Confession about my terrible diet

[1AngelicFruitCake]

I’m mortified and in pain 🙁 I know I don’t deserve sympathy because I’ve brought this on myself. I’ve got back pain and some stomach ache which I’m assuming is gallstones or similar.

If you met me you’d be so surprised at this confession because I seem so sensible and I keep a close watch on what my own children eat.

However, I drink 2/3 cans of fizzy drink a day. I’m addicted to chocolate, sometimes eating it instead of breakfast (I feel sick typing that). I’ve put on about 1 and a half stone in the last few years but struggle to motivate myself although this pain is my wake up call 🙁

I used to eat loads of fruit and vegetables, now I eat what I can get away with and as soon as my husband and children are out of the room I’m eating chocolate or other rubbish. I’m disgusted with myself and in so much pain right now of my own doing!

Hi that sounds miserable pain!

Can you think about why your diet has changed? I'm a really emotional eater and I can definitely.track my mood by what I eat.

Can you make small changes? Like cut back to one can a day, plan for when you will eat your chocolate later?

This will be fixable. Would you confide in your husband?

Thanks for replying 😊 I’m the same, emotional eater! Food makes me happy and now I go out socially less often I’ve lost my motivation to look nice when out.

Good ideas thanks. Going off how awful I feel now I intend to make a lot of changes, I just need to remember how awful I feel right now!

How come you’re awake if you don’t mind me asking?

Can I join, I also have a terrible diet. No gallstones or similar (yet). I drink 3-4 cans of diet soft drink a day, I can eat 180 g (family size block) of chocolate no worries, plus biscuits, a bag of chips. I love bread of course. I'm about 10 kg overweight, that's not good but it's a miracle I'm not much more overweight considering my diet.

@LimeSegment

Can I join, I also have a terrible diet. No gallstones or similar (yet). I drink 3-4 cans of diet soft drink a day, I can eat 180 g (family size block) of chocolate no worries, plus biscuits, a bag of chips. I love bread of course. I'm about 10 kg overweight, that's not good but it's a miracle I'm not much more overweight considering my diet.

Yes please! It’s a shame we do this to ourselves. Apart from the enjoying the for those few minutes it’s just not worth it but hard to stop!

I know. Not even a few minutes in some cases, sometimes seconds . I tell myself to remember that next time (that it wasn't that good) but I still do it.

Yes seconds! I’m so annoyed at myself! I’ve got a holiday booked in the summer and i can’t go looking like this with potential pain that will ruin it!

I know I need to stop. I mainly eat rubbish food after dinner and after my kids go to bed. The only thing that helps me stop is going to bed at the same time and not going back downstairs. They go to bed at 7.30-8pm, which is a bit of a weird for a healthy adult.

*weird bedtime

Stopping fizzy drinks was incredibly hard for me, but not because of weight.
They ruined my kidneys. Kidney stones. I had more kidney stones than kidneys.
Now, I don’t miss them at all. I CANNOT STAND plain water, so I drink water with Mio drops in it. I get them on Amazon. They satisfy the “sweet.”
I’ve given up caffeine, too, except for once in a great while I’ll treat myself to a cup of tea or coffee.
You’ll drop a lot of weight if you can ditch the fizzy drinks. That was a side-benefit for me.

I was like this for years. Huge emotional eater.

The only thing that ‘cured’ me was being randomly diagnosed with celiac disease last year at 41 (I’d never had any symptoms, I was tested due to something else as a “you probably aren’t coeliac, but let’s just see”).

I don’t like any gluten free breads, pasta, cakes, pizza etc - all tastes like shit to me so I don’t eat it.

Now I have a diet of only freshly cooked, healthy foods. I was very overweight for years, lost 4 stone so far and feel great.

So I am not saying get diagnosed with an auto immune disease that you didn’t know you had, but it helps! I would have carried on the binge cycle for ever otherwise.

I am the same. I don't drink fizzy drinks but I love chocolate and smash through loads in a day. Every evening I vow I am not going to eat any the next day and always fail.

I don't think I'm an emotional eater, I just love the taste of chcoolate! I am somehow not overweight but I don't know how. I probably will be at some point.

I was the same and a complete secret binge eater. Betting yourself up about this is not going to help. Feeling shame and disgust will keep you trapped in the cycle. You need to be kind and accept this is a coping mechanism you've put in place for a valid reason At some point. You have acknowledged you need any want to change so support yourself to do that instead of getting yourself up. What would you say to a friend or family member if they came to you to ask for help with this problem?

