getting a grip on binge eating

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ok so I am 42 years old and I have struggled with my weight my intire life. I was fat as a little kid, slimmed out as a teenager but was still on the pudgy side and in my twenties slowly started to gain again until at 40 years old I looked in the morror to find a 255 pound woman at 5 foot 4 inches staring back at me. Not only was I obese but after all I had put my body through in the past 27 years. All the different yo yo dieting, diet pills, weight loss gimmicks and different plans. Over eating, under eating, not eating at all and the worst binge eating, sometimes to the point of making my self vomit. I don't know if people ever really caught on to what I was doing or if I was really sneaky enough to get away with it. What I do know is that until last year when I got really sick and couldn't eat any solid food I thought my binge eating was a secret. How ever at any given time you could raid my house and find food, ok not food but junk food in several places such as stashed in drawers in my file cabinet, cubby holes of my computer desk, dresser drawers in my bedroom, under my coffee table, in the back shelves of my cupboards, in my purse ect... I was also the queen of late night take out I use to order food at night when my friends were gone home and I new no one would be coming around and scarf down 18 chicken wings, garlic bread with cheese, ceasar salad, a personal pizza and 2 apple pies. It got to the point the guy at the pizza store new it was me calling even if I was ordering from a different adress and one of the delivery guys from our local delivery service brought me a blueberry fritter as a treat with my nightly coffee order. There were days when I spent a weeks worth of grocery money on a one day binge. Of course with the food came the very breif moments of comfort and contentment but how quickly were those feelings replaced with guilt, disgust, shame, emtiness,loss, lonliness, anger, resentment, embarrassment, even a deep self loathing and hate for the world around me not to mention a deep deep sadness. Those would be the feelings I was trying to eat away unsuccesfully. ok so back to at 40 years old this obese woman stands before me with diabetes, fatty liver disease, high colesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, osteo arthritis through out my body with buldging discs in my spine and degenerative disc disorder. I was never able to have children at 38 I had a complete hysterectomy due to ovarian cancer and at 40 had sugery to remove cancerous polyps in my bowl. I have food allergies to milk and gluten that cause be to get ill and have serious migrane headaches. And so the bottom line id last year I took a long hard look at my health with a dietition, my endocrinologist, my psychiatrist and my counselor and totally revamped my diet, eating habits and exercise habits. With therapy, regular doctors appointments and the treadmill my nana bought me things worked out well I lost 53 pounds between august 2014 and January 2015. I was doing great on top of the world my binging was at a minimum, my sugars were down , my weight was down, depresion was under control I was eating a 90% vegatarian diet and I felt great. So the most important person in my life died January 28th 2015. My rock, my encouragement, my only unconditional love the one person who made sure everything went off without a hitch, my nana. So here comes the upheaval by the end of September I was moving all my belongings to another province to live with my husband who I had been sepperated from for ten years. Here I sit lost and alone almost 30 pounds hevier, sugars out of control, liver acting up, allergies out of control eating all kinds of crapt I know I shouildn't that makes me sick. Depressed and binging and hiding food again. How could I have come so far to fall back into the same black hole? What is wrong with my brain? Why am I doing this to myself? How do I get back on track? I didn't spend enough time in counciling to really get to the nitty gritty on why I eat. I just thought this might be the place to share my story and not get judged for it but maybe get some advice from someone who has been there. I don't have access to a councilor at the present moment but personal experience would be very helpful thank you.

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  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    This is the right place to share your story. Start by reading the success stories on here. So many started from the place you're starting from. Go for a short walk today. Count your calories to give you a baseline. You've chosen today- so it's time to "just do it". Baby steps at first. Cut one thing out a day, or cut one portion size in half. When (not if) you slip up, start over the next day. Log in daily, get some friends, give and get support, record your diary and read the motivation boards. They taught me a lot and they help to keep me going.
  • Paulina1230
    Paulina1230 Posts: 215 Member
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    Oh sweetie...I feel like I'm reading my own story. I have been heavy all my life. Was molested at a young age and I guess I felt that the extra weight would keep me safe. Have binged, purged, starved, drugged, and excessively excersised myself for 40 years and found myself at 272 pounds at 50 years old. At 50 I was diagnosed with fatty liver disease and non hodgkins lymphoma. I was so busy working on beating the cancer that I pretty much ignored my liver. I beat the cancer, but at 53 had found that my fatty liver had now turned into cirrhosis of the liver. My doctor pretty much said that if I do not change the way I eat and change my lifestyle....I would be on the transplant list within 5 years. I was floored. How did I let myself get to this point? How could I not pay attention to the point where I may die.

    Well I am not ready to die yet. In August I decided that this was my wake-up call. I quit eating all fats,(except the good, healthy ones...Avacado, olive oil and some cheese. I had to do this because the liver struggles to break down fats and it works it too hard. I quit eating sugar because when your liver is not working properly it cannot break down sugars, and that raises your chances for diabetes. I quit drinking because....well that one is pretty much self explanitary. I have gone to an almost vegitarian diet because its too hard for the liver to process red meats and fatty cuts of meat, and I really don't like chicken or fish...so vegitarian it is. I try to eat whole, non processed foods, do not drink anything but water or green tea, and have learned to love foods like tofu, and textured vegetable protein. I have since August lost 68 pounds and lowered my A1c from a prediabetic 5.9 to a healthy, normal 5.4. My liver feels better although my scan shows it looks the same. My doctor says it could take up to a year or longer before we see changes in its appearance, but my liver enzymes are normal.

    My husband bought me a treadmill and excersise bike and I do at least 1 hour a day on one or the other and walk at least 10,000 steps.

    I am not doing anything that you cannot do. You ARE stronger than you think and you soooo deserve to feel better about yourself and be healthier. You sound lonely and depressed and that in itself will derail any attempts you make to lose weight. I don't know what kind of support system you may have, but you need to get yourself one. You will make friends here on MFP, and maybe you can join a gym to make friends there. The most important thing is to just do it. Get up and move even if its only 10 minutes or so. Make one good choice for the day. Eat 100 less calories. Swap one sugary treat for a piece of fruit. Small steps....will equal great gains in health and happiness. You know you can do this....

    I would love to be your friend here on MFP. I think we could help each other and support each other. I still have 54 more pounds to go so I'll be doing this for a while yet. And I'm sure I will still be here after the loss and when I'm maintaining. So friend me if you think I could be helpful to your journey. I wish you good health and peace.
  • todays_dreams1973
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    thank you for your replies. You are right I think making some friemds here and reading other peoples journey's will be helpful. I also think If I can't get the support in the community I need here maybe I should go back where I came from. I am in a rural area and I don't drive. When I came here I thought it would be ok but it's not really working out the way I thought it might. I am just going to have to dig deeper and make it happen either way. I know I can do it because I have already I just have to make it work under different sucumstances.
  • BluenoserGal
    BluenoserGal Posts: 55 Member
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    Very similar story here, only rather than binging I simply mirrored my skinny husband's eating habits for 20 years. My metabolism is not his metabolism. 240 at my heaviest. 46 and 5'4" . Now I go to the gym 5 days/week, have a personal trainer for weight training, and have adjusted my eating to <1500/day and not eating my exercise calories back.

    I'm not in NB but I lived there for 6 years. I'll send you a friend request.