hello

A friend suggested this site so thought I would give it a try. I have had a very long struggle with my weight. Gain, lose, gain, lose, you know how it goes....Anyway, I'm back up again and struggling to get control of my terrible eating habits! Dieting is the hardest thing for me to do because I'm an emotional overeater. Food is my happiness, always has been. I have to figure out another way to make myself happy.

:flowerforyou: Welcome! Your last line makes perfect sense, finding other things in life that you can replace food with. Working out can be a great outlet to replace less healthy things and it gets us healthy and fit which is our goal.

Perhaps changing the word 'diet' to healthy lifestyle might give a healthier image in your mind of it being a more permanent solution vs. something you stop and start. Changing our eating patterns permanently helps break through alot of our past less healthy habits.

Wish you the best!

Congratulations on starting this new journey! i agree with drvvork that MFP is not a diet it is a new way of life! I hope you find this true as well.

I also had a friend recommend this site to me and am finding great success. What I've also found is I don't feel like I am dieting I am just making better choices! The knowledge is empowering to just know how much you are eating and putting in your body and then making better choices! I know how to balance out calories now and you catch on quick and begin to know serving sizes and you can continue to change how you think about food.

As far as emotional eating... ME TOO! Oh boy do I know what you mean there! Here is how I worked at it. I identified what times I was most likely to snack. For me it was in the afternoon about an hour or two before dinner. Then I planned out all 3 meals of the day and saw how many calories I had remaining and then made good choices about what I could eat. So I got my snack time and I really got to enjoy my food but I just made good choices about what and how much to eat. Controlled snacking. Maybe this way of thinking about it will help you too!

P.S. My new favorite snack- Fresh strawberries (1.5 cups) , fat free cool whip (2TBS), half serving of chocolate mini-bites. total under 200 calories and is so sweet!