Sick of this crap

as a former 13 year, pack and a half a day smoker, i can tell you the
answer. quitting smoking. piece of cake compared to true weightloss and
maintenance.

peace,
pen

"Ignoramus24885" wrote in message
...
Not being a smoker, I am curious, which is easier: losing 20% of
bodyweight and keeping it off, or quitting smoking for good.

i

"Penelope Baker" wrote in message
...
as a former 13 year, pack and a half a day smoker, i can tell you the
answer. quitting smoking. piece of cake compared to true weightloss and
maintenance.

peace,
pen


I would put a qualifier on that satement that for you quitting smoking was a
piece of cake, everyone has different hurdles to face. For some quitting
smoking is easy, while weight management is nearly impossible, and for
others it is the other way around. This has to do with both physical and
psycological hurdles people have that are vastly different from one person
to the next.

"Ignoramus24885" wrote in message
...
Not being a smoker, I am curious, which is easier: losing 20% of
bodyweight and keeping it off, or quitting smoking for good.

i

"Penelope Baker" wrote in message
...
as a former 13 year, pack and a half a day smoker, i can tell you the
answer. quitting smoking. piece of cake compared to true weightloss and
maintenance.

peace,
pen


I would put a qualifier on that satement that for you quitting smoking was a
piece of cake, everyone has different hurdles to face. For some quitting
smoking is easy, while weight management is nearly impossible, and for
others it is the other way around. This has to do with both physical and
psycological hurdles people have that are vastly different from one person
to the next.

"Ignoramus24885" wrote in message
...
Not being a smoker, I am curious, which is easier: losing 20% of
bodyweight and keeping it off, or quitting smoking for good.

i

Michelle -
Wow, that was really well-written, and I agree with everything you said. My
favorite part was about not telling other people how easy it is not to drink.

I think you're doing an amazing job - your website pictures are INCREDIBLE -
and I'm sure you'll have the same success with quitting smoking. : )

Jen

Michelle -
Wow, that was really well-written, and I agree with everything you said. My
favorite part was about not telling other people how easy it is not to drink.

I think you're doing an amazing job - your website pictures are INCREDIBLE -
and I'm sure you'll have the same success with quitting smoking. : )

Jen

In article ,
Saffire wrote:

In article ,
says...
Thanks Carol. I don't feel like I am maintaining any strength, I feel like
I'm in a position of weakness. I feel like a naked, weak, sick person just
saying "Ok, here I am. I have nothing. Take your best shot." I guess I'm
not afraid of people calling me things I'm not, because I know the truth of
my situation. It still makes me angry though. Part of me wants to run off,
but I need to learn how to deal with having strong emotions again.

Michelle, some of us need to talk things out more than others. It's just the
way
we do things. Some people need to talk as little as possible and it works
out
just fine for them. It's human nature. You need to talk and this is a
support
group. I say GO for it. Unlike some other people who have posted here since
I've been reading over the last year and have been accused (rightfully so) of
being "drama queens", your postings tend to be introspective discourses
discussing what works for YOU, what doesn't, what you want to try or not try
and
WHY, not spiteful demands for attention at all costs.

You said something once about reading posts here (or in any other newsgroup)
that
really stuck with me -- you said that people could pick and choose which
articles
to read, much like a newspaper where you skip over items that don't hold your
interest and only read the ones that DO. I really LIKED that analogy. If
you
consistently do NOT get support from someone and their posts, in fact, make
things more aggravating for you, filtering them out is probably a good idea,
at
least while you are feeling more vulnerable. I applaud your efforts to quit
smoking and can't imagine how difficult it must make things to do not only
that,
but stay on course with low-carbing. I did notice that there is a newsgroup
called alt.quit.smoking.support -- have you looked into that newsgroup?


Yeah, I read that one too. It's, um, interesting.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

In article ,
Saffire wrote:

In article ,
says...
Thanks Carol. I don't feel like I am maintaining any strength, I feel like
I'm in a position of weakness. I feel like a naked, weak, sick person just
saying "Ok, here I am. I have nothing. Take your best shot." I guess I'm
not afraid of people calling me things I'm not, because I know the truth of
my situation. It still makes me angry though. Part of me wants to run off,
but I need to learn how to deal with having strong emotions again.

Michelle, some of us need to talk things out more than others. It's just the
way
we do things. Some people need to talk as little as possible and it works
out
just fine for them. It's human nature. You need to talk and this is a
support
group. I say GO for it. Unlike some other people who have posted here since
I've been reading over the last year and have been accused (rightfully so) of
being "drama queens", your postings tend to be introspective discourses
discussing what works for YOU, what doesn't, what you want to try or not try
and
WHY, not spiteful demands for attention at all costs.

