I'm not looking after myself

[fruitbat22]

And I know I'm not but I've fallen into unhealthy habits that are really hard to break.

I eat too much. I've put on a lot of weight lately and it shows in my face and belly. Nothing fits and everyday is a struggle to find something I feel semi ok in. Mostly it's leggings and very baggy tops. I associate food with comfort and fun. A Saturday night isn't a Saturday night without a takeaway. A trip to town isn't the same if I don't have a coffee and cake etc. I used to be fairly good during the week but I snack like mad and can easily polish off 500/600 calories by standing in the kitchen grazing on crisps and shit.

Same with alcohol. I drink maybe 3-4 nights per week at home. Not enough to be hungover but definitely over the recommended weekly units.

I don't exercise. I have tried the gym and running. Just hate them. I do YouTube workouts from time to time but again I despise every minute and genuinely wonder how people do this stuff everyday.

I don't have the time or money for hairs, nails or eyebrows and I have no idea what my clothing style is anymore. I catch sight of myself sometimes and just think I look so old, fat and haggard.

A lot of the eating and drinking habits come from a place of boredom. Dh and I have no help with the dc and can't go out so we try and make home life fun with these things. But really they are just making us unhealthy.

How do I break these habits? Every week I promise myself I'll eat better and every week I end up doing the same things over again, it's like a compulsion. I need to overhaul my life and habits so I look and feel better but I don't even know where to begin.

Get a bin bag and throw out all the junk food. If it’s still in perfect condition drop
it off at the food bank. Don’t tell me your dc need them, they really don’t! You tell everyone Mummy is improving her health. No more alcohol in the house.

Find a good babysitter locally and start going out. If you can’t being yourself to exercise then put weights on your ankles. Diet is far more effective than exercise. You can start now. Order the weights. Chuck out the junk. It will make a huge difference!

Another who found your post resonated! I am hypocritically drinking a glass of wine before my dinner, but know I'd feel so much better if I knocked it on the head for a while. It makes my diet worse, and while I am reasonably active I am not as active as I should be.

It's mainly boredom and habit, and it sounds like yours is similar - I have a busy job and once the day is over, and I've done the jobs / tidied / made dinner for DS etc I just want to have a drink and some nice food, or a 'treat' for finishing the day.

Some of the advice here is really good, and it looks like many people feel the same way.

eating the food and drinking the wine feels good at the time but afterwards I just feel bloated and rubbish.

Well done on spotting that this is where some things are going wrong. I found the approach in Gillian Riley's https://eatingless.com to eat according to how you are going to feel after eating it and in the say 24hrs to follow.

Then I started drinking a lot of still water and generally followed the low carb high fat 'bootcamp' from here on Mumsnet. A very supportive set of threads to keep you company.

Hope to see you over there.

The best thing you can do is stop buying the snacks & alcohol, if you don’t have it at home you can’t have it. There’s nothing wrong with having a coffee and cake when you pop into town as it’s then a treat and it’ll feel more like a treat if you’re not doing it at home.
Exercise can be dull unless you find something you like …. Instead just do more walking. Best of luck with it, you sound ready for a change and it will be amazing for your health and wellbeing