Hypokelly –

I know how you feel. I was in your situation about a month ago, but on June 1st, I decided to change things. A little background first: I’ve been overweight all my life. When I graduated high school nearly six yeas ago, I was already 40 lbs overweight. Since then, I’ve gained another 42 pounds! That’s crazy.

I went to my physician because I was desperate to lose weight. I did Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, the diet that was included with the Power 90 video set that I purchased last year. I tried everything. While I did manage to lose at most around 18 pounds, I gave up and gained it all back. So as of June 1st, I was still struggling with 82 pounds that I needed to lose.

My doctor suggested I try Meridia, an appetite suppressant. It’s different from Phen Phen or Phentermine or any other suppressants because it’s not derived from the same components as “speed.” So after he gave the prescription I gave it a shot and started taking it June 2nd. I haven’t weighed myself since last week, but thus far, I’ve lost 13 pounds and I’ve learned a great many things that I will share with you.

1) Eating right is about moderation. You can still gain weight eating healthy foods. Too much of anything will make you gain weight. Eating is about portion control and patience. I discovered that I ate too much because I wasn’t listening to my body and I ate too fast. I’ve learned to eat until I am satisfied, not until I’m full and feeling lethargic. I now stop when my hunger has subsided. I also realized that I was eating very fast. I use to guess how long it would take me to eat. What felt like 20 minutes of eating was actually more like 8 minutes and I was shocked. Since I wear a sports watch with a stop watch on it, I decided to put it use. Now when I eat a meal, I time myself. I periodically look at my watch and compare that to what is left on my plate and how I’m feeling. If little time has passed and I don’t have that much on my plate, I slow it down. If it’s been something like 10 minutes and I’m not hungry anymore, I don’t finish my food. I stop right there. You really have to gage yourself while your eating. Most people eat mindlessly. They don’t check in with themselves and that can contribute to pounds.

2) Most everyone is an emotional eater to varying degrees, some more severe than others. I don’t think you’re a compulsive eater. If you were, you would literally be eating every minute that you were awake and you wouldn’t be able to work or do anything else. Compulsive eating is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder like people that constantly wash their hands until their hands are painful and the skin is severely cracked.

Like me, you’re probably an impulsive eater. You instantly want to eat without really thinking about it. We use food as an extension of our emotions. We eat when we are happy, sad, angry, depressed, etc. I didn’t realize how bad my emotional eating was until I got into a fight with my mom. After the fight I went to the fridge and cut myself a big slab of chocolate cake and ate every last crumb. After I ate it, I had an epiphany. Before I reached for the cake, I wasn’t hungry at all. I wasn’t even craving the cake just for the sake of it. I was eating it because I was angry and needed consoling.

There is a book I think you should read called “Life is Hard, Food is Easy” that you should check out from your library. It’s been a real eye opener for me. It’s about emotional eating. It explains in plain language the psychology of emotional eating and how to overcome it. The author herself was overweight and an emotional eater and she has helped many other people overcome it. The book is full of examples from people she was worked with.

She says in the book that is there is no such thing as willpower. Any diet can be successful as long as we learn to control our emotions and think about why we are eating. Really you should read it. I think it will help you learn a great deal about yourself. I know I’ve learned a great deal about myself reading this book. Also she talks about craving sweets. She says that if you’re craving something like cake or a cookie, take one or two slow bites and savor it because those bites are the best bites. The cake or cookie is not going to get any better the more you eat it. If you still want to finish it off the piece, then you may, but most times, those first two bites will satisfy your craving and you will not have done much damage at all to your healthy eating. At the same time, if you take a bite of something that really isn’t that good, then don’t eat it because the taste of texture is not going to improve the more of it you eat.

Getting back to the depressed thing, that is also covered in the book. She says that it’s a vicious cycle. You eat because you’re depressed and then you get depressed because you ate something you feel you shouldn’t have and then you go get more food, and it goes on.

3) Water is your best friend. It’s good for you, keeps your body functioning, and can control hunger. I’ve always heard that if you are hungry, try drinking a glass of water and waiting 20 minutes before you eat. Sounds pretty stupid huh? It did to me because no one ever explained why. Well, I’ll tell you why in case you don’t know. Sometimes, when the body is dehydrated and in need of water, it sends a signal out to get your attention. For example, dry mouth. If you ignore it, it’ll send you a stronger signal hunger. So sometimes you being hungry is your body’s desperate way of saying “Give me some water!!” If your hunger subsides after drinking some water, then it was a false alarm hunger call. If you’re still hungry afterwards, then eat. Our bodies are pretty smart, just sometimes we’re not clever enough to figure out what it’s telling us.

4) I know you’ve probably read this countless times, but keep a food log. This one is going to be slightly different. Instead of just writing down what time you ate, what you ate, and how much of something you ate, also include columns for why you ate, who you ate with, and how long it took you to eat. These are also important. After a few weeks, analyze what you recorded. I know it’s a little demanding, but if you really want to get to the root of things, you have to do it. You’ll be surprised what you learn. I found that sometimes I ate because I was mad, stressed, anxious, tired, and bored. I found that I ate pretty healthy on my own, but when it came to work or spending time with my boyfriend on the weekend (it’s the only time I really get to see him), I ate poorly and ate too much. At work, people bring leftovers from home to share with people at work to get rid of it. I’m guilty of taking a piece of cake or eating a bagel not because I was hungry, but just because it was there and it was free. And as I’ve said before, I found that I was eating way too fast to really enjoy my food.

So now I plan and make the effort. When food is offered at work and I’m not hungry, I decline and when people say something like “a little won’t hurt,” I just say that I’m not hungry and I really don’t like eating when I’m not in the mood. Then they leave me alone. As for the boyfriend, I just make better food choices when we go out to eat and if we do end up some place that only offers fatty fare, I try to order a kid’s meal or if I can’t, then I time myself and eat as slowly as possible. I usually eat half as much as I use to before I became aware of my “bad” habits.

5) Eating well and exercise go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Yeah, some people can lose weight just changing the diets, but if you want really good weightloss you combine the too. Most people change their diets and don’t exercise so if they lose, it’s very little if at all. Then they give up. And then there are some people who exercise like mad and don’t lose a pound because they are still eating poorly. That was me. So you have to do both.

[Will continue on next post]