Healthy Weight Loss

[Kelt]

Originally Posted by Zimmeh

Growing up in a dysfunctional home as a child and being homeless at 16, ...Zimmeh

This sounds familiar, for me I was 15 and fortunately my homeless stint was quite brief. The first couple of years out on my own were extremely slim pickings though when it came to food. Even though I worked full time, it was minimum wage, $1.30 per hour. Rent and a bus pass were about all I could have. I spent quite a bit of time genuinely hungry.

What that time in my life has left me with is sort of a weird combination of scarcity/hoarding behaviors in the kitchen. Until fairly recently I have always felt the need to have a jam-packed pantry "just in case". Having so much food around all the time was I am sure a big part of putting all that weight on me that I carried for a decade. If it's in the house, someday, someone will eat it. It was usually me.

Originally Posted by alexri

I can totally understand the "food is love" and "food is comforting" concept. I lived with it for a long time.

Food didn't care that I was/am gay/trans. Food didn't tell me I was stupid like my mom did. Food didn't make fun of me. Food was comforting. It was pleasure in terms of taste.

It took me a very long time to appreciate that food is fuel and that I need to treat it as such. Crap in, crap out. Just like if I use watered-down gas for my car, the performance fails, if I feed myself crap, my body, the machine that it is, will pay for it. For some people, moderation works. For some, it doesn't.

Geneen Roth is a wonderful author and has written many pieces on breaking away from emotional eating.

I am now at a point where I feel about it much like Alex does. It is an uneasy truce, but holding up a couple of years later. I still keep a well-stocked basic pantry but now it consists of all healthy whole foods.

Assuming that all holds well in my medical world, come September I'm going to embark on another physical change. Again I will experiment and track much as I did with my weight loss challenge. This time it will be for a body composition change. I know it will involve a lot of the same things I went through before with having to move away from some of my new favorite comfort foods and back into some uncomfortable places.

Oh joy

It will involve some "weight loss", although it will be actually more of a weight swap. Even though I am pretty much what would be popularly considered a "normal" (whatever that is) weight, I need to drop some body fat and pick up some lean tissue. A couple of the folks that were in here a few years ago may remember that I spent a lot of time in this thread during my initial changes and I plan on spending more time back in here and in the daily exercise thread when I start the next phase.

The support and accountability that I got in here really helped. I hope some of the people newer to this thread will come to appreciated it as I did. It is a lifeline.

[Hollylane]

Originally Posted by Miss Scarlett

It's interesting isn't it? This close connection between our emotions and eating.

There's a flip side to stress eating and I haven't seen it mentioned here...stress not-eating.

Has anyone experienced this?

When I am upset, I cannot eat, when I am happy, I want to eat. The not eating causes absolute havoc on my body, which already has problems getting the right nutrients, or even digesting foods that it needs to fuel it. With constant nausea (gastroparesis), I'm expected to eat 5 small meals a day (my gastro doc refers to this as eating like I've had a gastric bypass, which I have not), and most days, I can barely get the interest up for one meal. On the happy scale (pun intended), I want to eat the foods that do not nourish me, and my body cannot digest. The parts that I am at fault for, and the one's my body causes, both deliver the same results, my body goes into starvation mode (undigested food/not enough food), and stores everything it can as fat.

When Gaige and I vacation together, I always know how it will end. Yet I do it anyway, every single time, eating the things that she can eat without problems, and ending up sick for weeks after our visits.

I really need to work on the happy bad eating, and the frequent meals (despite my nausea). Sometimes my dieter brain (the one that has fadded out for years), talks me out of frequent meals, because it feels like grazing. See? Work is much needed in these areas.

This week, I'm going to work on getting enough of the right fuel, and try to get down to the pool as often as possible. I love swimming, it is a perfect exercise for me, and I'm hoping that I can get up the drive and energy to make it happen.

I've been doing well this week, with lots of extra walking and the right foods, I've dropped a few pounds this week, but mostly inches. Either one is fine for me, as far as my health is concerned.

[ruffryder]

Originally Posted by Sweetfeme

I wanted to write a quick note about another thing I noticed recently, and I believe it has to do with the increased protein intake and lack of wheat and sugar and that is the severity of my cold.
I just finished fighting off a cold and usually when I get hot by a cold I am out for the count for a few days. This time however was so different. I was still achey and congested but I didn't feel anywhere near as played out or sick as usual. I kept waiting for the cold to get really bad yet it never did. This has never happened to me before. Has anyone else had this experience?
Thanks again Holly, will check it out

I definitely believe someone getting sick or catching a cold and how long it takes to recover and get over has to do with diet.

