Ramadan and Weight Loss

Hello everyone! To update you I'll be fasting for 30 days in observation of the holy month of Ramadan which started 10 days ago. The fast is from sunset (around 6) to sundown (around 7) during which I abstain from eating or drinking.

It might sound like one would actually lose weight during that time period but it's the opposite actually, I've gained weight every ramadan, between 5 and 10 lbs, and I'm trying to prioritize atleast NOT gaining this ramadan and I'm not expecting a big weight loss like the last two months. The reason for the weight gain is you're starving when it's time to eat and you end up just over stuffing yourself with all kinds of desired foods, and then you keep eating until it's not time to eat anymore. Of course this completely contradicts the principles behind ramadan and fasting where you're supposed to be exhibiting self-discipline, but I just get weak sometimes, LOL. Another reason for the weight gain is that I'm usually more sedentary during ramadan, I cut out lots of activities, I definately don't work out, and since I'm not working or in school right now I actually end up spending a good bit of the day either sleeping or sitting.

I skipped this week's evaluation so I don't know what the first week of ramadan did to my body in terms of weight loss. To be honest I think I'm doing good in terms of eating when compared with other ramadans. I'm eating small break-fasts (it's what we call dinner in ramadan because we're literally breaking our fast), and I don't eat all throughout. After dinner at somepoint I'll eat again (small dessert or something) and before sunset I'll eat again (some leftovers), I attribute the smaller portions to the suppressants of course; however, most of the food I'm eating is bad food-it's food that I was dreaming about while fasting LOL. I've been eating a good bit of fried food, lots of carbs, and lots of desserts! I try to make sure there's always salad on the dinner table, but even with the salad sometimes I fry pita bread pieces to add because it makes it taste so much better and I keep telling myself it's ok becase I was fasting.

To be honest with you I may have put on some weight, but then again I always feel like I gained weight and every week I lose pounds.

Dropped 6 lbs This Last 2 Weeks- 25 In 2 Months!

Well I had a good day! As previously mentioned I skipped last week’s evaluation because I was just too down to go and I thought I would have put on lbs due to all the junk food-I just couldn’t face that possibility! This week I ate really good although I didn’t go to the gym or anything I still considered it a good week because it was improvement. Also, I’ve proven that I am too hard on myself and I don’t give myself enough credit because when I stepped on the scale today I was an entire SIX POUNDS less than the last evaluation so no matter how ‘bad’ I thought I did last week there definitely was not a gain but a loss (I guess I’ll never know how much). Now that I think about it, I didn’t have that much junk food: a little bit of fries, a little bit of fried shrimp, wedding cake, fried oyster, ice cream and it was all in small quantities but I guess because I still have a negative image I only focused on the fact that I did in fact eat bad food instead of thinking it was only a little.

So fellow ‘dieters’ or ‘healthy wannabes’ or whatever you wish to call yourself if you’re trying to lose weight, take this from me: DON’T UNDERSTIMATE YOUR ABILITY

Don't Be A Britney Spears

With the exception of the Saints major loss to the Colts last Thursday, things have been going good!

The day before yesterday is when I started eating better. I woke up that day feeling really gross, I just felt so bloated and so heavy as a result of junk food and late dinners and I decided I don't want to feel good and thus must put good stuff in my body. When I got hungry I ate a samosa which actualy isn't good because it is fried, but I had only one with my pills. I waited until I was actually hungry before I ate again which was seriously like hours after! I guess that happens as my body's defense mechanism when you feel bloated and full an heavy from days of eating bad food. This is actually my personal logic and not something that I know to be scientifically true LOL. Anyway, when I got hungry I ate a peach and that's all I ate the whole day and I wasn't starving myself or depriving myself, I was actually just listening to my body (some intuitive eating for you there)!

I can't be like Britney Spears, no more excuses, no more blaming external factors for my failures, and no more skipping or rescheduling weekly evaluations instead it's time to TAKE CONTROL! I'm actually looking forward to this wednesday's evaluation although I'm not anticipating a loss.....it'll be good for me to face the music!

Answer to Farah's question: what exactly am I taking?

farah said...
heycan you tell me the names of the supplements and appetite suppresants you take?i work out every day but i struggle with food. it's also not in my financial possibility to see a nutritionist right now.thank you

amma15 answers

The first appetite suppressant that I took was tenuate which i had for month. The second month they switched me to bontril. Both of those are prescriptions so you must see a doctor to get them, do you have insurance? the medicine itself isn only 40 dollars for a 1 month supply.

As for the supplements, different makers use different names for them but I'm taking:
a)'body boost' which is an enegry pill (stearic acid, cellulose)
b)'B-factor'; a water pill
c) 'sweet ender' craving control pill (niacin bound chromium supplement)
d) 'probese'; this is pretty much a fiber pill (carboxymethulcellulose)
I take them all in the morning with breakfast except for the probese which I'm supposed to take 15 min before meals and if I get hungry or cravings at night then I take one then also.

You should be able to find them all at a local drug store they just might be under different names. I buy the 4 from the center for $80 for a 1 month supply-they might be cheaper at other places. I would say the probese is probably the important and probably the B-factor because I have a lot of water weight.

September 6, 2007 My New Juicy Couture Bag and GO SAINTS!!!

