Walking Cliche

Options
amandalynnesmith
amandalynnesmith Posts: 9
in Introduce Yourself
Hi,
I just joined this site last week because I heard about it on a podcast (Let's Reverse Obesity podcast). I am an introverted forty-something mother of two who has a daytime office job and part-time college instructor job. I used to be of normal weight until age 32, and then stress got the better of me. The bulk of my weight has been packed on in the past five years. I weigh between 315 and 320 pounds and don't recognize myself anymore.

I hate my job, I am in debt, I eat too much, I compulsively shop, I work around the clock, and I am a complete failure at taking care of myself physically. I am pretty much at the end of my rope. I start each day determined to turn over a new leaf, and by the end of the day I have failed. Late nights spent at the computer doing work and eating is my downfall.

I am hoping that writing daily in my blog will help me gain insight into my problems.

I am looking forward to making connections with people that will help me cope with my binge eating and overweightedness. In turn, I hope I can lend support.

Thanks for listening.
Amanda

Replies

  • GeekAmour
    GeekAmour Posts: 262
    Options
    Welcome Amanda & congrats on taking the first step. Perhaps you should take a question from this post title & get walking!!

    Good luck. :)
  • LG61820
    LG61820 Posts: 372 Member
    Options
    I do feel your pain. I believe there is a way out. I used to have cable TV and on Saturday nights I religiously watched Suze Orman on CNBC. Her theory is that weight gain and debt go hand in hand. I think she is on ITunes, but I have trouble with anything Apple so have never successfully watched a podcast since I cut off cable. It might be worth your while to watch her podcasts to see what she says about getting out of debt. A LOT of people swear by Dave Ramsey who teaches the debt-free life.

    If you are overeating, under-exercising and compulsively shopping then obviously there are underlying reasons for that behavior. If you don't want to address those reasons then begin to address the behaviors. You have trigger foods and trigger stores. Stay out of the stores that trigger you to buy more than you need or can afford. It could be Neiman-Marcus, WalMart or the thrift store. If you can't control your purchases you should not enter that store at this time.

    Stay away from the foods that are your triggers. For me it's potato chips. You know what your trigger foods are - do not buy them, do not accept a gift of them, do not eat them at the office "over-feed" potlucks. Stay away from your trigger foods even if you do not limit your food intake in other ways!

    Begin to walk. Walk before work if you can, walk on your lunch hour, walk on your breaks. Walking can be very meditative. I sometimes cry on my walks and that's ok. Once I realized that the one constant on the Biggest Loser from the first day to the last day was walking, I knew what I needed to do.

    Once you take small steps toward financial improvement, eating improvement and increased body movement other things will look better too. If you hate your job and cannot change it, then work very diligently to find things you do enjoy about it. Maybe it's your coworkers, maybe it's your ability in one special area. There must be some small bit of the work that you can look forward to. Hang your hat on that bit.

    People here will really care about you and your progress if you will let them. Friend me if you wish, I will be honest with you always.
  • jennontheroad
    jennontheroad Posts: 142 Member
    Options
    just writing it down is a big step! you have identified the problems and behaviours. now you can work to change them!
  • jennontheroad
    jennontheroad Posts: 142 Member
    Options
    ok I also want to say: happiness is a choice. why choose to be miserable? a lot of the things you mention you have control over.
    a big thing you can do is to practice daily gratitude- think about the things in life you are happy for.
    even really obvious ones, like a warm comfy bed. most human beings throughout history and around the world do not even have that.
  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
    Options
    I know how you feel. Life overwhelms me. And I am still looking at everything in my life that needs to be changed and I can't change it all or maybe even most of it. So, what I did to get to the point I am at right now which is being in healing mode, is I started changing one thing at a time. I hated my job, so I went back to college. I am now working on getting a BS in Liberal Arts. I hated feeling sick all the time, so I made changes in my diet and got most my IBS symptoms under control. This has taken a long time and it will be years before I even get close to normal function (I have fibromyalgia) but, I can still make choices that help me have a better quality of life. I just started walking a couple of weeks ago, my goal is to walk at least a half an hour a day.

    I can't say what would be the best thing to change first, but for me it was adding more fiber to my diet. That helped my energy levels improve, not to normal that isn't likely to happen, but to the point I have the energy to at least take a daily walk whereas before it was a struggle just to get out of the house. I find journaling helps me to identify the more critical areas that need to be changed. For example I have a tendency to downplay physical pain to the point it can be dangerous, so now I take pain a little more seriously. I have a long way to go on that issue, but at least now I know that I have to stop ignoring pain signals and actually go to a doctor when something doesn't stop hurting.

    Maybe you aren't ready for a complete diet overhaul right now. But, you could focus on one meal a day. Make one meal a day healthier. Eat a couple servings of vegetables in that meal, fit in 11 or more grams of protein, avoid simple sugars and after while assess how that makes you feel.

    Or you could determine you are going to just log everything for a while to see where you are at right now and figure out where you want to go from there. It seems to me that you have a bit of being a perfectionist in you and it's just hard to see how far from your ideal you have gotten. And that's ok. But, it can get in the way if you stumble and it's almost a given that will happen. So find something you can stick to and do it well so at the end of the day you have accomplished something. Like that walk thing. At the end of the day if you have eaten at least one healthier meal and taken a walk you can say today, I accomplished something and it's ok that I didn't change everything today.
  • echippendale
    echippendale Posts: 66
    Options
    hi amanda and welcome, feel free to add me, the first step is the hardest but once you start and see the results ,its worth the effort. There are some fab vids on you tube, i do leslie sansone walking work out. its low impact and great for beginners. good luck on your journey ,feel free to msg me any questions :)
  • tjolenee
    tjolenee Posts: 20 Member
    Options
    Good Luck Amanda! If you need any inspiration or just someone to vent to feel free to message me :)

Categories