I'm so fat and fed up. I want to be healthy

I'm so fed up with the way I look.  I'm 5ft3, 150 pounds and a UK 12-14.  A year and a half ago I was under 8 stone and size 8s were loose.  I know my eating habits aren't healthy.  I was eating 200-300 calories a day.  Now I binge eat.  I really don't know how to stop.  I want to lose weight again but I want to be healthy.

Any idea how I can do this?  I know what I need to do in terms of food but it's getting my head in a place to do this

Talk to your family and ask for advice. Always remember that you are never alone. Consult a dietician if necessary.

Sub 8 stone was never your real weight.... it was being artificially maintained by starving.   Now you're eating more and your body is reacting quite normally for one that is recovering from starvation... it's storing the extra energy as fat.

To be healthy you need to find a happy medium.  Weight-control and good health is very simply about eating well, watching the portions, and being active.  You don't need to get your head in any place, you just need to have some structure to your life. i.e. a sound idea of a reasonable calorie intake, a good selection of foods, regular meals/snacks and some kind of activity.  Think it through in advance and then follow through.   Learn as you go along.

The reasonable calorie intake will mean you're getting enough to eat.... very important..  The good selection of healthy foods means you're well-nourished and you'll feel satisfied eating slightly less than normal.  The regular meals/snacks mean your energy levels stay high so you are a lot less likely to overeat/binge.  The activity will keep your metabolism lively which makes weight-control easier.

BUT.... Should you find that calorie-counting, weighing yourself or any of that means you feel like reverting to your old habits you must stop straight away.  With a history of disordered eating you may need to refer to your doctor if it's too difficult to go it alone.  

You've got the first step!!!! ACCEPTANCE

That takes a lot of will power.  You have it in you, now that you have accepted the mistakes of the past.  

Now time to invest on your desire:

I agree with gi-jane (as i almost always do) because it is what works for you.  So starting out with this site is one of the best steps to take.  Use all the tools such as the Calorie Count - Food Log and Activity Log.  It is all easy to do.

Remember how you felt when you crashed-diet, and take it from many of us here in this site, you need to eat and fuel yourself WELL and excersice to maintain a very healthy and positive lifestyle. 

Always get help from others (if you need to consult respective professionals) but remember that you still have to decide and act on it - you can't blame others for what you have done. 

Just as Morpheus from the 'Matrix' movie said, "I can only show you the door".

We (all the support group you can get) can only give you ideas, but you have to walk the walk. 

Lots of luck and never give up!!!

I just wanted to say that my Mom is 5'3 too, she was a UK 16 and 174lbs.  Over the last 6 months I have watched her transform herself into a tiny size 10 thing at 142lbs.  She looks amazing, really healthy.  I know she couldn;t have done it without the help of a support group.  her's was weight watchers but I think anything / anyone that will keep you motivated is worth hanging on to.

She never went under 1400 calories, she goes to the gym 3 times a week for an hour, she's not a mad work-out-aholic, she has just become a bit more active.  She;s an inspiration and proof that if you really want something it is possible.

Good Luck.

At your heighth and weight you are not too far from your ideal weight! Really! So take heart in knowing that you will soon be where you want to be. The sooner YOU take action (monitor what you eat and exercise a bit---maybe start lifting weights) the sooner you will get there. YOU can DO IT! Once you lose the first 5-10 pounds (usually the easiest!) you will start to feel better about how you look and your clothes with fit better -- or you may need a smaller size! Then you only have another 10 pounds or so to go! Think of how much harder it is when you have 35 (like sunnybra's mom) or 50 or more pounds to lose--you only have what, 20 or so? Like the Nike ad says.... just do it! 

Ok I dont know your age but here are my stats I think we're similar in size. Im 22, 5'2 and 140-ish(i've been bouncing between 139 and 142 the past month) I started at 157 a year ago at my last doctors visit. Im not going crazy losing weight, i got back down to a size 7(US) in jeans and my goal weight is 130 cause thats when I felt healthiest. I will give you examples of my eating style.

Let see, you binge eat so lets look at that. What are you eating? When are you eating? how about taking a look at your food menu. Best thing is to buy your food at a grocery store (Farmers market, bucher shop, where ever).  Start with easy recipes to cook with. Chicken is the easiest. If I have large chicken breast then I'll slice them in half so it saves on cooking time. Thin chicken cutlets take no more than approx. 10 min in a 375 oven. For flavor, you can keep to just herbs instead of oily marinades or make ur own marinade w. simple ingrediants, like a basic one would be salt,pepper, lemon juice, white cooking wine, and garlic. Herbs you can add salt pepper italian seasoning and a light dash of paprika. For this meal Add a big pile of some kind of veggie and a cup of brown rice. For snacks have raw veggies, fruits, almonds, yogurt w. granola. Breakfast is important of course. I love wheaties with milk or hearty wheat english muffins or mulitgrain bagels with a small amount of cream cheese. Its usually enough for me but you can add strawberries or bananas to your cereal, add a yogurt to go along the side.  Do you buy lunch at work? for lunch, I usually will pack left overs from the night before and eat them the next day, or I will stick to tuna,crackers, and fruit or a veggie. We have a george forman mini grill at work and we grill chicken sometimes.

see the recipes topic on this site. It has great ideas for snacks and meals. This is just a basic menu that I usually follow.

Excersise Im bad for. Id probably be at my goal weight if I went to the gym 3-4 times a week. If you dont like excersising in public. Nintendo wii and the wii fit is a great thing. I got a lot of muscel deffinition from working out on that.

listen to everyone eles above cause they have great advice. Especially Gi-jane.

If you want to talk more and have any questions about how I go along with my daily routine please ask.

I'm not so good with going through the emotions behind eating or not eating.  My mothers Ana so I think I'm scewed in my views anyway but I do have some fall back recipies for when I'm starving but my calories are used up for the day.

Eat more stirfry - start with oil & garlic in a pan over medium heat.  Add the entire bag of frozen vegis.  Cook & if you want add an oz of shreeded low fat cheeze. 

Drink more coolaid - sometimes you just want something sweet & 32 oz of coolaid is the best darn thing that can happen to you!  lol

When in doubt have a protein shake.  Fills you up.  Very portable.

The stirfry is a great thing. Get some whole grain pasta to go with it. At my food store they sell the small pieces of chicken (they sometimes have beef) and veggie combos. But yea start of with oil garlic and soy sauce. the peppers and onions from you veggies will give more flavor. Cook the veggies before you cook the chicken. Dont good together they have different cook times. I love using chili oil when making stir fry b.c I love spicy food. Also if you never heard spicy food does help speed up you metabolism, such things like cayenne pepper, tabasco sauce, ect. The bag of frozen veggies is great to use also with the stir fry if you can only get the precut chicken. Get powdered ginger or real ginger to add so you get a terryaki flavor. then just add black pepper, no salt cause the soy sauce already has salt in it..... I now know what Im making for dinner saturday. Yum!

Im not too sure about the coolaid. I would think that to have alot of sugar. I like sugar free jolly ranchers, they taste slightly different but still have that sweet/sour punch as the originals. Or strawberries and light whip cream.