How to drop a jeans size - the mouseclick way ;) How to drop a jeans size - the mouseclick way ;)
How to drop a jeans size - the mouse... 
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15 y
8,431
RR
I don't really want to post any more personal pics as the last time I did that they were stolen and abused, I then had to waste half an hour of my valuable time getting a website taken down. Then I thought, I haven't done a good post for a while and I really feel like doing one now, so I thought of a way to do it impersonally. Here's the result...
This is what arrived in the post this morning, a pair of 28 inch Ted Baker jeans, They had so little material on them that they were put through my letter box.
Pictured in the background are my old 44 inch jeans, that were too tight for me in November 2007. The new jeans are too tight, but I need to get the legs altered and they should fit me by the fall. Eventually I anticipate they will be slack on me, as the waist is actually 30 inches (vanity sizing) and I am naturally around 28 inches above my hips. I already have problems getting 28 inches, when I get to size 26 I will have even more problems. It makes me smile, because less than two years ago I couldn't find jeans big enough to fit me, now I can't find them small enough. Sigh! Can't win can you? Lol!
I plan to lose another 30 pounds or so, to get to around 10% body fat, that will be roughly half my starting weight back in 2007. I want to get to this point because it is supposed to be where you are heart attack free. Below 11 or 12% fat, you also lose addiction to fat, according to a study. I mentioned this in earlier posts, but if anyone wants the links I'll dig them out.
I guess dropping to that point will take me the better part of the remaining year. After that I intend to start building again, on a plant based diet. I may get a T shirt made - "Powered by Vegetables". I don't think I want to look like Rocky or Mr Universe, though just to turn conventional beliefs on their head, I really do think everything is possible if I wanted to look like that. I think I'll go for some strength, stamina, and I may take up some form of martial arts. But I think we are looking well into next year for this, I like to take things slowly these days. It's my age you see... ;)
Speaking of ageism, I notice there has been a bit on this forum lately. I'll let you into a secret. I felt so young the other day I knocked a door and ran away, just fo the hell of it. Just because you have been around for a while does not mean to say you have to feel old. You can choose to just feel really good about yourself, then age becomes irrelevant.
For anyone who doesn't already know I did this initially by water fasting, a 27 day one then I think a 23 day one, and a series of shorter fasts. The fasting triggered me into eating healthily, it kinda reset my appetite, though knowlegde which I gained from Chrisb1, Fonty and others definately helped here. Later on waterbug mentioned a few things, that led me on to nutritarianism. I am extremely grateful to all people here who have been supportive throughout the last couple of years.
In 2008 I was fasting / eating conventional healthy food - you know - making a bit of an effort and all that. Then in December 2008 / January 2009 I had a blip, and found out how easy it was to fall back into bad eating habits. I then looked more seriously into nutrition, and discovered a new way of eating. It's probably easier to call it "nutritarianism", since it is neither vegan, vegetarian or anything else. It means looking carefully at what we really should be eating. For me this works out to be a mainly plant based diet, with a small amount of good fish and organic meat, usually when I am with friends. I think I then lost weight more quickly than fasting, without the drawbacks of fasting. There are other benefits too, good health, longer life and so on.
So I went from being the guy in those 44 inch jeans who had knee problems, aches and pains, oedema, sleep apnea shortness of breath, unable to get up without using my hands, unable to bend down and so on to the one in the little jeans who is now planning a career for the next 50 years, and knocks the odd door and runs away occasionally. I don't call that aging, do you?
I may do another fast soon just to help polish off that last 30 pounds or so, but I also agree with others such as Hopinso that fasting is not the best way to lose weight. I also want to see how different a fast is after eating great food for more than 120 days, and try refeeding on raw to see if the weight gain is less. I just need to find some dates that don't clash with summer barbecues, that's all.
Best advice to anyone that wants to drop a jeans size or two:
To those that feel down, or feel a failure, I'll leave you with a 15 min video from another Steve that you might recognize. This speech he made at Stanford University shows you that there is no such thing as failure. So good luck, happy fasting, happy eating or whatever. Go and change your life! 
