What factors contributed to weight gain and how did you (or plan to) over come?

-Getting pregnant and developing hypothyroidism and not taking the medication religiously.
-Moving out on my own
-Cousin in law moving in with me and cooking Mexican food every day.
-Quitting my job and becoming the most sedentary I'd ever been.

in reality I wasn't paying attention to my lifestyle changes and systematically changing my diet to compliment those changes.

lauragreenbaum148 wrote: »

Divorce, love food, love wine, menopause, job in the hospitality industry, did I mention I love food and wine?

Lol!! Love this answer

Family problems, depression, love of food (I'm looking at you pasta. And chocolate. And sugar in general. Alright cheese too...), already being overweight since I was a kid.

I went from being a very active college student in my late 20s to taking a desk job upon graduation at 30. I never spent much time "working out" back then, but I was really active...I didn't own a car for much of that time so biked and walked most places...always walking all over campus...worked as a waiter and in retail so always on my feet...in my free time, I enjoyed playing ultimate Frisbee with my bros and hiking, etc.

I went from that to sitting in a cubicle for 8-12 hours per day. I put on 40-50 Lbs over the course of about 8 years. About 3 1/2 years ago I went to the doc and he had a lot of bad news for me in regards to the direction I was heading as per my blood work...so I decided to work on my nutrition and get moving again...I've been in maintenance for going on three years in May/June...I dumped about 40 Lbs and all of my blood work now looks normal to optimal.

- "Mindless" eating while watching TV or playing video games
- Eating as a means of procrastination
- Eating as an emotional coping mechanism
- Binge eating as a compulsion

1-3: I changed this pretty easily. I just didn't put food within my reach when I was supposed to be focusing on something else or dealing with something. I also took up creative writing as an alternative emotional coping mechanism. I also learned how to do things like watch TV without eating; once I mentally broke the connection between food and entertainment, it became a lot easier.

4: This, I'm still working on. So far, it has involved me keeping trigger foods out of the house, making sure that I stay well-fed so that my hunger doesn't drive me to binge, and making sure that I have something low-calorie to shovel into my mouth should the need to snack on bulk quantities of food become too strong (e.g. veggies and air-popped pop corn).

I've always had issues with weight since I was a child, and a lot of my issues with food come down to the subconscious connections my mind made about food and my feelings from that period in my life. I was bullied a lot as a child because of a speech impediment and my extremely shy behavior. The bullying was especially intense when I was younger - I have distinct memories of being stabbed in the hand with a pencil by a girl in my kindergarten class because I wouldn't give her the Little Mermaid eraser my mother had given to me as a present to help me make it through the day. Most people don't remember a lot from kindergarten, but the pain is something I'll never forget.

I share this because my mother, who tried her absolute best, was an excellent parent, and wanted nothing but the best for me, would try to soothe me the only way she knew how: food. Usually when issues like what I described would occur I'd be sent home because I would retaliate in a "zero tolerance" school setting and my Mom would take me out for pancakes at IHOP or to the movies with a big bucket of popcorn as an F-U to the school administration.

These memories I have with her are some of my dearest, and represent the haven my mother created for me when I was too young to really understand why my peers treated me so terribly and would instead internalize a lot of pain and hurt. She tried her best to help me see the big picture and we would talk, at my pace, about the future and what it was going to be like when I was older. And of course, we'd eat.

It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I internalized the idea of using food as a tool to put a lid on my suffering. It is only as an adult that I've discovered how unhealthy that connection is, and why I'm prone to binge eating in extreme emotional situations.

At my highest weight I was 190 lbs, and decided to start cooking more at home to save money. What I didn't know at the time was that the decision to cook more at home would turn into an emotional journey.

I encourage everyone to stick to their goals and pursue health - it'll lead you to scary, yet amazing realizations about your own capacity to change.

I've always been big, from kindergarten on up. Vegetables were expensive to buy for a low income family and something my mom couldn't eat and my dad wouldn't.. I was not taught portion control until my nutrition class while getting my RN. Shocker there! I watched my mother try and try for years to lose weight, then she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and couldn't KEEP the weight on.

Food became a comfort, a luxury after I got out on my own as I could buy whatever I wanted, when I wanted and eat however much of it without worrying about there being enough for later.

After multiple pregnancy losses, I no longer cared what I looked like, what I weighed. A half gallon of cherry vanilla ice cream topped with some Hershey's bars made a fine bedtime snack.. or breakfast... etc.

While in college, I had lost 100lbs by joining a gym and working out, college full time and full time job at a store. The weight packed on after MC's and I just kept looking at the scale thinking "I'm not at my heaviest yet, when I get there I will stop and lose again, I did it once, no problem to do it again." Yeah right, 10 years makes a big difference!

SO- Here I am, still working night shift, married, stressed, hormone imbalances and insulin resistant (now being controlled with medications).. and making healthy lifestyle changes to include watching what I'm eating and exercising. Luckily my husband introduced me to real vegetables and I love most of them. (Asparagus and brussell sprouts eugh!) Craving sweets is going to be an ongoing battle, but I'm finding good substitutes.

I didn't get here in a day or month, so I won't get out of here so quickly either. Forward is forward, no matter how fast.

For me, it was primarily medication that caused me to gain weight. I'm bipolar, and the meds for bipolar disorder are notorious for causing weight gain. One particular medication (Abilify) caused me to put on 80 pounds! I'm now off that medication, on something else that has less of a chance of weight gain, and trying to lose those 80 pounds I put on. But I'm worried that I will always be overweight because I have to be on medication for the rest of my life.

i'd like to call my reason for weight gain 'stress eating' but i was/is not stressed I was just tired from work. I can't eat properly (or eat mindfully) when at work so I usually would overeat once i'm home however just after eating I would sleep. my solution is to get more comfortable at eating at work even tho i'm not sure how that will work... I work at a hospital and it's pretty hectic.