Confused about losing weight

Today was another "i'm going to start dieting" and failed. Instead I spent the whole day out and about eating. I went to a nearby town with my dh- but I was pretty much focused on food. I'm not sure if this is the board to even talk about this. But I need help. I really do. I cant figure out what's going to make me stop gorging myself and want to lose the weight. I feel so contradicted. I want to lose the weight and I want to be able to have a life and on the other hand I dont want to lose the only thing that has protected me from so many things for almost a decade. I feel trapped and smothered and confused and in a crisis. I have quit cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and I can not quit this food. I quit everything else cold turkey and never looked back. Eating like this is going to kill me. It's going to kill me, I know it. Anyway. I'm just at the bottom. I hope this is not the wrong board to post this- if it is- please let me know and I will delete it. Thanks.

I think you found home here! Most of us have had or still have the feelings of being out of control with food.  A starting place...read posts for a while.  Ask questions, join in when you can.  Have you journaled your food intake yet?  That helps bunches. You can post it here for a few days, asking for critiques. (be strong here...just read the input and take what you need - there may be replies that flat offend you, but remember this is a public forum and you put it out there, you will/may get some weird answers).  If fast food blow outs are your thing, then let us share what we did to re-route that behavior.  If you've read any of my posts at all, what I will say is that when your body is getting the nutrients it needs, you will not experience many weird cravings for sweets or carbs or fast food. Try for balance in your food plan. What this means for most people is to make sure that fresh, frozen or canned veggies and fruits are eaten with all meals and snacks. Dark leafy greens or deeply colored fruits like berries, plums, apples, peaches will help give your body what it craves. If you don't like this type of food, eat it like medicine at least once a day...trust me, your tastes will change. It is a miracle, it really is.  My promise to you:  the less of low quality, greasy, white processed stuff you eat, the less you will want it.  Try it for one month...you will be amazed. Notice I say food plan.  Most days, i know what I will be eating from dusk to dawn. It kin dof blows me away when i talk to people who have no clue from meal to meal what they will eat... no wonder they are seen diving into the coffee cake or candy jar..no plan, you are at the mercy of whatever you see.  here is my typical day: I wake up NOT hungry, so breakfast is easy:  either colon blow cereal with non fat milk and thawed frozen berries or a protein drink. Lunch for me is a bariatric soup plus soy chips plus a green veg, like frozen kale or spinach. If I go out, i try to stick with lean meat & salad, low fat dressings. Snacks are low calorie protein bars or drinks, or a high fiber cracker and cottage cheese or peanut butter.  Maybe an apple and string cheese. Supper my DH and I make whatever, from hamburger helper and steamed broccoli or maybe it's grilled bbq chicken and baked sweet potato.  I eat a regular portion on a small plate.  But we talk about supper every morning and take steps to thaw it, somebody assigned to stop and buy stuff at the store....whatever...we have a plan! Am I perfect?  HAIL no. I have my moments, but when I am less than perfect, most times it is because I did not have a plan or le myselfget way to hungry to make a rational decision.  K, this post is getting way too long! Welcome home!!!!

"Colon blow cereal"!!!! LOL! careful, if you eat too much of that stuff  you'll have to start wearing some "oops I crapped my pants"!!

I'm with Neece-- start by logging every single thing you eat. Nothing is off bounds, but whatever it is, put it in the log-- I use FitDay.com because it's really easy. Once I saw what the costs were of the things I was eating (I am not so fondly remembering 20 mild wings and 8 ounces of bleu cheese dressing right now---3634 calories!--sigh), even though I had NO plans of dieting, I thought-- "This is madness. I wonder how I would feel on 2500 calories a day?" A minor change, but a start.

That change brought about a pretty swift and unexpected 4 pound loss. Then I thought, "Well, that was easy--- maybe 2200?" and made that change. Then I started to move a little-- I walked to the mailbox...then down the block. Then around the block. Then a mile. Eventually (over the course of a month) I found I could live comfortably at 1300 calories a day, and lost 68 pounds, mostly between March and July, eating foods like fresh fruit salads, yogurt, turkey burgers, low-carb wrap pizzas-- it was relatively painless. I took a couple of planned breaks ( a burger at a cookout, a small steak) and got back on every time-- that helped too. Come to think of it, it was a freakin' smorgasbord compared to the 2 oz, 3 times a day I eat now, but that's another story!  It CAN be done. There's no one on this earth who's more sloth than I was, and I was barely mobile. You can do it!

LMAO! I think I could give you a run for your money on the Sloth-ness!   Thanks for posting - I'm really learning some things here. Thanks guys.

Because Shari is my inspiration... I started changing my eating habits on August 2, the day after the information seminar at the surgeon's office.  If I am approved for surgery I want to have my weight down to a safer point.  If I dont get the surgery I want to get as much of this weight off as fast as I can. I am using the daily plate.com to track my food.  thinking in terms of a budget really works for me.  It has been pretty easy so far, and I've lost 3.3 lbs since I started!  Cant complain about that!  I try to keep my protien high, my fats and carbs low and my calories around 1500-1700.  You can check out my blog on here if you want to see exactly how I am doing!

V-mom-- Thanks for saying so. I have good days and bad days, but overall, don't regret that "I might as well get started" approach, and doubt you will either, regardless of your outcome. Small changes really do add up! You're doing so well...keep it up! -Shari

You are DEFINETLY not alone!   I'm in the boat with ya!  I've been reading and posting here for awhile, and haven't really been very proactive about weight loss.  My BMI is 44.9, and I have two young daughters that I wanna live for.  I'm sorta starting to crawl.... moving a little more, feeling a little more motivated. Hanging out here is "a good thing"  (cant believe i used that phrase! I am the anti-Martha!) hang out - you'll come around! I have my moments (alot) when I beat myself up, I try to keep in mind that the only place I can start from is where i am - and I have to accept where I am and move on.

Here's a typical PRE OP diet day for me: Breakfast: 16.9 oz. Propel and a Kashi bar, 1/2 cup fresh pineapple Snack: Beef Jerky Lunch: Lean Cuisine Peanut Chicken Snack: Cup of fresh strawberries Dinner: Pizza made with low-carb wrap,lean ground turkey with taco seasoning and reduced fat cheese and no-fat sour cream and salsa Snack: Dannon Light and Fit Yogurt Total calories: 1258 Protein: 94g Fat: 38g (A little higher than I'd like) Carbs: 141g That afternoon I also did 45 minutes of low-impac****er aerobics and 7 minutes on the recumbent bike. Also took a multivitamin plus iron, and flax seed oil supplements.

Hey there, First things first, you're normal. You're not alone. Dieting is by far one of the most difficult things to do -- so hang in there - try not to be so hard on yourself. What I have found in my practice, is that quiting food 'cold turkey' never works. Here's my suggestion -- start with just one meal. Try to eat one healthy meal per day. Pick a meal. For example, say --- breakfast. Eat a healthy breakfast (like 1 cup non-sugar cereal with low fat milk, 1 piece fruit, and a hard boiled egg with coffee or tea or whatever you drink). Then, for your lunch and dinner, eat what you would normally eat. Start by just fixing one meal at a time. Once you get used to eating a healthy breakfast, then move onto a healthy lunch ... sometimes it's just too overwhelming if you try to change everything all at one ... start small, and eventually you'll get there. In addition, maybe try to exercise? Again, start with just 5 minutes per day --- and work your way up. Good luck - let me know if I can help --- Sara Nejat-Bina, RD