I stumbled upon this site last night and I have to say it's probably the best forum of its type. Reading through various posts is just so reaffirming of my diet goals and that everyone else has many of the same issues that I do. You have no idea how much of a relief it is not to feel weird or lost.
I've been badly overweight for around 7 years now. I used to be slim for my height (5' 11") and was into ballet and other forms of dance. My family always ate healthily and we rarely had fast food. When I went to university that all fell apart. I was no longer dancing and I stayed in a college where the food was so bad that we all went to McDonald's every night. Snacks and other meals were highly processed instant crap. You can imagine how unhealthy it was and I just packed on the pounds. I knew it was bad but the lack of alternatives kept me on course for dress sizes in the 20s range.
When I finally started living away from college I had better control over my diet but bad eating habits and the convenience of fast food still held sway. I also had never been to a gym and my health problems (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) made me wary of it. 7 years later and I finally admitted I have to do something about it.
Last year I enrolled in a gym and started exercising. It was so much less traumatic than I thought
. With someone to show me what to do and guide my exercise I started losing weight. I had also made some tentative changes to my diet but about 3 months in I got hit with a virus and then a nasty bacteria I'm back to square one. I currently don't know how much I weigh, but I'm a size 20-22.
Currently, I've started with the significant diet changes I'd planned but didn't get a chance to implement before. This means a high protein, low to moderate carb and very low sugar diet. I'm also doing weights at the gym with a trainer twice a week and doing cardio 3 times a week for around 30 mins. I'm hoping to push my cardio to 45 and then 60 mins within the next few months.
Sounds great, huh? Ha! The truth is I have plenty of 'vices' when it comes to dieting. I can sabotage myself quite spectacularly without even trying. I have an addiction to sugar, meaning that if I have one cookie I go berserk until I eat the whole packet or the equivalent of something else. I also have a tendency to binge (usually on a combination of sweets, carbs and fats) when stressed or upset. I also fell into a pattern of rewarding myself with food when in my final undergraduate year.
From what I've read here I've altered my meal so I'm having 5 small meals to hopefully prevent the desire for a snack turning into a binge. Whether I'll ever be able to trust myself with sugar... I don't know. For now I have no sweet stuff or junk food of any sort in the apartment. If I want a treat, then I will have to buy a single serve of something small or non-sugar. The good thing is that increasing my protein intake seems to have reduced my sugar cravings. Rewards I have decided will be something like a bathbomb from Lush or a perfume sample or something like that. Hopefully I can restrict my sense of food-entitlement!
These are all good resolutions, I just hope I can maintain them! Finding this board where I can rant and rave will certainly help.
MN.
A newbie saying hello!
Glad you found us! You are right - 3FC is a GREAT site for support, wisdom and encouragement along your journey!
