Weight Loss: Gaining

I spent few months in San Francisco. My ex had temporary research project with University of Berkley. One day that project was over and we had to find other possibilities. We went back to east coast. With no job and no leads we had to conserve money. We decided to use campgrounds instead hotels. We bought inflatable bed, tent and hit the road.

We took different road to see some more places before we came back to the reality. We went through Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Florida and along east cost up to DC. I eat lots and lots of junk food while we were traveling. By the time we came to DC I couldn’t fit into my favorite dress anymore. I was size 16-18.
It was the first time I started to think about my size. I really liked that dress. I didn’t think about my health back then,, I was very young and didn’t event think that I might have health problems one day. You know, when you are young, you think you will live forever healthy and happy.. And I was happy, eating as much French fires as I wanted,, I was eating waffles in Waffle house, pancakes in IHOP, I was ordering 2 cheeseburgers meal with extra large fries for dinner,, I has desserts every day,,, and I WAS HAPPY. Food made me feel happy. It still does.

Weight Loss: Speed

There are many websites on the Internet promising fast weight loss. On my experience fast lost pounds are coming back as fast and bringing friends with them, unless you do it as part of larger plan. I’ll talk about crush diets later.
Fast weight lost is critical when it is matter of life and death in the situation when you mast lose weight or you are going to die. I know one lady who had gastric bypass surgery because she had to lose weight fast, based on her health situation. She lost tones of weight fast! She is very thin now,,, but her skin didn’t go anywhere. She lost her weight faster than her skin was capable to shrink. Now she has lots of skin hanging and cannot do anything with that. She does not want to go under plastic surgery. Losing tremendous amount weight fast and keep skin tight can be done in very young age. Once we are over 25 we have to think not only about losing fat and gain mussels; we have to think about our skin. With age our skin loses elasticity. Slower weight loss and supportive undergarment can help to avoid skin hanging. My granny was telling me after pregnancy to wrap towel tight around my waist to help tight back skin all the time as much as possible. I could use her methods while I was at home. Nowadays there are plenty undergarments available. One of my friends sleeps in spanks every night,,, she is over 50. Her figure and skin looks like teenager skin. She is size 2,, use to be size 12. I tried to do the same,, cannot do it,, it is too tight and uncomfortable for my taste,, I also value my comfort,, eheheheh
With age slower metabolism slows down weight loss process. I guess it was planned for a reason! As always, Mother Nature is very wise. I also used some coco butter that is recommended for pregnant women to avoid stretch marks,, moisturizing and massage can help shrink skin back during weight loss process. There is one more benefit of slower weight loss: slower lost pound do not come back fast.

Weight Loss: Weight Discrimination.

In my office we have note in the kitchen that says that we have rights not to be discriminated by race, age, gender, or disability. That sounds fair, but what about weight. Have you ever been discriminated by anything, or at least stereotyped?
Discrimination by weight, especially against women is getting more common in our country. Few studies proved that this problem exists and becoming very common. This is interesting that discrimination happens “especially against women”. Women genetically more prone to gain weight, we give birth to children, getting huge during pregnancy and suffering losing wait after having baby.. Some of us never lose baby weight, like my mother for example. How people can discriminate us for being overweight?
I know one very smart woman. She is the most brilliant system analyst I ever worked with. She is also a very hard worker. She designed many very successful systems for her clients. She was working for many years for one of the software companies. Her father started to get health issues and she had to move closer to him. Because of that move her commute doubled, so she started to look for a job closer to her new home. Her resume was brilliant, and her references were flawless. She is super nice person and has great communication skills. She had tons of calls, she passed hundreds of phone interviews, she had hundreds of interviews in person, but she didn’t get any offers. The problem was that she was very large woman, I mean very large. I’ve never been this large. We talked about that, it was just a theory; we didn’t have any prove of that. Somehow people tend to stereotype others with extra weight. They think if person is fat, that means person is lazy, or stupid.. In their mind our size is opposite to size of our brain,, or working abilities. Did I mention that system analysts are usually sitting on their butts performing strictly intellectual job,, They also need great communication skills to be able to have good relationships with clients and translate everything to technical language for technical people. How in the world size could be related to those qualities? As much as I concern big butt, would probably help: it is more comfortable to sit on one sport for long time, then on skinny butt with sticking out bones.
Well after 6 months of struggling she decided to lose weight. It was her long term motivation; her career became very strong motivation for her. She succeeded! Guess what? She found the job very quickly ones she became 140Lb lighter. Our theory was right.

Weight loss: My biggest problem - food

I just love food. I love everything except hot serials,, but everything else goes. I enjoy best gourmet restaurant in Paris, as much as I enjoy cheeseburger in local burger joint. When I was traveling in Italy I was in haven,., I was waiting for next meal like it was my last meal. I love French fries, I love sushi, I love tuna tartar, I love pasta, pizza, I love eggs, cheese, fruits, vegetables,, sweets… I just love it all.. Normally if I would not control myself, if I have something yummy in front of me I will continue eating.
I think my biggest problem comes from childhood. The culture of eating in my family brought it on me and struggle is still here,,,

I was not fat as a child. I was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. My mother – traditional Russian mom and my Granny, had their own understanding of healthy living: more the better. My food was full of sour cream and butter. My mom cannot stand any type of oil, so all my food was fried on good old butter. They were also worried that I would be too thin, so half of fried chicken and large plate of home fries was my typical breakfast. I was not fat because I was taking ballet classes every day for few ours and my body was burning crazy amounts of calories and I stayed trim. When I turned 14, I grew fast became too tall for serious ballet, and had to switch to folk Russian dancing, I was doing that as a hobby, so my dancing schedule became less intensive. Then it all started. I continued eating as I was use to.. Believe me food tasted great, it was yummy, I also didn’t have habit of stopping myself, and my mother (BTW she still thinks that bigger the better) was happy,, By age 16 I was size 10 and growing sidewise. I am 5.6. At age 16 my weight was 155 Lb.
I am very lucky girl, I am curvy girl: when I gain it all goes everywhere: starts with hips and the goes up evenly,, I can gain 10 pounds and nobody will notice,, more then 10 gets noticeable,, I have curves, I have boobs, hips and waist. I have hourglass figure,,