Posts by alyshiadavies

You could eat celery stalks all day, but that would be yucky.  Instead, do what you can to satisfy your hunger by having tons of vegetables, cooked with lots of seasoning (including, if you like, a little meat or cheese - I use both strong sausage and pungeant cheese to season my food - a little bit goes a long way).  The veggies, properly cooked, will keep your stomach full longer because of all the fiber, and the little bit of fat will help your brain feel more satisfied with the food itself.  Like I say, a little bit goes a long way, but is very satisfying.  As to never being hungry, it's not natural to never be hungry.  The human body is designed to start feeling hungry when the last meal is almost finished digesting.  This warns the prehistoric cave human (who doesn't have access to food stored in a fridge or restaurant) that he should go russel up something to eat soon. The way the body is designed it expects to wait a couple of hours before the food is actually forthcoming.  Unless you have blood pressure issues there's no reason hunger should be so scary.  It doesn't hurt.  It's not really unpleasant, and if it becomes unpleasant, by all means, eat something healthy and above all yummy.  You'll never stop eating if all you ever eat is celery  - unless of course the celery is filled with cream cheese.
BTW  I myself lost 130 pounds and have kept it off by gathering little tidbits of info just like this one.  I am putting together a blog about my experiences as we speak.  Check it out: http//:getalegupforlife.blogspot.com

It's OK it's OK.  You're doing a great thing just by asking for help.  I was in the same situation at the exact same age and just tried to work it out by myself.  I have only just put things right between myself and my body, and maybe I can help save you some of the trouble I've gone through. 

Stress eating isn't weird or bad, it's normal, and to an extent even helpful for your body to deal with things.  As long as it's not something you do first.  In other words there are 3 ways to deal with problems and crisis like the one you are going through:  You can problem solve, you can self soothe in a healthy way, or you can do some unhealthy self soothing that is instantly gratifying.

When you problem solve, you look at different aspect so the problem and seek a solution.  It sounds like you're working on this, which is great.  A lot of people with weight problems routinely skip this and move right on to emotional eating.  Unfortunately not every problem can be immediately solved, and in order to cope you have to self soothe.  There are lots of healthy ways to do this.  Find out what makes you feel relaxed and happy - a bath, a cup of tea (for me it's decaf coffee), a book - you might try expressing your emotions through art or jounaling - these are two particularly healthy ways to self soothe because they also involve self expression of emotions.  Unexpressed, undealt with emotions often manifest themselves in physical ways, such as weight gain, so journaling, art, and best of all talking with friends and family members is a great way to deal with them. 

Finally, you can do things that involve instant gratification, but try to keep them to a minimum and try to problem solve or healthy self soothe as your first and second resorts.  You may find you don't even need that piece of cake now you've worked on a solution to your problem and had a nice phone call with gramma. 

After all, nothing's more helpful than Gramma.  By the way, I'm recording all my experiences in a blog that deals with my own 130 pound weight loss, and the final solution  to my life long struggle.  Give it a read.  Maybe it will save you some anguish.  Http//:getalegupforlife.blogspot.com

Good luck sweetheart. 

a plateau shouldn't naturally last more than a couple of weeks.  If it's longer than that, try to look at what you are doing or not doing.  It could be that your body weight has put you down another notch calorie wise (in other words you are burning fewer calories because you weigh less, and you have balance rather than deficit).   I could also be ghost food - the food you don't notice because you eat it standing up, or drink it in the form of a latte (yes, even non-fat half caf sugar free has calories) or just have a nibble and a dash.  Try noting down every thing you eat in a journal for a week or so.  even if you just take a tiny bit of a grocery store sample - you'll probably find that either you slip out of that plateau because you stop eating all those things (so you don't have to write them down) or you stay on the plateau but realize how much they are adding up to. 

