Losing weight the right way?

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kamikazikelli
kamikazikelli Posts: 23 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hello. I just joined this sight with the intention of finally losing weight the healthy way. I've been bulimic for 5 years now, and it got me nowhere. The successes were small and the losses were massive. After having a friend of mine join this sight, I got motivated to try. For anyone out there who has dealt with an eating disorder, how do you do it?

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  • merrillfoster
    merrillfoster Posts: 855 Member
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    I don't have an eating disorder but just wanted to say welcome!
  • ladybu6205
    ladybu6205 Posts: 165 Member
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    I can't answer from an eating disorder point of view, but making healthy well balanced meal choices is always the best way to go. It might take time to get the portions and combination in control, but if you log your food /drink intakes EVERYDAY you will see where your strengths and weaknesses are. This is an AWESOME site to use. Good Luck!
  • JamieCamp
    JamieCamp Posts: 1
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    The first step is to see a mental health professional because they can help you get to the real "cause" of your disorder. Eating disorders are psychologically based. Your clinician can help with your meal plan, exercise plan, and even suggest support groups. You will probably have exposure response prevention therapy (ERP), where you may be asked to eat a certain amount in front of the clinician and wait until your anxiety/need to purge decreases to nothing. This is a sub type of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which changes your thinking in order to change your behavior.
  • Pippi8
    Pippi8 Posts: 12
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    Hi. Yes I was bulimic in college through the time I had my first child. I'm 41 now and that was back when I was 17-24 years old of "active' bulimia. Now I only have the challenging mindset/self criticism/perfectionism to deal with every day. It takes a long long time to work that mentality out of your system if ever....it sort of always is lurking I imagine for a lifetime. For us, keeping too much attention on all these numbers and exercise can be dangerous. I ran into that the past two weeks on this website. I've had to lighten up because my whole self worth gets wrapped up in these numbers and goals and making spreadsheets to track all my stuff and weighing myself 6 times a day (my boyfriend finally took the scale out of my house!)....so you can definitely get healthier but just know that you are vulnerable to becoming obsessed with the details of it all...because our body and eating often defines us as people....self esteem and self worth wrapped up in each calorie.

    Bulimia rarely results in much weight loss. Either way, eating disorders and even eating too few calories on any diet plan cause the body to literally eat itself in an effort to survive. You lose brain mass and organ tissue right along with fluids before any fat you might lose when the body is in starvation mode. Focus on getting body fat down, not body weight down.

    It's hard....but you have to learn to love and respect and honor yourself and realize that eating disorders are self-abusive. Sometimes abusing ourselves feels 'normal' but it's not ok. It's taken me 25 years to learn this and I'm still working on it. I did slip a few weeks ago and try to purge...after that many years....where did that come from? I quickly decided I wanted nothing to do with that. So just stay in tune with your feelings, seek therapy if you haven't yet. Learn to love yourself and treat yourself kindly. My ID is Brandycandy so feel free to message me if you want to speak further. I know how you are feeling....the daily struggle, the daily disappointment in yourself, the anger, the fear, the overwhelmed feeling, etc. You can do it....it just will take time to reprogram your entire thinking and tendencies. Love yourself!

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