I'm a cake decorator too! I'm not a big sweets fan, but I do tend to snack on samples when I'm hungry.

I also live in a house where there's always junk food. I don't want to impose on other people's way of eating, since I'm the one who needs to lose weight, but it's tempting as **** Plus being a lazy person doesn't help. Like I had written in my one post, I lack motivation and concentration, so I loose the "oompf" so to speak when trying to work out and log in what I ate, and keeping the bad foods at bay.

My hormones. I have a really slow metabolism, which makes weight loss a bit of a battle for every pound. I have changed a lot in my diet, including giving up most pasta, bread, rice and even cheese. I exercise now almost daily. My only sin left is wine. I try to cut it down to a glass a day. Otherwise I am in for the long haul. I will eventually get there.

Trying to abstain from binging, which always leads directly to depression, which always leads directly to an avalanche of bad choices (food and otherwise) that can go on a loooooong time.

I love to eat. That's basically it.

In the past few days I look in the mirror and feel 20 pounds heavier than I did a week ago, even though I doubt there's much if any change. I was feeling like a normal-size person, even pretty hot actually, and then I got here and I suddenly feel somewhat unattractive all over again. :?:
This may have to do with my new college roommate being extremely skinny, so I look much heavier in comparison.

Present concerns aside, portion size is also a problem. I actually generally like healthy food much better than unhealthy food, but I like to eat a large volume of food.

Also, I don't do so well with an irregular eating schedule. I've skipped a few too many meals lately and it's making me want to binge later on.

Night time snacking used to be my biggest problem. I would do great all day, but find myself in big trouble late at night. I finally conquered that problem, but I can't ever forget what it was like and allow myself to slip back into old habits.

Sweets/carbs, especially little debbie zebra cakes, store bought cake with lots of frosting, doritos, Dairy Queen ice cream cake, containers of store bought frosting, dairy queen blizzards (mint oreo is the best)

night times are the worst for me. I do great all day then it seems like when I get home I just want to eat. and Im super hungry. :( this is a huge strugle. also anything junk food. or sometimes I crave hamburgers from flipping burger. praying it gets easyer

I think mine would be a lack of control on cheat days, I just wanna eat everything!

That IS tough! I grew up working at my family's restaurant which was like a fast food diner. I was surrounded by french fries and junk food and it was hard to avoid. So I empathize with you on that!

Have you been to Italy? Sometimes Italian Americans really overdo it with pasta and big food, in Italy people really don't eat like this at all! I would suggest introducing your family to the real Italian way of eating. The pasta portions are really small, very little sauce and they are preceded by a light protein dish, and followed by a salad.

I come from a big greek family, and greek-americans are kind of the same way. My inlaws serve a LOT of food. I sit down and they've piled my dinner plate up to my chin with food it's really disgusting. I just remind myself that actual greek people that live in greece do NOT eat this way! They eat very lightly, sometimes dinner is just a bowl of yogurt. So I always remember this and try to eat like a European, something about the immigrant transition to America makes people bulk up their eating.

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Oh, we know. The older generation doesn't eat this way, I don't know how we ended up like this. That's why I specified Italian Amerian in a reply post.
I was reading pretty recently that Greece was becoming one of the fattest nations. Mexico has become number one with the U.S coming in second. Germany is also up there I believe.

PCOS + IR + Crappy Carbs

That makes those crappy carbs such a danger for me. Now that I am aware of how they function in my body, I understand what happens, but it's so hard to stop the cycle if you fall into it.

My biggest issue is binging.

From what I'm experiencing the binging is probably caused by insulin troubles when I eat a high carb diet. I haven't binged since going lower carb and cutting out breads, pastas, sugar and stuff like that.

I also think force of habit is something else I struggle with. Sometimes when I'm playing video games or laying in bed watching tv my first thought is to get something to snack on, even if I don't really want food, because it's been habit for so many years of my life.

Luckily I am recognizing these things, whereas before I was just flailing around wondering why on earth I couldn't control myself and thinking there'd never be anything I could do to change it. Now I see I do actually have some control over it. :) It's lifted a lot of pressure.

I think a third thing that tends to hold me back is patience. Some days I'm fine but other days I just feel like I've got so much weight to lose it's going to take forever so I might as well eat whatever but then I have to stop and go 'what are you even thinking, you'll never get there if you eat like you used to' and then I just keep going. However, patience has knocked me off the wagon. Knowing that one day of good eating isn't going to make me thin and one day of bad eating isn't going to make me fat is a double edged sword. I just have to remember that it's the accumulative that counts.

High-quality restaurant and catered meals. I always have a strong urge to try this or that gourmet or exotic dish. All too often my actual consumption exceeds my intended consumption, whether I intended to overeat or not.

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