Overwhelmed and low self belief!

laura4359
laura4359 Posts: 3 Member
in Getting Started

Hi all

I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. I feel like I've been running from the problem for so long that I'm scared to face it. I need to lose 5 stone which feels like an absolute mountain. My motivation is my beautiful daughter and being fit and healthy for her. I comfort eat and I have since losing my dad when I was a teenager. That has been my coping method so the idea of not having that really scares me!

I am interested in macronutrient counting but honestly I have no idea where to start - feeling very much out of my depth!!

Anyone in the same boat or anyone to give advice?!

The main thing is I'm here and I'm determined!!

Laura x

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Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,432 Member

    Hi Laura,

    is there something you can do against comfort eating? Keep yourself busy somehow? Are you in the UK? Why not join a local ramblers club, or do anything else that keeps you from comfort eating. Basically keep yourself busy with something that you might learn to enjoy. Bring your child along or leave her with dad. Just getting out and doing something will already be a good start as you need to do something for your health and fitness to become healthy and fit.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,118 Member

    What yirara said: Don't worry about the macros right now. If weight loss is the main or only goal, calories are the key to that. You don't even have to get to target calories in an instant, you can work your way there gradually, and logging your food here might help you do that.

    Be honest with yourself in logging, even if you eat more than you'd planned. Admitting that to yourself is part of figuring out how to move forward, and no one else needs to see it if you don't want them to. Extra eating is not a failure, as long as you treat it as a learning experience that helps you change and grow.

    I also agree with her that finding new ways to self-comfort - or even distract from discomfort - is a possible piece of success: Think about what might help you, and try things. Maybe even make a written list of things to try? Some example things other people use: Prayer or meditation, mild exercise like a walk around the block or a few minutes of stretching/yoga, listening to enjoyable music, adult coloring books, a hobby like needlework or sketching, . . . there are lots of options.

    Also, some who have struggled here with self-comfort eating or other forms of emotion-triggered eating have reported here that - scary though it may be - it helped them to sit with their emotions and explore them, try to understand them and work through them.

    In more severe cases, therapy can help, and there should be no stigma in using that, any more than there's stigma in consulting any other kind of professional with a problem we need help to solve, like calling a plumber when the pipes are leaking. Therapists/counselors are the professionals who help with thought-pattern difficulties, just like plumbers help with pipes. Yes, I have consulted a psychologist myself, and it helped me, though it was about something other than eating/body weight.

    If you are persistent and patient, you can work through these things. As you begin to do that, and especially as you see results from doing it, that will feel self-empowering. You are not lesser than other people, and other people also wrangle with these kinds of things; those who persist in working on them eventually succeed. You can do that, too. I am sure. Any setbacks are just bumps in the road to a better place, as long as you keep going.

    I'm cheering for you to succeed: The reward will be worth the effort!

  • scottydewwannalosewt
    scottydewwannalosewt Posts: 103 Member

    Hello determined. My best advice is to use the body weight planner at https://www.niddk.nih.gov/bwp. This has helped me to help ward off the pounds and for the most part I rigidly try to stay as close as possible 5 days out of the week and I have two days that I use zig zag calorie counting and give myself an extra 500 calories to keep my metabolism off it's toes.

  • baileysandy
    baileysandy Posts: 1 Member

    honey - go small - wake up with positive thoughts - i am so glad to be alive - thats it - if on your watch there is a podometer set your goal to something easy to achieve -like 100 steps - set yourself up for repeated success- no matter how small - and hug yourself - put your arms right around your chest and squeeze - then say - you got this -

    Anything with your daughter is the biggest motivator - walk talk cuddle laugh dance - show her all the old dances you know - make it fun - so easy so positive so achievable - then when your positive and no more of that self doubt crap -

    change one thing in your diet - one less soda - one less candy- chocky bar -

    then next time keep that one less bad thing and change to a good thing - i more vegetable - only one - every day

    more fruit - once a day - all so achievable - good luck kiddo - idf you wanna yak contact me

  • laura4359
    laura4359 Posts: 3 Member

    Thankyou so much - really appreciate your replies!!

    @baileysandy I'm not sure how to message you! Thankyou for your lovely words! X

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