I'll second that Hopinso, great post Steve!!! I'll have to agree that fasting isn't the best way to lose weight but it sure is a kick in the pants toward changing your lifestyle if you pay attention to what your body is telling you after the fast. I reset my tastes through fasting but I've still go a ways to go in that area but as you know my Vita-Mix is helping me in that. I didn't fast as long or as many times as you did but I still gained insight into what to feed my body.
I see far too many come here and want to fast strictly for losing weight and it is a great tool to start with but I've read about too many going back to the bad eating habits they had before and end up gaining even more weight than they lost through fasting. Hopefully your post will help some see that there is more to sustaining the weight loss after the fast then they thought. Its not easy to change ones life but it is attainable with an attitude and goal of wanting to change no matter what the obstacles. You are living proof of that.
That picture is worth a 1000 words isn't it? Wow what a difference, I know when you look at that you've got to be so proud of what you've accomplished, we're all proud of you too. I like what you said about getting younger through nutrition, its very true. I bet you wouldn't even have considered going and knocking on a door and running before you started on this journey huh? LOL, that is so funny and proof that we can immensely slow down the clock through doing what's right for our body.
As for Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple. Just a few short words on his story. When the financial crisis started in the fall of last year Apple stock was one of only 2 companies that never went down. Until Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO due to his health. I saw him make the speech and he looked really bad. That was after he made the speech in the video you posted. I don't know what the problem was, he didn't say, all he said was he needed to take some time with his family, but the difference in his appearance in the video and in the step down speech was telling, he didn't even look like the same guy. I can't remember but within a couple of days Apple stock started going way down. I love my MacBook and I'm hoping he'll be back as CEO.
I hope he has found his way back to health. While watching this video my heart went out to him, I wish I could tell him he has a much better chance of healing himself through nutrition. I wish he knew what we've been learning in the last several months.
Anyway congratulations on how you've turned your life around for the better. I know you'll never go back, you couldn't, you know too much now to go back.
Willow 
I actually agree that fasting is awesome for fat burning if used properly... but it is all for nothing without proper lifestyle to follow. I can say this from experience because i have definately several times in the past gained all of my fat back after a fast and then more. For me, healthy nutrition and exercise post-fast was absolutely essential for continued success.
I believe the warning of many (myself included) is that you can't expect to fast to lose weight and then do whatever you want afterwards. It is a trap, one that i have fallen into many times without even realizing it.
After fasting for 10 days and losing 7 pounds of fat 80 days ago, then eating nutritiously and exercising over the next 80 days to lose 20 more pounds of fat (maybe 23 with 3 pounds of added muscle), I decided this time around to use fasting as an intensified period of fat loss (in addition to all of the other amazing benefits which i look forward to) and to use the refeeding period for building muscle (as opposed to having a fat burning focus at that time). I expect to burn about 20 pounds of fat over perhaps 25 days of fasting (walking for 2 hours/day).
It is said to be highly inefficient (not completely self defeating, but highly inefficient) to build muscle in a calorie deficit... ie: muscle building works best when not trying to lose weight at the same time and actually works optimally in a highly nutritious calorie surplus of about 500 per day. For this reason, i decided to attain optimal body fat % in this fast and be able to focus on rebuilding thereafter.
"i decided to attain optimal body fat % in this fast and be able to focus on rebuilding thereafter."
That's my goal too, but because I believe that having such excess fat is unnatural, what we eat is now dictated by the television not by the soil and weather, plus we have too much of everything. As I mentioned in my previous post on my one day fast, this teaches me that I am still overeating. That's because I can just buy stuff off the shelves at knock down prices, and I don't like throwing food away. Ideally I would like to reconnect with the soil, and that's my long term goal.
I can't wait to get out of the unnatural state and start building again. I always was skinny when I was young, and I think it's nonsense to accept that older people should carry more fat. But equally I know I can't rush things. It takes time for bones and things to adjust.
Anyway I think I will add a day a week fasting if it starts to show better results.
