So flipping hard sometimes

Oh, my heart goes out to you. I hope your child responds well to the surgery.  Good for you for making the choices you did under extraordinary cir****tances.  

~Shel

I'm so sorry about your child's health.  I think you are doing great if you've been able to keep the snacking to high protein snacks. Under this kind of stress, you need to take care of yourself as best you can.  You can get back to weight loss when the crisis passes.

I'll hold you and your child in my prayers.

best wishes,

Carol

Wowsers. Sending good karma your way. I hope your kiddo recovers rapidly. Great plan to bring snacks. Hospital waiting is sooooo tough. This last surgery I had to go over a specific plan on what my hubby could bring. He almost didn't listen and brought the cookies I love, but he hung in there for me and brought bread and cheese. Bread is not something I normally do so it was for sure a treat, but not something I went crazy with. 

Try and be gentle with yourself- you have a lot going on. 

I'm so sorry about your 15 year old. You will be in my prayers.

Robin

Thank you all for the thoughts. He's come through the surgeries amazingly well and we are home today. Amazing to believe really - in the last 7 days he's had two brain surgeries and is already home!

Sometimes I remind myself that whatever answer I am looking for is not going to be found in a cookie or whatever thing I am thinking of eating. Planning my food helps too. Too much freestyle eating makes it easy for me to go off track.

Hugs... 

I have days like that. I tried to ignore that, or pretend it is no happening, and that didn't work.  A good too many times I indulged in foods that were really not good for me - made me sick...adding to my stress. 

So... I decided to be realistic and allow it to happen....but be prepared for it.  I identified foods that are my "comfort" foods that are at the same time are relatively safe for me. And I allow myself to indulge in that. 

For me ...it is PB... Plus jello, plus some other sweets...so I found - make substitutes, and during crisis - I don't limit the qty. But focus on quality...

I.e I allow myself to eat as much of PB, as long as it is pure, organic PB. NSA. PB is my crack so I normally don't keep it in the house. 

I make NSA ice cream or popsicles.. 

I make waffles using eggs, coconut flour and stevia. I make my own SF (NSA) preserves...or buy SF preserves. 

I make my own SF chocolate... And bake my own "fake" cookies and muffins. 

And SF merringe treats... And I have my fix...but really dont cause really bad damage. 

Once the crisis are over - I may need to lose 2-3 lbs the most...if any... 

There are a lot of great low carb very low sugar recipes all over the net. 

Even with my dairy and soy allergies, I can make some deadly cheat foods. 

Your "stuff"sounds GOOD!😋

I do a version of this. I for sure overeat for about 3 weeks going into a surgery, and I feel really crappy about it. What is different is that I do try to fight it, but try to be gentle with myself when it happens. I could never keep the goodies in the house like that because even in my highest will power times I cannot stay out of it. I do the quality thing though- I had my daughter get a pint of ice cream that is $5 a pint and normally nothing I would spring for. It slowed me down a bit due to the smaller quantity, but yea- still gained 5 pounds during this period. The gentle part is that I am grateful it wasn't more and now back in a mode where I can keep the crap at bay easier. Of course the nonstop nausea is assisting with that, but so is my daughter making a pot of high quality homemade chicken broth since it is the only thing that sounds decent. I feel fortunate the pb is not on my crack list, as that is always a staple in my house. Trying to avoid putting that one on my list!

I've been dealing with a ton of stress these past 3 months, and it has been very hard to stay on plan.  It is clear to me that I haven't developed an adequate alternative to eating as a way to comfort myself yet.  But this stress has been the worst in a long time, and I am weathering it ok.

My strategies are similar to those already mentioned.  I distract myself.  I stock up on healthy snacks like cucumber slices and pepper slices, green beans, and broccoli slaw(made with no-fat yogurt).  I knit to keep my hands busy.  I will add a cup of tea between meals to buy myself some time before eating again. 

I've done ok except for the sleepless nights when I have been eating humus and crackers - you know, those nasty addictive carb-delivery systems! 

I suspect the answer is to be gentle with ourselves, and do the best we can, and never, never, never give up.

best wishes,

Carol