What does Onederland mean to you?

John, my husband and I will be going away to see our friends this week and then to other friends next week and this has been on my mind for the last few days. Being away from home and possible eating out at times is going to take so thinking through things and eyeing meals so I don't over eat at their house too. One thing is good is that one of my friends is on MFP too. So, I guess you could say that staying the course for the next 2 weeks is a Onederland. Please in your next 2 weeks keep me in prayer and keep me ACCOUNTABLE ladies. I will be bringing my laptop so I can log in and file in my diet and exercise diaries. But I don't know how much exercise I'm going to get in. Any thoughts ladies? I do appreciate them! Well, it is 11:03pm so I'm going to call it a night! Good night to all!

WDA....You know that you will be in my prayers. I will be looking for your posts. You have been doing so well, and I am sure that this trip will be a great outing for you and John. We both know that you are a strong lady with a real goal in mind for your future. I believe that opportunities for exercise and healthy eating will present themselves. My advice is to 'keep doing what has been working for you'. Get back on MFP regularly with honest postings of your diary.

Onederland for me means I will have lost roughly ten percent of my highest weight ever. It will also be the smallest I've been since I moved to help out my older sister who was very sick with severe depression five years ago. It means that I'm no longer letting losing 3 relatives and going through a bad car accident and a period of severe illness of own consume me anymore.

I am sorry that I didn't see this post sooner. The words 'consume me' hit home. You're talking about depression, and I can see that you have been fighting your way back from all of that.

By the way, this isn't directed at you...the poster of the message above. It just got me thinking seriously about an important topic...Depression and how it relates to food.

Depression is a real medical condition. For some people, it is a lifetime issue that requires medication and constant evaluation by professionals. For other folks, it is a 'situational depression' caused by an event in their lives...sometimes an illness or a death. This kind of depression is most often temporary, but none the less of a serious problem, when it is happening. However, depression (mild or severe, situtional or chronic) does not mean that you cannot control your eating habits and activities of daily living. A lot of folks will use it to justify their eating.

In a period of only 10 years, the following events occurred in my life. 1. My baby sister was murdered. 2. My Mom died of cancer. 3. My Dad and stepmom died in the Northridge earthquake. 4. My 22 year marriage ended in divorce, so that my husband to marry my other sister. 5. My oldest son committed suicide. 6. I lost guardianship of my only grand daughter to her drug addicted mother. 7. That grand daughter (age 5) was sexually molested one month after being taken from my home. After which, her mother took her to an unknown location; and I have not seen her since.

All of those 'situations' could have justified eating myself into the grave, if I thought that way; but honestly, that wasn't why I ate too much food and the wrong kind of foods. I ate for the same reason that I had eaten for most of my life...the same reason that many of you ate. Food tasted good and felt good. I got a bit of a rush from some foods, like chocolate and sodas. Food gave me something to do, when I was bored. I had developed a lifelong habit of overeating for no other reason than it was a habit.

I could easily skip breakfast and sometimes even lunch; but once I started to eat, I didn't stop, until I fell into bed. Dinner wasn't dinner. It was the beginning of my continuous food feast that started about 4 in the afternoon. I developed the habit of eating non-stop, once I started. That's how I kept my weight in the 200's.

I don't log my food diary at the end of each day, because that can lead me into the idea that I have the freedom to eat when, where and how much I want. I plan ahead and post my food diary at midnight or early in the morning, before I eat my first meal. I make sure that my food plan includes breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks, dinner and evening snacks, plus loads of water. All of this and still within my calorie goal is how I am keeping 'the old Sue' from getting into a 'food feast' that used to start later in the day.

I also work with my doctor and a nutritionist, who helped me set my daily calorie limit and regularly check my labs to assure that I won't become unhealthy, while trying to eat healthy. I am in a wheelchair most of the time and on my walker for just a few painful steps around the house. Despite that fact, I exercise almost every day for 30 minutes or more, using Sit And Fit routines.

I can't afford to sit around and feel sorry for myself. Bad things do happen in this world; and YES, they will even happen to me. Okay, but that doesn't mean that I have to 'pig out', when times get tough. I have goals for my life that don't include a wheelchair, a walker or a self-induced pity party. We all need to get a grip on our lives, set worthwhile goals and stop look back for a reason to justify staying fat.

Onederland is not really my goal. It is just a step toward something MUCH BETTER. I want those knee replacement surgeries that will allow me to stand, walk and run again. I want to walk beside my hubbie, not have him push my weight around in a wheelchair. For that goal, I must get to 199 pounds. That will put me on the list for my first surgery...a first step to many future steps.

My real and attainable Onederland is becoming the healthiest possible me that I can be. At 69 or 89 years old, my Onederland goal will still be something that I must reach for every day. I won't find it on the day that I reach 199, but I will celebrate that day.