How much of a responsibility do we have, as LDS, to work out and keep the fat off? The Lord says moderation in all things, but you don't necessarily just get fat by eating tons of twinkies. You can get fat on a fairly normal diet if you have a sedentary lifestyle, so it's not necessarily excess that makes you fat. I just started working out again recently, because I want to get back to a more reasonable weight. I feel better when I work out. I'm typing this as my biceps are killing me from increasing the weight on the curls I do, but I still feel better. But it's always been hard to motivate myself to start working out, and if I stop for any reason it's easy to get out of the habit. Also, society seems to have unrealistic expectations of weight. I've known some people who don't look fat at all, but they would be considered so by the body mass index that is published. It seems sometimes that anyone who weighs an ounce more than Calista Flockhart is considered morbidly obese I'm not trying to downplay my weight problem, but I've been happy at a weight that would still have me considered obese by the BMI. I'm way above where I want to be right now, but I'm not going to kill myself trying to get down to what the BMI says I should be at.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Does that mean I should give up my computer job and get a job where I sweat?
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Oooh, ooh, then I interpret it to mean that I can have all the fudge I want! Just kidding. I think this is one instance in which "sweat of thy brow" can easily be interpreted to mean "earn it by productive work". But as I start gardening I will definitely be eating at least some of my food by the sweat of my brow.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I think we need to be reasonable and responsible. I think expecting our wives to look like they did they day we married them is unreasonable after giving birth. Only a handful of people can pull it off and genetics has a part to play in it. Obviously though extreme obesiety is a problem not just for your heart but also can cause knee and back problems. Some reasonable exercise should be done 4+ days a week. As for diet, if it is unhealthy you should probably eat it sparingly. If you eat twinkies all day then you have a problem. Our bodies are a gift from our heavenly father and allowing them to fall apart isn't really appreciating that gift. Of course we can't all be superstar athletes but we can all be in at least decent shape so as to help prevent a serious injury during the next ward move. It also will make it easier to do fun things with your kids like camping or even playing in the yard. I find it to be a great way to unload stress from the day. If I hit the weights for an hour or jog for 40 minutes I feel less stress. It also helps set a good example for my children. I think if your children see you taking care of yourself then they are more likely to develope good habbits. I'm not in as good shape as I was when I was a teen but I can still run a mile, do pushups, situps, and pull ups so I figure I'm doing pretty good. I have to do something though at least 4 times per week or I will quickly lose that level of fitness. I could probably stand to lose about 8-10 pounds also but that's not too bad.
I got fat before i was really converted to the idea that being fat was bad. In fact I remember being somewhat proud of my fat at one point in my young stupid life. Now I find it's an extra burden I get to carry around with me. I try to exhort young people to do their best to keep it off, and find time to exercise regularly, because it's really really hard to create these tendencies out of my tendencies to overindulge my all-powerful gut-muscle...
For me, physical things have never come easily, and I've never felt good about my body image, even when I was skinny as a rake. It is so easy to envy the genetic body type of others, and I think that in many ways my personal voyage into the heavy-side of life, was both rebellion and disdain for the world's obession with the physical.
Being in good physical shape, however, enables you to keep up with your children, and do more things for and with them.
I first realized this once when I saw a fat couple getting into a really high pickup-truck. One of them had forgotten to get something out of the shopping cart, as i seem to recall (it was something like that), and both had put considerable effort into getting truck already. They sat in the cab and yelled at each other, then fuming one of them threw open the cab door and labored out of the car to take care of the problem. They were both furious and angry, and it was over such a tiny thing... the need to move out of the car and get the object.
I think if you're in better shape, simple tasks like moving or getting in and out of a car, getting up off the couch, or going up the stairs to check on your kids, etc... is easier. You don't yell as much or expect the less fat, more mobile children wait on your hand and foot.
Now if only there were some way for me to make fitness materialize from my habits of fitness nothingness... sigh...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
While in one way I regret that there's no quick cure (such as take a pill and all the fat melts off), in another way it's probably good. Would I be motivated to eat right if I could eat anything I want and still be thin?
