Weight loss help & advice

[cathleen]

Hi. Just joined this. I've been looking for a free site where I could chat and get advice/support for weight loss. Help me stay accountable and committed. I want to lose weight for me. I need to lose weight for my family. For me being there. I dont have any associatated problem due to my weight so no diabetes ect but I know that's what to be expected if I continue. I dont want to have a heart attack to then give me the motivation to change. I wont wait around for that day to then have fule to change my lifestyle. I am not making excuses there is alot of baggage that comes with me and I feel like I should explain not to make excuses or justify but to help you understand my limits. I have mental health issues which feels like a constant battle. I have a therapist which I have to have over the phone consultations with the now due to covid19. I have and always had eating disorders. Trumma and abuse as a child left me to eat whatever I could due to not having food available. So when I could I would (binge) overeat whenever food was available. High school started and I got bullied for being fat. So I starved myself. Alot. Tried throwing up whenever I could ect.then I went homeless back into the I have no food and dont know how to feed myself mentality. Therapists says I've always either starved for food not knowing where my next meal was coming for then bulked and binged when I could. I lost 6 stone in literally like 2 months being homeless. I dont eat (breakfast) till1. And then not again (dinner) till 8/9 sometimes 10ish. Then if I have a binge it's about 10 11ish maybe upwards. I have OCD and phobias. I will meal prep food upwards to 4+ times a day . Wrighting and re wrighting food items and food lists and meal plans ect. I will look in my cupboards constantly but I will restrict and refuse to "feed" myself. I basically still have that childlike mentality of food will make me fat and to be real honest I am scared to eat and eat a healthy plan of 1500 calories then have a binge episode and God only knows how many added. My therapist says I need to do this however and when I restrict and deny and skip meals my binges become more frequent and I have noticed that myself. But I need to mentally work on this side of things the now which I am currently doing. My entire day besides my child whenever I can is fitted around food. Looking at YouTube videos. Mukbang pintress magazines. Doing my online meal plan 4 times a day. It all links into the mental restrictions I gave myself due to the environment I was raised in then continued by my own self insecurity. I know my own downfalls and I know 99% of the time I am my own worst enemy. Also. In 2018 i almost died when I got septicaemia due to a freakin spot! I have been diagnosed with a condition where my body absorbs spots pushing the pussy infection deeper into my skin where it grows server and unable to push out of my pores leaving me seriously I'll I have polistic ovaries which increase spots due to hormones and being overweight increases spots too so losing weight will limit my spot side affect of basically being fat and hopefully I will get I'll less. I get an infected spot once a month I should be on antibiotics for 6 months off for 2 weeks for blood testes then back on for 6 act for the rest off my life but I am too scared and dont. But I need to wash my body with ain't bacterial wash hibbiscrub. 2018 I was in and out of hospital due to this with operations ect. I got PTSD due to it all and cut out all foods hygiene and skincare products as at the time I thought they where blocking up my pores or fatty food was making me spoty (health issue was undiagnosed for 8months and they weren't sure why i kept getting sick) so i got obsessive which exploded my OCD controlling side. And basically for they 8 months I eliminated 90%of my food group. I went vegan overnight till I started fainting as I wasnt educated on food and vitamin ect. Was taking no vitamins or supplements no seeds nuts nothing just beans and rice while still only having 1/2 meals a day. I can tell u my list of phobias foods but I will be here all day and this post is long enough. I basically only eat pizza (I know) bread/wrap garlic bread ect and vegetarian. Not huge on fake meat products. I dont consume dairy expect small amounts of cheese. but yet dont have any other milk substitute. The stress of covid19 really hit my anxiety and stress so my eating disorders went crazy. Almost a year n a half of no juice out the window. Even when I dont want to drink it I almost "need" it there. Before this i started trying really hard. I went swimming for 2 hours 5 days a week. For me that was basically like running a marathon. I started walking everywhere. And now i am scared to leave the house and cant go swimming. I need help with exercise ideas for someone like myself 21stone. 🤢 and I need food help for ideas. I feel like all the videos I see are all fish and eggs and I dont eat any meat or fish. I live on vegetable burgers bread and soup. Then crisps when I binge. Lest 2 packets of crips a day before a binge. I dont eat any cholate ice cream or cake ect only binge crisps and sandwiches. I feel now more than every it's harder to get my shit together. And quite frankly I dont have much knowledge. I cant even sit down to a bowl of pasta without hyperventilating due to my food phobias. I know advice will be limited cause am a pathic mess but I have another therapist appointment tomorrow. I just hate feeling like I am sitting around waiting for a change to happen especially when it has to be me that makes it happend. Is there any vegetarian/vegans with no seed or nut meal plans recipes or advice as I know its 90% what u eat. Sorry I just feel frustrated with it all and didnt want a massive rant just wanted to explain so I dont waste people time when they suggest certain meals or protein powder or vitamins ect. If I could change the way my brain thinks mentally right now towards foods or medications ect I a million percent would .so any advice will be welcome. Sorry for the long post. Please be nice and respectful. Sorry again

hi @cathleen

I am not a nutritionist and don't know if you will find this helpful but I'm vegetarian and have lost nearly a stone over the past couple of weeks with a 'little and often' plan which might suit you.

the rules are simple - if you are hungry and it has been at least 2 hours since you last are, you can eat - but only 200 calories at a time (250 allowed for "main meal" in the evening). don't eat if you aren't actually hungry, and ensure each mini-meal is at least 50% vegetable and protein, not just carbs.

for recipes I mostly use the vegetarian options of the free online recipes on Hellofresh - they tend to be around 400-450cals per serving so long as you use spray oil to control calories so I portion up half-size servings into little tupperware tubs and only need to cook every 3 days or so. they also tend to be vegetable-heavy with not too much emphasis on rice, pasta etc. other options are a tortilla wrap with a bit of houmous and lots of salad, ryvita crackers with various toppings, or as an occasional treat I love to have an apple sliced thin with 150 calories worth of blue cheese

starting out I was probably eating 8 or 9 times a day so 1650-1850 calories but within a few days I found I could push the time between mini-meals to 3 hours then 4 and now I am fine on 1000-1250 calories a day without feeling hungry. the small meals mean that the capacity and expectations of my stomach have shrunk significantly which is what helps keep it sustainable, and the fact that its "normal food" means I can use any recipe that looks good so long as I can calculate the calories and ration out 200 calories worth.

if you don't feel satisfied after 200 calories you have to stop anyway but only for 2 hours. although theoretically this could make someone end up eating 2400 calories in a day if they actually ate every 2 hours, in my experience this hasn't happened, as it doesn't take long for 200 calories to feel sufficiently satisfying and to sustain me for a lot longer than 2 hours. I suspect it wouldn't work if you chose 200calories worth of crisps though!

the issues you have around food seem very difficult to live with. not having been in those circumstances myself I don't know whether you will find this way of eating more helpful or less helpful than other things you have tried.