At my wits end with my addiction to food :-(

[Nonky]

All my life I have had a weight problem. I have always hovered around the size 16/18 mark, Up until I had my children the only discomfort I felt was the frustration of not being able to find things to wear.

Since having two c sections (3 and 6 years ago) all the weight seems to have just settled around the lower stomach area. I feel uncomfortable even when walking as the 'spare tyre' is so heavy. It feels as if it is pulling my whole body down.

I have a what seems like uncontrollable binge urges. I can go for a couple of days eating well and then something (upset, happy, stress) happens and I console or treat myself with a massive sugar hit. For example, I am really tired tonight and gone on a rampage of the cupboards eating everything in sight.

EVERY day I say i will change my eating habits. EVERY 10 mins or so I am thinking about food/weight. What can I do????? I'd really like to exercise but to be honest the uncomfortableness of my stomach is putting me off. It's catch 22.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you

[TalkinPeace2]

Don't buy it?
Simplistic, but ONLY shop when you are feeling in control
and then the junk will not be in the cupboard in the first place

and have a look at doing a bit of this ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_stress_reduction
to get to the bottom of why

[Itwillendinsmiles]

2 quick and easy tips that helped me when I began to really want to lose weight...

If you don't buy junk, it won't be in the cupboards and you can't eat it.

Walking is a great introduction to exercise.

You need to make small and gradual changes if you want them to be sustainable in the long term and accept that you didn't put on the weight overnight so neither will you lose it in a week. A steady weight loss, coming from a food plan tailored to fit in with your life is probably what you should aim for.

[Eggrules]

Exercise first thing if you can, walking is great.

My downfall is picking after dinner and wine.

Tiredness is hard - at one stage eating toast kept me awake and alive.

[Marrow]

I sympathise with you. I binge on food. I agree with not having it in the house. Made the mistake of getting Penguins for treats for DD the other day as they were on offer at Tesco. Within two hours of them being delivered I had eaten 27 of them

However if you're anything like I am then it doesn't even have to be particularly unhealthy food. I have just boiled a pan full of potatoes and eaten them all this evening. I will repeatedly go into the fridge and cut off a chunk of cheese or grab a carrot or eat a spoonful of mayonnaise. I will eat bowl after bowl of breakfast cereal and will eaten spoonful after spoonful of sugar straight from the jar. My lunch today? A whole packet of marzipan that I bought to decorate my Christmas cake.

I'm afraid I don't have any practical advice but wanted to let you know that you are not alone.

[WillieWaggledagger]

The only thing that stopped the binge/starve cycle that I was in was low carb - it took away the physical urges which made it muh easier to eat in non-disordered way (still had to deal with psychological side, but this was easier without physical cravings). I am pretty strict (no bread, sugar, potatoes, rice, wheat, v little fruit, lots of green leafy veg) and will eat this way for the rest of my life I think (possibly relax a little)

You have to find what works for you, but this really did radically change my eating behaviour

[Nonky]

Ah thank you everyone so much :-) I have woken up feeling positive, have stocked the cupboard with healthy foods and had a small piece of cheese with an apple to keep me going mid afternoon rather than eating half a packet of biscuits. I do feel less bleurrgh for doing it! Can feel I am suffering from a lack of sugar headache from yesterday but I am determined to ride on through it. Let's hope it lasts! I will start walking the school run as well to build up on the exercise front. Many thanks for your support, it has made my day to have so many lovely replies :-)

[Nutella43]

There is a book called Eating Less by Gillian Riley. There have been a few threads on here before about it before. She talks a lot of sense about food addiction and gets you to see things in a different way than other diet books.
It's not about complying to a diet, which you eventually rebel against, but about addressing your addiction to food. There's something called Time and Plans which helps you to control your eating.

It doesn't cost much on Amazon and you can get it on Kindle too.
Worth a try maybe?

[Nonky]

Thanks book has just been purchased!

[MrsHelsBels74]

Let me know how you get on with the book please, I have similar problems.

[Nutella43]

Let me know too, I hope you find it helpful xx

[ClareMarriott]

I don't know whether this will help anyone but how you physically feel - the tiredness the cravings etc - is your body reacting to what you are putting into it - so try and listen to what it is saying to you. The only other thing I would say is to look at what your weekly shopping bill is and take away what it has cost you to buy all the sweets, cakes, potatoes or whatever is your own personal downfall - perhaps you could use what money you would have saved to buy yourself something and not necessarily clothes .

[JohnnyDeppsfuturewife]

Join one of the threads for more support, I am in the no excuses thread and it has been so helpful. Don't worry about being a newbie to a thread, you'll get lots of support.

About 6 or 7 weeks ago I decided to address my food issues (large portions, eating kids leftovers, constant snacking, eating when not hungry) and have so far lost about a stone. It is difficult and I think about food constantly but I am trying to unlearn 30 years of bad habits and emotional issues so that isn't surprising. I am hopeful that I'll be able to lose more and keep it off.

Have you thought of swimming? I don't like exercise (huge boobs) but do try to go swimming once a week.

[tb]

I've been told recently, that the best way not to end up in the yo-yo dieting trap is to aim for a weight loss of about 2lb/1kg per month. Also, to do it by making gradual and permanent changes to the way you eat/exercise, so that it becomes a way of life and not a 'diet'.

I was told that in an obesity clinic, where we had dessert on Sundays (some sort of pastry) and croissants rather than bread once a week for breakfast.

Although, if really stressed, I could hoover up an entire aldi-worth of chocolate, somehow I seem to have stopped doing it, especially if I eat more slowly and actually taste what I'm eating.

I've actually got nearly 12 stone to lose, and have an underactive thyroid that caused the weight gain, sadly so far not very well treated.

Once Christmas expense is over, our plan is to rent a rowing maching (a suitably sturdy one ) and use their training/weight loss plan, and carry on eating a balanced diet as I did in the clinic.

In the clinic, no-one was on less than 1400 Cal/day, the majority were on 1600 Cal/day, and some of the men on slightly more ie 4 slices of bread per meal rather than the 2 slices for the 1600 Cal.

pm me if you'd like to know the things we were eating, as it was fairly simple, but varied. 4 course lunch and dinner, and bread, butter and yoghurt for breakfast.

The Paul McKenna way of eating is quite good - helps with relaxation, eating slowly and tasting food.

[Eggrules]

tb, would you mind posting a few sample menus ?

[ppeatfruit]

I 2nd what tb says about Paul Mckenna his WOE is brilliant check out our support thread on here .He addresses the emotional side as well.

[ccarpenton]

First - stop calling it an addiction. Any attempt to mentally pass blame on to something else is not helpful.

Your body only wants certain foods because you're not eating right. Change diet and you won't get the cravings any more.

But all this advice is pointless. Everything you've said makes you sound already defeated. You've already decided to fail at this. You will go into your next diet attempt 99.9% sure that you will fail at it ... and you will be right. There is nothing we can say to change that. Until you decided enough is enough, nothing will change. You will be back here whinging in a month's time about how food is addictive and you can't stop thinking about it and how you can't exercise.

You can. There is always a way. Did you even watch the paralympics?

Also ... I don't think you've ever read Catch 22. What you are describing is not a Catch 22.

[GreatGooglyMoogly]

I have been watching a programme called Addicted to Food. Very American but it addresses the emotional reasons why the people turn to food for comfort which I think is very useful as the eating is really just a symptom and won't stop until the cause is addressed. Do you know when and why you started using food as comfort?