I believe that for me to get these extra pound off and keep them off, I had to determine why and how I put an extra 100+ pounds on my body. Of course I think there were some emotional issues but a huge part of it was habit and desire for certain foods. Looking back over the times that I lost a significant amount of weight but put it back on, a huge part of my issue was stopping for a fast food breakfast on my drive to work. I loved the grease and carb ladened foods.

My fast food of choice was Hardee's chicken biscuit with hash rounds on the side. With a diet Coke of course! I just looked at the nutritional info on that breakfast:

Calories: 930
Fat: 57
Carbs: 84

I would tell myself that I could have a once a month "treat". Then it would become once a week, then twice a week, until it became most days of the week. Then once I started my day with such a poor choice, I would eat terrible all day long. Honey buns and candy bars in the vending machine would call my name. Junk food that my family brought home started to appeal to me when just months before I could completely ignore them. The craving beast was awoken and it started at Hardees.

I have to give up fast food breakfasts forever. It leads to a path that I don't want to go down again.

Does anyone else want to share habits that they need to give up forever in order to keep their weight down?

For me, there are two habits that I need to break, one of which I've already broken...as for the other, it remains to be seen.

The first habit was smoking. You often hear of people putting on weight when they quit smoking...but in my case, I think I put on weight BECAUSE I was a smoker. There are SO many places these days where you can't smoke. Whenever I was in a place where I couldn't smoke, I was craving a cigarette and, not being able to have one, I would eat instead, resulting in weight gain. I quit smoking about 5 months ago and began my diet at the same time. It was tough at first to do both, but I'm now totally over the smoking. So, these days, I only eat when I'm hungry. I no longer eat as a substitute for smoking.

My second habit was grabbing fast food on the way home for supper on days when I was really busy at work and didn't have time to cook. Those days typically only happen in the winter. My job is such that I often end up working 15 or 16 hours per day, weeks on end. I've now discovered a few quick dishes that I'll just have to stick to when I get busy this winter. They don't take any more time than it takes to make the extra trip to the fast food joints. My only concern is that during my really busy months, I simply won't have time to exercise. There's not much I can do about that (short of quit my job), but I hope those few winter months when I'll be relatively sedentary don't set me back too much.

I think what you've realized is a HUGE breakthrough! I only wish I could figure out why I tend to put on weight and turn to food for comfort. I know I'm an addict and when the urges hit, nobody and nothing can really truly stop me. However, often times I feel like I could stop a binge but I choose not to. It's crazy.

I know what does work for me: counting calories on my LoseIt app, making good choices and avoiding triggers. I don't force myself to even eat breakfast. I eat when I feel like it, rather than subscribing to the notion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it isn't for me. Triggers include but aren't limited to:
*insufficient sleep
*stress related to my kids (especially my son w/ special needs)...or where I feel lack of control or hopelessness
*consuming sugar
*consuming fake sweeteners
*social events with large numbers of people
*food at social events
*eating foods I consider off plan
*not working out
*PMS....that is a big issue but I just try to up my calorie allotment for a few days a month
*boredom

I can explain it easily for me, I like fatty carby food. bakery items - cannot eat just one serving I will compusively eat it until it is gone.

I also am lazy and dont want to cook unless I have the urge to cook. This led me to eating ALOT of fast food and frozen junk.

Great thread! Thanks for starting it.

I've had to work at controlling emotional eating, and I think all my eating is emotional! ha! I used to eat when angry, annoyed, irritated, stressed, tired, bored, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, anxious, sad, lonely, etc.

Now, I know that I ate to avoid dealing with how I felt. Once I bit into something sugary, I felt great! The more I ate, the better I felt. I felt powerless over my life and circumstances, but I did have control over food -- if I wanted it, I got it. And, it soothed me. More likely....it numbed me. I ate, but I didn't take assertive action to change any of my circumstances, so the pattern just continued and I got bigger and bigger.

A couple of years ago, I was given a little worksheet that says "How are you feeling today?" and it has little faces with expressions for about 100 different emotions. I never knew there were so many emotions! If you had asked me to name some, I could probably count them on one hand. They were all kind of the same to me because I dealt with them all the same way -- by eating. Today, that worksheet is on my refrigerator door! And, I think about how I feel all the time. If my thoughts wander, I try to nail down just what I am feeling and why.

In the beginning, it was really enlightening. A particularly annoying coworker might walk by my desk and say a word or two, and I would immediately want to eat. Finally, I realized that SHE was the thing that set off that feeling. I needed to examine why she annoyed me so much, and how I could deal with it. Actually, there were a lot of people I eliminated from my life.

Now, when I'm annoyed, I might gripe to a friend about it, think about it, then go to the gym and work off the stress I'm feeling. Whatever it was that set me off is completely forgotten in the gym. There, I focus solely on myself, and I leave feeling BLISSFUL (one of my favorite little faces on my emotion worksheet)

We choose how we react to stimulus around us, and I choose to deal with my feelings instead of ignoring them. I don't want to hurt myself anymore, I want to thrive! I've lost and regained 50-100 lbs four times in my lifetime. I don't want to do it again. This time I think I'm on the right track.

