How did you overcome the obsessive eating and negative think

ktrichards87

I know that I just started over with my weight loss, but this time around I am doing it for ME and only ME! Well, I am wondering how do I work on overcoming everything that has resulted in me being overweight, I ate to hide the pain, i ate because I was happy, I just ate because I always made an excuse to eat. But there are things that have happened, and I'm pretty sure there are some things that I have blocked out, and I'm just wondering how or waht should I do to deal with this part of my life? Because I can go and learn to eat healthy and exercise, but I really didn't fix the problem that I have, ya know?

Also I am a very negative person about myself, I don't like who I am, not proud of myself, and I just feel like I will never be good enough? What do I do for myself to overcome these things in my life?

Jovialation

i think we all have those problems....i have no advice but wanted to let you know Im pretty sure most of us have been or still are there. :hugs:

my bf is so sick of my fat comments about myself that he throws pillows at me when I say stuff

marathongirly

Learn to count your blessing! List all the good in your life and focus on them. When I don''t want to workout I think about the people that can't workout but would do anything to be able to. What a blessing...I'm healthy, fit, smart! Be positve..too much in this world is negative too many people are negative...find some positive people. stop listening to the news. Check out Tony Robbins...I went to one of his seminars years ago...WOW....you feel like you could conquer the world after that...You will be amazed what you can accomplish by what you think and only you are in control of that.
Go get them kid!
jennifer

dbg1

Belief in yourself is the key. And your succeeding because you are doing this for you. Your substituting eating for exercising. Plan to eat healthy food for when your mad, sad, bad. HAve them handy. Just change your habits. Do one a month - much higher chance of succeeding.

Your here to make a lifestyle change not just lose weight!:flowerforyou:

cc_campbell81

I started a journal to determine what were actual issues and what were "symptoms". I realized that I go to extremes either I really work hard and eat well or else I just go crazy. I also get stressed easy because I tend to overwhelm myself. I always take on too many projects and hobbies which interfere with having a healthy lifestyle. I also feel like it's important to just get it out. I wrote letters to loved ones to deal with things that had been eating at me. Once it's out you'll feel some relief and be able to refocus on the areas you need to.

Rebeccamur

Invest in some councilling. You don't need to be seriously depressed or down to get it. Probably the best thing you'll ever do.

CaGinger

I started journaling when I felt the "desire" to eat rather then the "need" to eat. Whenever I reach for food I ask myself am I hungry or what am I feeling? Is this my head or my body needing food? Then I write down what I am thinking about, what I am doing, what I am worried about or whats on my mind. The emotions I am feeling.

Knowing I am eating out of an emotional need kind of kicks me out of it and I redirect to something else like yoga for stress relief or I ask my guy for a quick snuggle. I hate that I am an emotional eater so that stops me dead.

lessertess

What you are descibing is emotional eating and you're in good company. Many of us on this site struggle with it. People deal with it differently. Journals seem to be the most common and one of the most successful tools to help. Us the comment section at the bottom of your food dairy to record how you are feeling. Start trying to recognize and then break the patterns that trigger the emotional eating.

For some of us, planning helps. This was one of my best tools. I would plan my food out the day before and eat about every three hours. No matter what was going on, I could usually talk myself into waiting until my next planned meal or snack. They were never far apart so that helped.

Take some comfort in the fact that a great many women (in fact, most) suffer from the same issues of negative self image. Studies have shown that these feelings of self-doubt often begin around age 12 or so as our bodies begin to change. There's a lot of pressure that women put on themselves and on each other to be "perfect". This is going to be the toughest thing to overcome and I wish I had some advice for you but I have always struggled with it. I have days and even weeks where I do really well, and then I go right back to it. All I can suggest is to keep trying.

Sarah_LM

I really empathise with how you feel. I think that this time you will succeed in losing the weight because you are doing it for yourself rather than other people. As for how you are feeling, I think writing down how you are feeling like caginger says will really help you express yourself, I know it has helped me too. Plus once you start thinking about how you actually view yourself, you might realise that you are actually being very harshly critical. I found it helped to look at myself through the eyes of someone else (my fiancee) and think about everything he found so wonderful about me really helped my self estem. I have also had counselling and I think that if you really need someone to talk to it can be such a freeing experience just to be able to get it off your chest and help you move past your feelings. Good luck! x

ktrichards87

Everyone thank you for your advice, it means so much to me! I'm thinking that journaling is going to help me out, and get me on the right path. I will succeed at this, but I have to deal with all the skeletons from my past that come with me being overweight today and having a food obsession.

adopt4

This is a process, this is a journey, so you're not going to "fix" all your problems overnight. If you screw up, get right back up and move on in the right direction - don't beat yourself up, don't give up, figure out where you went wrong and fix it for next time.

If you have an oral thing where you eat when you're stressed or bored, start out by trying to eat fresh veggies or even some fruit. Snap peas, celery, cucumbers, etc. In the beginning, don't even log them.. just stay away from the crap. You'll find you have more energy and more outlets when you exercise, especially if you join a decent gym that has classes you can take. Eventually you'll lose the need to have the oral fix.

Also, you've buried whatever pain or need you have, basically buried it in fat. You're protecting yourself from the world, in a way. Mentally you have to release that burden too, in saying, I don't need to protect myself with fat, I don't need to protect myself with food. I can do this, I am strong.

Planning is everything in the beginning. Be sure to plan your snacks, too, eating a little something every 2-3 hours will keep your metabolism up.

The first few weeks will be the hardest as you have several addictions, physical, mental, and emotional. The physical will be the hardest in the beginning as your body is telling you that you NEED this, but it's also the easiest to overcome because it will go away in a few weeks or less. Then that physical need is no longer there, and you can start working on the mental and emotional part of it, and learning to deal with things rather than bury them with food. It will take time, it may take therapy, it may just take a good online support group to work thru your issues and be able to vent your feelings, besides journaling sometimes it's good to share with another person, but you can do it. I've been doing this since Jan and I am still working on a few emotional eating times, but they are very rare now and usually my first thought isn't "food" when I'm upset or bored or stressed. I can't believe it took only a few months to get to that point, yeah, I still get stressed and bored and upset sometimes, that hasn't changed, but my response is to go online and post now or do something else and the desire goes away pretty quickly.

ktrichards87

Adopt4 thank you so much for stressing that I can't fix it all overnight, and that it will take me awhile to work everything out. I am going to start planning my meals a week ahead of time, and one's that are easy to take on the go, since I work in retail,a nd have weird hours. I will start to just work on one thing, rather than everything at once.