Ugh. (please help.)
Alright, I'm having an issue.
Since I was about 7, I've had a binge eating disorder. When I was 14 I weighed 332 pounds, and although I'm six feet tall (I was about 5'10 then), that's still pretty big. Around that time I started Weight Watchers, with which I started losing weight and liking it. Then I stopped eating meat. Then dairy. Then I went raw. Then I quit, and went back to vegetarianism again. Then I went back to veganism, and then...
You get the point.
I've been pretty much 100% vegan for about four months now, and although it's keeping me at a steady weight(I'm still overweight, but it's not bad), I still over eat. It's like when I've still got food on my plate, leaving it isn't an option. I have always been this way, and I know it's a problem.
In trying unsuccessfully to fix the problem, I've thrown myself off kilter: instead of working on both health consciousness AND portion control, I've completely ignored the latter and just got Hitler on myself about what I can and can't eat.
Here's what's made me completely and utterly aware that there is a problem: When I lived by myself, this worked out fine. I could eat healthy and eat a lot. No problem. Now, upon moving in with my fiancee, I have rediscovered the art of snacking. Fries, popcorn(even with that stupid fake butter crap; he loves it.), chips and salsa, potato chips, fruit snacks, homemade sweets.... bah. I make sure that pretty much all of it is natural, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm eating way too much, not to mention my sodium intake... I don't even LIKE salt.
It's like "all-natural" has been a band-aid on a problem I've had since childhood, and now I don't know what to do exactly...
Breaking habits sucks, but eating so much leaves me with little energy, and slowly I've noticed myself gaining weight. It's like I just can't say no to food, and it's really... alarming. I wish I had support from my fiancee, but he eats until he's full and then stops... and then he snacks on lots of salty, sweet, hedonistic goodness. Which he offers me. Which I take without thinking, even if I'm far from hungry.
Also, I don't chew my food well. In a nutshell: my eating habits are crap.
I want to get back to a daily yoga practice, but I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself with such little energy.
Snacking is important to him, and I want to be able to let him do what he wants and take care of myself.
I need to deal with this-- I've been putting it off for the last two years. I eat healthy food, but I want to actually BE healthy.
This is horrendously embarrassing for me to admit, and it's very... hard. I'm going to talk to my fiancee tonight about this problem, and I know he'll help me in whatever ways he can. But right now, I would really appreciate advice on eating habits and... just how to overcome this in general, I guess.
Self-motivation isn't necessarily my strong suit, but I know I can do this. I just need support.
I can't write down my calories and stuff like that because I can't stick to a reasonable number of calories. No matter how many I eat (say...500/day) I still feel like it is too much. So I had to stop that. :/
1. Make sure your breakfasts, lunches and dinners are enough and very filling.
2. I say pick one day a week and make different vegan desserts each time. Make that your snack time only.
3. Do not keep junk food in the house at all.
4. Do you have alot of stress in your life? Make sure your not using food as a crutch.
If you're trying to lose weight and stop eating a reasonable amount, your metabolism slows down. I'd bet that if you eat 1,200 wise calories a day you'll lose weight faster than on 500 calories a day.
I know that, logically. I wanted to point out that there are some potential consequences of calorie logging, especially since the original poster has issues with food.
Got it.
Courth, that's kind of scary to hear. My strategy was to help keep you from binging. Eating an adequate amount, evenly throughout the day, can help keep you from reaching for things that you shouldn't be. It helps hold you accountable.
You should put your daily intake into a nutrional program online (sparkpeople, chronometer, caloriecount) and so you can see all the things your body is missing.
I agree--this method kept me from binging, and it kept me honest. Did I really need to lick my finger when preparing a baked good? Because if I did I had to write it down...thus I didn't do it (and saved my calories for said baked good!). It also made me assess whether I was really hungry or whether I was just in the mood to snack. If I had consumed a reasonable amount of calories, then I stopped and realized I wasn't really hungry. My ability to decipher hunger wasn't really functional, and writing down everything I had eaten helped me to learn what my body was telling me. I'm so glad I could re-learn this skill.
I know this thread is a month old but I just had to reply. First of all I read it all ravenously, I definitely identify with a lot of what's here.
First of all, I wanted to say that I <3 Weight Watchers. I'm not on it now, and in fact was only on it for a few months almost 3 years ago until it started getting expensive, but WW is what first gave me the sensation of feeling powerfully in control of what I ate, and first got me interested in what I was putting in my body.
Secondly, I have been struggling with snacking and constantly eating. I'm always thinking about what the next thing I'm going to eat is going to be. My weight is technically on the heavier end of healthy and I don't believe I have an ED but my day definitely has a serious focus on what I'm going to eat and when and what I'm going to eat after that. I don't know how to stop doing that so I'm trying to change what I'm snacking on: making quick soups and vegetables and beans and having little bowls of those instead of less good choices. Oh and tea! I'm a big tea drinker, herbal, mate, rooibos, oolong, and black tea too, all unsweetened, which fulfills the need to be putting something comforting into my mouth without actually having any calories.
I'm not an expert and not qualified to give advice, just wanted to say I've experienced similar things too, and I wanted to thank everyone for sharing their experiences.
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