I guess if you're hungry you'd better eat it. ha! If you're not, save it for later. I had a similar thing happen at the wedding we served. I wrote about it above. I just should have skipped eating and I don't think anyone would have noticed. I have trouble with the fullness thing too, Shay, and I don't really feel it until about an hour after I've eaten. Just have to be more careful not to overdo. After 10 pregnancies and the breast feeding with it, I was used to eating a lot. Then complicated by prednisone. I just need to eat a lot less.
Hi, everyone...I'm back to struggling, and am falling back into diet mentality. One thing that set this off is talking with my sister, who is now on a big campaign to lose fifty pounds by the time she turns fifty this summer. She is fifty or sixty pounds smaller than I am as it is, and if she actually accomplishes this loss, I'll look even WORSE in comparison. I'm already the largest sibling in our family, and I hate it. I'm also very competitive, and don't want to be left behind when somebody is going full-bore to get their weight off.
Today I determined, once again--for the millionth time--to do Atkins to get my weight down. All day long I've eaten gross stuff I haven't wanted, but have done it just to keep myself from eating what I really wanted. I've also been craving carbs like crazy, just because I'm trying NOT to eat them.
But you'd think I'd learn, and stop doing this to myself. I don't enjoy the low carb foods. I don't like meat. I know by now that telling myself I can't have something just makes me crave it all day, then I go crazy once I finally let myself have some.
Even though I've done low carb all day, I'm on the verge of going out to make a big bowl of oatmeal with butter and brown sugar or something, just to say that I've "blown it", so I don't have to continue trying to do this.
Isn't it silly the mind games we play with ourselves?
I'm also under a lot of stress right now, because I might have to tell my brother, who has been living with us, that he will have to leave soon. (Long story.) I hate confrontations; I hate being a doormat, and I hate being the "bad guy". This situation is also making me crave junk foods like crazy.
Definitely hasn't been a good stretch of IE the last few days...
Oh Becky, I don't know what to tell you since I'm so new to this but I can offer you my support! Why not eat the oatmeal not to blow it, but because you want it? And then take each meal as it comes...no need to kill yourself with Atkins. I am completely with you on avoiding confrontation, so I hope things go okay with your brother!
There is an interesting thread on the 100lb club about how thin people eat.
Thanks for posting this. It was very interesting.
I'm constantly trying to figure out what happened to myself--I grew up naturally thin. I ate well, but didn't give food a second thought, and didn't even have any idea what "emotional eating" was. My mother always struggled with her weight, but it didn't rub off on us, not then anyway.
My problems started with my first diet, Atkins. Once I got on the diet merry go round, I just kept trying the diets, not being able to stick to them, falling off them, rebound eating, gaining more weight. You'd think I'd know better by now, but my fat disgusts me so much that I just keep holding out hope that the next diet might just be the one that gets me back to a normal weight again. It's very frustrating and discouraging, isn't it?
Oh Becky, I don't know what to tell you since I'm so new to this but I can offer you my support! Why not eat the oatmeal not to blow it, but because you want it? And then take each meal as it comes...no need to kill yourself with Atkins. I am completely with you on avoiding confrontation, so I hope things go okay with your brother!
Thank you, Amy. I ended up having homemade scalloped potatoes for supper--hee hee, that ended my Atkins day for sure, didn't it?
I noticed that you've lost ten pounds. Have you done this with IE?
I'm constantly trying to figure out what happened to myself--I grew up naturally thin. I ate well, but didn't give food a second thought, and didn't even have any idea what "emotional eating" was. My mother always struggled with her weight, but it didn't rub off on us, not then anyway.
My problems started with my first diet, Atkins. Once I got on the diet merry go round, I just kept trying the diets, not being able to stick to them, falling off them, rebound eating, gaining more weight. You'd think I'd know better by now, but my fat disgusts me so much that I just keep holding out hope that the next diet might just be the one that gets me back to a normal weight again. It's very frustrating and discouraging, isn't it?
I know exactly what you mean. I've always had trouble with my belly after 10 pregnancies and after I went on prednisone it go even bigger. Uck! Sometimes I get really down. It's so hard not to be bothered by it.
Amy--I really try in the morning to decide what I am feeling like that day. Most times I get it right. If I don't think I want it, I eat a snack and wait. Maybe I just don't want it at that moment but I may later. If I find I truly do not want what I have I go out and get something different. My shelves and drawers at work and home are packed. I like a lot of choices. I like having a back up.
Truffle--I'm happy to hear you're off Atkins. I know it is hard but you really can't compare your weight loss to your sister's. You may be setting yourself up to fail and for self sabotage. This is about you. What you need to do for yourself. Weight loss is individual. I need to lose weight just as much as the next person. I'm 4'11" and I weigh 238. I am morbidly obese. So I feel ya--my back is hurting as I type this but what has worked best for me is not putting so much pressure on myself. Pressure makes me engage in self sabotage. Slow and steady wins the race. I've lost weight before about 130 pounds and see here I am back here again. We gotta lose it the right way.
