Hi!
I am a 33 year old mother of 4 boys. (1 stepson and the rest biological) I am an emotional eater and am just getting started - again - on trying to lose the fat that has been weighing me down for years. I recently lost about 25 lbs...and then gained it back. I think I have lost and gained the same 30 lbs about 4 times now. I am not sure what my plan is...I've tried Weight Watchers and calorie counting and the Biggest Loser plan and just cutting back and adding exercise. I have had some problems with each...right now I am just trying to eat the correct portion sizes, limit snacking, excercise, and stay away from emotional eating! I am gong to ease into it slowly. When I go "full tilt" I find that I burn out easy and give up. The hardest part for me is that I work full time, and go to college. This semester is only part time since it's summer but next semester is back to full time. My 4 kids and my husband are picky about their food, so some nights it's not just a seperate meal for me, but for each of the kids as well! My life is crazy busy but I need to find the time. And on top of that, I am anemic and my B12 is low as well, so I am taking iron pills and B12 to try to get my energy up.

Thanks for listening to me. I hope to gain motivation and support, and even a few friends. And I can't wait until I can get a weight loss ticker...

hi hollymommy, and welcome! You may want to check out the forums under (I think) Chicks with Challenges, where there are sites for emotional eating, binging, dieting with diabetes, etc.

Anemia can make you feel so.... l i s t l e s s..... Take care of yourself! And don't beat yourself up that your health journey is a slow one. Every little thing that you can do is a step in the right direction, and portion control + exercise sounds like a good start.

With working and school, you really do have a crazy schedule, so anyplace you can be more efficient or get help is a good idea. (Can you carpool with someone so that you could review class notes en route? Are some of your kids old enough to cook and help out? "Picky," to me, means "fix it yourself" but that's just me! Could hubby and kids do take-out one night a week?)

Take care of yourself and stay in touch ; )

Thanks for the welcome and words of encouragement! Any little tips and hints help!

Well, carpooling is out - I don't live near anyone who I work or go to school with. But work is near school, so that saves me. My stepson is 16, I have a 13 year old, an 8 year old, and the youngest is gonna be 4 in a couple weeks! So, the stepson helps out when he can - but he works and has a girlfriend (you'd be surprised how much of his time that takes up!) and plays football and they are practicing all summer. The 13 yo is a big help - but he is scatterbrained, so he can put things in the crock pot or the oven, but I don't see him firing up the grill anytime soon! My 8 year old is tiny for his age (45 lbs - size 7's he needs a belt!) and always has been. He has to have whole milk and the doctor has told me to push extra calories. And the little one is not a fan of meat (unless you count hot dogs and bologna!) We have learned to work around everyone's pickiness....on spaghetti night (which is ground turkey - I convinced my husband that all our ground meat be turkey) we have 2 eating plain noodles with butter, 2 eating regular spaghetti, one with parmesan cheese and the other not. So we have found ways around it! No one will eat steamed veggies like brocolli and cauliflower, though - so those are all mine. It's just time consuming!

My husband is a big help most of the time, but funds are low (he's about to get laid off) so an easy night most of the time is frozen pizza or fish filets (breaded) and french fries (we tell them it's like restaurant fish n chips!) are the easy things he can do to help. But then the dilemma....do I eat what he cooked even though it's not good for me, or take the time to make myself something healthy, even though it's late and I'm starving?

Thank you for listening!!

Anemia is brutal! After my third son was born (yep, mom to three boys! There's a study that links hearty eating in the mother to the conception of boys - have you read that? Fascinating and true in my case!) my periods became very heavy and I ended up with anemia. It seems to be mostly under control now but it can really sap your energy stores!

Emotional eating is HUGE for me. As soon as I'm upset I walk into the kitchen and try to find something to stick in my mouth. It's taking a conscious effort not to do that. I'm basically doing the same as you in terms of weight loss. I'm keeping an eye on calories and on carbs (been reading about the glycemic index) but mostly I'm watching my portion sizes and checking with myself to see if I'm full or not. It's working! I hope it does for you, too

Welcome!

I have never read that about boys - make sense in my case, too, though!! I have been anemic off an on for since pretty much puberty - it's usually worse when I am pregnant - which I so am not!! No more for us - 4 is enough! And this is not the first time my Dr has wanted me do do B12 injections. I can't make it into her office all the time, though, so she prescribed a nasal spray. I will let you know how it works!

