How Emotional Eating Snuck Up On Me

Hello there all of my old friends, how are ya'll all doing?  I hope the scale is treating you all well.  Mine apparently is confused!

Let me give you a brief history of what has been going on with my husband.  Last year, his foot got ran over by a tractor and he developed a huge hematoma in the top of his right thigh.  The doctors ran a ton of tests on him before they found out what it was and after draining it twice, removing two liters each time, they did surgery to cut it out.  That's when the doctor told me that he had lost blood flow to his foot and he would probably lose his foot in the near future.  Definitely not an easy thing to hear!  To make a long story short, my friend Dora went to work for a place where they do stem cell research and she told him to come see the doctors there and they could inject stem cells and he would grow collateral blood flow, they did it all of the time and saved people's feet that were actually black.  We went to see the doc and they did a lot more tests and now DH has the stem cells of a twenty year old female donor.  That was done last month and now he has feeling back in his foot and is already walking better.  Oh, the doc asked him about his knee, it was arthritic and rubbing bone on bone.  So instead of a knee replacement, doc injected his knee with stem cells and he is now growing new cartilage.  How cool is that?

Now getting back to why my scale is confused.  Most of you know that I lost 129 pounds, had a lot of reconstructive plastic surgery, and have maintained my weight now for over three years.  Last Spring I started  being hungry all of the time and I ended up eating all of the wrong stuff and gained twelve pounds.  Holy Moly!  I was talking to my stepsister on the phone, she lives in Georgia, and I was telling her I think my hormones are out of whack again cuz I am eating outta control.  She said she could tell me exactly when I started overeating.  She said that ever since I called her boohooing about DH losing his foot, I have been whining about eating everything in sight. 

I'm thinking, how did I start stress eating and not know it???  I thought I was handling everything so well.  YEAH, I was medicating myself with my drug of choice, FOOD, so of course I was handling it.  I've done a lot of soul searching and have gotten back on track but I am still seriously working on not letting this happen again.  I guess I can handle anything except when it comes to my husband being hurt.  I've lost four of my twelve pounds and I have faith that I'll get the rest off by Thanksgiving. 

My prayer for all of us is that we will learn to recognize stress/emotional eating for what it is and learn how to deal with it before it takes a hold on us.  Ya'll holla back and let me know how you've been.  Loves you guys and missed ya,

Mary 

Dear Mary,
I am SO sorry that you and your husband have gone through all of this.  I send you a couple of messages because I thought it was odd that you were not posting...you went MIA and I for one missed your postings and PM's.  

I sincerely hope your husband is on the mend and feeling much better.

I wish you much success with taking control of your eating again.  Take heart in the fact that it is only 12 lbs....20 would seem much harder to tackle.  I know you are strong and I know you conquer these pesky lbs.

PLEASE PM me whenever you feel overwhelmed.  I'm a good listener!!

Glad to see you back.
Be well!!
TTFN
Ruth

Well Ruthie, it's been one helluva ride, that's for sure!  I've been back on track now and have lost two more pounds so that leaves six more to get back to maintenance again. 

DH's foot is doing so much better now so I can quit worrying and start breathing again.  I find it fascinating how food can breathe for me when I can't.  That's some scawwie bidness right there!

Thanks for all of your concern.  *mwah*

Mary

Mary,
I never thought of myself much as an emotional eater, but what I have recognized is that I am a boredom eater, my husband and I have been down to one car and that means that he takes it to work and I am home, this has been difficult for me some times and I have noticed that when I am overly bored or overwhelmed with housework or potty training toast with butter looks awefully good to me, and on occasion I have induldged.  But i dont think anyone is immune from taking comfort in the form of food, hence the term "comfort food" the danger is in taking constant comfort in food, and as you have said, not noticing that it is happening. The good thing is that now that  you have noticed it,  you are back on track! that isn't always easy to do. I also think that it is a good idea to scheduel some day's for "free days" I did this  yesterday, had a few things in the day that I would not normally eat and guess what, I woke up early with HEARTBURN! so if noting else it is a good reminder to me of why I gave those things up in the first place and now feel like it will be a long while before I even want them again! good luck on getting the rest of those gained pounds off! 

Hey Michelle, ya little cutie, how you been?  I missed not having the time to come over here and talk smack about evil scales and horrible diets with alla my girlfriends. 

I'm so proud to hear that you are doing well with your eating.  Yanno, even when I was stress eating, I wasn't eating gobs and gobs of food, I just wasn'****ching the quality of my food.  Thinking about just how fast this body is willing to regain scares the bejeebers outta me.  Back in the day I would have gained thirty pounds in five months so maybe I was doing better than I thought I was by not eating VOLUMES of food.  

Heartburn?  Sounds like you have found the best deterrent there is not to cheat!  So what are you saying, potty training is not just tons of fun and excitement???  Hehehe

Mary 

Mary I'm sorry to hear about your husband's problems with his feet, but i'm very happy to hear he's doing better.  I hope he will continue to improve. I know it is very hard when you're stressed and worried about someone and I do think it can be easy to turn to food. I know for me like another poster ha dsaid it's when I'm bored, I find myself constantly wanting to snack I have to keep a watch on myself or I will eat way to much and not even be hungry at all.

I hope all continues to go good for your husband.



Johnita

JohnnieGirl, how is the weight loss star of the board doing these days?  I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you but life has been crazy busy lately and I'm hoping it will get to be "just normal" around this joint at some point. 

I hear you about that boredom eating!  That and mindless eating can be a dieters worst enemy.  That's why we have to get a handle on doing the mind work that goes hand and hand with weight loss.  We have to become 'painfully' aware of our own emotions at all times so these things don't just show up outta the blue.  Problem is, so you're bored, that doesn't even seem like an emotion, but it definitely counts.  Otherwise we wouldn't be eating like we do when we're stressed, no?  We need to do a survey on what boredom looks like for each of us, learn to recognize it for what it is, and then figure out what we're going to do when the feeling hits us upside the head with a bag of chips!  I'll get started on that.

Mary

Thats a good idea Mary!! I'm not even sure what boredom is for me....just that I must be bored an awful lot!! Thats usually when I reach for salty snacks, which are a big no-no with my edema issues!!

Mary, What a scary thing to be going through! I'm glad your husband is on the mend, and will keep his foot! That is terrific! I'm the queen of emotional eaters, I think it's great that you caught yourself and have already started losing again!!  You're such an inspiration to me!

Thanks Girlee.  We need to get started on making you the Queen of sumpn' different cuz this crown ain't workin' for ya!

Mary