Shay, you lost 130lbs before? Wow, it must be VERY frustrating to have to do it over again. I lost 50lbs about 11 years ago, but couldn't keep it off more than fifteen minutes, lol. I got down to 165, then zoomed up to 277. Sometimes I wonder what happened there.
This has been a goofy day, eating-wise. Did Atkins most of the day, then went off it tonight with scalloped potatoes, a dish of chocolate chips, and half a sleeve of Saltines with butter. I know that was the rebound from restricting myself today.
I really need to smarten up and recognize that restriction equals deprivation to me, and until I can "ease into" not seeing it that way, I probably won't have a lot of success in getting my weight down. When will I learn that I need to follow my own path, instead of getting sucked into the methods the people around me are using?
I've wasted this whole evening surfing around the WW discussion boards, Spark People, etc. I even found somebody talking about Prevention's Flat Belly Diet, so went off to see if I might want to follow that. Answer: no.
So, I'm writing today off and will start fresh with IE tomorrow.
Truffle, Becky--I keep going back and forth don't I? I will try to remember to address you as Becky. Yes, it was frustrating to regain most of that weight back. My heighest weight was 278. I got down to about 148-149. This time I started at 240. So the good thing is I didn't gain it all back but still...I lost it on a variety of different diets. It just got so hard. I was tired of restricting myself. I just gave up.
Hi Becky and Shay, Some author said that for every diet there is an equal and opposite binge. I guess that about sums it up. I had a good day yesterday but I was away from home part of the day and that always helps. I still have one daughter at home who home schools so when she is gone for the day I usually try to visit a friend in the care center or go grocery shopping or both. I even got the car washed yesterday at a new car wash. It didn't do a very good job and I bought 10 tokens to save money. Ouch! I might speak to them next time I'm there. Since I had a good day, this morning I'm not as hungry. Do you think there is a connection? By good day I mean eating small amounts only when hungry. I even threw away half of an ice cream cone.
Hi Becky! To answer your question, I lost the 10 lbs on Weight Watchers. Actually I lost about 15 pounds but gained 5 pounds back over the holidays (well starting before the holidays actually...we were hit by an ice storm and lost electricity for a week so I went "off plan" and didn't really get back on ever). So I started back at WW in late January (when I was in the middle of a move!) and haven't seen the scale budge.
I was excited to be on WW when I started and just lost my momentum. I think if I started fresh right now I might have more success, but I'm already so darn skeptical. First of all, the meetings annoyed me. I wanted to gain inspiration from them but they were mostly a waste of my time. I KNEW everything already. I starved myself every weigh-in day to boost my weight loss, and how healthy is that? And the latest ad campaign. Oy. Weight Watchers is not a diet? It sure is! It had me obsessing over every little point.
Hence, my final straw and decision to try IE, because I know what to do. I'm thinking I should take my weight loss ticker down. The last thing I read last night was that when intuitive eating, it's best not to weight yourself because that has the trappings of a diet. If the weight is up, you feel depressed and eat. If the weight is down, you want to celebrate and eat. It's something to consider, anyway. But on the other hand, I think seeing that ticker will help focus me on my long-term goals, which means listening to my inner signals. I guess I should just keep reading the book before I make any final decisions, but if any of you have input, share!
My DIL does the same thing on her WW weigh in day.......starves all day. But I used to do the same thing when I was going to the dr. for pregnancies. ha! On the other hand, when I got really sick and lost weight it didn't really matter. Then I started on the prednisone and back the weight came.
Here is part of an old post from Dr. Bert Herring's website.
"The bulk of our need for food is simply fuel and water. Our bodies
are excellent scavengers and recyclers, and everything but fuel,
water, and oxygen is re-used and lost from the body only in
relatively tiny amounts...I encourage you to trust your body and let
it be the wonderful machine that it is."
That last part hit me: basically just get out of the way of your
body's natural ability to take incredibly good care of itself and
watch the amazing results. After my short jog this morning, I sat
out on a rock by a stream near my apartment and chewed on that
notion for a while. Suddenly I was awestruck by how easy it is to be
supremely healthy, that it doesn't take lots of study, analysis,
controling, measuring, monitoring, memorizing, manipulating, or
other time-consuming, money-consuming bother. Consume just enough
wholesome food, trust the body's perfect design, and you are good to
go.
Amy--Definitely your decision about the scale is a personal one. Based on IE and knowing myself I did decide to take my ticker down. I also decided to only weigh myself every 3 months. My relationship with the scale just like food has been very dysfunctional for a very long time. I decided a few weeks ago that weight loss is secondary for me but that's because I'm a binge eater. Building a healther relationship with food is main priority now. Losing weight will be a bonus.
So here at work we are trying to resurrect our "fit club". We tried this a few years back and didn't stick to it because everyone is so busy. We are trying again starting tomorrow. Sometimes we will talk. Sometimes we will walk & talk. I definitely want to talk to them about IE and share my book with them. Some of them already know about it just from what I told them but not in depth.
