my food addiction :(

You are in the right place. And you are not alone. I believe most of us struggle in the same way you do. So sick and tired of worrying about what to eat, when to eat, what I look like etc. So, Welcome!! Not an easy road but it helps to know that yo are not alone. This is a GREAT support tool. Good luck to you on your journey

i have motivation, i just dont do anything about it! im so depressed about my weight and really want to get on track. i really am going to try with my fitness pal!

You have come to the right place where a lot of us deal with those same issues....and work to improve the situation....day by day. Feel free to add me as a friend....we have all the encouragement & support that we desperately need ourselves.

Please take this journey one day at a time.....It's worth it. :happy:

I was the same way and then I got serious and started logging every single crumb that i put in my mouth. I also began moving and tracking that and when you see how much you have to work out to burn off those calories, that really woke me up!!

One thing that is working good for me is that I made very small goals - first 5 lbs, walk 10 minutes a day for 3 days a week, etc. If you can just get up and do it and be consistent for a few weeks, you will just turn on that motivation switch full blast and it becomes easier.

Welcome! This is a great tool. However, like all tools they are only useful when actually used. I understand exactly where you are coming from, I really do (I maxed out at 270), and the journey begins with the first steps (hurray you've taken them) but the journey is also long and arduous. You will stumble, no one is perfect. But getting up the next day in a positive frame of mind to tackle it again is very important.

What really, and I mean REALLY, helped me get on track was keeping the food diary accurate. I plan 1/2 hour a day (15 in the morning and 15 at night) to update, fill in, transfer, and otherwise populate my diary here. What's great about the database is a lot of food is already there, so the next step is keeping track of portions. I made myself write down everything, even the bad days, just so I could see the damage I was doing (calorie/carb/fat wise b/c that's what I crave the most when I've fallen off the wagon). Facing that music stung, but I'm getting better. By conquering that honesty barrier (honesty to myself) has made a great difference in my frame of mind. You see, I am a perfectionist and a procrastinator, so if I couldn't enter a "perfect" food day, I would skip it altogether, skipping it meant open season on food. More food means more of this stinking cycle. So, making the promise to myself to enter everything, the good, the bad, and the downright decadent, has made a big difference. By scheduling the time to enter it, then I hold myself accountable and don't have time to procrastinate or conveniently forget that spoonful of (fill in the blank).

Best of luck! You can do it!!

You are making progress already. Just by admitting you are addicted to food and being on MFP. I just started a couple of weeks ago and I absolutely love this program. I love the food diary, it keeps me so accountable and I can see what I have put in my mouth. I can't do that with a pen and paper necessarily. What I have found that helps me is not focusing on a weight loss number, but keeping in mind that all I want to do is to get healthy. It doesn't matter what number I see on the scale. What matters is that I am eating right, making the right choices in food and getting in my cardio workouts. I don't call what I am doing as being on a "diet" I just want to relieve everyday stresses and feel better about myself.

I'm addicted to food as well. One thing that has helped me is putting a picture of me at my heaviest on the fridge. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm not hungry, I look at that picture and think, "am I eating to fill up an achy belly, or am I eating to comfort [insert x, y, z]?" It helps. Not to mention, you have thousands of people on here going through the same thing that are willing to support you! Take baby steps, make small changes, and keep notes/pictures/records of your progress. We're all in this together

I also do the picture on the fridge, but its one of myself at my heaviest with my newborn son. Shortly after that pic was taken, I read a statistic that said children with just one overweight parent is twice as likely to be obsess as an adult. That picture reminds me that whatever I chose from the fridge not only affects me, but also my son, who is the love of my life, so it better be a healthy choice or something I need to nourish my body and not just fill a craving. Little reminders like that really work!

To OP: I knew 100% that I had a food addiction when I started this website and i feel very confident now in the fact that I can control it. It is possible and there are so many wonderful success stories on this site to prove that. Good luck!

I'm bored at work, and that's a pretty slippery slope. I just signed up, and I am going to figure out how many calories I just ate before signing up. YIKES!!

Hi! I just love having my wine and popcorn in the evening, is this a real no-no or can I figure out to have enough calories left in the day to have them?