Annual, it’s pretty quiet so I thought I’d respond and talk a little.

I am “greytmom” because I am mom to several ex-racing greyhounds, they keep me sane and I love ‘em.  I’m involved with the adoption group here.

I have tried many, many things, probably just like the rest of you.  I’m tired of “counting”, “portioning”, “denying”, “feeling bad”, going to meetings where the “losers” are praised leaving the others feeling like real losers in another sense.  All of that.

I’ve been reading, reading, reading (my favorite, of course, was How To Become Naturally Thin by Eating More) and now I’m delving into Breaking Out of Food Jail. It makes So Much Sense.  I am in the adjustment stage, still overeating sometimes and having cravings but more often than not I am feeling good.  While I was rapidly losing weight using homeopathic hcg, I knew I needed to make some changes for the future.  Unfortunately, I have gained back about half of the lost weight, adding yet another “eating protocol” (I refused to call it a diet - ha!) to the failed list.  I felt really, really good at the lower weight so that is an incentive for me to do this wisely so it will stay off.  I realize this is not something I will lose weight with rapidly, but I already feel better just dumping the mindset that I Have To Lose Weight To Be Happy.

It is so helpful to read successes on this forum.  Thank you for those, everyone.

I am looking forward to my cousin’s BBQ this evening.  She is making German potato salad, which used to be forbidden and I am making Asian Super Slaw which contains peanut butter and brown sugar, two previously banned foods for me.

Onward!!

Kate

So good of you to take care of the ‘hounds.  I’m sure they’re a whole lot happier living in your house than racing for a living!!

I’m glad you’ve read the books and have committed to giving up the dieting lifestyle.  It’s really, really HARD to let your body control things, especially if you’re tipping the scale higher than you’ve been before.  But it’s so great to not be wondering all the time if you’ve eaten too much…or too little…or the wrong things.  I love it when I’m just starting to get hungry and I realize I haven’t thought about food - at all! - in a couple of hours, and I’ll be able to eat what I’m hungry for and then not think about it for a few more hours.

Biggest struggle for me is the mirror.  I don’t even put makeup on half the time because I don’t want to stand there and look at myself.  That’s not a highly evolved viewpoint, but it’s the truth.

I hope you enjoy the picnic.  Remember to fill up on the highest quality foods you can get your hands on, then the “fun” stuff (I’m talkin’ to YOU, red, white and blue cake!) won’t be nearly as enticing.

Speaking of fun stuff, I ate a handful of Junior Mints the other day, because they were there and because it was just before my time-of-the-month, so I justified it as being acceptable, and after I ate them, I felt WEIRD.  Not high or drunk, but more like the way you feel when you take medicine that isn’t quite working.  Just…off.

I used to love Junior Mints.  Breaking up is not so hard to do anymore!

Today I had some oven fried chicken tenders and I toasted a bagel and put butter on it, but decided I really wanted corn.  I gave the bagel to my son and ate an ENTIRE can of corn (with some butter).  Wonder what THAT was about?

Anyway, welcome and congratulations and good luck and throw out any questions you have!!!

Hello Kate,

I am in the same phase as you are.  I read NT a little over a month ago and have been getting to where over eating is absolutely unappealing to me and cravings are for salads and fruit and tasty grilled anything.  I have even stopped wanting very much cheese.  I have gained 10 lbs but have not needed to buy new clothes (fingers crossed):)  If I do then I do and its no big deal.  Like you it is such a relief to be freed from the mental mind trap of disturbed eating.  I know this sounds nuts because I am still a 16 and bigger, but feeling well feed and freeing up my mind from eating crap I feel really well taken care of and beautiful right now.  I know I am curvier than our society says is ok, but I feel beautiful in my own skin and am thankful I am taking wonderful care of myself.  I have been reading back posts and kept hearing comments like, “I don’t like the way I look right now”  and realize that maybe I am not supposed to like the way I look but I do.  I do not plan on staying bigger and know that as long as I feed myself well I will get smaller, but I love my self and appreciate my body every step of the way:)

Happy 4th everyone:)

Actually, I think you ARE supposed to like the way you look, some of us just haven’t reached that level of self-acceptance yet!!  I think having wonderful clothes helps with that…which I don’t quite have.

