keep me updated on your progress if you like. I can keep you accountable! I know it’s hard stuff to talk about with people, especially for women, so if you find it is easier to talk to some stranger on the internet, I will try to help the best I can. My girlfriend is really trying to lose weight too now so I can let you know of things that work for her…I know women’s physiology is a little different then men’s so maybe she will figure out a few things that will work really well for you too.

Lol, sorry for such a long message. I really hope you don’t mind talking about this stuff. Well, talk to you later Skyy!

Okay. Night skyy! And please, call me Zoe! lol

That sounds good. Wish I could go to the beach this year :( you better have a great time for both of us then XD

Hi! Love the quotes on your profile and I love your avatar! I wish I could chill out there! lol

sweet, mission trips are a good time, i have been on a few myself. i hope it works out for you and you get to go :)

:D

Thanks skyy and yeah I live in california, as for the friend thing I dont know why we havent become friends yet but I can fix that right now :)

thanks skyy and thank you for your reply as well, I really appreciate the support and Im better now.

ah cool, that a mission trip or something? it mighta been me idk ud have to tell me what they were about haha i dont recall though

Yeah i need to do something like that, i actually have done some volunteer work before myself, i’v done a few mission trips as well. haha whatya mean you know who i am? :P hopefully thats something good haha

thats awesome! i hope you have a really great time there, its sweet your also helping people out, i dont know many people our age that do stuff like that.

Thats a good way to be. I wish i could be more like that haha :). Oo ya my spring break is next week, i think im gonna have to catch up on school work though haha, you going to the beach or what in florida?

Doing alright haha, i’v read your posts for awhile, you got a strong faith..dont get discouraged about anything. Just wanted to tell ya that :) but ya just busy with school and trying to stay caught up haha.

..and how are you?

I’m okay… I just smiled at you because I left you a flower (didn’t you notice?) and thought you’d like a smile to go with it.

:)

Why thanks, it was honest

hi there, hows things going?

Good to hear school is a bearable; that’s how school is suppose to be :).

And while I am an atheist myself; if getting god back into your life leads to good things I’m happy your doing that too.

Also, and a bit selfish of me, I’m glad to hear your only friends with that guy now. That leaves the door open for me to have a tropical wedding one day.

Good to hear school is a bearable; that’s how school is suppose to be :).

And while I am an atheist myself; if getting god back into your life leads to good things I’m happy your doing that too.

Also, and a bit selfish of me, I’m glad to hear your only friends with that guy now. That leaves the door open for me to have a tropical wedding one day.

Hey how are things going in your life? School going well? Still with that man of yours?

Hey I love your quotes! I was having a bad day today and I read ur quote and my day totally changed,lol.
I friend requested u, hope u accept me:-)

Yea; im doing well - its coooooooooold here but thats about it.

Hello baaaaaby!!!!!

How’s the swimming lessons?

Hey sorry I missed your post about Help for kids. I don’t often get on Help on the weekends. I think you’ve got an interesting idea. Personally I don’t believe in “protecting” people from anything so I don’t see the big deal with having kids on here… they have access to cable TV and the rest of the Internet right? When I was a kid I was in to everything you could imagine. However, having something targeted at them is a pretty interesting idea too. I think it’s worth thinking about some more. Keep up those good ideas and don’t let the naysayers get you down.

Lol.
The true meaning of a pedophile…

;D I’d be glad to be a mod if that ever happens. xD

I think help.com for children would be nice. ^^

I remember when I found help.com was 13.
;O But I didn’t tell anyone.
xD
But, I’m 14 now so that’s out of the question.

I think it would be a great idea.
But, then yet again, some help mods aren’t even on anymore.
So, we would have to “hire” new ones?