Oh and
"but it is all for nothing without proper lifestyle to follow"
Agree 100%. Fasting was a catalyst to a better life for me, it reset my taste buds and opened my eyes to many things. I had to do a lot of reading to undo years of brainwashing by friends, family, TV, media, big companies, the government even. But I coulnd't go back to the old ways now. Learning the truth is a one way ticket. The only thing that could change me is if the 20 or more doctors and scientists that talk openly about and all the research they have done were proved wrong, but the more I read the more I see to reinforce the viewoint that a high nutrient plant based diet, sunshine, exercise and a positive outlook has amazing effects on health and longevity.
(edit)
I forgot to mention, you said you tried and failed by putting the weight back on because you didn't change your lifestyle, then you did and it worked. I have been posting here for 18 months, not because I tried and failed but because it takes more than a few weeks to reduce your body weight from 260 pounds to 130 pounds! In that time I have seen many people go belly up with fasting for weight loss, but a few successes too, such as severin, fasting2goal and anyone else who speaks up and adds their name to this thread, but I think they ate healthily too. It would be interesting to know if they kept that weight offk, and how. And maybe there are other ways to keep it off, eg by exercise, but look what happened to that Peter Lewis who Caldwell Esselstyn got on the stage at vegsource's Expo talk. He was into cycling, but he needed heart surgery, until his heard disease was reversed by a few vegetables. I suppose younger people may not think of the health factor, but they discoverd heart disease in 18 and 19 year old US troops from autopsies after the gulf wars, and they were "fit" by conventional standards too. Peter Lewis was in his 30s, and that guy from WAPF who said that cholesterol was a nutrient died in his early 40s from a stroke. That's not old - well not by my standards anyway.
For me, i would generally eat only fruit (or live juice) before noon, then 3 simple and properly combined meals of protein (fish or beef or chicken or eggs with a disproportionate amount of whites) with raw vegetables...
or starch (sweet potato or oatmeal, amaranth, millet, brown rice, beans) with nuts or cheese and raw vegetables.
Often i would precede these meals with live juice, carrot, beet, celery, lettuce, parsley with a dash of cayanne pepper is a favorite. I would let this pass through the stomach before eating.
2 or all 3 of these meals would contain a good portion of leafy lettuce or raw spinach... (i was later able to stomach some raw kale smoothie as well as other raw healthy juices or smoothies from asparagas, broccoli, or other foods). I picked up a vitamix by the way which only adds to the fun :). Other raw vegetable favorites are red/yellow/orange bell peppers, tomatos and onions.
After 8pm, i would only have light foods again: fruit or live juice or fresh vegetable broth (usually from any combination of the following: kale, collard greens, swiss chard, bok choy and other leafy green veg.. also broccoli, garlic, onions). Pretty much as much of these light foods as i wanted.
Key supplements: Fish oil when not eating salmon, green tea capsules, co-q10, liquid vitamin/minerals, acai/goji juice.
Sounds like a lot of food perhaps, and it is generally 5-7 small meals per day, but i did lose 20 pounds over 80 days eating this way, while actually building a little muscle at the same time... and never felt hungry. In fact, i began to intentionally slow the weight loss in the last several weeks to focus more on the muscle support... originally i was doing about 2200 calories in this plan and worked my way up (by choice) to about 3000 in the end anticipating a fast (which i am doing now) to be able to focus on fat loss again. Another key to the 20 pounds of fat burning was engaging in short duration high intensity cardio.
Whatever kind of diet somebody goes on, it's really all about the proper follow-up. As the cliche goes, one has to embrace a permanant lifestyle change. I have fasted and not kept the fat off and i have fasted and kept it off. The big difference between the two was the lifestyle i embraced and maintained afterwards. As well, i think of fasting as being quite a bit more than merely a "crash diet".
Through cleansing, healing and regeneration, fasting opens up the body's potential to keep weight off and continue to lose more, partly through a new found excellence in being able to optimally assimilate nutrients.
edit:
In my opinion, and through my fairly extensive personal experience with it, Water Fasting is quite simply the fastest way to burn fat. In this fast i anticipate burning about 20 pounds of fat over 25 days, but a fast can only be of temporary duration and absolutely must be followed up with an outstanding, healthy, nutritious lifestyle as well as a consistent exercise program.
Will anybody ever see it? ;) Mighty.Sun.Tzu
15 y
6,727