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
This is an interesting question. I'm nursing baby #5 right now and I have a real problem losing weight when I'm nursing. I'm itching to really lose some weight. Just a few pounds extra with each pregnancy can add up. I've started walking the stairs in my house. It's something I can do without driving there or getting a babysitter or changing my clothes or worrying about the weather.
I like the idea of running around with my kids more. Hiking on vacations or camping trips and not just staying back with the baby because that's an excuse. (We have a few baby carriers around.) I like not being embarrassed at the pool. I like being able to ride all the rides that have a weight limit. (Except the little pony rides, I guess might be unrealistic.) I also like it to not be an issue. I'd like it off my mind, not in the back there, gnawing at me.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I think expecting our wives to look like they did they day we married them is unreasonable after giving birth.
I have a real problem losing weight when I'm nursing.
Oooh, me too (I'm nursing #3). Part of the problem is my body holding on for dear life...and part is trying to wean myself off the 'pregnancy eating paradigm.' If I work hard, I can lose all but those last 5 pounds. It's much easier when we stop nursing.
I have little incentive to eat right because it seems that diet plays a far lesser role in my health than exercise. If I want to lose weight, it's the exercise that does it, not the calories. I guess the trick is to know if you're eating the food or if the food's eating you...er... What I mean to say is that it's about control. If you know you could go without, but you want the fudge, it's okay. But if you honestly can't stop eating the fudge...then the all-consuming appetite has control.
I'm just extremely blessed. My wife looks better now than the day I married her... and that's after 7 kids.
Unfortunately, I'm twice the man she married.
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
Coco: I'm fat and not embarrassed at pools. I suppose other people might be bothered by the fat guy, but so what? I'm not trying to impress them in any way, especially not to present myself as physically attractive. I'm there to swim and have fun with my kids... for me, my appearance is not a huge motivator for why I want to lose weight. For me, I want to have the energy to be able to help my family and I don't want to die next week... sadly that motivation sometimes isn't enough to keep me from eating too much at the dinner table.
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
You know what kills? It's that weight you gain in college! You know, when you go from exercising for 1-2 hours 3 times a week (playing sports, of course! Racquetball and Ultimate Frisbee!) to studying your butt off until you are too tired to even play for 45 minutes, and then you notice that suddenly you've gained those freshman 15, and no matter how much you try to lose it, it's so much easier to gain than lose. Luckily I'm learning how to deal with the study schedule and get my exercise in, I just have to wake up a little earlier and make it down to the gym.
Although I'm not too worried about when I have kids. I've been babysitting these 2 kids this semester as their mom is trying to finish up school, and they love it when I take them on walks, so we have a blast going on walks around campus. I'll stop and we'll run up and down stairs (for a 3 year old and an 18 monther it's really exciting). Plus I hope that giving them so much fun outside while they are young will make them want to have fun as they are older. Although now that it's getting unpleasantly hot...I guess more sunblock and water.
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Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
— Oscar Wilde
Just a few pounds extra with each pregnancy can add up. You womens has it easy... normally, all y'alls gets to lose all or most of the pregnancy weight gains in the normal course of life after the baby is born.
We men folk don't have it so easy with the sympathetic weight gain. Mini Cat Herders 1 - 4 each resulted in about 20 - 25 lbs sympathetic weight gain for moi which I still carry. I have more stretch marks than Mrs. Cat Herder! Mini Cat Herder 5 was kind to me and did not result in any sympathetic weight gain. Can you guess which is my favorite (at least in this sole criteria?)?
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Okay, it's not the baby weight. I'll cut the crap and tell the truth now, since this is bountiful and I've turned a new leaf. I've always lost the baby weight. It's that I'm chubby ... when I GET pregnant. It's good to know you have the same problem, though, Euph. Everyone else (and I mean ev-er-y-one) I've talked to said it's easier for them to lose weight because you burn more calories when you nurse. Makes sense, doesn't it? But, reality is, I'm backward. What's cool, though, is that when I'm on the Pill, I lose weight, and most other people gain, from what I hear.
And I have fun at the pool. I can still have fun. Truth be told (this is becoming a habit ) I'm the most self-concious when my husband's there. I wish I looked better for him. He of course says I look fine and don't worry about anything 'till we're done having kids, he doesn't mind a "baby pooch", talks about his own pooch, etc. -- (just so you know he's not one of those husbands who nags their wife to lose the weight)
I heard it's 75% what you eat and 25% exercise.