If not, there could be a medical reason.  Try the journal first, it's the most likely (as Dr. House would say if you hear hooves look for a horse before you look for a Zebra). 

http://getalegupforlife.blogspot.com/2009/11/ not-doomed.html

I started running just above 200 pounds.  The biggest losers are running right from the starting gate.  There's nothing to exclude you from it as long as you run within your capacity (don't over do it).  The knee issues really only arise when you have been running way above a healthy weight for a long period of time on a regular basis, or if you run too long distances at a certain BMI range. There's actually a condition especially prevalent in women who run more than 8 miles and are BMI of 21 - egads, 21!  But other than that there's no reason why not. Unless you already have knee problems.

http://getalegupforlife.blogspot.com/

That's so awesome.  Respect.

http://getalegupforlife.blogspot.com/

Woah!  Cool down there pardner.  The first thing to do is not stress about it.  Don't forget all the stress you put on your body (in the form of exercise as well as anxiety over not losing enough) can cause it to become bloated, constipated and otherwise out of whack, therefore making the problems worse.    So the first step is just relax for a sec.  Then sit back and take an accounting.  A lot of times what trips us up isn't what we know we're eating, it's what we don't know.  You weigh your food, but I find when I gain or maintain, it's because I am training for a marathon, and all the exercising is dropping my blood sugar.  My body is taking that as a cue to eat, and since I am trying to get down to a healthy race weight, I don't want to.  My body is still telling me to eat, so eventually it can drive me to little bites of things here and there - a sip of milk when I'm getting my morning pumpkin out of the fridge.  A hand full of nuts when I'm reaching for the whole grain flour to make my tortillas.  Keep a journal for a while and see if there is some invisible ghost food showing up that you're not counting.  Rather than restrict yourself even more, really take an account.  And next time you eat, make sure you are treating yourself with enough kindness to sit down and enjoy your food rather than popping it in your mouth without thinking. 

If you are totally able to cut out ghost eating, taking notes on what you do eat, and still not losing weight, it might be time to do something nutritionally to help yourself.  Talk to a doctor about righting your electrolytes, try a healthy (not unhealthy like some of these fad things out there) detox program (for instance a colon cleanse or sth - there are plenty out there with more or less good reviews - you can buy them sometimes on Amazon where the reviews really are genuine).

Good luck. 

I have lost 120 pounds so I have learned one or two practical things on the journey.

"Am I a straight glutton or what?"  Oh dear.  I have read so much about diet fatigue and binging.  The worst thing in the world is for you to go a little nuts (everybody goes a little nuts on "forbidden foods" after a diet), then start saying things to yourself like that you are a glutton, get frustrated with yourself, start feeling guilty, ashamed, whatever and then eat some more, start thinking, oh, what the hell, I busted my diet, might as well just do whatever. 

What you need to do is say, I had fun.  The going nuts I did while on vacation will help stop the cravings and impulses I have from the diet induced depravation.  Now I can focus back to my healthy lifestyle (eating normally, allowing myself a snickers bar when I really, really want one, but staying otherwise sane and being very, very good to myself by eating good food that tastes good).  The pounds I put on during my vacation will be just as challenging to take off as the ones I took off before that, but if I did it once I can do it again.

I gained 5 pounds once on a long weekend with some old friends of mine from my 277 pounds days.  It was the end of my diet when I was thinking like crazy about food all the time.  I ate whatever I wanted totally on impulse, hungry or no.

The next week I got refocussed.  I had stopped thinking about forbidden foods, because that weekend had demystified them.  I've lost that 5 pounds since then, and another 4 pounds to boot!  What is more?  I have done it while being able to eat the occasional pizza, have a cookie for dessert once in a while, and even an ice cream sundae.  My cravings are gone.  I'm thinking of a thousand things, none of which have to do with food, and I'm still losing weight.

The one thing I didn't do was say, "Oh No!! I've failed.  Might as well throw in the towel because I'm doomed to be fat [insert self loathing, negative self talk here]."  Instead, I replaced that with, "Baby I lost 130 pounds.  5 pounds is about the smallest boogie man I've ever seen. It'll be a breeze getting it back off, because it's not all-or-nothing and it doesn't have to be perfect and I've proven I can and will do what ever I set out to."

Now say that to yourself instead of wondering whether there's something wrong with you.  There's plenty right with you, too.

Yay.