Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I am in the process of divorce..I have a 2 year old. I am very unhappy with my weight! I am not hugely overweight but def can lose about 15 lbs. Problem is I LOVE good/fattening foods. As well as having a glass or two of wine each night which helps to calm my nerves lately. I just feel I will never lose it until I make changes.

How do you stop yourself from eating what you love?

What are some small changes I can make to lose weight, or do I have to make drastic changes?

I feel so unattractive being that everything I am going thru. Last time I was single I was happy with my body.

Ugh, any words of wisdom??

TIA

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

Posted by karanthony

What are some small changes I can make to lose weight, or do I have to make drastic changes?


Ugh, any words of wisdom??

TIA

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I would make small changes at first. Can you give us an idea of what you eat each day? Maybe we can suggest a swap for something that would be better for you and you might not even notice the change that much. I would also try switching to as many low fat foods as you can.

The other thing that would help you is exercise. I know you probably have your hands full right now but try to get in 20 minutes a few times a week and I'm sure you'll see changes. The good news for you is that 15 pounds can come off with just a few changes to your diet and increasing your activity level.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I did WW (trying to get back into it)..I have tried lots of "diets" but to me this was the most effective for weight loss.

I would find a WW near you and go sign up. After you see the results you will feel better.

The best part is you get extra pointS, I usually save them and use them for my wine

gOOD LUCK

Message edited 8/17/2010 9:09:45 AM.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

Do you cook dinners, or eat out a lot? How about lunch? If you can cut back going out and cooking healthier meals, it makes a big difference. I lost about 7-8 lbs just by eating salads for lunch every day instead of a sandwich and 100 cal snack pack.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

We don't have any of the "bad stuff" in the house. If there is a bad item I enjoy, I try to make a lowfat version of it - chicken parm - I'll grill the chicken instead of frying it and use lowfat mozzarella. Still tasty!

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I am the same way, I love the bad greasy foods like french fries and chips! And, only because I excercise do I do allow myself these things in moderation, and don't feel too guilty about it. But don't keep them in the house, like another poster said. I also agree that drastic changes is probably not the way to go, you don't want to get resentful and you need to treat yourself well and indulge sometimes especially at difficult time in your life. Easy does it
I think you can get in touch with yourself and the emotional eating that you may be doing, what's causing it and if/when you can substitute it with doing something else that is good for you.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

Except for the "drinks too much", I can relate to me 3 months ago.

I just loved to eat salami or whatever. Not huge on desserts/sweet but big portions. LOTS of take out food!

I am now cooking "fattening" food with modified alternative (fat free cheeses,e tc..) much lower calories.

I never ate lasagna before being on a diet. But now I do spinash lasagna. I feel like I eat those "bad" food but they are not bad in points (I do WW).

Now it's ONE slice of regular pizza or spinash or broccoli. NOT two slices with the whole menu on top of it.

I am making wiser choices. Like do I really want to eat that tiny piece or do I want to eat a lot more of something else.

Yes, once in a while I will eat salami. But it's 4 super thin slices. Not 6 huge thick one.

I am just paying attention to what I am eating and stay accountable.

ETA: I am not really working out now. Just gardening once a while. After 3 months, I think I can now start adding some time at the gym. I could not overwhelmed myself with that. That would be too much as once and I knew that would mean failure.

Message edited 8/17/2010 1:46:51 PM.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I am also on WW.
Just joined about a month ago and am down a little over 11lbs already.
It's all portion control.
Yes, I sit there with my measuring cups and Yes, the Etools window is always open on my computer. As soon as I eat something, I track it and enter it.
If I'm out, I make notes in my book and transfer it when I get home.

I don't order fried chicken anymore. I order grilled.
I don't get fries on the side, I get a side salad.

On WW you CAN have the fries, but, just order small and not large.

Like I said, for me, its all portion control.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I'm going with what a few others said: WEIGHT WATCHERS!! I joined about 2 1/2 years ago and lost (and kept off) 60lbs. I still eat. I even go out to eat, go to buffets, and eat cake and cookies. Just not every single day. I indulge once in awhile.

I also found alot of alternatives to my favorites. For example if I want something chocolately, I'll have a vitatop for only 1 pt. Or if I want salty I'll have a 100 calorie pack of pretzels for 2 pts.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

Don't have the fattening foods that you can't resist in the house. Only eat them when you eat out.

How big are the glasses of wine? A small glass is 100 calories, but most of use pour a glass that is more like 150. Portion control is key here. You could lose a pound a month just by limiting yourself to a 100 calorie portion of wine a night.

Give yourself a mantra like "I love my body more than I love this food. The food will be over in a minute but the weight would stick around for a loooong time!" Repeat before deciding to eat something. Sometimes the calories are worth it, sometimes you'll realize you don't want it that much.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I would limit the wine, and start cutting out sugars to start off. I think the key is start slow and add soemthing to your routine each week as it gets more regular...

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

To be honest, what works for me is making the big changes. I am not good at limiting myself. I open a bottle of wine and the next night say, oh it will go bad, I will finish it.

For me what works is saying this week I am going to work out and eat right (i eat pretty healthy to begin with, just too big portions and too much alcohol). Then I see a little bit of results, maybe down 1 -2 pounds or my fitness improved. I will do this for one or 2 weeks then maybe take a break, still working out but ok to have a glass of wine, for example. then back to it the next week.

When I make the small changes and don't loose any weight, I don't feel motivated to continue and feel like why bother. I have to be really good and work out alot to lose weight, that's just the way my body works.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

When I was trying to lose weight for the wedding, I did change my diet, but the biggest thing I changed was what I drank. I drank only water and cut out sugary drinks like soda and iced tea. It was tough but I lost 20 lbs. in 2 months easily and I was definitely not overweight (5'4- 135 lbs. before the weight loss). Now that the wedding is over, I drink soda and iced tea but not as often and still try to drink a decent amount of water. I gained back maybe 6-8 lbs. but I'm still pretty happy with where I am. Good luck! You can do it!!

ETA: And I didn't really exercise too much either. I did take walks on my lunch break at work, but other than that I didn't exercise!

Message edited 8/22/2010 10:55:29 AM.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much

I think I have this problem as well.

I then get in a rut where if I don't have time to hit up my favorite yoga class, I just don't do any other form of exercise.

I tend to keep the bad stuff in the house too like ice cream for DH.

At least once a week I get White Castle for lunch too since it's right next to my job.

Right now I am cooking a bunch of stuff in advance though and most of it's pretty healthy. (All stuff from our garden mostly).

I am going to try to eat all of that this week.

I also always try to bring lunch to work so I don't get "the craving" as often.

Re: Feeling fat, loving food/drinks too much