Month: April 2013

Vaping and Weight Loss

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, E-Cigarette, Food, Health, Noom, Products I Like, Recipes, Vaping8 Comments

ecigarettes and eliquid

I am constantly getting messages from people who have read my posts about vaping and weight loss asking me if it works, and not all stick around in the chat for me to respond properly.  Let me just say that it is not going to help you lose weight.  I have said many times in my posts that vaping is not a replacement for diet and exercise.  If you want to replace the sweet tooth with vaping that’s one thing, but unless you are eating a balanced diet, eating fruits and vegetables and watching your portions and exercising, you are not going to lose weight.

When I started vaping, it was with the understanding that it might help me lose weight, but I discovered that it didn’t do a damn thing.  The only thing it did was get me to stop snacking on candy and junk food, but I was still going to the buffets and still eating bad carbs and all that other bad stuff that you know you shouldn’t eat.  Vaping only replaced one thing for me, but it didn’t help me lose 1 ounce of fat.

From January 5th to today April 15th 2013, I have lost nearly 50lbs.  Want to know how?  Sure you do, that’s why you are here.  I downloaded the Noom app from the Google Play store for my Android phone.  I have been scanning food which are mostly all green items.  Here is a typical day for me.

  • Breakfast at 8 a.m.: Exactly 1 cup of Cheerios with Silk Soy Milk (not measured, I pour it until the cereal rises then I stop).
  • Morning Snack at 10 a.m.: Fruit, like a banana or an apple.
  • Lunch at 12 p.m.: A Weight Watchers Smart Ones meal or Lean Cuisine.
  • Afternoon Snack at 3 p.m.: Either fruit, steamed vegetables or Wheat Thins.
  • Dinner at 6 p.m.: A Weight Watcher  Smart Ones Meal or Lean Cuisine.
  • Evening Snack (Optional): Either Fruit, steamed vegetables, Wheat Thins or Jello.

I’d like to note that I buy the Weight Watchers Smart Ones at Food Maxx for $1.88 and I also get coupons for $3 off when you buy 10, so that is a very good deal for me since it is way more expensive at Albertson’s.  I only buy the Lean Cuisine when they are on sale for the same price which isn’t too often, but I like to have the variety when they are on sale.  Some people may have an issue with them, but they are good and they are real food despite some people saying they aren’t.  They are made with healthy ingredients.  You should give them a try, they might surprise you.

That’s basically my day and that is 1400 calories or less depending on what I decide to eat for my snacks.  I drink coffee in the morning until the pot is empty and then I drink Crystal Light the rest of the day.  I should say you should drink water, but we all know that water sucks.  I should be telling you to cut up a lemon or an orange and soak it in your water pitcher, but come on, Crystal Light tastes so much better lol.  Plus it’s like 50 cents a pitcher, or if you buy the generic version, half that per pitcher.

So that is how I lost nearly 50lbs in 3 1/2 months.  Not everyone agrees with my method, but it works for me.  I haven’t had 1 week where I didn’t lose weight.  Most every week I lose 3 to 4 pounds, but this week it was 1.8lbs.  Why?  I honestly don’t know, but I know that my next weigh in will make up for it.  I probably shouldn’t jinx myself by saying I have lost weight every week, but it’s true.  I normally plateau after the first month, but I’ve kept up the routine and it’s working so I’m going to continue to do that until I am at my goal weight.

I am still vaping from time to time to get the sweet taste in my mouth, but I really don’t need it as much as I did when I was still eating junk food.  I feel as though I have kicked the sweet tooth.  I have all the sweet flavors I need with the fruits and the crystal light.  I don’t even bake fruit cookies anymore to satisfy my sweet tooth because it’s practically gone.

To anyone who doesn’t smoke who thinks that vaping might help them lose weight I will just save you the time and money now by saying it does not.  If you want to lose weight, download the Noom app on your Android phone if you have one, iPhone coming soon.  If you don’t have an Android or iPhone, well what are you waiting for?  Get with the times, sheesh!

