[knoxie]

So my mom has terminal cancer and I have inadvertently become her full-time caregiver. Although we haven't always got along she's a great mom and although I wish I didn't have to do this, I accept that I must. But boy is it wreaking havoc on my weightloss! A similar thing happened when my dad had cancer and I regained all the weight I'd lost a couple of years ago.

Up to now I've been pretty successful with my weight loss - I was living at my own home so I could control my environment in terms of what food came into the house, my time was my own so I could exercise when I wanted. My life was reasonably stress free and I worked hard to keep it that way. Now I'm staying with mom full-time (with no help whatsoever) and I have spectacularly jumped off the wagon...and I need help. Mom's condition is so up and down I can't plan anything, even getting out of the house for 30 mins to exercise is a once-a-week deal if I'm lucky.

It's not the food itself that brings me back to it - I don't enjoy every mouthful or think 'wow this is delightfully tasty' - it's mindless eating but it gives me something else to focus on. I make big journeys to drive-thrus, spend a lot of time planning/thinking about what I'll eat next etc.

How do I snap out of it? I know it's self destructive and harming myself. I know mom wouldn't want this for me. And if anyone else told me this as their story I'd go through all the platitudes and selfcare, you can do it, put yourself first etc. motivational stuff.

But when I comes to actually pulling yourself back from the edge, how do you actually do it?!