Tuscany - It is wonderful that you have broken the smoking habit and to have it help weight loss. You definitely hit the jackpot with that change. You also have the stragy for the winter fast food so it sounds like you have that one in hand. About the exercise, do the best that you can, it is all any of us can do.

luckymommy - Thank you! Identifying your triggers is a huge step. I lost a good part of my weight on calorie counting but still had to fight cravings. I really did not get the cravings under control until I started cutting and counting my carbs along with my calorie counting. I just noticed your height and weight. While I know that it is a matter of perspective, your BMI sounds great to me. I just hope that I can get down to your BMI.

pnkrckpixikat - I identify!

AwShucks - What a great post. When reading it, I was thinking, "Yes, that's me too." One thing that I realized when I first started getting a grip on my eating was that every time I got mad at my husband, I would eat. Of course, that was really punishing myself. Once I quit doing that and dealt with the issues with my husband, the marriage improved and one obstacle to weight lose was helped. When I get upset with someone, say at work, I now remind myself that eating to deal with the feelings, only hurts me. That coworker is not affected at all.

You are right and I think that I am on the right track also. Congratulations on the weight loss. You are doing so well!

Cheryl, you are doing SO great! I am completely sure that you will reach your goal. To me, BMI is not that great of an indicator though. I do take a look at it sometimes, but I don't place too much value on what it says because we are all so different. Anyway, with all of your insight about how you deal with food, I not only am sure you will reach your goal, but I think you will do the even harder part...you will keep it off!

Lately I realized that I can't eat like my husband (who's 6'4" and 340pounds. I put on weight QUICKLY after we got married because I would want to eat with him just cause I thought it was my wifely duty even if I wasn't hungry) AND that I need to cut out sweets (Oh how I love sweets . I would buy Little Debbie cakes when I was in high school because they were so easy to hide in my room, didn't need refrigerating/heating, and they didn't smell since they were individually wrapped. I would eat whole bags/packages of donuts/little debbies/pastries in 1-2 days and just carried on the habit when I moved out)

I gained weight through back to back pregnancies, then stress eating and finally boredom.

I've lost 55 lbs through calorie counting.

I keep bringing up this thread because I want to write something in it, but I haven't had the courage to do it just yet.

I know why I reached my highest weight, and it goes for a lot of people. I found so much comfort and camouflage in food. Comfort for when I was happy, sad, and all the in betweens. Camouflage because I didn't want to be hurt by men, and if I ate, I wouldn't be attractive. If I wasn't attractive, I couldn't be hurt because I wasn't with a man in the first place. (Not true either, I was with my ex for 4 years, and I was at my heaviest when he dumped me because he was not attracted to me anymore at 350lbs.)

I hit 330 by being greed and lazy. No excuses here

I became addicted to fast food during my first pregnancy. I had horrible, awful all day nausea and vomiting the whole nine months. The only thing I could eat and keep down was greasy, fried foods. It was really horrible. I felt guilty eating it while pregnant but I literally could not keep anything down. I actually ended up weighing less after giving birth than when I started. And I was tiny when I got pregnant.

The problem was, I was now used to eating that crap and I was addicted. Then when the baby was up 500 times a night and I was exhausted, I turned to food to comfort me. Went on to get pregnant again and repeat it all over. Now the stress of a toddler and baby caused me to turn to food.

Now I'm 29 with a 3 and 5 year old and finally committed to fixing this. It makes me smile that I will be a healthy weight when I turn 30 next year, I'm sure my friends and family will throw me a party and I was dreading meing fat and unhappy at it.

I also felt so guilty about my kids growing up seeing their mom gorge on fast food, chips, chocolate etc on a regular basis. They are young enough now that they probably won't remember that. Instead they are learning healthy habits from me.

Great thread!

For me, I was an emotional eater and a HUGE Mountain Dew addict. I gave up the Dew cold turkey 1 January and felt awful for a while but now feel great and no longer crave it. I think this is one of the biggest changes I made that led me to starting losing weight.

My emotional eating issue has been a lot harder to conquer. I'd get depressed, eat, gain, get more depressed, eat more, gain more.....and on and on and on.

I have started drinking a large glass of water and heading straight out the door to walk fast or run when I want to emotionally eat. It has been working well for me.

I have done so well since January of this year. I'm hoping that means I'm going to continue on my healthier path and just continue to get better!

That is me, especially pizza.

That feeling hasn't gone away either - I still fight daily with it.

What a great thread - I don't feel so alone now!!

Vex - This is how I feel too - everyday I have to fight because I know if I cave I will not stop -"and when she was good she was very very good, and when she was bad she was horrid"

Six years ago I lost 133 lbs, and kept it off for 2 years. However, I have always been an emotional eater, turning to food to avoid any form of confrontation. I went through a couple of emotionally taxing years, and old habits came flooding back. I also quit smoking the end of January this year, and found myself eating out of boredom.

I finally said enough when I had regained 70 lbs, and have decided that if I feel the need for food, I will try and ask myself why before I touch anything - if it is someone I am upset with, I am learning to walk away, or cut them out of my life.

I am trying to take responsibility only for what I can do and have control over, and I am feeling more positive than I have in a long while

Jude