Newbie

Well, the surgery folks have convinced me that 55 lbs is not the mountain that it seems and non-surgical is the way to go.. so....here I am. I am a 45y.o. mother of 6. The youngest is now 6 so can no longer claim it as baby fat. It is hard to try to eat right when cooking for a large family. The higher fat foods are cheaper and easier to buy in bulk. I also work from home and am sitting at the computer for long periods of time. I am working on a way to mount my laptop on my exercise bike. I am not sure if there is a diet that I have not tried,but this WLS sounded new. Jenny Craig, Phentermine, HMR, etc. I have done all these and then gained it all back. I am tired of this yo-yo. My problem is that I love to cook. I love good tasting food and crave sweet stuff all the time.. I am also an emotional eater. Stress, depression, etc will send me looking for some chocolate. I want to have more energy to get out and play with my children.. I want to feel sexy for my husband again.. Not totally selfish goals. There has to be some satisfaction when you get back to being able to shop outside the Plus size fashions. I am glad I found this group to be able to share victories and struggles with. Today I ate a bunch of chocolate chip cookies and was so frustrated with myself. I did not give up though. I made time to get on the exercise bike and at least burn off the calories from one of them. :-) Teresa

I also go to OA, and had abstinence at one time, but have lost it. I tried going off of my anti-depressant medication, but I got depressed, (duh!) and lost my abstinence. I'm in the process of getting back on my medication, and I want to find a food plan that I can trust to be effective, yet livable. Does anybody know about the new Weigh****chers' Plan? I'm interested. Denise Phares

Teresa, welcome to the Non-ops. I think you are wise not to have WLS at this time. Have you scoured and removed all temptations and junk from your kitchen? Those cookies are too tempting if they are sitting around. I cleared out everything so the only things left are healthy, good choices - and that's probably good for the rest of the family too. Things like a bowl of fruit on the countertop, carrot sticks in the fridge are handy. That's great that you got on the exercise bike. I feel very guilty that although my diet has been going well, and I've increased my general activity, I haven't gotten on the treatmill or used the home gym - that will start in Jan when I have time off from work to develop a routine. It is hard, but if we can support each other, we can do it. I'm also working on separating the need to eat from emotional eating which has nothing to do with nutrition. I think at least the first step is to learn to recognize it, and then to develop alternative activites.

Welcome......I think we have all shared the same struggles, (I know that I have) but we will overcome them together!!!!

Hi Teresa and Welcome I must say to have 6 kids and be only 55 lbs overweight is pretty impressive to me lol. I have one child and one who passed away and from the second pregnancy I gained 83lbs I definately feel that you will do well. Like everyone else has said, there is a lot of support here and other forums as well. However, this is the first one I have ever been to that doesn't have the cyber drama. I mean seriously, we are all too old to let someone offend us through typing lol Again welcome Cam

I am soooo sorry to hear about the loss of your child.