How do you all overcome your emotions?
 

I am suffering with a feeling of hoplessness. I've been exercising and eating somewhat right for a year now. I had lost 25 pounds. But somehow, just 5 pounds short of moving my name into the 30 pound column I freaked!?!?! I quit exercising and ate the wrong stuff-even eating out (the bad stuff). Now I've gained about 13 of the pounds back and I know how hard it will be to get it off. why did I do that to myslef? What is wrong with me?

I'm hoping that tracking and journalizing will help. :eek:

It's very common, actually. The trick is to look at things backwards; after you've over-eaten, once you're calm (the time when you're probably focused on beating yourself up...) make yourself stop with negative thoughts. Finish the sentance "I know I wasn't hungry when I ate______, so what was REALLY going on?". Take it a step further and say "next time I feel like _____, I think rather than eating, I could..." It sounds really hokey, but it works. When I did it, I found out that not only was I eating when I was bored (the most common reason, and also pretty straightforward to handle) but when I was worried, tired, or angry. As women, we're taught to focus on being thin but we're often not taught healthy ways to deal with stress, anger, etc...Think about it; if you're spending your time thinking about food, getting food, eating food, and beating yourself up over it, it's a huge amount of time that you can avoid thinking about other things going on in your life. Don't know if this make sense or not, but know that you're not alone. Lotsa folks here are dealing with the same types of issues.

I too eat out of bordum and mostly at night, but I have decided to only eat fruits and veggies during this time, I know that eventually I will have to cut out the late night snacking all together or at least cut it way down, but for now this little change (along with watching my total intake of calories throughout the day) has allowed me to drop a few pounds.

I'm bad about self-sabotaging my diet. I'll say to myself...I've been good this week so i'll go to Sonic and get a 250 cal vanilla cone and then I get there and somehow order a 731 cal Reeses Peanut butter blast. I'm also an emotional eater and eat when I'm sad or stressed. It's hard to overcome the feeling I feel when I eat something I shouldn't. I feel great while i'm eating it and then terrible physically and emotionally guilty. Even though I screw up I still enter in all my calories into fitday so I can see what I did to myself in hopes of avoiding it in the future. I don't ignore anything I eat. Journaling also helps me understand the emotions that led up to me eating what I did and how I felt about it afterward. Good luck on your weight loss journey!

Could you give us an example of a typical day of food intake for you (when you were losing weight).

Thanks.

I think the best thing that I read about dealing with this is calling it a "U-Turn".

We all do this - have a great diet, and then completely fall off the wagon. I recently fell off my diet for about two months straight.

But you have to first forgive yourself, and then second tell yourself you're going to make a U-Turn, and get back on your diet.

There's nothing you can do about the food you've already eaten. You just have to remind yourself that all is not lost because of what you've already done.
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back on track.

I think writing and journaling really help to sort out things.

Why did you stop exercising? Did something change? Why did you stop eating well and start eating badly? Could it be depression? Anger?

Forgive yourself because you can't do anything about it now and move forward. Get back to exercising. Make an exercise plan for today and the week ahead and try to stick to it. If you can't, then identify why and try something different next week. If you do it then congratulate yourself and try to do it for another week.

Once you are back to exercising, you will probably feel better about yourself and you will be naturally able to eat better.

Just take baby steps right now to get back on track and stay positive. You are still ahead of the game and this fall will help you in the future as you try to keep the weight off.

You're story sounds so similar to mine. I started FitDay several months ago at the advice of a dietician, and absolutely loved it. I really started having great success, and was feeling awesome. I had to go away on business for a week, and even though I felt so great, I just couldn't get back on track once I got home.

I think most of my eating is emotional, stress, boredom, you name it. I almost feel like sometimes I am afraid to lose the weight because if I do, I won't have a crutch to fall back on anymore. Sounds ridiculous, but that's the only reason I can think of that I keep falling off the wagon.

All I can tell you is stick with it, and remember that the great feeling of success is all up to you. You just have to reach out and grab it... ;)

Keep posting and use your journal. I love Fitday! It has really helped me and fun to look back at my charts. The scales don't bother me the tape measure is my friend. And at 68 I'll will be happy with what my body decides is a good weight. Don't fret over a day here n there - just go forward. Be Happy. Keep a Smile.