Exhausted, overweight, sugar addicted! Breaking the cycle?

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How do I break the cycle?

I'm completely exhausted, very overweight, PND, carb and sugar craving working mum. Life is chaos, I start at 5.45am and don't stop till I collapse at 8.30pm when I go to bed to prepare for yet another sleepless night. Two dc, youngest 20 months and doesn't sleep through. Oldest is 8. Dh works 12+ hours a day.

Tired seriously doesn't come close, most days Im dizzy and could throw up I'm so exhausted. Dh is equally tired, he does his bit but works long hours. I'm loading up on sugar because its easy to grab, makes me feel better and gives me a very needed boost.

I need to stop this, I'm piling on weight, very tired and need energy like never before.

How do I get through the first few weeks of healthy eating without collapsing in a heap?

If I could lose 2 stone overnight it would really help

You could lose 2 stone quite quickly by low carbing. You sound stuck in the sugar cycle, highs followed by slumps and craving more

What are you eating?

It's pretty rough for the first week or so, I Low carbed in the summer and I don't generally eat sugar per se, just bread and pasta. No sweets or chocolate, I don't even have a sweet tooth but I was knocked out for a few days with horrendous fatigue, it lifted pretty quick though and I felt great!!

For breakfasts I tend to have toast, homemade bread. (ram down while rushing the kids out the door). If I have time I have eggs but its rare, weekends I try with fruit. Coffee, water, coffee, water.

I'd love to say that's it but it's not. At work I try to have nothing till lunch but I usually end up craving sugar and hit the sweets.

Lunch is homemade veg soup, with whatever I've grabbed from home to go with it. Usually another slice of bread.

Afternoon by 3pm I'm hitting cake or biscuits. I do this without thinking now and its bad, bad, bad. Fruit doesn't do it for me. I've normally flopped and I'm desperate. By 4.30 (walking to get kids) I'm dizzy, exhausted and craving more sugar or crisps or biscuits....anything to give me an energy hit. Usually with a banging headache by this point.

Get home, throw tea on the table while picking because I'm starving. Tea consists of meat veg/salad. Usually slow cooked or left overs. I basically eat my portion and another half portion. I think nothing of it. I have no sense of being full anymore.

I try to stop there but honestly I don't think I do. I pick until I give I fall on my bed praying dd doesn't wake up.

Sleep is not restorative. I wake up as tired as I go to bed, get out of bed and start the rushing about all over again. I don't have a lazy day. I climb 2 flights of stairs 10 times a day or more at work.

I have an hours commute to work, 15 mins of which is walking. Same on the way home.

I do a lot exercise during the day but none of it is cardio. I am unfit but its more weight related.

Oh and my skin is crap. Dry, itchy and generally bad. I look old and tired

What are you drinking?

Start the day with a BIG glass of milk and a big bowl of full fat yoghurt.

Mid morning have a BIG glass of water and a handful of nuts.

Lunch : protein, protein, protein, more protein. Chicken, fish, eggs, cheese
washed down with another BIG glass of milk and or water and or tea

Mid afternoon : another big drink and a handful of nuts or seeds

Supper : high protein, lots of micronutrients : stir fry veg and chicken or prawns or fish

Your skin is bad because you are dehydrated and not taking in enough fat and protein.

Deal with those and the rest will follow