To feel cross

[atthebeach]

I am capable , competent and efficient in all areas of life.

Why then am I unable to lose weight?

I am around 7 () stone overweight. Nothing fits and I am conscious I am bursting out of summer clothes.

I'm certainly not concerned for the sake of vanity but I do hope to be healthier.

I use food as a reward at the end of the day as a rule (I am a head of department in a secondary school) and I often find myself eating as I drive home.

I've been off sick for two days but now I am finding myself feeling better and wanting to eat!

Can anyone give me the motivation to make this much-needed change?

Thetreat

I work in an open plan office. It's tradition that when someone comes back from holiday they bring gifts of chocolate and/or biscuits. Or in fact if anyone is in a generous mood they do it! Oh and on birthdays, upcoming bank holidays including Easter and Christmas. You name it....

I asked the boss once if we could move the table further down the office and she gave me an 'old fashioned' look.

Sorry I meant that to Thehouse not Thetreat

I am in the same boat, and I can't stick to any diet long term as it makes me feel miserable. The best plan I worked out for myself is to to every other day diet, i.restrict calories to 1000kcal on odd days and eat normally on even days. I reckon it would work briliantly but even that I am unable to stick. The more I pressurize myself into diet, the more I eat. It must my low worth, boredom, I don't know??

Slimming World may be the place for you - loads of "free Foods" that you are allowed, plus daily "syns" that could be cake or chocolate or crisps, it does work, believe me.

I feel for you OP. I am in the same boat with roughly the same amount to lose. I have tried so many diets and can only stick to them for a few months at the most and it's so tedious to be constantly thinking about food, planning meals, looking up calorie contents/point values, etc. I'm sick of it. I would just like to be free of it and never have to think about food at all. I don't even like most of the stuff I eat!

I summoned courage to go to my doctor this week and the options were a referral to a nutritionist or referral to a surgery centre. No point going to a nutritionist; I'd bet there is no one more qualified to talk about what you should be eating than an obese person! And I don't want surgery, so I said forget it and got up to leave, but burst into tears and she wouldn't let me leave without doing something. So I got a referral to the surgery centre, which I don't want.

She also told me to "eat less move more". Well, no shit, but there is so much more to it than that and I had hoped for a bit more understanding than I got. :(

Rosie well done for going to the doctor. You don't have to have surgery...maybe if you go there, they can at least advise you further...it runs deeper than knowing what to eat/do...there's a complex psychological pattern at work.

I was seven stone overweight, and I've lost five stone, quite slowly, but it has stayed off. I'm still working on the last two stone.

I switched to Pepsi Max - you get used to the different taste in about a week. I'd never drink full sugar Pepsi now.

I was also really afraid at first that I would be hungry all the time on a diet, so I made sure I always took some fruit and nuts to work to snack on. I never went more than a couple of hours without eating, but it was healthier than snacking on crisps or chocolate. You definitely need to find somewhere in your routine to put a couple of apples or a banana in your work bag - maybe the night before rather than in the morning if mornings are rushed.

And, for me, the most important thing was exercise. I joined a gym and I started going three to five times a week. I only ever use the treadmill (I fall off cross trainers) and at first I would walk very slowly for 30 minutes. As time went on and I got fitter, I walked faster. Now I can run for part of the time. One day I'd like to be able to run (slowly) for the whole 30 minutes!

It's easy to get discouraged if you don't get results quickly. However, I found that when I was at my heaviest I would lose a few pounds every week as long as I stuck to my exercise routine. Keep a record of what you lose: it's very motivating.

You can definitely do it!