Originally Posted by PaPa

Yesterday while reading I ran across a statement that has had me deep in thought analyzing my compulsions. It was this:

"I feel that eating binges are displaced temper tantrums or rage reactions."

I think this may be true of emotional eaters in general. Food has become a coping strategy to numb the emotions being felt. I know this is true for me.

Does anyone else care to discuss their thoughts on this topic or how they feel it is for them?

I believe you hit this on the nail for a majority of people that struggle with eating binges and emotional eaters. BTW it's great to see you in here PaPa!


Kudos to all that continue to come here and share. Glad to see you all on your weight journeys Thanks!
I've been stuck on the same level and that is knowing what eating healthy is and doing so sometimes and then other times eating whatever the heck I want and having cravings. I haven't really gained or lost. I know what I need to do it's getting motivated or wanting to be motivated to do it. I, like starry have also got the hip hop abs and it's been sitting in the box unopened now for a little over a month!! We moved just about that time and it still sits there. Right before we moved I found some awesome work outs on line and I was doing those in the mornings. When I find them I will post them for those interested. I also lost in the move all my protein visalus shake mix. I was/am bummed and have to find an alternative. I also want to try fresh veggie and fruit smoothies and have been doing research but haven't actually made them yet. We also have a small gym and pool here where we live. I have utilized the pool but not the gym just yet.

So, onward and upward to all.. we have a few months (4) before Thanksgiving and Christmas hit us so we should all make the commitment to focus till then :P

[PaPa]

First of all, thanks Ruffryder for welcoming me to the thread. I wanted to say that first before I forgot.

With the last week I have been reading, analyzing my actions, trying to make changes, keeping a daily food log, writing in a journal, and trying to eat less and move more. I have had one success this week in that I was able to fit back into the pants I wore at the beginning of my internship last summer. However, I celebrated by eating a piece of jello poke cake. I find that the old habits are dying hard. I reach and put things in my mouth before I even think about it. I found this especially true since my brother's family was here for a couple days. I would be interacting with them and not even aware that I was shoving a little bite here and a little bite there into my mouth while we talked. Ugh! I am now trying to figure out how to be more mindful of my actions and even reactions because I think that is what emotional eating is about (the reactions).

Did anyone else have this struggle? If so what strategies did you employ to help stop the behaviors? If you did not have a struggle here what do you think helped so you didn't?

I find my mind running in many different ways with what needs to be done and grasping at ways to get a grip....Idk if this is normal, but it is how it has been this first couple weeks.

[Gemme]

Whenever I would find myself doing that.....nibbling mindlessly on stuff.....I was not above spitting it into the trash. The very second I realized it.

I've also worn a rubber band on my wrist and tried the whole snapping it thing. It's supposed to redirect your attention and can be used for everything from changing eating behaviors to quitting smoking.

Mindful eating is a big deal for me. When I practice it, I don't overeat and I don't emotionally eat because I'm taking time between bites and I'm sipping fluids (ideally, water) every few bites. The fork/knife/spoon/spork goes down between bites and I pay more attention to what's going on around me than what is on my plate. I also ask myself am I really hungry or am I bored/scared/angry/etc. If the answer is not I am hungry or I don't feel the rumble that literally says "feed me!" (flashback to Little Shop of Horrors, anyone?), I don't eat then. Period.

Now, here's the fly in the ointment....how often do I do this? Not nearly enough.

It's absolutely about reflexes, Papa, and retraining yourself to not go on autopilot but to be more aware of what's going in your body. You just started, so give yourself some credit that you realized it and just keep working on being mindful and disengaging that autopilot. Journals are a fantastic way to gauge your progress. Definitely keep that up. Make sure to notate what you're feeling when you eat. That helps too.

[Kelt]

In thinking back over what things have helped me the most so far, I come up with two primary tools. They just happen to be in alignment with what we are talking about here.

Like the others have mentioned, mindful eating tops the list. For me that means no distractions; nothing with a screen, no books, no talking on the phone or anything else that will take my attention away. Early on I made a ritual out of it. I like to set a nice place at a table, use decent dishes and silverware, and make sure I'm eating good quality food. It helps if I can be a little on the hungry side also, my mother always used to say "appetite is the best sauce". I don't do this 100% of the time but as long as I can have one, or better yet, two meals like this in a day it's all good. If I pay attention when I am eating I feel like I have gotten enough. If I don't, sometimes it feels like I just went through the day and didn't eat when the reality is I just didn't pay attention when I was eating.

