I'm still a fat chick at heart...wish it wasn't always an uphill battle

[Feral]

Originally Posted by nancymae

Though it is not easy a stop doing drugs, a person can STOP forever and NEVER have to use drugs again...No matter how good I do on a diet or how much weight I loose FOOD will always be part of my life because I will ALWAYS have to eat in order to stay alive.

Oh man, this is the kicker for me!!!! Doesn't that just get your goat? A drug addict or an alcoholic can stay away from it once they make that choice, but for those of us that are food addicts (compulsive overeaters/bingers) we can never make that choice and get away from it.

It really is a never ending battle. One of the things I love about my therapist is that she's a recovering "food addict" as well and she tells me that there are days she still struggles. Some days she fails, but more often than not she uses the methods she knows to avoid doing so.....

I hate to see this, but it's nice to see other people around here struggling with the same thing and talking about it.

[Risssa]

Torito - part of the trick is how you eat it. When I eat sweets on an empty stomach, I can get out of control. When I eat sweets after a balanced meal, I can just have one. Sometimes I stop before I've consumed my allotted serving.

Mkendrick – that is great insight. I know I eat to reward myself and to punish myself and to not deal with my emotions. The first step is realizing it and the next step is to find healthy substitutes what the other things you used food for “entertainment, comfort, happiness, etc”. You need to start filling yourself up on entertainment, comfort, and happiness from a source that is not food.

I find that making healthy chocolate chip cookies and muffins I can a) eat the foods I enjoy and b) avoid the addictive effect that would occur if I purchased them. And I eat them in the right portions.

Start looking for healthy alternatives to the junk food you enjoy. I like to “trick” my brain into believing its eating junk, when really it’s pretty healthy.

I use to have to struggle when I was around foods I wanted but know I should not eat. I have theories why this go around it is easier for me to eat healthy and lose weight – it seems almost effortless. But now I can decide if am going to have that or not.

It is a process, a journey. Keep educating yourself and learning from your behavior and things will get better.

I think what has helped, for me, is before I would say “I can work these calories off” but now I consciously know that weight loss is 70% diet and 30% exercise. I am also doing this for something besides destroying my fat (kind of like a video game). I am doing this for my mental health. Everything I am doing benefits my mood and I’ve dealt with the anxiety/depression without doing anything about it. There is something bigger than the size of my *** that is helping me to get through this.

Believe in yourself ladies (and gent)!

[LiannaKole]

I'm with you on that. I love food, especially tasty, bad-for-me food. But I also like healthy food, which is kind of a small blessing. If I had a choice, of course I'd pick the stuff that's worse for me (cheese, white bread, salty potato chips, fries, anything), but I do love the crunch of veggies. Crazy, but true.

I don't think it's something many of us will ever get over. I think if we've spent most of our lives living that way, it's kind of like our background, our history in a sense. It's hard to get away from that. And it tastes damn good!

I have a friend who's skinny as a stick but still curvy (lucky, lucky girl), and she can eat ANYTHING and however much she wants of it and never gains more than a pound. She also has low BP, cholesterol, and has no illnesses other than mild allergies. It's not fair, but it does say there are people like that in the world. I wish I were one of them, but that's not something I can exercise or healthy-eat my way into.

We've just got to keep going, I guess. One foot in front of the other.

[srmb60]

I'm not sure if there are any definitive studies about this but I am very sure that luscious, sweet, beautiful refined carb creations trigger serotonin release. I actually do feel better after a butter tart and a large double double. For a short time ...
Later when my blood sugar drops below 50, I'm stupidly scrambling for more candy or something to fix it. A vicious cycle that I'm slowly learning to avoid