Trying Again, Anxiety, PCOS

NoTry_Do

I'm new here, sort of. Trying again. I've found it hard to stick with counting calories in the past, but I know I have to make myself more accountable and aware. I'm a big-time emotional eater with anxiety issues.

Could anyone give me suggestions to cope with anxiety or strategies for emotional eating?

Also, does anyone know how difficult it is to lose weight with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome)? I am on hormone therapy for it. Is it the hormones or the PCOS that makes it seem impossible for my weight to change for the better?:ohwell:

aliciadjackson

I don't have any help to offer about the anxiety/emotional eating... but I too have PCOS, and there are several other ladies on the site that do as well.... it's tough to handle, but it can be done

Good luck! Feel free to add me as a friend!

midmomike2

I am sending this from my wife who also has pcos "ask your doctor about metformin".....the problem is insulin resistance.Since her doctor gave her this medication she has lost 60 lbs so far after being over weight and unable to lose for 20 years.

rbarek

I also have PCOS and it hasn't been that hard to lose weight - though in the beginning it took about 2 weeks to see the first drop on the scale even though I was "perfect". My Dr. suggested that I eat less Carbs (esp. while flower) and Sugars (all the non- natural kind) and I have found that doing so has helped me advance the speed of the weight coming off. Hope this helps.

claudiaquintero

I also have PCOS and it hasn't been that hard to lose weight - though in the beginning it took about 2 weeks to see the first drop on the scale even though I was "perfect". My Dr. suggested that I eat less Carbs (esp. while flower) and Sugars (all the non- natural kind) and I have found that doing so has helped me advance the speed of the weight coming off. Hope this helps.

I totally agree with this. The books "Eat to Live" and "Eat for Health I and II" by Joel Fuhrman were very helpful to me. Also, exercise is paramount if you are dealing with PCOS or PMS plus anxiety/depression. To recover from depression and anxiety I have read "Self-Coaching. The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression" by Joseph J. Luciani. I hope this info helps! You can do it, YES you can! (:

ZacFields

I will say that with emotional eating, it creates more of a challenge but the remedy for your problem is the same remedy that everyone else here has had to find: Motivation. You've got to find a way to motivate yourself to overcome these cravings.

Find something that inspires you, and make it your desktop background. Is there someone in this world that you idolize? Find a picture of them and slap it on your computer's desktop. Every time you sit down at your desk you'll see it and it'll remind you of what you're fighting for. I'm a huge football fan, and back when I was getting myself out of debt, I took a picture of my favorite football player and I opened it up in MS Paint and added the text "Every day that I make intelligent decisions with my ultimate goals in mind, life is better than the day before it." Yeah it's kind of cheesy when you've got a friend over and they see it, but that simple act was a huge point of motivation for me. I am now debt free and loving every second of it!

Just remember that everyone has challenges. Some people are so big and heavy that they can't hardly exercise, so that's a huge challenge. Some people have poor immune systems and are constantly sick, and that's another challenge when you're trying to lose weight. But the remedy is always the same... you've just got to do some soul-searching to find out what motivates you.

I've found out that making it a hobby is also a huge help. These forums help me out a lot. I bounce ideas off of people, ask questions about nutrition and recipes, etc. I make MFP into sort of a game... once I've only got about 400 or 500 calories left in the day, I look at all my nutrition information and I try to figure out what I can eat to get all of my vitamins, but at the same time stay below all the bad stuff (fat, cholesterol, sugar, sodium, etc). It's really fun actually. Sometimes I'll take a multivitamin if I haven't gotten enough vitamins, and it's also fun trying to figure out how you can consume 500 calories and you can only take in 5 grams of fat or something.

Figure out what motivates you, and also learn to enjoy it! I'm having a blast... I just started so I hope I can keep it up.

CaptainJim157

Hiya, I have anxiety, my best advice to give to you, (from my own experience) is Exercise! Even if it's just a 20 min walk a few times a day, that's what I do and my anxiety has improved quite a bit! Hope I helped!

FabulousFifty

Hi! You can do this.....I read a book last summer and took part in a book club on MFP focusing on the book "Women, Food and God," by Geneen Roth. It was very helpful. I will say that her God is not my God, but she admits this openly in the beginning and still has some powerful information and techniques that help. I recommend it. The book club kept a journal while we were reading it which was beneficial in identifying what was triggering my emotional eating. Let me know if you pick it up. I know it will help in this area. :flowerforyou:
Fab

FireRox21

Welcome!! I too have PCOS, among other things, and I am having a very hard time losing weight. I've been on 1500mg of metformin daily for the past 6 months and nothing has happened. I work out daily for approx. 2 hours usually burning between 800-1000 calories per workout and have actually gained weight.

There are quite a few women on here that have PCOS and are finding interesting ways to manage it. Stay strong, you CAN do it!!!

ZacFields

Hiya, I have anxiety, my best advice to give to you, (from my own experience) is Exercise! Even if it's just a 20 min walk a few times a day, that's what I do and my anxiety has improved quite a bit! Hope I helped!

I agree - I have anxiety myself. Nothing that I've had to take medication for, and it's "logical anxiety," meaning that I get anxious when there is something to worry about. Layoffs, debt, etc. I've always maintained that those of us with a little bit of an anxiety problem are a little more evolved than the rest, LOL! I was in some debt a few years ago and I got all anxious about it, which motivated me to get out of debt. I am now debt free. That same situation also saw my anxiety causing me to get back into school. I finished my Bachelor's degree and now I'm doing what I always wanted to do (Financial Analyst - boring to most but I love it).

And actually, my decision to start losing weight was because I received some poor biometrics a few weeks ago (bad cholesterol, blood pressure... pretty much everything) and then I found out that it's just a genetic issue in my family. I got a little bit of anxiety over the issue, and well here I am working my butt off to lose some weight. Hopefully this venture is as successful as my other ones have been.

I'm the opposite of most people though. I literally cannot get hungry when I have anxiety. That is not a fabrication, either... for as long as I have anxiety, I won't get hungry. If it's a couple days, I won't get hungry. If it's a month, I won't get hungry that entire time. I have to just force myself to eat. Thankfully as I have fixed the problems in my life, the anxiety issues rarely show up these days.

But - one thing I have found out that exercise and eating right has been HUGE for my general mood overall. I have never been happier than I've been these last few weeks that I've been eating better and doing a little exercising. It just makes you feel like you're in control of your life and it's such an empowering feeling that it brightens your mood in a huge way. There are also chemical reasons for this as well, but I won't pretend to know what they are :-)

HerBravado

Hi. I too have PCOS, & I've found that weight loss is kind of difficult for me--but not impossible.
Whenever my blood sugars are out of whack, it shows on the scale for me. :0
So for me...
limiting the carbs & sugars helped me to lose it better.
So maybe try at first by going by MFP's limits on your sugars & carbs.
I know weight can be lost by simply cutting calories, but I feel exercise is -really- efficient for women with PCOS.
It naturally picks up your mood--which I've come to find out since I'm not on the Pill to regulate myself anymore.
Weight loss is a slow process, even for those without PCOS. But being focused & determined to have that better lifestyle will make the effort worthwhile.~