I'm going to post this and run as I am so embarased about it, but would appreciate some help

[IllegallyBrunette]

My diet is full or crap and I am embarrarsed at the amount I am eating and how unhealthy it is.
I am also lying to people about what and how much I eat, so I know this is turning into a problem else why lie ?

I start each day ok, usually have toast or cereal and a cuppa. Then lunch is nearly always a sandwich, ham and tomatoe, or similar and a bag of crisps.

It is dinner where I am falling down big time. My kids have school dinners at the moment and so I am not as strict as I once was about giving them a balanced evening meal and dinners inclusing veg have fallen to roughly once a week in favour of tuna pasta bake, neans on toast, soup etc.
Trouble is, I don't always eat with them then and end up having chese on toast or fried eggs on toast (4 slices of bread) later on.

The other night I had fried egg sandwich x2 for my tea and then at about 9pm I had a chicken curry ready meal and a nan bread. I wasn't hungry so why the fuck did i eat it.

Yesterday as normal, I did ok up until dinner time, when I ate a stupid amount of Pringles and then had chicken chow mein from the chinese.

My diet is making me feel crap, i am eating too much and the wrong things. It is playing my IBS up something chronic and I have sores at the side of my mouth as I am sure to be deficiant in lots of things.

I don't know how to stop this though.

I have a driving lesson in 10 min so won't reply straight away, but will be back later.

My tips are (may or may not work...)

Shop after a meal and stick to a list (less likey to grab things that look yummy etc.)
Meal plan.
If you don't have crap in the cupboards you cannot eat crap. I am awful, if there is a packet of biscuits in the cupboard I will eat them all, so I just only ever stock healthy things. It helps in an odd way that I suffer from depression so the fear of walking to the shops for junk is greater than the craving!

I have one 'junk' day a week which helps with wanting junk, as I think "oh, I only have to wait X days and I can have it 'guilt free'"

I do this too, start the day with good intentions and then end up eating rubbish. i could really do with losing a stone as well so all this junk really doesn't help. Perhaps we could try and support each other to eat well?

fab idea kingprawn.

I have a couple of stones to lose, and do exactly this. Don't lie about it, but end up eating crap in front of tv with dh in evenings.

Every night we have a twirl and a bag of minstrels, he brings them home on way from work.

My kids eat very well, and i don't buy crap cos i would eat it all, but think nothing of popping ut to tesco, (literally round corner) in eves for such stuff.

This might be totally unhelpful to you but, how about write yourself a meal plan to follow? Including snacks at certain times (but healthier or home made ones rather than shop bought ones). & try and stick to it as much as you possibly can.

Try and plan on eating with the kids as much as possible & maybe give them a better dinner than something on toast so that you yorself get a decent meal in.

& maybe if you do fancy something like a takeaway or egg sarnie include it in your meal plan one night or a couple of nights so that you don't feel like you're missing out on something.

There's nothing wrong with snacks I don't think so long as you try not to have too much of them too often iyswim?

Hope you get some better advice than mine, they were just my first thought

Hi Liahgen, its so dis heartening isn't it. I just don't know where my will power has gone these days. I lost a stone and a half a couple of years ago but have put most of it back on. Every day i wake up with a plan but end up snacking on chocolate.

I found putting pics of me as a svelte size 8 Twentyone year old around the kitchen helped.

And brushing my teeth when I felt like eating (the taste would put me off having food then)

And having a bowl of soup with a small wholemeal roll instead of toast slathered in butter when I felt hungry.

I managed to lose four stone and turn diet around but did it slowly, replace a chocolate bar with a piece of fruit or handfull of nuts; one less spoon of potatoes, extra spoon of vegetables. I didn't notice the changes that way and once the weight started coming of I was hooked.

Four stone !!! well done hammou, thats fantastic. you must feel so pleased with your self.

how about changing your shopping habits so that you just don't have junkie stuff in the house.. pleanty of fruit and healthy type snacks.. but not the junk..
if you then feel like you fancy something you will be forced to go to the shop to get it.. rather than just the cupboard.

try and make a point of eating together.. and have a cuppa or a drink when you feel peckish instead of eating something. ( people often snack.. when they are actually thirsty!)

If the dc's don't want much in the evenings.. do the baked beans on wholemeal toast with a glass of milk.. and join in with them ( assuming your ok with beans with having IBS) or a veggy soup with a chunk of bread etc.

also.. your ibs might improve when you drop the fat in your diet.. fat sends mine right off the scale!!

Agree with BCNS, my IBS is nearly a thing of the past and acts as a red light, it only flares up when my eating is bad. I get headaches as a sign as well.

The drinking thing is a good idea as well, I developed a thing about tomato juice.

I have a treat every day as that worked for me, and I can not say enough about the good of walking..but I am lucky that I can work it into my daily routine.
Good luck IB, I bet you can do it.

