[hope for recovery]

Hi chicks!

As my weight is only going up and down over the years, I am now implementing new changes around food, eating and life in general. I wanted to share few of them that i have been trying to get into my life over the past year and invite you to share your ones.

- Act differently when emotional, down, upset - for example talk about it or start looking for a solution
- When bored or procrastinating - Do not eat, it does not solve the problem, just get over fear or stick with it, it passes
- When seeing yummy food - THINK, just for a sec before eating it, just think what it is, what it does where it goes, for me one bite leads to more.
- Try to go to healthy places, mostly with healthy people.
- Learn to say no to food without guilt that I might offend somebody
- Make effort to cook my own food, I know what is in it and i can change it
- Don't starve myself too much because that turns me into a binging monster
- Sit with occasional, uncomfortable hunger pains because i know i have eaten and i have eaten good.
- Try to eat beyond being full.
- Don't have naughty food in the house.
- Do some exercise - nowadays including daily sit ups and stretching.
- Keep busy instead of the lazy weekend messing about because it leads to comfort with food.
- Cut down the enormous amounts of fruit and bread i used to eat under "fruits are healthy" .. yeah but not kilos in a day.
- Don't pick food at random and don't just munch between meals (snacks are a different thing)
- No sugar in my tea
- Low fat yoghurt
- No coffee, alcohol or cigs and no laxatives
- Avoid eating junk food alone, a cookie with a company has been surprisingly ok, the people take my head off thinking about food and i am too ashamed to have more than few cookies with people anyway.

What changes have you made? What changes are you willing to commit to and make in the future? Let's do this together!

[Emme]

What an awesome list! My changes deal a lot with emotional eating and how to work through my emotions which can be difficult at times. I had to learn that if (for example) I am angry about something, and I eat something bad (like cookies) to put those feelings away, those feelings will still end up resurfacing later...so, in the long run it really doesn't make sense to eat in order to mask my emotions.

I also am learning to listen to my body. My body always seems to think that it is starving, and I have hunger pangs quite often and even after eating a meal. I have learned after a meal to sit, drink water, and tell myself literally that I am not going to die if I don't eat anything else: food is fuel.

[hope for recovery]

Hi Emme, I can relate a lot to the emotional eating. When i first committed myself to doing something real about my eating, this is what i addressed. I would feel fear or something and just want to eat on it but bit by bit i didn't. I still did put on weight for those few months of no emotional eating because i would munch on high calorie food during the day. Eventually I had to surrender a bit more and accept that i can't just eat just because i want to, unless my body is obviously hungry. I can relate to the hunger pains as well. They scare me, especially before bed. I might be full but I still really fear going to bed without eating. Oh well, I did it last night and I didn't die. It can be done! Best of luck!

[matt_H]

Great list of things!

Finding out specifically what works for you is the key to long term success.

[Rana]

Originally Posted by hope for recovery

What changes have you made? What changes are you willing to commit to and make in the future? Let's do this together!

Great thread.

I've made some changes:

- Strive to get 5 servings a day of fruits and vegetables or more
- Get at least 25 grams of fiber in my diet every day (or more!)
- Exercise is scheduled in as part of my day, just like a shower and going to work are parts of my days (I don't cancel unless it's for a very very very good reason!!!!!)
- Whole grains over simple grains (brown rice, whole wheat breads, crusts, so on)
- Eating the majority of my meals at home
- Fizzy water over soda
- Reduce the processed food in my diet
- Measure/weigh everything!
- No junk in my house (because I will eat it)
- No alcohol (too many calories, not enough results)
- Take my supplements every single day
- Changes to my life to be more active
- I learned to say no and not feel bad about it to people who offer food to me or insist I taste or drink this...blah blah blah


What I'm hoping to do in 2011 (aside from finally taking the rest of the weight off):

- Increase the recipes that I make for myself at home so I can have more variety
- Keep working at increasing my daily activity level (not exercise, but just walking more around town, going up stairs instead of elevators, things like that)
- Do another reduction in calories (forces me to be very clean in my eating, as this holiday season has been "interesting" in terms of how I've managed to fit in some of the calories I'm eating!)
- Reduce fizzy water amounts (it's getting expensive!)

[hope for recovery]

Thank you Matt!

Rana, I really enjoyed reading your lists as well, it is very motivating for me!

[Emme]

Originally Posted by hope for recovery

I can relate to the hunger pains as well. They scare me, especially before bed. I might be full but I still really fear going to bed without eating. Oh well, I did it last night and I didn't die. It can be done! Best of luck!

I usually go to bed feeling like I can still eat another meal, so I know what you mean. I'm not starving, but my stomach feels hungry. I usually have to just wash my face and go to bed. And I never eat after 8:00 because I go to bed by 9:30, so if I am hungry around 7 or 7:30, I will drink water and try to keep myself occupied so I don't eat, because once I hit 8:00 I know I won't eat. Day by day, right?!