You said something once about reading posts here (or in any other newsgroup)
that
really stuck with me -- you said that people could pick and choose which
articles
to read, much like a newspaper where you skip over items that don't hold your
interest and only read the ones that DO. I really LIKED that analogy. If
you
consistently do NOT get support from someone and their posts, in fact, make
things more aggravating for you, filtering them out is probably a good idea,
at
least while you are feeling more vulnerable. I applaud your efforts to quit
smoking and can't imagine how difficult it must make things to do not only
that,
but stay on course with low-carbing. I did notice that there is a newsgroup
called alt.quit.smoking.support -- have you looked into that newsgroup?


Yeah, I read that one too. It's, um, interesting.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

In article ,
Ignoramus24885 wrote:

Not being a smoker, I am curious, which is easier: losing 20% of
bodyweight and keeping it off, or quitting smoking for good.

i

Hmm, I'll let you know. So far, after a month of smobriety, even using NRT
I crave cigarettes a lot more than I craved carbs after my first month of
low-carb. And even though I've been pigging out, I have been pigging out
on low-carb foods. So sticking to low-carb is easier, imo, and sticking
with exercising is definitely easier (it's the highlight of my day) but
whether or not those two things result in my being able to maintain at
least a 20% weight loss remains to be seen.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

In article ,
Ignoramus24885 wrote:

Not being a smoker, I am curious, which is easier: losing 20% of
bodyweight and keeping it off, or quitting smoking for good.

i

Hmm, I'll let you know. So far, after a month of smobriety, even using NRT
I crave cigarettes a lot more than I craved carbs after my first month of
low-carb. And even though I've been pigging out, I have been pigging out
on low-carb foods. So sticking to low-carb is easier, imo, and sticking
with exercising is definitely easier (it's the highlight of my day) but
whether or not those two things result in my being able to maintain at
least a 20% weight loss remains to be seen.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.

It's about level of effort vs. level of difficulty. Among your students,
of which are you prouder: the ones who have an intuitive math ability and
ace every test without even trying, or the ones who come into your class
failing, and work and study their asses off, and leave it actually
understanding math?

Anyway, yeah, I am a total hero for undertaking tasks that I find very
difficult, even though no one is making me do it except me, and every time
it gets harder I just work harder. Go me!!

In article ,
"JC Der Koenig" wrote:

Ok then, you're a total hero for having the courage to not put a stick in
your mouth.

Duh.

--
Now **** off. You cannot possibly be this stupid and remember to
breathe. You must be trolling. -- Carmen


"Luna" wrote in message
...
I'm sick of people minimizing other people's struggles, in general, not
just in my case. This whole attitude of "What you're going through isn't
that hard, stop whining" First off, it's crap. Everyone knows it's crap
when the struggle is against something concrete and external. We all know
people have different levels of physical ability. For example, if my 82
year old grandmother, who has a bad hip and has never ridden a bike,
learned how to ride and rode a whole mile, that would be a far more
difficult accomplishment than if Roger, in his present condition, were to
ride a mile on his bike.

Yet, when it's an internal struggle, people expect everyone to have the
same ability and level of difficulty. I don't know why it is so hard to
accept that some people may have a more difficult time controlling their
eating than others, some people may have more difficulty dealing with
stress, quitting smoking, quitting drinking, etc. There are different
levels of natural ability, and different levels of life experiences which
help build coping skills. I've never had a drinking problem, so should I
sit in judgment of people who do and say "What's the big deal? I don't
find it so hard not to drink, neither should you."

For you it may be no big deal to go out and shop for groceries. For an
acute agoraphobic, this would be a huge deal. Telling them to stop
whining
and get over it won't help at all and would just make you look like an
asshole.

Lying to myself and telling myself that quitting smoking is easy and
controlling my eating is easy will not magically make it easy. Instead it
just makes me feel like a failure over and over. It would make me _not_
seek out help and support, because hey, if it's easy I shouldn't need
help.
If eating less is so easy, then I shouldn't need to get out of the house
or
find some other way to distract myself when I feel like munching. If it's
so easy, it should just happen automatically with no effort on my part.
And waiting around for it to happen on its own won't get the job done.

Like every other human being I have my strengths and weaknesses. Some of
my
weak areas include self control, impulse control, motivation, and
maintaining a positive outlook. Those 4 things are the main tendencies I
have to fight against in just about every endeavor in my life. And for
people who _don't_ have problems in those areas to come and tell me that
no, I actually don't have them either, that I'm making it up to get
attention, or using them as excuses, is a bunch of crap.

I'm not making them up, and they're not excuses. You have to play the
hand
you're dealt in life, and that's the hand I have. I would be completely
deserving of being called a drama queen or told I was making excuses if I
said that I was giving up, that I didn't want to play the game anymore,
that it was too hard and I was just going to take my toys and go home.

Well, I'm not doing that. This is hard and it sucks and I hate it, but
it's worth it. I want to be healthy and strong, no matter what it takes,
and I will do it, I will get there. The fact that I find it difficult
doesn't mean I have some kind of moral failing. The moral failing would
be
in letting the difficulty be an excuse to stop working on it.

--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.



--
Michelle Levin
http://www.mindspring.com/~lunachick

I have only 3 flaws. My first flaw is thinking that I only have 3 flaws.