KartMan

I was always in the non-runner camp when I was heavy. After losing my weight and getting to goal I was still afraid to run and avoided it. One of my biking buddies has been trying to get me interested in Triathlons and has been trying to talk me down from my fears of running. I have to tell you, it’s a hell of a lot easier to run when you don't have an extra 100lbs of flab attached to your belly. I've made 3 solid runs so far and am working my way up to the 3 miles needed for the Sprint Triathlons I will be doing. Who knew getting in shape would be so fun?

It absolutely “can” work. For me, it worked beautifully. I am 6’ tall and went from 282lbs down to as low as 170lbs. I am back up to 185-190, but that has been a welcome weight gain as I have been working out and gaining lean muscle mass. My BMI went from over 38 to under 25, more importantly my Body Fat percentage is hovering between 13-15% (which is considered excellent). Was it easy? No, nothing that works is. You have to learn how to work the tool, you have to set goals, and you have to do some work. Before this, I wasn’t always to most dedicated dieter or workout person. With the band though, I saw that my work was paying off (while losing weight I was dropping 2-4 lbs per week). Now I am careful about what I eat (but not super anal about it) and am very motivated to maintain and improve my physical fitness. I do some sort of workout 5 days a week (usually a couple of days in the gym, and a few days on the bike).

Hey folks, I’ve been away for a while. It seems as if some of the same folks are still around (except patty). I got frustrated arguing with the same 1-2 people here about the same issues. I am still passionate about politics and am really concerned with the direction the Tea Party whackos and the Fox enablers are taking us in. I’m not happy with everything Obama has done (mostly because he didn’t go far enough) but I know it would have been much worse without him and will be disasterous if the Republicans take over the congress. While I have not been here arguing the issues, I am doing what I can elsewhere to get the word out. Aside from politics, I have been loving being the new me. I am hovering at my weight goal and don’t concern myself with calorie counting anymore. I have a new passion for bike riding (I am doing a 62.5 mile endurance ride this weekend) and am in training to participate in a Triathlon in the spring.

Best of luck to you in your surgery this week. I'm sure all will go well and you will be on your way. As for failure, don't make it an option. Follow the rules, set reasonable goals, track your progress and make the adjustments you need to with food and lifestyle to be successful. It WILL work!

Heck, for $32M I might vote for Palin. Sadly, that test of my integrity is not likely to happen soon.

Have I ever said I hadn’t read it? I have read it (and the Quran). I don’t find either to be awe inspiring or particularly credible. I find them both to have a lot of common sense ways in which people should act, both have a lot of useless rules and restrictions, both of full of contradictions, and depending on how you read them both - justify a lot of hostility towards your fellow man.

I couldn’t disagree with you more. The bible is in itself “religion”. It is not God’s word, at best, it is man’s interpretations of what God would have said. I point you to the very fact that the bible we use today was assembled well after the death of Jesus and many parts of the oral sayings and teachings as well as whole written books were left out for the purposes of the people that were assembling the book. Politics and the art of persuasion were at play even in the early formation of Christianity. I’ll give he Moslems some credit on getting out of this dilemma. At least they had the sense to say that the Quran was not written by man, but that the illiterate Prophet Mohamed recited the words told to him by the Archangel Gabriel. Abu Bakr later had scribes transcribe the recitation word for word into the Quran.

You sure know a lot of dubious people. I have a lot of acquaintances, and I couldn’t say that I know of that many that are cheating in those ways. I wonder if my friends are just less deceitful, I am less nosey, or you are more judgmental? I’m sure the answer is in there somewhere...

What a wonderfully simplistic way to describe “afterlife”. See, besides all the hate and fear mongering from religion, it is the pure fantasy talk like this that turns me away time and again.

I am on the edge of my seat wondering who Obama will nominate for Supreme Court. Stevens is probably stepping before the next term. I'm thinking Hillary Clinton might be an interesting choice. I wasn't her biggest fan before the last election, but I could not be more impressed with how she has handled the transition and her job as Secretary of State.

Flaming teabaggers? I know there must be a pun there

Good points, I salute you.

This is why advocate for a draft (a fair draft, not the joke of a draft we had in the 60's). With a draft, the whole country would share the terrible cost of war. If we all had friends and family in harms way, I bet we could find away to end these sensless wars and would be less likely to enter into them in the future.

There are many things I do not see eye to eye on with "my" president, this is probably the chief amongst them. Whlile I do disgree him on some things, he is in my opinion, our best President in a very long time.

My goodness Patty. That is quite possibly those most ignorant one sided view of history I’ve ever heard. First let me clarify one thing from my perspective... I am not on the retributions bandwagon, what’s done is done – we can’t fix it now. I’m not advocating all non natives leave this land, nor do think we should be handing out 40 acres and a mule. I do however firmly believe we should recognize that the way we built this country was by destroying and forcefully removing the natives and on the backs of slave labor from Africa. Instead of trumpeting how wonderful our forefathers were, we should learn from the parts of history that are less heralded. Rather than paying retributions we should be striving for a more equal society for our non-white brothers and sisters.

You know, I don’t see the difference in you being morally opposed to your tax dollars funding abortion and me being morally opposed to my tax dollars going into these senseless wars. I’m not advocating that tax dollars be used for abortion mind you, the Hyde amendment is in effect and that is not my point anyway. The point is that we all have differences of opinion as to what we think should be paid for with our tax dollars. If I had a choice between funding legitimate family planning (even if it included abortion services) and continuing to kill our soldiers and innocent civilians half way around the world, I think I would choose the former.

Don’t you find it interesting that most in the media are not really calling these whack jobs terrorists? As far as I’m concerned, they are just as much terrorists as Al Qaeda.

I tend to think our success had less to do with the mercy and goodwill of God and more to do with the virgin lands we stole from the natives and the fact that we cultivated those lands with the blood and sweat of slaves.

I actually don’t like arugula and brie, can I still be an elitist? I’m down in San Diego and only go up to LA when I have to. I can’t eat much pizza with my restriction, I’m only good for a few bites. My new thing though is to chew and spit out food. I know it sounds gross, but at least it gives me the sensation of eating. I call it a preventative PB.

Oh the democrats are already drinking bottled water. How else would we wash down all that arugula and brie?

Don’t give us too much credit. We are still barbaric enough to discriminate against gays.

I’m a little late on this thread. I think of myself as a left leaning Centrist, or center leaning Liberal, after reading my rants you are free call me whatever you like. I don’t much like labels. I really don’t care much for the extremists from either side. I am a registered Republican for two reasons. First, when I was younger I identified with the Republican party. I came of age under Reagan – sue me. I was also in the military at the time, which tends to lead one a bit to the right. Sadly, after all these years I see that many of Reagan’s ideals were built on a flawed foundation. Now I stay Republican because it gives me at least some say in who wins the Republican Primaries in CA. My voting record: 1984 Reagan (Winner) 1988 Bush 1 (Winner) 1992 Bush 1 (Loser) 1996 Dole (Loser) 2000 Bush 2 (Winner) 2004 Kerry (Loser) 2008 Obama (Winner) 2012 Obama (Winner:sneaky:)

Short of Medicare for all or at least a Public Option, I am happy with what we got.

Dumbfuckistan :lol: That is my new favorite place.

Yes. They used to believe in wrestling, but they figured out that was all fake. Now they are in love with Beck because he is the real deal.