Unfortunately not too much has changed since last week. I skipped my evaluation at the clinic yesterday :( It would be my 7th evaluation. Last week I also skipped on the day it was scheduled but ended up going 2 days later because I felt like I was being too much of a slacker. I don't know if I'll go tomorrow or not, the reason that I'm so avoiding it this week is because I have a strong feeling I put on a pound or 2 or 3. I know I say that every week and every week I end up dropping but this week has been my most unhealthy. I ate bad food probably every single day (I haven't today), I considered this past weekend as a vacation weekend. I mean I went to a 2 day wedding event for god's sake! I'm just really afraid of the possibility that the numbers will go up. I'm taking prescription suppressants along with a few supplements and I'm being evaluated every week by a counselor and a nutritionist so if those numbers on the scale go up I'm going to feel like a failure. Putting together the before and after pics and emailing them out to my relatives gave me a high that I'm still on and I'm afraid that if the numbers went up it'll bring me down and I definately don't need that right now. I'd rather have this week go undocumented and just make up for it the next few days.

I saw a primetime special a couple of days ago on breaking habitual bad habits and the key is to set one mini goal at a time. So today I'm going to not eat after 8 PM!

In a previous post I said that when i reach the 20 pound mark I'm going to buy myself a fendi bag, well those last couple of pounds just came really slow and I couldn't wait so I gave myself an early reward and instead bought a metallic gold suede juicy couture bag! It's super cute-the bag has actually gotten more attention and compliments than my actual weight loss LOL but that doesn't bother me. It sells in store for 275 and I found it on ebay for 250 + shipping which is less than sales tax. I'll post a pic up of the bag!

On a different note, today is the first game of the NFL season which is going to be the New Orleans Saints ("america's team" right?) versus the Indiana Colts which were last year's super bowl winners. I'm a huge Saints fan, I lived in New Orleans last year when they opened the super dome back up after the storm and the saints were a just a source of pride, happiness, and hope to me and so many others. It really seemed like nothing else in New Orleans was working except for the Saints! GOOOOO SSAAAAIIINNNNTTTTSSS!!!!!!

september 4, 2007 Wedding Weekend and PICS

This past weekend was soooooooo much fun!!! I went to my good friend Rhonda’s henna party on Saturday and wedding on Sunday. It was at the Sheraton on canal street in new Orleans and there were roughly 1,000 guests. I can’t wait to see all the pics-waiting for those facebook tags! Lots of dressing up, dancing, laughing, and memories-I really needed this weekend after such a stressful time in life.


Saturday night we contemplated whether it was worth it to stay in the hotel (99 + taxes and other weird fees, not bad but just not necessary) and after we saw that a lot of our friends from baton rouge didn’t come that night and those that did weren’t staying the night we opted to stay at family friends that live in the uptown area. Although it’s my friends wedding I definitely didn’t know most of the people there-lots of her distant family and family friends and other people that you invite to your wedding if you’re arab that I refer to as “obligations”. One thing I don’t like about arab weddings is that they’re relatively impersonal. It’s not about you as much as it’s about your family, your family name, and the town/village from which you and your spouse originate from-so basically lots of people that you don’t know. One thing that I do love about arab weddings is that they’re FUN!

Sunday night a lot more people came so it was more formal and for me less dancing just because the dance floor was always saturated with lots of people I don’t know who can do all those cultural dabka dances better than me so I did more socializing than trying to squeeze my way in. My friend nada gave the speech where she mentioned my name in front of 1000 people that don’t know me-that put a smile on my face! A lot more friends stayed the night so me and my sister stayed with some friends. The only change of clothes I had with me were my pajamas and after weighing the options I thought I’d rather stay in my dress than wear pajamas out. Everyone made fun of me as we were walking down canal and the French quarter and I would have to stop and hold my expensive dress up as to not let it touch the random piles of ‘liquid stuff’ or just plain garbage LOOOL!

As promised I do have some before and after pics of me in the same dress at my cousins wedding in milwaukee this past may. When I started I weight 191 (my scale) and my last weigh in was 172 so 19 pound difference. I have to admit not everyone noticed the difference but some people definitely noticed. My friends amna and nure said “you look good” but didn’t notice that I lost weight when I asked them-then again I don’t see those 2 that often. My friend nada said my face looked thinner and another friend sameera also made a comment about a thinner face. I personally see the weight loss in my midsection more than anywhere else. Here is the first pic, I may decide to add more later, what do you guys think??????

september 4, 2007 shopping and skinny jeans

Last Friday right after my delayed weigh-in (normal weigh-ins at the clinic are Wednesday), I went to the towne center which is a relatively upscale strip mall next to the clinic where they have a whole foods. Shiela at the clinic told me I really need to make sure that I always have healthy food at hand and made me a list of things to get that included rotisserie chicken, strawberries, almonds, and deli meat.

So I decided to do some shopping! I walked into a boutique called eros and tried on this shirt that was on the mannequin the largest they had was a medium and it was way too tight especially on my stomach. I tried on some skinny and wide leg jeans in the biggest size they have, 32, in Citizens and 7 for all mankind. I couldn’t get them to completely go over my big butt and buttoning and zipping wasn’t even an option-I estimated that my true size was probably around 34 which as far as I know designers don’t make them in that size-I was surprised to even see 32s! Anyway, it might be a blessing that they didn’t have my size considering they were around 200 dollars each. Needless to day I walked out with nothing new.

september 2, 2007 Before and After Pics COMING SOON

Tonight I'll be going to my friends wedding in new orleans and I'm wearing the same dress I wore to my cousins wedding in milwaukee last May. I've lost 18 pounds the last 6 weeks so I'll be posting some before and after pics of me in that dress!!!!