[ChristiMarie]

Since I'm trying to recover from over-eating, binging/purging and under-eating all at the same time, I thought it would be best for me to stay far away from counting calories. I need something more of a total lifestyle change this time.

So I figured, why not follow the basic guidelines of the food pyramid?

It seems to make sense that, with proper exercise, following that won't make me gain weight and could only make me lose. If I'm eating sugar and bad fats sparingly and having the right amount of meats/beans, veggies, fruit, milk and grains daily... then it should work.

I'm just trying to retrain my brain into looking at food from a healthy way instead of fearing it or using it to cope. So trying to see food as nutrients I NEED might work... plus, it seems like I wouldn't be 300lbs again if I followed it since it's all good for me and yeah... I lost my train of thought. Sorry.

But does that make sense and seem like a plan. (For now anyway)

[caryesings]

Yes! I use mypyramidtracker.gov. I put in my sex, age, height and the weight of my first goal and it tells me how many servings I need of each food type to get there. Then as you log what you eat throughout the day you earn "smiley" faces. Trust me on this, you won't have any room left to binge if you get all your smileys for fruit, veg, and dairy. I've eaten this way for years and only recently started using it for weight loss so I know it's an excellent first step in the process. Good luck. Feel free to PM me if you need help with using the site.

[ChristiMarie]

That's what I used! lol

I like the whole smiley face idea. I might even use gold stars. It just seems comforting because that's like something we used as a reward system as kids. You know, before the eating disorder and when I was still happy. So 'earning' something like that might actually make me WANT to eat when I am afraid to or detour me from binging, like you said.

Thank you SO much.

[caryesings]

I made my sister laugh at Thanksgiving. In the evening when we were putting out all the leftovers for snacks I checked where I stood on smiley faces and made my snack that night yogurt mixed with homemade cranberry sauce because then I could get the fruit and dairy smiley for the day. Mind you, I'm 49 years old but that silly smiley thing totally works for me.

[ChristiMarie]

You're never too old for a smiley face. :-D

How did you keep track of it all exactly? Did you make a little chart or was there something you found online? I printed out the MyPyramid worksheet but it just seems to not flow well for me. I'm thinking about making something for a weekly thing with pictures and pre-designated spaces for stickers or something. Kind of like a daily chore chart... or something. I suck at explaining my ideas so I hope that makes sense.

[caryesings]

I track it by entering my meals as I eat them on that same website. I spotted your 3FC entry right after I had input my lunch.

From the home page, go to the interactive tools and choose MyPyramid tracker. Once you've registered you can input your what you eat there and it calculates what it's "worth" and it's not always what you expect. For example 1 cup of lowfat ice cream does not equal 1 cup of dairy (a cup of pudding is even further away from counting as a cup of dairy). It keeps track of your input and you can go back at look at previous days.

It's not perfect but you can usually find a food similar to input and I did a project in a college class where I compared this program to doing an actual nutrional analysis of my diet and over time it comes out pretty darn close.

Now that I use it for weight loss I enter my physical activity as well and track my average energy balance over 30 day range rather than even getting on a scale, as scale "emotions" can really derail me.

[ChristiMarie]

I made my own little chart. It kept me occupied the past few hours lol.

Dammit. I can't post images or links yet. Eh.