The most important thing I can tell you that if you want to lose weight you need to stop going to the buffet and the fast food restaurants and start eating healthy for goodness sake.  That’s your problem right there.  Even if you don’t go to the buffets or to the fast food places, if you are overeating the food you cook at home and not eating a balanced portion then that’s why you are overweight.  You have to look at the label on everything you make and eat the exact portion you are supposed to eat.  Like if you buy a box of Macaroni and Cheese, you can’t eat the whole box, that’s too many calories.  That’s like half of your day right there.  You have to be mindful of how many calories you are putting into your body because that’s why you can’t lose weight.

Also, no more ICE CREAM!  You know you don’t stop at half a cup, admit it.  You put 3-4 scoops in your bowl.  That’s too many calories and that was my big issue.  I have discovered that you can eat ice cream as long as it is made with natural healthy ingredients.  Like this Banana Ice Cream recipe.  It’s just a frozen banana pureed in a food processor with a tiny splash of milk, that’s it.  It’s frozen like soft serve so it tricks your brain into thinking you are eating actual ice cream, but it’s just a banana.  You can do that with any fruit you like.  I tried it with a cantaloupe and it was delicious.

I haven’t mentioned exercise yet.  Guess what?  I haven’t been exercising.  I know I should and I don’t mean to make excuses but I have to.  I have a spinal disease called Degenerative Disc Disease which is very extremely painful.  I can walk for maybe 5 minutes before the pain starts and after 20 it’s debilitating.  I can ride my bike, but guess what?  I started to ride my bike a month ago when the weather started to warm up and I broke my arm.  A broken arm means I can’t ride my bike.  So I have no more options until my arm is healed.  I’m not saying you should eat healthy and not exercise and lose nearly 50lbs in 3 1/2 months, but that worked for me.  I do plan on getting back on my bike when this heals in the next couple or few weeks, so I’m not trying to be lazy, I’m just in a lot of pain and you can’t ride a bike with one arm in a sling lol.

So anyway, I hope I’ve made my point about vaping and weight loss not being a good way to lose weight.  I do recommend that if you are a current smoker and you want to quit smoking cigarettes and start vaping that you should because it is way healthier for you than cigarettes are.  You can quit smoking if you switch to vaping because you can step down on your nicotine.  When you order your e-liquids from Zeus E-Juice (which I highly recommend) you can order as much or as little nicotine as you want with your e-juice for your eGo e-cigarette.  You get a lot of sweet flavors (my favorite is Banana Nut Bread) and you aren’t inhaling or exhaling smoke, it’s water vapor, so you aren’t harming yourself, spouse, children, friends, co-workers or pets.  It’s perfectly safe for everyone if you switch to vaping.

Good luck on your weight loss and I hope my suggestion helped you.

My Week 14 Disappointment

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

noom week 15

I know I probably sound a bit too critical of myself with this, but I can’t help but feel that I messed up, big time.

We went to the doctor earlier this week, I believe it was on Wednesday.  I weighed myself at home before we left and I was 213lbs.  That was a huge shocker because my weigh in last Saturday was 217lbs.  We went to the doctor’s office and I was 216 and that is to be expected since I weigh myself at home with just a shirt and my underwear, while at the doctor’s office I’m (obviously) wearing my shorts and a pair of shoes.  My shoes alone seem to add 2lbs.

We were bragging all over the place how I had lost 48lbs (because my starting weight at the doctor’s office was 264, but my starting weight in the Noom app is 263.) and now I can’t say that it’s 48lbs anymore because of how little weight I lost this week.  I was hoping for 213 again or at the very least 214, but there is nothing I can do now but do better this week.

I honestly don’t know what it was.  I haven’t been eating any differently, so I can’t explain it.  Perhaps I had 1 too many servings of wheat thins?  Maybe I haven’t been eating enough vegetables, which I can agree I haven’t.  Perhaps I need to start eating more steamed vegetables for snacks again like I used to because that helped me get to where I am today.

Oh well.  I don’t want to be negative because if I’m negative then I will sabotage myself.  Positive thinking is the only way to go in this situation.  “I will do better next time” (chanting over and over).

Until next week…  I hope to be at least 212 by then to make up for this setback.