Hi greytmom, first of all, if you have just been on hcg, don’t panic when you gain back all that weight lost. It will happen. Just consider it would have happened anyway, and at least now you know different and can do different. If you stick with it, over time, your body will reach what Jean calls “a lean adaptive weight” that is right for you. I have friends who lost over 100 pounds each on that protocol and this year they are “fighting it” coming back and it’s sad because there is nothing they can do to stop it.

Krissy, I like what you just posted about liking yourself at any size. This will make the process so much easier for you. Keep on! We can all learn from your positive attitude. Even thin people have issues with body size and appearance. I agree with annual, having nice, well-fitting clothes makes it easier.

Annual, get a mirror that is high so you can see just your face. Wearing make-up, even just for yourself, you might feel good. Remember what FlyLady says.

Bless all of you ladies. I am celebrating my 21st naturally thin anniversary today. TWENTY-ONE YEARS!!

I swear, Noel, if it wasn’t for you and Swan I would have given up in frustration months ago!!!  Bless you.

100 pounds?!?!?!  That is just such a huge milestone and then…bye bye!  My frustration is NOTHING compared with what they must be feeling.  All that work, all that sacrifice…for nothing.  But all diets end this way.  Such bondage it all is.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who was on the hhcg the same time I was.  She didn’t have that much to lose and has so far been successful at keeping it off.  However, she weighs herself at least once a day, usually twice and has lots and lots of forbidden foods.  Anyway, I emailed her that the hhcg didn’t work for me.  She is insisting that it did; after all, I lost the weight, didn’t I?  I tried to tell her that for it to work, I would have kept it off.  It’s like WW, that didn’t work, either, although I did lose a bunch of weight.

Another friend is on her fifth round of hhcg.  Another friend gained back ten pounds and is now on another round.  I see her using it as a crutch.  I guess you could say that about WW, too.  Go ahead and eat badly because you can just go on hhcg or WW again!  Yuck, who wants to do that.  Been there.  Don’t want to go back.

One thing the hhcg did for me was to get me back on track of eating real food.  On WW, I was existing on the cardboard dinners, the ones with low points.  I’d save all my points for play food.  I remember planning on going to Golden Corral for dinner (a buffet) and starving myself all day.  On hhcg, I started cooking more and using real food, so that was a good thing.  I also learned that fat was not the enemy.  I think we all learn from everything we do….sometimes we learn what NOT to do!

I do need to get some new clothes.  I had avoided that because I was losing weight so fast I wanted to wait…thank heavens I didn’t give away all my clothes!  However, I’m living in t-shirts and jeans and want to feel better about myself so I need to go shopping (I hate shopping).

Thank you again, everyone, for being here.  I have some friends around me who are struggling and I think they might join me (then they can stop struggling!).  Any suggestions for a support group (with live bodies!)?

Kate

Congratulations Noel!!!  What an incredible and inspiring accomplishment!  Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

Kate, yes by all means start a support group if you have like-minded friends. Help each other by going clothes shopping together. Or by taking on a significant project together such as volunteering your time for something worthwhile. It’s good to keep busy.

Annual, I know you WILL be successful, I just know it from listening to you now vs. even last year when I signed on to this forum. You’re not the sort to “cave” when the going gets rough, you just sit with the problem and figure out what you need to do and then you go forth and do it. I admire that. By the way, how is the diet program at your church going along?

Happy 4th everybody! We are so lucky to live in this glorious country. We sat right on our front porch to watch the fireworks.

Hello All.  Greetings from China.  It’s going pretty well here, so far…I brought granola bars with me in massive quantities.  I was desperately hungry a couple of times while travelling.  It’s really hard to manage eating while travelling - I don’t sleep on planes, the flight was 13 hours (followed by 7 in the airport and another two hour flight), the airline food was beyond gross (and they went about 8 hours between meals), and hunger was just…inevitable, I think.  Kind of like the exhaustion.