The other thing that has been super important for me is tracking. I don't do a traditional paper journal, instead I use the computer. I am a self-confessed data geek so it just works best for my natural tendencies. I first have to know what the problem is before I can fix it. Tracking was the tool that let me do course corrections on the fly. Analyzing what I had been doing for the previous few days and seeing what the outcomes were let me skip past plateaus more often than not. Just seeing how things would balance out during the day would help me make better choices for the next day.

Thinking about what Papa said, the habits are really tough. I have seen some research lately about habits and behavior that has come out lately that has contradicted some of my previous beliefs. I used to think that I could replace a bad habit with a good one but found that rarely works out. Some of the newer studies back that up. They're finding that even when we adopt new good habits the old habits remain. It seems that can be helpful to at least partly overlap a bad habit and a good habit. I remember years and years ago when I quit smoking something that helped me a lot was taking up the habit of tootsie pops. That way I took the habit apart a piece at a time instead of all at once. Keeping the oral fixation for a while as I was getting off the nicotine, then tapering off the candy. That might not be the best example here, but it is one that came to mind.

Maybe it might help with the unconscious eating around others if you had something else to do with your hands. I remember when I was young and my mother (back to mom) would be on some diet or other she would use knitting to keep her hands busy and away from snacking, she also then would not want to handle her nice yarn with greasy hands.. Gemme has some good ideas too. Maybe having something like a pack of cards handy where you could keep a little running game of solitaire going would serve the same purpose. Something that would keep your hands actively engaged, and also be something where you wouldn't want to go back to with dirty fingers. It wouldn't be so engaging as to take you away from conversation but would give you something to fiddle with.

Thoughts for now, keep up the great work!

[Miss Scarlett]

As if I don't have enough stress in my life already ...LOL

I've been doing some thinking over the last few days about something someone said to me recently as Hy lit my cigarette. "We need to work on this." And it was accompanied by THAT look...

After being smoke free for over 23 years, and for no valid reason, on September 3, 2011 I started smoking again. Early in 2012 I quit until the Fall when I picked them up again - this time for stress management; thinking smoking would prevent stress eating. And, for the most part, it did...

There are 5 cigarettes left in the pack sitting next to me and the nearest unopened pack is about a half mile away at Walgreens where, I decided, they shall remain.

I know I can do this, it's easy. But can I do it without regaining any of the weight I've worked so hard to lose? There's only one way to find out...

Wish me luck!

[*Anya*]

I finally bought a scale for my GF's house.

She doesn't weigh but goes by her clothing (too tight, time to eat less).

Not only do I have a history of eating when sad but I have discovered that I eat when happy!

Who knew?

In the end, it is all emotional eating and eating while not conscious of what is going in the mouth-

my mouth, that is.

Weighing myself is the one thing that works for me.

Every morning, naked, before I eat or drink anything.

My personal reality check.

Weighed myself yesterday for the first time in a while.

Reality check indeed.

[girl_dee]

Put a rubber ban on my wrist to snap myself when i feel like munching!!

"Snap!!"

[DiaSmiles]

For the first 35 years of my life I was an emotional eater. As a child and teen I gained weight to protect myself from unwanted advances. In using food for that purpose it also became my friend. I wanted to celebrate with it and if I was sad food was right there with me too! Food was always with me, always around...food never let me down.

I eventually reached 300 pounds and I knew I had to change something. I realized I no longer needed to eat to protect myself from others. I also realized that what I loved so much was killing me. I had several health issues that I had to start dealing with and all my excess weight was making things much worse for my body. I was flipping out at the idea of dieting. I was in no way ready to lose weight. I wasn't ready to give up my comfort..my only friend.

I guess the change came when I started to love myself and I realized I was important and I deserved to be healthy and live a healthy life. In the last 5 years I have lost 160 pounds. I changed my eating habits and lifestyle 100 percent.