In college, all I basically did was work-out, goof-off and ncmo- err... I mean, date. After that, I sort of got in this mode that exercise was not time well-spent. You could be doing so many other more important things. I'm still having a problem with justifying exercise time, but I'm starting to have a different viewpoint on it- maybe it's okay
But then I'll go back to Elder Holland's idea of a good work-out being a "good, vigorous sit."
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
I understand these as promised blessings I receive for faithfully practicing the principles of the Word of Wisdom.
From another perspective, I understand these two lines as a continuation of the principles of the WoW. When I interpret the "shall" much like the "shall" of the Ten Commandments, I understand the WoW to be an injuction to also seek for wisdom and knowledge and to engage in physical exercise--to be fit enough to run and walk without immediate exhaustion.
I'm not saying that interpretation is doctrine, I'm just saying it gives extra motivation to me.
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The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life. - Julie Beck
I wonder how certain "restoration" age members (Brigham, John Taylor, etc.) would "get into" exercise nowadays? I'm going off the assumption that most people back then just in the course of everyday business got much more physical exercise than we do now. We have to "make a plan" to get physically fit, unless our job requires it.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I'm beginning to think that exercise is a lot like Sabbath Day observance. It may feel like you're wasting time or not getting all the stuff done you need to, but without it, you don't have the energy to get the stuff done you want to...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
Cat you are right. My wife would have a baby and the baby would suck all of the fat out of her in just a few months... me on the other hand.... I gainged 20 lbs with each pregnancy.
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no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
As a 21 year old college student I don't know how I can honestly compare. I seem to constantly hover around 135 lbs. I wonder if walking several blocks everyday has something to do with it.
pt: that won't last forever. Cherish your health. Take good care of yourself now and don't compromise, cuz it's far easier to do the little things now than the big things later. :)
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
Everyone else (and I mean ev-er-y-one) I've talked to said it's easier for them to lose weight because you burn more calories when you nurse. Makes sense, doesn't it? But, reality is, I'm backward.
This is me too. I would always lose weight the first six months of a pregnancy, then gain it back by the end, and then put on 10 pounds or more while nursing. With my youngest I put on 30.
Honestly, I think that the weight loss during pregnancy made me complacent in my eating habits: I could eat ANYTHING and not get fat while pregnant. Everything went to the baby. (Of course that translated into big babies, so there you go.) Then, after the baby was born and my uber-metabolism was gone, the eating habits remained. Bad bok! Bad!
Add the fact that I was always so stinking tired for the first year of a child's life that the thought of using up what little energy I had in exercising was laughable. It's no wonder I gained weight with each kid.
Recently, I've discovered that my weight gain or loss seems to be in large measure a function of stress. Remember my little crisis a few weeks ago? After resolving those issues, my weight has started to drift downward, and I am not doing anything different. Go figure.
You know, the stress link I'm beginning to think is not total blarney. (He he - Happy St. Patty's day!) Anyway, I've noticed a difference with me, too. And what else I've noticed, is I can somehow mentally handle stress better if I've been exercising. I wonder how that works.
I need less too.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done
Mini Cat Herder 5 was kind to me and did not result in any sympathetic weight gain. Can you guess which is my favorite (at least in this sole criteria?)? 
It's good to know you have the same problem, though, Euph. Everyone else (and I mean ev-er-y-one) I've talked to said it's easier for them to lose weight because you burn more calories when you nurse. Makes sense, doesn't it? But, reality is, I'm backward. What's cool, though, is that when I'm on the Pill, I lose weight, and most other people gain, from what I hear. 
) I'm the most self-concious when my husband's there. I wish I looked better for him. 
He of course says I look fine and don't worry about anything 'till we're done having kids, he doesn't mind a "baby pooch", talks about his own pooch, etc. -- (just so you know he's not one of those husbands who nags their wife to lose the weight)
After that, I sort of got in this mode that exercise was not time well-spent. You could be doing so many other more important things. I'm still having a problem with justifying exercise time, but I'm starting to have a different viewpoint on it- maybe it's okay 
Oh...that is soooo me too. 
We're, like, sisters!
too. 
