As background I have some sort of condition where when I am stressed my blood pressure plummets. It normally hovers on the low side of normal but during prolonged periods of stress it just drops down to dangerous levels where I literally pass out from standing or even raising my head when lying. This has caused me to be hospitalised on several occasions, twice by an ambulance (that were called by medical professionals rather than me being a hypochondriac).
The last time this happened was during an incredibly stressful period shortly before my son turned 2. At the time I was a really healthy weight for my height. Not too thin by any means, my bmi was 23.5, I had a great diet and got plenty of exercise as I didn't drive at the time and walked everywhere. But in the aftermath of hospitalisation I was very weak which limited my exercise and found that the best way to bring my blood pressure up was to eat crappy foods. I know that sounds ridiculous but when your head is foggy and the world is spinning and you have a toddler to look after. Having a slice of cake and can of soft drink and immediately feeling mostly normal is an easy option to choose. I wasn't binge eating but my fat and sugar intake rose rapidly and even after my blood pressure normalised I still stuck with the new eating habits.
My weight was creeping up and up and every year or so I was going up a size clothes wise. At first it was back into my post-pregnancy clothes rather than my pre-pregnancy clothes. Then I had to buy some bigger jeans. Then I had to buy bigger ones again. Then those were getting tight. During this time I also started driving so definitely started putting on weight faster. Eventually about 6 weeks ago the thought of having to go up another size in jeans got to me and I decided to quit sugar almost entirely. At first I felt like hell and after a few days I had an awful tummy upset which I don't know if it was a bug or some sort of sugar withdrawal. But after that I feel like I'd come out the other side and stopped craving sugar as much.
I went on holidays and had no treats, I avoid cake and biscuits. At home I make sugar free treat foods but still avoid eating to excess. I've started paying more attention to my body and only eating when I'm actually hungry. I'm increasing my exercise and choosing to walk short distances rather than drive everywhere. I'm being very careful about it in order to not let my blood pressure fall low but I'm definitely eating less and better food.
But I've lost absolutely no weight and my body looks worse than ever. I think I've toned up in some areas, so the lack of weight loss may be to do with increased muscle mass countering the lost fat. But I look awful. I have diastasis recti, which is especially bad on one side and exacerbated by my c-section scar as it bulges out over it. And since I lost fat from my tummy area those bulges have become far, far more pronounced. I've even had kids ask me if I'm having a baby as they protrude so much. I'm hoping that they will recede if I lose more weight, as the same happened as I lost my baby weight. But it's so extremely disheartening to have changed my eating and exercise habits so much and look all the worse for it. And it really doesn't help that the diastasis recti really limits the kind of exercise I can do drastically.