Out of control & turning 65

Lorrainell

Hello everyone. I confess I am an emotional eater. As most of you, it's been a roller coaster ride. Last Spring I tried the HCG diet and lost 30 lbs in 60 days. After two funerals and other events I began gaining. Totally out of control... I hit every appetite suppressant in Costco and the health food stores. They did nothing to take away my emptiness.

Yesterday I weighed in 45lbs higher than last Spring. It felt so good to lose 30 lbs and get some self esteem back. I remembered I had success with Weight Watchers in the past with tracking. Today I found this site and realized its now or never. I need your help to understand emotional eating and get control of my life. Here goes. It is comforting to know I won't be alone.

stu236

just this very night I've made a lot of friends with a similar story.....add me up and make more x

larabell69

Weclome! you are at the right place, I have found such great support here and with a combo of different things Ideas from others and researching the community boards I have been doing awesome in my goals! Just take one day at a time, find some friends and get started!! larabell

carolemack

I know just what you mean...I've been an emotional eater my whole life. I just turned 65 last month and while it is harder to lose weight at this age, it is not impossible.

I joined MFP one year ago and it is the best thing that I have found to keep me accountable and on the right track. I am 50 pounds lighter than I was at this time last year and hope to meet my goal weight this year.

Use this site to track EVERYTHING you put in your mouth and try to do some kind of activiy every day and you will be surprised at the results. If I can be of any help just give me a shout...I'm here everyday.

Cheers, Carole

Lorrainell

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for acknowledging I exist in here. This is a pretty big and busy site. I will figure things out. I love the tracker. So easy! Tomorrow is a new day. Wish me success. I get a little anxious till I get into a routine. I hope there is some ss for me in March. Gosh, to get a monthly check!!! ha. xoxo

VelociMama

Emotional eating is very very hard to fix, but it can be done with a lot of patience, consistency, and dedication.

My advice to you is to never rely on appetite suppressants or other diet pills and to make getting control over yourself your #1 priority not weight loss. Yes, you read that right. Weight loss should NOT be your #1 goal right now. What I mean by this is that you should be setting non-scale goals for yourself and making commitments to change how you live your life to improve your health and fitness. These goals can be anything from committing to walking 3x per week for at least 30 minutes each to learning what your trigger foods are and what emotions make you go for food you know is not the best choice.

Start with being accountable for what you're taking in even if you go way over your calorie budget here on MFP. Log EVERYTHING.

Secondly, do not set an overly-ambitious weight loss goal initially. Being too restrictive with an "all-or-nothing" attitude is a recipe for failure for a lot of people, especially emotional eaters who inevitably will binge eat and then start to feel like a huge failure. I went through this myself for a year trying to eat 1200 calories per day and working out like a madwoman. I would starve myself for the week, get hungry and stressed then binge eat and undo everything I did earlier in the week. For me, eating closer to 1700-1900 calories per day with reasonable exercise expectations was the fix I needed. I didn't get hungry, lost about 1/2 to 1 lb per week, and I finally felt in control of myself.

What you need to do is set a small goal at first of 1 lb per week loss (maximum) and aim to eat all the calories MFP gives you but not more. You WILL lose weight. It will take time, and having more calories to work with during the day will help you realize that food is not a crutch nor the enemy and you can control yourself better than you think you can now.

best of luck to you!

Ejourneys

Welcome to MFP from a fellow caregiver. (I discovered MFP via Caregiving.com, which is a wonderful, wise, and very supportive grassroots site for family caregivers.)

I've been a lifelong yo-yo. This time around my buzzword is sustainability: I'm focusing on eating habits that will last me for life.

I'm also focusing on finding substitutions for eating when I'm stressed. As a working caregiver, stress management is a high priority for me. (As a friend told me, "If you go down, you both go down.")

I've set no deadlines for getting to my goal weight, but am focusing on the day-to-day. Eat right and exercise, period. It's just like caregiving -- I put one foot in front of the other, one day and one meal at a time. That patience and the serenity that I am doing the right thing helps me through my plateaus. I log everything, to make sure I stay on track.

I'll get there when I get there, but I am healthier now than when I started in September! For me, that's the bottom line.

Lorrainell

I'm not sure what your name is, but I do want to thank you for sharing with me. We truly do have a lot in common. Thank you for the site, Caregiving .com. I will certainly look it up. I'm really encouraged tonight. I'm not so afraid of tomorrow. Would you like to be my friend?