Obesity Support Group
This community is dedicated to those of us struggling with obesity. Obesity is thought to be a significant risk factor in certain health conditions, leading to increased mortality. Find the support you need by sharing your story, asking questions, and learning from others on how they have coped.
I am finally learning to accept my size and not stressing on Dieting. I come to terms on be happy with my size and learning to be happy that God made me. I was born heavy and had my share with the dieting game world. I realized that dieting does not help or work..its just makes matter worst.Food is not the enemy and I enjoy foods, its a pleasure feeling, not only for holidays, but pure enjoyment...
I had learned so much and researched online and books that dieting slows down the metabolism and puts a damper on my mindset. I want to live and not obessing on weight or diets..In the past, had my share on the weight loss success stories..was thin in my own format and was not happy when I had reached 260..that I gained it back..
I love food, I love coffee w real sugar and milk and I love for sweets. My family accepts me and have a longtime beau that cares and loves me just the way I am. Why change??. Life is to short and things changing and want to enjoy life...I might die from obesity, cancer, or some other reasons that life speaks.
I don't need to diet..I need to stay active and maintain a healthy numbers from lab work.Proper self love, self esteem is more important than diets. I don't have diabetes,etc and those healthy numbers are very crucual than the numbers on scale.
Be happy the way you are.We are all beautiful, inside and out.
Liliann
I had learned so much and researched online and books that dieting slows down the metabolism and puts a damper on my mindset. I want to live and not obessing on weight or diets..In the past, had my share on the weight loss success stories..was thin in my own format and was not happy when I had reached 260..that I gained it back..
I love food, I love coffee w real sugar and milk and I love for sweets. My family accepts me and have a longtime beau that cares and loves me just the way I am. Why change??. Life is to short and things changing and want to enjoy life...I might die from obesity, cancer, or some other reasons that life speaks.
I don't need to diet..I need to stay active and maintain a healthy numbers from lab work.Proper self love, self esteem is more important than diets. I don't have diabetes,etc and those healthy numbers are very crucual than the numbers on scale.
Be happy the way you are.We are all beautiful, inside and out.
Liliann
I agree with MOST of the points in your last post. So much of the time, medical professionals just berate us when we have weight issues (particularly when we have serious weight issues), and make it seem like the easiest thing in the world to lose weight. And, we all know that it is NOT easy.
I know that certain medical conditions can make being on a weight loss program challenging sometimes. I suffer from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). I've had it since I was 5 years old. Despite undergoing countless tests over these many years (the results of which always come back normal), the IBS remains. I've just come to think of my IBS as the way my body handles stress and anxiety. As such, IBS can make things difficult sometimes on my weight loss journey.
But, I've just come to accept that my IBS is what it is. Doctors can't seem to fix it, and I can't seem to fix it. So, I've just decided to concentrate on the part of my weight loss journey that I CAN fix - my emotional eating - so I have zeroed in on that area with a vengence.
What I know is that I never thought I would be able to control my emotional eating. I never thought I would be able to face the hurts and unresolved painful experiences that I had been holding onto for decades. What I know is that it took courage to face them, and to seek to make peace with them, so I can eventually learn to let them go. For me, it's a work in progress.
It has been emotionally painful to face my feelings without trying to escape from them by running to the frig. More painful than I EVER would have dreamed it would be. But, each time I face my feelings ON MY OWN, without turning to food, I am slowly turning an unhealthy relationship with food into a healthy one. One of the main ways I'm doing this is by running through my emotional eating mental exercise whenever I feel I need to.
Even though my post about the exercise (on 9/17) has been largely ignored here, it has had AMAZING results for me, and I know it would have the same results for those of you who are also emotional eaters.
VERY few of us with weight problems have them SIMPLY because we love food. 9 times out of 10, there's also a food addiction in that mix. And, food addictions can be a formitable foe. But, I absolutely believe we are stronger - MUCH stronger - than we know. Once we learn to tap into that inner strength, there is literally no stopping us. And, I believe my emotional eating mental exercise helps us learn to tap into that strength.
For those of you who have given up, or who otherwise think you're not strong enough to be successfully on a weight loss journey, please just read my emotional eating mental exercise I posted on 9/17. I KNOW it will help you.
Wishing everyone the best!
Janice : )
I can't find your post. I did try not to eat and to face my emotions instead but I just felt miserable and it did not stop or go away as the thing I was miserable about was still there. I could not get through it or stop it. Maybe I am a failure. But it doesn't work for me. I have to keep going every day and the only way of doing that is to numb myself with food. If I fully face my emotions I may collapse and there is nobody willing or able to help me so that simply cannot happen. My mum is dealing so well with her cancer and surgery and there is simply no way I can act like a child sobbing and wailing, I have to hold things together.
Lizzie - I'm sure you realize that emotional eating is a powerful, deep-rooted addiction. You CAN learn to control it, but, hon, BELIEVE ME, it's a work in progress. I have to battle with it every single day...MULTIPLE times a day.
A word of warning though - the first several times I allowed the emotions I was feeling to just manifest themselves WITHOUT USING FOOD TO SEDATE MYSELF, I was absolutely miserable. I was a crying, VERY upset MESS! I literally felt as if I was falling apart. It was like being hit by an emotional tsunami. I really wasn't sure I could get through it without losing my mind. But, if you just STAY WITH IT, that episode of your painful emotions will subside. It might take 10 minutes - it might take an hour, but, you'll get through it. But, just please understand that this isn't just a one session and you're cured type of thing. It's more like battling a lion with your bare hands, then going back repeatedly and continuing the battle when the lion returns.
My experience was that I had one of these "emotional tsunami's" every 4-5 days or so, with each episode being a little less intense than the previous one had been. Each episode was difficult, but, each time I got through one, I felt stronger to face the next one. I had about 4-5 REALLY painful/difficult ones. Now, they are much, much less frequent AND the intensity has dropped considerably, even though I still battle emotional eating every day.
With what I experienced in facing my emotional eating head on, I'm convinced that the path to having a healthy relationship with food is getting to the source of our emotional eating - and this exercise will help get you to that source. Following this mental exercise will likely be as overwhelming for you as it was for me, but, if you just stick with it, you WILL experience a breakthrough. Your perception of food will change from being something you HAVE TO HAVE to deal with your emotions, to being only fuel for your body.
If you don't find my post, if you want, we can do the friends thing, so I can message it to you. I had been been an emotional eater for just over 50 YEARS, so if I could survive facing my feelings without collapsing, I'm pretty sure you will be able to do the same. In fact, once you're through the worst of it, because you will have tapped into inner strength that you might not have known was there before, you'll be better able to deal with your mom's cancer and surgery. You will not fall apart; that's just a lie from your food monster, because it wants you to keep feeding it.
Keep me posted, hon...
Hugs,
Janice