IB - from reading what you're eating, as well as the way you feel about it, it sounds like there's a bit of a carbohydrate addiction going on here. And if your IBS is playing up this also indicates that your carb consumption is too high.

I don't know if you have ever tried low carb eating, but it has the advantage of really curbing your appetite.

This is the other form that I use

There is some interesting information here if you're interested. Lots of people report health improvements when they low carb, including a lessening/disappearing of IBS symptoms, asthma and exczema.

wow and well done on the weight loss HMHH!!

regarding mouth ulcers and defficancy in all things good from bad eating.

you could try taking a multi vit everyday.. to help top up what you might be low on.. Gp said this to me when i was living off boiled rice and chiken breast! for 6 months!!!! during a really bad flare up.

so now if I'm having a bad time of it.. and my eating is limited I then pop a vit pill.. just to cover myself.

When you get into healthy eating and get the ibs a bit more under control.. you really will feel less crappy and want to snack less anyway IME ( snacks make me feel crappy!)

Look at the spicey things your eating as well as the fat contents as this might also not be helping you.

Good luck with it all!

Thank you all for the comments.

BecauseImWith - You are exactly right about the carbs, I am a carb addict and I crave bread about 99.9% of the day.

I think what will help is that soon the dc will be swapping back to packed lunches and so I will have to go back to cooking healthy evening meals.

I have just got into the habit of eating crap as it is easier and tastes nice, but I know it is bad for me.

I always seem to feel hungry though, I mean I woke up in the night the other day and my stomach was rumbling. I didn't get up and have something to eat, but I was tempted. I only seem to go an hour or so after a meal before I feel really hungry, and then I get a sicky hungry feeling like I must eat something right there and then.

It is all about changing my habits I think, and I need to give myself a kick up the back side to start this off.

IB - If you're interested, there are two really good books that might be of help. The first is the Dr Atkins book - 'Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution', and the second is India Knight/Nerys Thomas 'the Idiot Proof Diet'

The former is the seminal book on low carbing, and will give you loads of information about what carbs do to your system. It also, obviously, details how to do Atkins - which, despite what you read about in the media, is not and unhealthy way to eat!

India/Nerys's book is similarly based on low carbing, but it's less structured and deals with the psychological aspects of food/dieting as well.

A word of warning - if you do decide to go the low carb route, if you are addicted to the carbs, you're likely to feel pretty shit for the first couple of days, till you get them out of your system.

And if you want to know more, just ask/CAT/e-mail me! I can bore for England on low carbing!

porridge for breakfast with a banana - slow release complex carbs that ward of hunger.

Also sorry to say - but are you bored? Are you having the tea and then supper at 9 oclock due to the fact you have nothing else to do?

Cos if that is the case perhaps you need to change some habits so that you dont think about food and dont go and eat (dont buy ready meals either as they are easy to eat at 9 pm - you wouldn't have actually made a curry at that time of night)

hobbies, night school, or friends round to your if you cant get out of the house - book club or playing card eve?

You might actually not be eating enough for breakfast and lunch - toast has minimal protein and maybe your sandwich doesn't have much either. Try a big wodge of peanut butter on the toast, or have eggs with it, then for lunch pile a decent amount of cheese/ham/whatever on the bread (you no longer need the crisps). When you eat protein with every meal it satiates you, and takes your system longer to burn off, so you can last until the next meal. You also don't end the day feeling not satisfied, and looking for 'treats'. If your blood sugar is balanced this way, you also get less mood swings and have more energy. Lecture over.

I eat when I'm bored. It's a killer

When I have a bit of a slump in the afternoon I have three pieces of fruit instead of chocolate or carbs. It's surprisingly filling.

Ideas for breakfast:

Poached egg on dry toast and a spot of ketchup, with a half banana on the side

Porridge - measure one palm full of museli or porridge and place in bowl, add two dessert spoons of tined mixed fruit ontop of museli or porridge, then add two dessert spoons of plain yogurt and top with a smidge of honey - nice of served in a glass with a coffee and juice. Means you have had two fruit portions before 9am!

Ditch the ham - its processed meat for ocassional consumption.

Tomatos with garlic on toast for breakfast, toast the bread and gently gril the tomato choped in half and place on the toast - sprinkle with a smidge of garlic salt.

Chees can only be consumed in match box size peices and then only twice a week - or better still avoid buying it every other week and live without.

mackeral in tomato sauce on toast or pilchards are far better than tuna pasta - of course only if you like these oily fish.

Try making a meal planner then work out what you need form the supermarket from that. Make a list for the shopping and ONLY buy whats on your list. Could you try making the childrens tea a bit later then you could eat with them and have a proper meal? Also try smoothies, very sweet and they take away the need for sugar. I prefer them to chocolate sometimes!