What might work for me?

[SummerDreams13]

I'm hoping someone might have some advice or experience to offer as I'm feeling pretty desperate! Here goes:

I'm 5'10 and my weight has always yo-yo'd - previously my heaviest was about 13st 9 which felt far too much. I went to India to study for 3 months, got the usual stomach bug and then went on quite a restricted diet which didn't feel too difficult at all as it was hot and I didn't feel like eating. The result was I got to 12st 2, totally without trying, and felt AMAZING - loved my body for the first time ever.

I continued to exercise and eat well ish, but my downfall is always chocolate / comfort eating. Without going into too much detail, I had an EA mother who used food instead of affection, so now, if I feel slightly low, I go straight to chocolate.

Fast forward to now and I'm currently 6 months postpartum from my first baby. I ate well in pregnancy and didn't weigh myself. I was/am breastfeeding and my tummy snapped back quite quickly. However...being at home with a newborn in the dark winter months and no family support meant an over reliance on rubbish food - lasagnes, fish pies and, of course, chocolate!

I've just seen a recent photo of myself and I feel sick at how unhealthy I look. I've gone up to 16st and feel like everywhere I look, there's another celeb who's given birth and looks fab. My dream weight of around 12st feels further away then ever and I so don't want my daughter to learn these kinds of unhealthy habits from me.

So my question is - what can I do to tackle this? I've tried mfp several times but just avoid inputting on days where I've eaten badly. I don't think exercise is the problem as I gym and swim 2-3 times a week - not great but it's all I can manage between the baby and going back to work. My willpower is terrible in this one area and I feel like I need someone standing over me all the time!

Does anyone have any ideas about how I can climb out of this hole?

I'm no expert but it seems to me that your emotional eating needs addressing before you can do anything else. Could you have some counselling to tackle the pattern of comfort eating that you learned in childhood from your mother? Don't blame yourself for lack of willpower!

Hopefully someone with more experience can advise. Perhaps CBT could help?

Good luck

I have been losing weight since Feb (start weight 16 stone, target 12 stone) by just making a few lifestyle changes. I have been losing a consistant 2lbs per week so far, almost two stone down, just over 2 stone to go. I hope to achive this by the end of the year with a stretch goal of achiving it by the time my daughter goes to school in August.

My lifestyle changes are:

? Cutting out snacks (Giving up chocolate as a snack has helped a lot in this as not being able to have chocolate as a snack reduces the snacks available so much that it stops me snacking).
? Using stairs instead of lifts.
? Using the bicycle instead of the car for journeys under a mile.
? Not drinking at home during the week.
? Padding sandwiches out with Salad and main meals out with veg.
? Drinking lots of liquids during the day, if you feel hungry drink first and wait 10 minutes (mainly no added sugar squash).

I created an excel spreadsheet to help me monitor and calculate activity and consumption which has helped me a lot.

Typical weekday looks like this ("/" means or not and):

Breakfast
2 x Toast (malted danish bread) with low fat spreadable butter and Marmalade / Fruit "sachet" porrige (like OatSoSimple) made with skimmed milk.

Snacks
None, just drink something if I feel peckish.

Lunch
2 x Ham Salad Sandwich thins (use Dijon mustard and no butter)/ Flavoured Tuna and Salad Bowl (by varying the flavour of tuna and salad bowl variety it keeps it interesting)
Proppercorn / Velvet Crunch / Quavers

Dinner
Whatever the rest of the family is having, just exercise a little portion control and pile on the veg if possible and always have a soft drink with it.

Drinks
Tea/ Coffee
No added sugar squash (I drink litres of this through the day)

Hope this helps a little