RAF_Louvert 101 Posted August 6, 2012 . SUCCESS! Me so happy! . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tranquillo 10 Posted August 6, 2012 Very hearty congratulations to you, Lou. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted August 6, 2012 I hope it isn't too much suffering, Lou. But I guess you're intelligent enough to REALLY understand what the products like potatoe chips etc. really are - and just leave them in the supermarket. I have more and more come to a point, where I didn't want that junk food to ruin my health. Every now and then I have a crave to do it again, and then I let my body (or is it the anti-Christ in me?) decide and buy such crapp. Usually the experience is not at all satisfying, and the crave will be gone for a long time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hauksbee 103 Posted August 6, 2012 SUCCESS! Congratulations, Lou! As a reward for taking all that weight off the pilot, you can take an extra MG aloft when you fly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tranquillo 10 Posted September 19, 2012 Are you maintaining your weight still, Lou? Someone's got to keep an eye on you I thought I'd show my current chart. I lost a lot after surgery and then gained even more - that was a combination of convalescing in Italy and being unable to exercise much. As you can see I'm now back exercising almost as hard as I was earlier this year and the weight is coming off again. I still have a bit of pain holding me back but I'm getting back on track. Too late now for our wager, Lou Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted September 19, 2012 Hey, that's looking good to me - carry on, tranq! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hood 2 Posted September 19, 2012 Heartiest congratulations mate! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAF_Louvert 101 Posted September 22, 2012 . Tranquillo, I am maintaining my program, and I'm very glad to see that you are getting back on track after your treatment and recovery. Thanks for keeping an eye on me Sir, I'll take all the help I can get. And don't worry about that bet, we called it off months ago as I recall. Thanks to everyone for the continued encouragement. It really does help keep a man on track. . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted September 22, 2012 Congratulations, Lou! I know it IS hard after the early successes. What program do you follow, if I may ask? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAF_Louvert 101 Posted September 22, 2012 . Olham, I count calories and try my best to eat healthy, and I walk three miles nearly every day now. I've found that 1,200 calories a day will cause me to lose weight while 1,500 calories a day will cause me to gain it back. A rather tight window to stay within, but I'm doing my best. . . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JFM 18 Posted September 22, 2012 I am months and months and months late to this thread, but what an enjoyable read! Congrats to all involved. To add my 1.5 cents, I know it can be tough at times. I quit smoking (cold turkey,1.5--2 packs/day) in 1999 (I did the math once and it was something like $18,000.00 that I would have spent on cigarettes had I not quit when I did--this makes buying flight sims and associated products quite easy to do), quit drinking in 2001 (cold turkey, after years of surfing a Crown Royal tsunami that made the Japan tsunami look as if a gnat had alighted upon a drop of dew)--neither so much as a single puff nor drink since--and in April 2011 decided, much like you, Lou, that I needed another lifestyle change, because temporary diets and bike riding weren't working and my weight had crept to nearly 200 lbs. I weighed 135 when I graduated high school (I'm 47 now) and I'm the same height. I agree, 135 was too thin--Paris Hilton could have kicked my ass--but 200 was too much. The mirror said so, my clothes said so, my heart said so. So I radically changed my diet--diet as in what I eat every day, not what I temporarily eat to lose weight--and joined a fitness "bootcamp" that I attend three days a week. Today my weight fluctuates between 165-170. Look good, feel good, am healthy, setting a good example for my kids. I haven't abandoned all the food I love--a slice or two of pizza now and then is just what the doctored ordered, and I'm working on getting some Nussecken from Olham--but generally eat raw fruit/veg during the day and sensible dinner. Portion control, too. "Eat fruit/veg on a dinner plate and dinner on a salad plate." Again, congrats to all. Well done and keep it up! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RAF_Louvert 101 Posted September 22, 2012 . Good on you Jim! Quitting smoking has to be one of the toughest. Though I didn't have to do it myself, I lived with my father when he went cold turkey from a two-pack-a-day Camel straights habit. It was NOT pretty. I quit drinking back in 1986 and is likely why I am still alive and kicking today. I will say though that there are times when a really good dark ale sounds wonderful. Fortunately I still remember exactly how those tasted. . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JFM 18 Posted September 22, 2012 Although its unfathomable today, I used to love Camels. I got lucky when I quit smoking because it coincidentally happened when I got the world's worst bronchitis, and I couldn't have smoked anyway. I was ill for three weeks--funny, I never get lung illnesses like that since I quit smoking. My colds today are rare and usually last only a few days. Anyway, after three weeks I was past the worst of it. The only real weird thing was a constant feeling of forgetting to do something. The "something" was smoking. The act of smoking was so involuntarily ingrained in my daily habits that its absence was noticed at even an almost subconscious level. I experienced the same thing with drinking. There have been times in my life when, after a night of hard drinking, or a hard night/day/night of drinking, I awoke the next day from the blackout and didn't know where I was or how I had gotten there. However, my cigarettes and lighter were always right there with me. So, even pickled in booze, the brain makes sure its addictions are sated. Also, I'd always heard how a sense of smell returns to ex-smokers, and boy did it ever! I worked at UPS in Chicago at the time and going through the facility almost killed me; it was as if I could smell everything in every package in that place! I'd run through there on the verge of gagging. However, that was *nothing* to how hyper sensitive my taste became! Even something as bland as 7-Up became an overwhelming taste nuclear explosion that I could not endure. Worse, some of my favorite tastes reached such hyper levels that I had to abandon eating them. Fortunately, this eventually settled to normal and I could resume eating the things I liked (until last year's diet change, that is), although my sense of smell is noticeably better than many in my family who smoke. They remark on this. However, my sense of smell is normal. Their senses of smell are damaged. As an aside, I find humor in the memory of times I lied to people about drinking and smoking. "I'll chew this stick of gum and nobody will know I just had a cigarette." Now that I do neither, I realize that it's impossible to hide either from someone who doesn't drink or smoke. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tranquillo 10 Posted September 22, 2012 (edited) Well done, Lou - keep it up. I gave up smoking many years ago, Jim, and found it surprisingly easy. I'd put it off for a long time having seen what other people went through. I guess I was just ready for it Lou, not sure I could give up my occasional pint of Spitfire though Jim, you're spot on with all the after effects of giving up smoking - what a difference it made. Edited September 22, 2012 by tranquillo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted September 22, 2012 Never smoked fortunately (the first one just tasted too awful), but I liked drinking wines and beer. Occasionally I still miss beer (especially on hot summer evenings), and red wine - mostly when I am having Italian meals. But the benefits of not drinking win every time. My mom was teasing me with a 25 year old single malt whisky she got for her 80th birthday. Oh yeah, I remember the taste, but go away, devil! Maybe when I get 80 I'll buy me one. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tuba2 1 Posted September 23, 2012 It is great to read so many success stories here. Congrats to you all and keep up the good fight. I am lucky like Olham having never started smoking since I lost my father and father-in-law to smoking cancer. The drinking has always been in moderation so I am free to enjoy an occasional wine or beer with meals. I have been doing better exercising the past three years but the weight has been slowly increasing. I try to convince my wife it is all muscle mass. It doesn't work she just looks at me and laughs but I am in much better health. Now if the new update would just arrive while I am still on the green side of the grass I would be an even happier man. I know only two weeks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
