How can I work on feeling more hopeful?

  • Full disclosure, my issues are a lot more with anxiety than depression, but it still makes it kind of hard to lose weight. I have gained and lost weight so many times but I have never managed to not be obese and it's never stuck. I went on zoloft a year ago, which actually worked very well but maybe contributed to the fact that I have never weighed as much as I do now. I recently stopped taking it and am trying to lose weight, but I just don't honestly feel like I have it in me to try again. I know that if I don't lose weight and I keep gaining it I will eventually die and I know if I try to have a baby at this weight I am likely to end up with diabetes, but I am having a hard time believing that anything I will do will work.

    How did you guys manage to get started and build some momentum?
  • I too have lost and gained many many many times, but have never been as big as I got this year, which at my highest was 292. The thing I keep telling myself is this, "if I keep doing what I am doing, I will only get fatter and hate myself more." Giving cannot be an option. Something I never did in the past was truly "PLAN" my menu ahead of time so I know EXACTLY what I am going to be eating. That takes a lot of the anxiety out of it. I don't know what plan you may be doing, but I know me and I have to have a sweet everyday, so I am making sure I have the kind of sweets that make the best sense for me which is skinny cow frozen treats. I wish you the best! Emmy
  • Hey, this is a really difficult subject... I gained loads of weight on antidepressants (which I took mostly for anxiety, as well). I am losing the weight now, but it took seven or eight months of trying after I had stopped taking them before my body lost a single pound. I an nearly 100 percent sure that they affect your metabolism.

    What helped me to stop gaining weight during the months I had come off them but wasn't losing yet was to keep a food diary. I still didn't eat completely healthy—and I didn't restrict or try to—but it made me more aware of what I was eating. I did this for a few months.