The (Frustrating) Sims FreePlay

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

The_Sims_Freeplay_1

I have been hooked on “The Sims” since the late 90’s when I first heard about it.  I was living in Hollywood and talking to someone on AOL who lived in Michigan and he told me about it and so I started playing.

I have the original Sims game with all the expansion packs.  I don’t have The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, but I heard they have way better graphics and are way more fun.  Although, I do have The Sims 2 Pets on my PSP, but it’s not the same thing as the PC version.  I also have The Sims Castaway for my PSP, I played The Sims Online when that was available and I play The Sims FreePlay on my Android phone, which is a ton of fun, but it can also be frustrating as hell.  Here is my page dedicated to The Sims.

The Sims FreePlay runs in real-time.  Like, say I have 16 Sims, which I do, and 2 of them go to work at 9 a.m. and 2 go to work at 10 a.m., well, I have to get up at 8 a.m. to get my 9 a.m. Sims needs filled up so I can send them to work.  That only takes a few minutes, but then I close the game and wait until 9 a.m. so I can get my 10 a.m. Sims to work.  That again only takes a few minutes.

So then I close the game and come back to get my noon Sims ready for school and work, but while I’m in the game, I go to use the wardrobe and it crashes the game and when I come back into the game, all of the Sims that I had sent to work are back in their houses.  All of the Sims that I had put to work in their garden who don’t have to work until later tonight aren’t working in their gardens anymore, they are standing in the front of the house or sitting on their couches picking their noses.  What the hell?  Seriously?  Why the hell did I wake up at 8 a.m.?

I don’t really care that that happens because the Sims end up making more money with gardening anyway, but I would love to not have to wake up early specifically to get the Sims to work and then have that BS happen.

My other grievance isn’t just with the game, but I think it also has something to do with my phone which is a HTC One V from Virgin Mobile.  Sometimes when I play the game it’s fast and I don’t have any issue getting around, while other times it’s so slow that I can’t get the screen to move at all.  The Sims characters are all either just standing or they are in mid stride trying to get to where they were going.  Then every minute the screen dims and then in a few seconds the phone goes to sleep and then I have to push the power button, slide the ring up and then wait for the screen that tells me how much my town is worth lol.  To prevent that from happening, I have to be very quick and pay close attention, but it’s hard when the game is sluggish.  The other way to prevent it from happening is to keep it plugged in while playing.  When it’s plugged in, the screen dims, but it doesn’t go to sleep.

I have to admit that it really is a fun game to play, even though it is laggy and glitchy.  I just built a Medieval Castle and it’s pretty cool, although it only had 1 bedroom which sucks because I have 2 Sims plus their 2 teenagers.  It had 2 dining rooms so I converted one of the dining rooms into a bedroom for both the kids.  It has both of their beds which they never sleep in since I have them drink an espresso to fulfill their sleep need lol.  The bedroom is more for decoration really.  I also wanted a place to put their study desk and their bookshelf and to showcase their Karate and Ballerina lamps LOL.  It seems silly, but it’s fun for me.

sims medieval castle sims kids room medieval castle

To answer your question, yes that Sim is wearing an Easter bunny costume lol.  I just took him out of it today and put a more medieval costume on him, the King costume.  Both of my Sims in this house are wearing a King costume, since they are a same-sex couple.  I tried getting the son to use the wardrobe to see if there was a prince costume, but naturally they only had kid clothes.  That’s why the game crashed.  I guess I have to build the costume shop to see if they have kids costumes.  My same-sex male couple have a son and a daughter and I would love for their clothes to match their house, even though I have added some things to the house that aren’t medieval lol.

Well, I just had to rant about it lol.  I guess there isn’t anything to do about it but just deal with it I guess.  I did install the original Sims game on my computer just so I could see the differences, and trust me, there are huge differences lol.

Are your goals unrealistic?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

goal-weight-loss

I have been told in the past when discussing my true weight loss goal that I would love to be the same size I was way back when I was still skinny before I gained all of this weight.  Peoples responses have always been the same.  “And people in hell want ice water.” “You are never going to be the way you were.” or my favorite is “That’s just unrealistic.”  Is it unrealistic?  Because I don’t think it is.