In the last couple of days, I seem to have developed a pretty good rhythm.  I am avoiding prolonged hunger, and eating (a granola bar) when I need to.  It’s really hard when you’re not really in control of anything having to do with your schedule or when food will be available.  I just whip out a granola bar and munch when I need to.  Mostly.  We’ll see what happens when we move out to the mountains on the 12th.  I am so glad I can check in from here (not once we get to the mountains, but until then). 

Welcome to all the newbies! 

Just to chip in on the HCG thing, yet another poor schlep at work just started doing it.  I had a moment of absolute panic when she told me.  I, of course, am nearing my top weight (before the last time I lost weight), and feeling kind of…distressed about it.  Meanwhile, the HCGers are all looking svelte.  Then again, they eat really weird stuff, can’t eat normally or they gain weight, and are ticking time bombs.  Frankly, I don’t think I could work up the steam to eat just 500 calories a day if my life depended on it.  And the thought of losing it and gaining it again is just too depressing. 

Noel - it’s my church that’s doing the big diet/fitness hoopla.  It doesn’t start until this month, so fortunately, I miss the pressure to join in because I’m not there.  :)  I’ll also be gone most of September so I won’t be there when it ends either.  Just for the middle.

I am so glad I have y’all for a support group.  Seriously, what would I do without you?

I hadn’t heard of that HCG thing until y’all started talking about it, and it sounds dreadful!!  500 calories?  I can do that at BREAKFAST if I’m real hungry!!  (I think.  I don’t actually count calories.)  What astounds me is the people who do it over and over and don’t seem to realize it doesn’t stick.  I guess we tell ourselves that WE are flawed, not the diet.  I’ve said it before…IT’S BONDAGE!  YUCK!

Thanks for the encouragement, Noel.  Next time I get frustrated with my weight I’ll think of those poor yo-yoing saps doing the hcg and thank my lucky stars I’m not stuck THERE.

Beth, I’ve been praying for you!!  Thanks for keeping us posted.  Stay safe!!

I love the part of the hcg diet where they tell you if you’ve fallen off the wagon to consume nothing but water and apples for 24 hours. 

I feel like binging just typing that!!

Beth, other than negotiating the food obstacles, I hope you’re having a WONDERFUL time in China - one of my favorite places to travel and work!  It really makes you focus on the fascinations life, not the turmoil of diets!

As for that mirror and scale, I have taken a new approach which is helping me a little: I try to remember that no matter how much or how little I eat in one day, my weight is not going to vary as much as my attitude.  So I get up in the morning and say “today I am the perfect size I need to be”  and “Today I am the perfect weight I need to be.”

After all, the only way I could realistically wake up 15 pounds lighter in the morning than when I went to bed would have been to cut my arm off in my sleep.  Or my head.

Ha.  Water and apples. What I do not comprehend, and probably never will, is why so many of my otherwise QUITE reasonable friends think that this is an appropriate way to think about food.  And did any one of them do a single internet search to try to find evidence of this thing being legit or not?  Cause I did and what I found was pretty eye opening.

I was just having a conversation with a friend here yesterday about how very much food all these skinny Chinese women can consume without gaining weight.  “It just isn’t fair!” was sort of her cry.  I thought, “I know why they can do it.”

I like China.  It is a bit overwhelming to my introverted soul sometimes, but I enjoy it.  Chinese food is great.  I’m a little rusty with my chopsticks, but it’s getting better daily. 

Matty, I don’t want to have to cut off an arm or anything, but it is distressing to gain 30 pounds in 4 months - because I’m pretty sure that’s where I’m at right now.  I’m at a place where hanging on and trusting that things will eventually change is challenge.  But what am I going to do?  Go on the HCG diet?  Not likely!!

Annual, thanks for praying.  I surely do need it.  I dumped my contact lenses down the sink because I forgot they were IN the case because I wasn’t wearing them…  They are now lost forever in the Xian sewer system.  After that, I just went to bed figuring that today had to be a better day.  Fortunately, I’ve got my glasses with me.

:)