This is my first post.

I don't know if I have what would be considered an eating disorder or just unhealthy eating habits.

I just had a baby this year and I have not lost all the baby weight yet. I am 35 pounds heavier than I was in highschool. Websites that I go to say that I am 15 pounds over my healthy weight, and it makes me feel so depressed. My husband abandoned me and my son, so now I'm going through a divorce and am under a lot of stress. I work full-time, and try to eat normally when I am there, but on my days I have off I feel that I have a problem.

I eat a small breakfast, usually a slim-fast or a bowl of cereal. Then all I can think about at work is how quickly I can get lunch. At work, I try to limit what I get for lunch, but I always feel like it is too much and that other people think that too. That will usually be my last meal for the day, aside from an occassional snack. I only eat dinner maybe once or twice a month.

My days off however, I just feel completely out of control.

I will eat a regular breakfast in the morning, but by 9 o'clock, I am ready for lunch. I will eat a frozen dinner. By 10 o'clock I'm ready for a second lunch, so I'll make something else. I will usually eat 4 or 5 meals by noon, and then not eat again until the next morning.

I try to keep all healthy food in the house, or at the very least, reduced fat. But if there are any snacks, even if they are "healthier", I will just eat them until they are gone.

I've never thrown-up or used anything like diet-pills or laxatives. When I looked around online it said that usually fasting is considered not eating for 24 hours or more, but I usually go 14-18 hours.

I am completely unhappy with the way I look, and I feel like all I can think about is what I am going to eat next.

Those mornings that I just keep eating, I tell myself I shouldn't but I do anyway. Afterwards I feel horrible and depressed.

Should I try talking to my doctor? Could I have some sort of eating disorder?

I don't think that it's a eating disorder, but perhaps just a poor eating habit. Before I had a full-fledge eating disorder I had those same poor eating habits in cycles. My doctor tried having me write a food diary and my mom now has a check list for three meals a day and if I ate all three I get to pick something out of the things I recently bought shopping. The food diary didn't work it just made me very obessive about eating less and calorie counting but the check list helps keep me movataved to get better.

Try something like those to help yourself before you spend time and money at doctors, therapists, and nutritionist.

Please update me and let me know what you deside and how you are doing.

Sincerely,

acutee2

I think your wierd eating habits are probably just your way of coping with the fact that your life just crashed. I can just imagine all the stress you are under with a little one and a full time job, with a broken marriage. Maybe you can find a way to talk it out with maybe a good friend or a professional.

Give yourself some time and see if it doesn't resolve and you can get back to normal. However, if you have a history of eating disorders you probably should see your doctor ASAP. Best of luck.

The label doesn't matter - your eating habits are definitely disordered... More important is the way you feel about them. You could be doing all the things you are doing and feeling fine about it - then it's not quite as big a problem (nutritionally it's still a problem though...). But, you are clearly in distress and that is what concerns me. Let's look at this objectively. Having a baby is a major stressor in itself - coping with all the changes in your body, taking care of a newborn, working full time, going through a divorce - my heart goes out to you. Please speak to your doctor, soon. Start with your ob/gyn if you have the best relationship with him/her - you'll hopefully be pointed in the right direction. The idea is to build as much support as you need to get you through this very tough time. You now need to do it for that wonderful little baby with whom you have been entrusted, as well as for yourself. You have his whole life ahead of you - not to mention your own. You need to be physically and mentally healthy enough to enjoy each other - and trust me, babies/children require more energy than you've ever needed in your life!

Be strong!

Today is one of my days where I am feeling guilty, so I'm not hungry. Yesterday I ate a slim-fast, a banana, a yogurt, a vegetarian frozen dinner, and 2 tofu dogs with cheddar. All of that was before 2 o'clock. I didn't eat anything else after that. The day before was even worse. I had a vegetarian breakfast burrito, a vegetarian hot pocket, a personal size pizza, a box of macaroni and cheese with a ton of veggies added, about 3 diet sodas, and an entire bag of salad. Why do I do this?

I know that if I spread out my meals, I won't feel as guilty, but I just can't. In the mornings, even though my stomach doesn't always say that I'm hungry, I just have to keep eating. And then I look in the mirror and I feel awful.

I had to have a slim-fast this morning to take my medication with, but I don't want to eat anything else. I know that if I start eating, I probably won't stop until I am kicking myself for eating so much. I am chewing gum right now so I don't tempt myself. I also had a dream last night that ants were crawling all over my food, so that may be why I'm not hungry.

I was stupid and went to a bunch of "Am I overweight" sites and that got me even more depressed.

I'm think I'm going to have my mom stop by for lunch so that I do eat, but not too much. If I'm in front of other people, I usually don't fall into that trap.

Firsttimenewmom-
First of all, congratulations on your baby! That is so wonderful...don't forget about what an accomplisment he is in your life.

Your eating habits are definitely worrisome b/c they are the start of a VERY unhealthy cycle. You are not eating enough and your body gets SO hungry that it makes you want to eat, eat, eat later on. The reason you want to keep eating on some mornings is b/c you are depriving yourself. A slimfast shake is NOT enough for breakfast. Maybe if you tried giving yourself a healthy, balanced breakfast EVERY morning, you would notice your urges to overeat would diminsh.
Also, not eating anything after noon on days when you "overeat" in the morning is only going to set you up for failure later on. The next morning you will be SO hungry and SO deprived that you will 100% overeat again! The cycle of overeating, then restricting, overeating, and restricting is very hard to get out of once you've started it. The last thing you want is for this to turn into a serious, full-fledged eating disorder.
Whatever you do, do NOT start purging, using laxatives, or trying any other extreme measures to handle your weight. You will only complicate things.

And, for goodness sake, give yourself a break! You just had a BABY! Maybe these celebrity moms make it seem easy as pie to lose the weight, but they are not losing it in a healthy way and they are not the average person. They have 8 trainers and are constantly in the spot light. I'm sure if they could choose themselves, they'd take it off a little slower and perhaps a little healthier.
Try planning out your meals a little bit more, but DO NOT skimp. That only sets you up to feel deprived and want to overeat, ok?

Good luck! Let us know how it goes...

Thankyou for your response. I have tried eating big breakfasts in the morning, but then I just feel like a blimp for the rest of the day and I end up not eating anything else. I really don't like breakfast foods because they make me feel queasy, so often times I'll end up eating dinners or desserts for breakfast instead. I know it's not good for me, but I just feel like I don't have any control.


Edit to Add: I just ate a yogurt because I was getting hungry. I opened the freezer to look at the other food we had in there, but I managed to close it before I felt tempted to grab anything. I'm feeling pretty good about that.

When my mom gets here, we will probably have wraps or something healthy.

I haven't decided if I'm going to eat dinner though. I just never feel hungry at night...