Saying something is unrealistic is negative thinking, and we all know that it’s all a state of mind.  Negative thinking will give you negative results and positive thinking will give you positive results.  If you think you can do something, then it is possible.

When I decide to do something, I do it.  Like take my weight loss journey for example.  I have already lost (officially as of last Saturday) 46lbs, how did I do that?  I decided I was going to eat healthy and not snack on junk food.  I have been very faithful to my diet (not diet as in the dieting term, but diet as in the food I eat diet).  I told myself that I was going to eat healthy and so I am eating healthy.

I used to be 150lbs, so me saying that I want to be 150lbs again is unrealistic, and I only say that because I have packed on at least 20-30lbs of muscle in the gym, but 170-180 is not unrealistic.  I will have the thin stomach again and that is my goal.

When I was 12 years old, I wore a size 30/30 jeans, and when I was 26 years old I was still wearing the same size jeans, and then I quit smoking and the size of my jeans changed.  The last pair of jeans I bought were a 40/30.  That is a shocking number from 30 to 40.  But that wasn’t the size of my stomach, that was just the size of my hips.  My stomach was actually 50 inches.  My stomach is now 44 inches and I expect that it will go back down to 30.  I don’t think that is unrealistic.

Positive thinking brings positive results, so don’t let anyone sabotage you with negative thinking by telling you that you can’t do something.  You can do whatever you set your mind to.  We all can be the way we were if we work hard enough to get back there.

If I can lose 46lbs in 14 weeks, then I am positive that I can be a size 30 again, I just have to keep doing what I am doing and I will be back to the way I was.  I ignore negative thinking because I got to where I am by doing it my way, and I will be the one laughing when I am at my goal weight/size.

I have told people what I eat and what I drink and everyone has something negative to say. Like the weight watchers meals aren’t good for you, but in actuality they are.  They are low in calorie, they are made with healthy ingredients and they are filling.  I was told not to use creamer in my coffee because it’s too fattening and someone even told me that I will never lose weight as long as I use creamer in my coffee.  Um… 46lbs in 14 weeks.  I beg to differ.

I’ve been told not to drink Crystal Light or put artificial sweetener in my coffee because the sweetener is bad for you because it can make you eat more.  Well, I have been using sweetener since I was a teenager because I can’t stand sugar filled drinks.  Like I hate Coke and Pepsi, so I will drink Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi instead.  Those have artificial sweeteners which is what makes them have 0 calories.  I think I have built an immunity to whatever bad effects artificial sweeteners have because I am still alive after more than 25 years of using them.  One of the Noom articles said, and people in the Noom forums have said that artificial sweeteners will make you eat more, but I have not experienced that side effect, and I think it’s because I have built up an immunity to that.

I usually ignore negative thinking because I want to stay positive, but that doesn’t mean I have forgotten the negative comments.  I just keep saying “46lbs in 14 weeks…”  The numbers don’t lie.  I have been eating the same way and drinking the same way since January and have lost weight, so I’m just going to keep doing it my way.

Before I tell you the next story, I have to mention that I went to the doctor’s office today and according to their scale I have lost 48lbs…

I got a free lunch bag from Lean Cuisine and it was too feminine for me, so I gave it to our tenants who are a mother and her 2 daughters.  Well, the mother told me that she noticed that I had lost a lot of weight and I said yeah, I’ve lost 48lbs and she had this worried look on her face, like she thought I was dying lol.  I said oh no it was on purpose and I laughed.  I told her what I was doing to lose the weight and then I explained that I had type-2 diabetes and sleep apnea as a result of my weight and that my doctor has been begging me for years to lose the weight.  That was a relief to her.

Isn’t it funny how some people see things?  Don’t judge a book by its cover.  Just because someone looks thinner, doesn’t mean something negative, it could mean they are trying to live a healthier lifestyle, which is what I am doing.

Until my next ranting…

Two thirds of the way there…

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

noom 219

I am sure people are probably tired of hearing me talk about my weight loss by now, but deal with it lol.  I was excited when I lost 28 pounds when I was only 8 weeks in. I am now on week 13 and have lost 43 pounds. It’s just really exciting for me that I am finally losing weight.