Perhaps try counselling, which massively helped me.

Also, the gallstones helped me. I overhauled my diet when the pain became very intense and I had more motivation to stick to healthier lifestyle choices for good. I've kept them up some having my gallbladder removed

The other thing that helped break the cycle for me was doing 16:8 diet and it stops me from mindlessly eating in the evenings. I have three healthy relatively small meals to what I'd usually have and I don't cut out food groups. It has allowed me to forget about food for a bit part of the day after the initial few weeks was up.

I was just like you, except I could manage 2 family bars of chocolate....felt a bit sickly, but managed it regularly.
Crisps, carbs, alcohol.

I tried a few times to plan - no crap Monday- Friday, small bar of chocolate rather than a block.
Nothing worked!
I have succeeded, but no doubt everyone will pile in to say how unhealthy it was!
I opted for a short, sharp 'reset' and did 'Lose a stone in a week' diet.
I stuck to it rigidly and did lose 10lbs, but more importantly, and the reason I did it, it completely broke my dependence on crap and alcohol.

Three months down the line, I still don't eat crap - don't even feel the urge. I very rarely drink alcohol, because I know that's the trigger for me to eat crap. I only have an odd drink in company now, never at home.
I do have a piece of cake if out with friends, but never have it in the house. Not deliberately, just because it never occurs to me to buy it now!
I enjoy what I eat, not obsessed with it, never calorie count, but cutting the crap out of my diet, I have lost weight without even trying and honestly feel so much better. I no longer doze off in front of the TV at 7pm 😁

Not for everyone, but just worked brilliantly for me.

Wow, thanks for the great advice everyone! Luckily I fell asleep so I won’t be too shattered at work. Reading these replies has been great and I’m going to re-read so I can let it sink in.

I don’t think it’s probably about emotional eating with me, I’m just greedy! I love chocolate! It makes me happy!😊 But I felt so terrible in the night today I’m off to make a healthy breakfast and healthy lunch for work. I’m going to plan tonight what I m going to eat tonight. I think I’ve got to accept as I’m getting older I can’t get away with eating rubbish like I did when I was younger (my body is telling me that clearly!)

First things first, get rid of the junk food in the house. IF there isn’t any, then you can’t have it.

Truth is that sugar is addictive, so the more you eat the more you want. While I’m not entirely sure about completely sugar free diets I can testify that the longer you go without sugary snacks/treats the less you are going to want them.

And even diet fizzy drinks are awful. Even once you get past the harmful properties of aspartame, what people don’t realise is that sugar substitutes trick the body into thinking it’s having sugar and reacting accordingly.

Overeating doesn’t necessarily have an emotional basis. While there are undoubtedly people who do experience disordered eating for. Number of reasons, many people just eat this stuff because they like it and because they can. As my mum puts it, “I eat because my mouth is bored.”

A reset can definitely help.

I used to drink coke, eat chocolate, crisps etc, whenever I did diet I stopped eating it altogether and it doesn’t take long until you just don’t think about it any more.

Then I developed a serious heart condition and spent some time in hospital and I actually went off chocolate and never really went back to it. And my cardiologist essentially told me I had to give up the coke, and with a 1500ml fluid restriction now drinking it would be a waste anyway. Now if I drink coke I wonder wtf I drank so much of it before.

I know people say everything in moderation but if you’re the kind of person who can’t moderate then don’t. Cut it out completely, and once you’ve lost your dependence on it you can re-visit the idea of an occasional treat, but you will most likely find you’re not bothered any more.

My old food routine used to be

Drink a energy drink, then wake the kids.
Drop kids to school, buy chocolate, pastry etc. On way home or way to work. Sometimes sweets. Fizzy drink.
Skip lunch.
School run or on my way back from work, stop at the shop for crisps and fizzy drink. Sometimes more sweets/chocolate.
Make the kids a healthy nutritious meal. It feels too early for dinner so I'll have something later.
Difficult Bathtimes, bedtimes, chores, some work needs doing, life admin, also studying.
11pm ish Starving hungry. Eat whatever I can find in the fridge or cupboards. Or order takeaway quickly before the takeaway shuts.
Get nowhere near enough sleep! Wake up exhausted, so crack an energy drink. Rinse and repeat.