Something Neecee said

Chista, I noticed your new avitar.  Is that your BF?  What's he doing to you?

Brenda

 

It would be illegal for him to be my boyfriend lol. That's one of my younger brothers. I gess if I would have picked the other one which I might....you would see the resemblance. One night we were being retarded and taking pictures. He is making a mustache with my hair...lol

Sweet of you, Brenda! Thank you very much. I do try to remember that 95% or better, I do exactly what I need to be doing. I will NOT allow the 2-5% of the time rule my self-effacy.  To any of you - focus on the larger percentage of what you do well...one of these days, if not right here and now, your percentages will improve!  It's one message I try so hard to get to many of the folks here who feel so out of control and helpless.  These things are part of the scenery when you have a food compulsion/obession/addiction: 1.  Those feelings of helplessness/futility will well up from time to time. Expect them, but do not accept them as okay - it may feel real, but this is not a truth.    2.  You will make choices that may not exactly launch your weight loss and again, expect it, and tweak to suit you. On my journey, I make no aplogies, I love food. I love it, everything about it. I will eat foods at least once a day that please me, that part of me.  3.  Have a plan, every day. Most of the lesser choices are due to non-plans. We all will eat what is there, and unless you are trapped in one room with all the best foods, you're at risk.  4.  Every day, go over your food plan - ask what worked, what didn't, and fix one thing.  I am sure there is more, but again, thank you.

Sneaking food.  I did it as a teenager--drove to fast food and ate it before I got home, or hid stuff in the dark recesses of the fridge--but that was when I was purging. Haven't snuck food in at least 15/20 years.  In that time, I rarely felt like I had an eating problem.  My "overeating" was really what most normal people ate and stayed fit at.  My metabolism was just a wreck, storing anything and everything I ate.... I will say that for me, upping my protein and avoiding starches and sugars gave me the most control.  I still believe both starches and sugars create something that results in binging and then if one's embarrased by that, sneaking. Right now, it's not something that exists for me and am grateful for that.  Food doesn't really have a hold on my right now and weight keeps moving off.

Is there some correlation between being obese and having a broken hunger button? I once decided I would not eat until I felt hungry.  Jus****er...  I waited for an empty feeling... it never came...  I waited for a crampy sensation... nope.  I waited for some sign that I was HUNGRY!  but it never came.  I was 36 hours into my experiement when I had a headache...  low blood sugar I assume...  and I slept... and it went away...  after 2 full days with no food I decided my hungry button was broken... I think it always has been.  I dont EVER recall being physically hungry.

I can, eat an enormous amount of food.  Sometimes when bingeing I eat so much that my body revolts and I vomit....  but I usually continue with the binge afterwards to get that really full, drugged up, I cant feel anything feeling. Dont know what compelled me to share that - but there you go

TIP--Waiting for hunger isn't good for weight loss ...hunger pains indicate you waited too long, and the likelihood is you'll hinder your weight loss, plus you could end up choosing poorly and overeating to compensate for the feeling.

I have experienced the hungry feeling definitely. Back when I had my knee surgery when I was 16 I had allergic reactions to 2 pain killers. So lets see you cant eat what 12 hours prior to surgery....so I threw up...literally nothing but Bile and Acids from the reactions to the drugs...then went another 2 days not eating because I just couldnt bare it....I felt hunger but let me remind you I lost 30 pounds in 3 weeks :) lol. Because i couldnt get up and walk anywhere I could barely move my mom would come home from work and make me lunch everyday and ofcourse dinner.  I maintained that weight for a good year until the next year when my mother was diagnosed.  Also, last year at exactly this time seriously a year ago....wow. I would not eat for 2 days, eat on the third day not alot maybe once that day...then the next 2 days not eat anything I felt hunger pains like no other but i was determined to lose weight I lost 17 pounds in 3 weeks this time....bam it was back in a matter of 2 weeks...pfft. But the point of my story is I have felt it lol.

Viola, I am almost ready to bank money on that notion - i have said many years ago, my appi-stat is broken!  I bet $$$ that someday, research will show very real physiological differences in obese-prone people.  What many of us have done to get obese is not that different than so many folks who binge on all kinds of foods. Why some of us and not others?

I think I am in 'holding pattern' in the 'adjust to it' section.

But I don't really sneak food, my family are more than happy to tempt me any old time.

 

Em

Like so many other things in life, I think this works like one of those chinese finger traps-- the only way out is to stop struggling. Right now, I am eating almost exactly as I did pre-op while dieting. I can still eat snacks-- I have room and still like to crunch on stuff, or have sweets after meals-- but instead of fighting the desire, I submit to it-- just not to the actual "eating." I think, "Wow, I really really would like some chips right now"...and then I kind of let it go. And while it's not easy, it's much easier than the "struggle" business. I don't cheat: I plan. My plan allows for a bunch of snacks-- cheese, soy crisps, vanilla cheesecake fluff, pumpkin pie-- just in smallish amounts and only when it fits into my day. I space them out at intervals so I am sated most of the time. I keep the protein high, carbs low. So far, the dietary part of my weight loss has been relatively easy and doesn't feel very restrictive, to be honest-- not because I eat a ton (750 cals a day isn't much) but because I don't yearn, struggle, or frustated myself very often-- I submit to my longings and kind of let 'em pass.