Normally I wouldn’t want to blog or brag about something like this because I’m afraid that if I do, I will sabotage myself. That has happened to me in the past. But I am more confident in myself this time around.

In 2004, I lost 40 pounds and I was so excited that I lost that much weight that I was constantly talking about it and focusing on it. The result of that was that I ended up going into a plateau and I couldn’t lose any more weight. I don’t know what happened or why but it discouraged me and instead of losing more weight or even just maintaining my weight, I ended up giving up and I gained more weight. My weight was 172 then.  I was so close to my goal and now I think why did I do that to myself?  I could have gotten down to my goal weight and been done with it, but I am sure I still would have gone back to my bad eating habits and gained the weight back anyway.

That is not going to happen to me again. I think that if I lost weight and then plateau, even if it lasts for 2 months, I will continue to eat healthy because I think about food differently now and eventually the weight will come off again.  But I don’t want to think about that because I want to think about this as positively as I can. If I start thinking negatively, then negative things are going to happen. It’s like Murphy’s Law, if something can go wrong, it will.

I started in January at 264lbs, but when I started using the Noom app, I was 263lbs. I am now 219lbs and this is April. I only have 19 more pounds to go to reach my goal of 200lbs and I have a feeling that I will reach that goal without any problems before June.

The Noom app says that I will be at 200lbs the first week of June, but I have a feeling that it will be the last week of May when I am at my goal weight. If that is true, then that would be an awesome birthday present for me because my birthday is on June 2nd. The image above says August 10th, but that date never changes because that was the original estimation if I lost 2lbs per week from January 5th.  The weight graph now says June 7th. It keeps changing every week when I weigh in.

For my birthday I would like to have a slice or 2 of cake, or even at least a cupcake. I know that that’s probably not the best idea, but we had cupcakes on Valentines Day and I didn’t gain any weight. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.  You can eat junk food like that if you want to, as long as you eat it in moderation and don’t go overboard and make it a daily habit.

After my birthday, I will continue trying to lose weight until all the fat is gone and I am at my true goal weight. Of course I don’t know what that goal weight is yet because I have built up so many muscles and we all know that muscle weighs more than fat. Before I gained all the weight I was 150lbs so I’m guessing that with all the muscle weight, I should be at 170lbs, but I don’t know that for sure.

Anyway, I have faith in myself that I will get down to my goal weight and I will be a healthy and happy person. Although that is not to say that I’m not healthy and happy now, because I am, but I know that I will be healthier and happier when I am at my goal weight.

So until then…

Just to note what I have noticed about my weight loss.  My shirts were starting to get tight on me somewhere around February of 2012, so we went to Sears and bought some new ones.  The new ones had pockets on the fronts, so I knew which ones would fit me.  Over the year, they started getting tighter and tighter.  By the end of 2012, they were almost skin-tight and we were preparing to buy new ones for me to wear.  My waist was 49 or 50 inches in January and now it is 44 inches in April. Those shirts are now way too big for me, although I still wear them.  I noticed today that the neck on the shirt I am wearing is so stretched out that it almost looks like a V-neck shirt.  They were tight around my neck before.

My neck has gotten so thin that I can actually see a neck lol.  I haven’t had a proper neck in years.  I was starting to think that I never had one at all.

My pants were always loose around my hips, but they fit around my waist if I hiked them up.  Of course even if I did hike them up to my waist, they would fall down, so I always had to wear suspenders.  Now they don’t even fit my waist because they are way too big.  Now if I wear my fat pants, I end up looking like a circus clown.

One month ago I started wearing shorts because the weather started heating up.  I tried on every pair of shorts we had and they were all too tight.  Although some were too loose.  I found one pair that was tight, but it fit, now those shorts are loose on me.  I’m glad they have a drawstring so that I can make them tight so they don’t fall down.  All my underwear still fit because the elastic band is still good, although they no longer curl down in the front because of my fat stomach.

I will be excited to see how I look in another month.

cartoon mike 19lbs to go