I have discovered that boredom is an emotion, too. I want to eat when I am sitting on the couch watching TV. I am trying to get past it. I was depressed last night and resisited chocolate! Yay! And I have been resisting seconds at dinner by sitting and drinking a whole glass of water after my plate. Then i am too full to eat seconds! It's worked 2 nights so far. Plus, I get another glass of water in.

Thanks for the welcome! It's nice to talk to others in the same situation. Most of my friends are blessed with fast metabolism's and/or small appetites, so they just don't understand when I talk to them. It's nice to have friends walking the same path!

Whoa, way to go on no seconds and especially on NO chocolate -- I'm impressed!!

Your cooking situation does sounds kinda complicated but necessary; maybe there are things you could make a big batch of on Sunday and freeze in individual portions for you? (There are several forums that do recipe threads.) Soups or veggie chili would be easy, but I'm drawing a blank on other healthy freeze-ables right now. (Sorry!) And lots of traditional casseroles (with cream-of soup) can be frozen, so you could do a whole one of those for the rest of the family, too. I have a tasty recipe that is chicken+rice+cream of celery. That way you'd gain some free time in the hectic weekday evenings, too.

I have read over and over from successful "losers" on this forum that one thing that was important to their weight loss was _planning_; that way you are never hungry and reaching for some unhealthy but convenient option -- you always have something good at hand! I'm going to try to get better at that myself; I'm off for the summer right now, but planning will be really important when school starts, so I want to get in the habit.

cheers,

"So we have found ways around it! No one will eat steamed veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, though - so those are all mine."

I have this problem too. Well, it's just my boyfriend and me, but he won't eat steamed veggies and used to turn his nose up to all veggies except cauliflower. I've found that roasting any veggies in a tiny bit of olive oil with some spices and garlic at 350 for 20-30 minutes does the trick. I like to mix up the veggies to make it colorful, for example, summer squash with zucchini and red peppers with a little garlic salt, oregano, thyme, whatever you have handy is delish!

I do a lot of crockpot cooking and find that roasted veggies are a welcome side. We have them several times a week. I make a run to the Farmer's Market every Sunday morning and stock up on any veggies that look good. You can use this method for anything including asparagus, brussel sprouts, cherry tomatoes, green beans, potatoes... well, the list is endless. Not only am I able to eat 1-2 servings of yummy veggies each evening, the boyfriend is eating better without even realizing it.

Another time saving tip... Every evening, when I'm cleaning the kitchen, I make my lunch for the next day. It's usually whatever we just finished eating, which means I'm eating better lunches and saving money because I'm not tempted to run out for Chick-fil-a every day at lunch time.

And good for you, drinking a glass of water before going for seconds! I try to do this too, but am not always wholly successful

Hello HM, Welcome

Thanks so much for all the advice and words of welcome! I had a rough evening, but thought I did pretty good. I found some potatoe chips in the cupboard that I REALLY wanted, and I did have a few - but then I gave the rest to my son. I was still having the munchies, and I found a 100 calorie little tub of ice cream in the freezer. I feel I had a pretty good day and I am planning on making my grocery list tomorrow based on the healthy things I plan to eat all week! Thanks for making me fell welcome!

colebear, that is such a good idea about the dinner cleanup - to -next day's lunch thing. I'm like, DUH, why did that never occur to me??!?! thanks for sharing! Hollym, I gave in last night to the frozen yogurt myself; cravings happen! So we get back on the horse, right? Sounds like you are doing great!

Thanks again for all the advice! I did really well today. I just realized that I was starving and couldn't figure out why..until I realized that I had only eaten twice! I made myself a yummy sandwich and I am all set! I stopped at our little mini farmers market stand and got all the ingredients for Weight Watchers cabbage/vegetable soup. It was really cheap! I am not doing WW, but that soup is healthy and filling - I can eat it with a samdwich or a salad at lunch!

I do usually pack my lunch at dinner time the night before, I like to have everything done so I don't have to do as much in the mornings! It really helps me out. I am going to try roasting some veggies and see how they go over. My family is a canned veggie (corn and green beans only - peas every once in a while) type of family - they don't even like frozen!! But maybe I can change that....