In my mind I will always be an emotional eater. It is still a fight sometimes when I have good and bad moments my first thought is what can I eat...
When my girlfriend of 17 years and I broke up last year I fell off the wagon hard. I think I alone supported the Taco Bell and Pizza Hut in my town~

Now I control my urges by only having food in the house that I am okay with eating. Do not put any trigger foods in your pantry until you can control yourself around that food. The hardest lesson for me was to take food out of it's *special* place in my life. Food is for the nourishment and health of your body and nothing else. I am at the place now where I can eat any food I want without triggering emotional eating and binging. I have learned to have my favourite foods in moderation and keep my food intake in balance.

One thing I know is you have to really want to eat right and lose weight to be successful. It is so hard to accomplish controlling your food intake when you really aren't ready to face it. I tell myself every morning...that I'm worth it. I think that thought that I am worth it keeps me trying to be as healthy as I can be.

[midwest chick]

Originally Posted by Miss Scarlett

It's interesting isn't it? This close connection between our emotions and eating.

There's a flip side to stress eating and I haven't seen it mentioned here...stress not-eating.

Has anyone experienced this?

Guilty as charged...what's crazy is that when things start to calm down, and I start eating again, the weight loss begins, and I can't make it stop. During extreme stress, my cortisol levels shoot up, and combined with less sleep, I can't lose weight even if I try to diet and exercise.

Apparently, lack of sufficient sleep also plays a large role in increasing the cortisol levels, which translates into an increase in abdominal fat (stress) storage. Vicious cycle for anyone dealing with difficulties, especially when combined with insomnia.

[girl_dee]

"snap snap snap!!!"

[SometimesSweet]

Hey All, I just wanted to say how much I am able to relate to what has been shared. Talk about motivation irony, it is amazing to me how I can spend so much time and energy on dating site looking for Ms. Right, instead of getting out there and moving my body to attract the very Ms. Right I seek.

I will be following this thread for certain, thanks for everyone's sharing it is really great!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by SometimesSweet

Hey All, I just wanted to say how much I am able to relate to what has been shared. Talk about motivation irony, it is amazing to me how I can spend so much time and energy on dating site looking for Ms. Right, instead of getting out there and moving my body to attract the very Ms. Right I seek.

I will be following this thread for certain, thanks for everyone's sharing it is really great!

Welcome to the thread and the site!

Start with taking care of you and Ms. Right will find you.

[Miss Scarlett]

Originally Posted by midwest chick

Guilty as charged...what's crazy is that when things start to calm down, and I start eating again, the weight loss begins, and I can't make it stop. During extreme stress, my cortisol levels shoot up, and combined with less sleep, I can't lose weight even if I try to diet and exercise.

Apparently, lack of sufficient sleep also plays a large role in increasing the cortisol levels, which translates into an increase in abdominal fat (stress) storage. Vicious cycle for anyone dealing with difficulties, especially when combined with insomnia.

Interesting that you can't lose during that time. And I forgot about the insomnia that often accompanies this. Yes, it is indeed a vicious cycle.

Not losing weight when stress not-eating is not a problem for me...not sleeping usually is. My biggest problem comes from it being difficult to start eating again after things calm down but that's mostly because of the stomach pain from the stress.

Another here who doesn't eat when stressed. I believe it's a control issue. At those times of stress, especially when feeling powerless or having no control in various areas of life then food intake is the only thing one can control.

Also in times of stress, my tendency is to 'not care' about looking after or nurturing m'self. A lack of food is part of that.





You mean you didn't realise I was a nutjob before now?

[Kelt]

I guess I hadn't really thought about this in quite a while. When I was younger and I would get stressed I would get a very upset stomach and would not be able to eat because of that.

Somewhere in my middle 30s a switch flipped somewhere. Ever since then stress seems to trigger emotional eating, specifically sugar.

Sugar is my kryptonite.

[girl_dee]

PaPa is helping me to snap my elastic!

It does help, to "snap" rather than snack

Also chewing gum helps...

But today i had a cookie.

[PaPa]

Originally Posted by girl_dee

PaPa is helping me to snap my elastic!

It does help, to "snap" rather than snack

Also chewing gum helps...

But today i had a cookie.

I really like that!! "Snap NOT Snack!"
I may try this behavioral modification strategy too now.
Have you truly found it has worked??

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by PaPa

I really like that!! "Snap NOT Snack!"
I may try this behavioral modification strategy too now.
Have you truly found it has worked??

it sounds crazy, but it has. Around 3pm at work everyone wants a snack, popcorn, cookies, ice cream.... and i want to munch too even though i am not anywhere near hungry and it will ruin my appetite for supper...

so i snapped and stopped thinking about snack!