I love that you want to turn how you feel into something so productive!

I second what PP said about finding something you DO love. So much of losing weight seems to me to be about what you can't do, can't eat, etc., i try to find one thing I CAN do and enjoy it.

I'll plan to cook something with a new recipe; something I've never tried, like out of the blue, Jamaican jerk chicken! Or try something I've never tried, like one time I picked up tangelos or pummelos in the store, and didn't even know what it was - don't laugh! But that's how I learned to like lots of things, like asparagus, which I used to HATE and after many experiments, learned to love!

Or an exercise I really like to do, like swimming in the pool - even though I can't go very far LOL!

I think we spend so much time focused on can't can't can't we forget there is a whole lot more cans than can'ts! What do you think?

Damage to nerves
What did I miss?

I was referring to diabetes...once the nerve damage is done in the hands or feet, the damaged nerve won't go back to normal. Diabetes is serious with the potential retinopathy, possible kidney damage, nerve damage, and the cells aren't being fed properly.

Firstly, I think you should psyche yourself up and tell those girls to grow up. Even better if you can find some data about obesity and people who avoid going to the doctor because they are afraid of being judged, and do a presentation on it to the class. It's ridiculous that anyone going into nursing feels it's ok to judge people on their size.

As for the binging, I think you have to find what works for you. I truly believe that weightloss is mostly about psychology. I mean, everyone who's overweight knows that their eating habits are causing their weight gain, but few are able to make any significant long term change to their behaviour. You've got to hack your own brain.

For example, I can't do cfmama's "just say no". Food for me is a way to rebel, and if I start to feel deprived, I get peeved and it generally results in a binge. What's worked over the last six months is to say yes to a lot of non food things, so as to avoid the feeling of deprivation. I say yes to paying someone else to clean my car and wax my eyebrows, I eat (healthy) takeaway when I can be bothered to cook, I buy expensive fitness tools and new clothes when my old ones are too big. I also go out to dinner with friends, (though I choose nutritionally valuable food, and I generally won't finish it) and I eat birthday cake (but within my calorie allowance).

Try to understand why you binge: where the "high" is from the binge, what your trigger foods or emotions are, how you manage to ignore the voice telling you to stop, and when and how during a binge do you regain control. Then start experimenting with strategies to avoid or limit the damage. I can now recognise when I feel the need to binge, and why, and I therefore generally avoid it. For example, after a horror of a day at work on Wednesday, all I wanted to do was go home and eat myself into a stupor. But instead, I went and bought a present for a friend, which often gives me a similar high to eating, and some hard mints to satisfy the desire to crunch something, and when I got home, I call my mum and ranted to her. Total damage of what would have been in the past KFC + chocolate + chips: 6 mints, or about 20 calories. Oh, and don't be afraid to waste food. I would force myself to finish everything I had bought so as to restart my diet the next day without any junk in the house. Now I throw it away, or put it away, or give it to someone else. I had chocolate in my fridge for three months, because I stopped when I didn't want any more.

Good luck

I can't believe that girls in nursing school said those mean things!! I was my highest weight in nursing school and I have to say the stress and pace of nursing school is tough on any diet. You need to ignore those girls and focus on you. When I was studying w/ other people in my class they would all have candy and junk food. I used to bring with me bottled water w/ maybe crystal light to flavor it, popcorn (we had microwaves in the break rooms) carrot sticks and fruit. That would help me because even if I binged it was on healthy food. You can always sneak snacks into the library at least at my school you could and no one was the wiser. Good luck and I hope this helped.

I would encourage you to try some strategies on lower stress days in anticipation of the upcoming tests and more stressful times of life. Some ideas:

Journaling
Meditation or guided meditation
Going for a walk
Finding a safe person to vent to (on &/or off-line)
There are some great, very short breathing exercises you can try for stress management
Learn a few yoga positions that relax you
Identify music that is relaxing to listen to
Learn biofeedback
Identify aromatherapy scents that relax you (I LOVE lavender)

I also would encourage you to keep a clean environment headed into those sorts of periods. Maybe you don't want/can't ban binge friendly foods from your house forever but banning/limiting them for those weeks would be a reasonable choice. I had a buddy on another healthy eating board that would put that sort of stuff out in the trunk of the car. Stopped her in her tracks and made her think.

Good luck on your nursing career and ignore the ignorant classmates. I would be inclined to say something like "what would your mother say if she heard that come out of your mouth?". LOL Nurses are the backbone of our medical world...they are the ones that have always taken good care of me and mine.

Peg

To be honest, I think we should all band together and kick thier skinny asses!