Dorrie:

I just this second saw this post. I've been on other forums and taking care of Alan. He has to keep off of his foot.

Guess what I did for myself today?? I bought a belt. Never wore a belt in over 45 years. Don't remember if I EVER bought a belt. You should have seen my face when I took the belt off of the belt rack at my local Mandees.

It had 3 buckles, it's a wide stretch belt And the size was M/L.

Since I have always worn a 1X most of my life (sometiems a 2X). well, when you get to wear ANYTHING that is a M/L well, you get the giggles. They must have thought I lost my mind in that store. I tried it on. It fit. I bought it

Now you want to know how I control my eating??

Let me begin with my take on why we are chubby, obese, morbidly obese, or just plain anorexic.

It's all a habit. When you get used to thinking a certain way, it becomes ingrained in your mind. AND EVERYTHING IS IN THE MIND.

Not the fanny, or the hips, or the thighs.

IT STARTS WITH THE WAY WE THINK.

And when we snack, some of us don't know when to stop. Why?? because it's a habit. When we are used to sitting in front of the tv, and putting chips and dips, and anything else into our minds, we do it blindly. It's like lighting up a cigarette and then quitting after years and years. What does one do with the hand when there is no cigarette in it??

I never changed the way I thought about food. I just used it to make myself feel good. I call it self-medicating with food.

I never knew what had white flour, what had whole grains, what was better for the body, seafood, or red meat?? I never asked any questions BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER.

And I never looked at my body. Just my face. I always had a pretty face. But when you self medicate with food and people say "oh you should lose weight", what does the mind do? The mind gets mad because someone dared to tell you to lose weight.

I wasn't ready to lose weight all those years ago. I just put my hand into the bag of chips, brought the chips to my mouth, and as I ate the chips (substitute ice cream, cupcakes, anything that makes you FEEL GOOD), well, who cared if it raised my sugar, who cared if it had loads of fat????

NOT ME.

I was uneducated in healthy eating. I knew that if I ate that bag of Doritos, all my problems would go away. Well the problems didn't go away. In fact they got worse, because I got fatter. I went up to a size 24 1/2.

Do you know how big a dress is when it's a 24 1/2??? It's big, let me tell you.

Even looking at the dress didn't do it for me. I wasn't ready. And no matter how many people tell you to lose weight, you WON'T LOSE IT UNTIL YOU ADMIT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH FOOD, AND YOU WANT TO CHANGE.

Just watch a few episodes of the Biggest Loser. These people literally change their lives, their health status and they have to get used to a whole new way of life.

So I got my lightbulb moment years ago when Alan and went to a nutritionist. I had given up the Red Meat years before. I ate turkey burgers, I knew not to eat too many egg yolks. But I was stuck at the last 50 lbs or so. I had lost weight but I was in my 50's and the metabolism changes, and I was on oral diabetes meds, and that changes the body also.

I learned portion control. I learned about the healthy benefits of using Extra virgin Olive Oil. Not a lot, just a splash. But it's a healthy fat.

I don't fry. I use PAM to spray the pan and then nothing sticks.

I don't eat anything white. No refined sugars. I wish I could juice but when you are a diabetic, well you have to be careful.

You also have to find what foods are good for you and what foods are bad for you. There's the glycemic index thing but YOU KNOW THAT. We all know that.

It's not that we don't know, it's that we CAN'T APPLY WHAT WE KNOW, because we got into the habit of sitting down in front of the tv and reaching for that bag of chips (substitute anything you want instead of the chips).

Overweight people (most of them anyway), do not eat because they are hungry. If that were the case, eating a handful of nuts, or a piece of fruit should stave off the hunger.

No, it's the cravings. It's the habit of giving in to those cravings. That's when all the problems. start.

I made one major change. I had a friend who was dying. (This is absolutely what happened). I made a vow that if she didn't suffer, I would never eat past 7 p.m. at night. I kept to my word. I lost her last year. But, by then, I had gotten so used to NOT eating after 7 p.m. every night, that I probably would throw up if someone had me eat a meal at night.

My body got used to eating this way. I MADE A NEW HABIT.

It's all about the mind and the habits. You can't completely stop a habit. You just change it for another habit.

So what did I do?? I changed my eating habits.

I went from unheathy eating to healthy eating.

I also changed my perception of what goes into my body. I read labels. Never did that years ago. I dont' use aspartame. That puts on weight, especially if you are diabetic. I learned to like the taste of fish. I like vegetables.

I actually like to put a bowlful of green salad, with radishes, little grape tomatoes, some grated zucchini, and any other raw veggie that you have in the house. then I add some slices of grilled chicken, put a splash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a dash of fresh ground pepper, and a bit of a low sodium product called Salt Sense.

To me, this is the best lunch I can eat. All those colors, all that chlorophyll, well I imagine it going into my body, and helping my body. It's fiber, it's vitamins, it's nutrients.

When you start to eat like this, IT BECOMES WAY OF LIFE.

I could no longer go back to eating fried chicken, pizza, porterhouse steaks and fries, than I could change my gender.

It's now a way of life for me. I now look at food as nourishment for my body.

I never did this in my life.

And once in a while, instead of that salad for lunch, I treat myself to a bowl of won ton egg drop mix for lunch. It satisfies me and it's a treat.

We had friends in from Jersey about a month ago. I bought bags of chips. Two bags. I put the chips in a nice bowl and put the on the table. I had never eaten one of them. It was a garlic chedder sort of thing.

I tasted it. I remembered all those years ago doing this (eating a whole bag) at night in front of the tv and just vegetating.

When the company left, I put all the chips back in the bag, sealed it up, and put them in the cabinet. They are still there, still sealed, and I have ABSOLUTELY NO DESIRE TO OPEN THEM UP.

Because I know that if I put that in my body, when I wake up tomorrow morning, my sugar reading will be high, and I already have diabetic neuropathy so I DON'T WANT ANY MORE PROBLEMS.

It's all in how you perceive food.

I used to live to eat. I now eat to live.

Is it simple? Of course not. My husband still has cravings. and he has to deal with them.

I am extremely lucky. I have been able to completely change my outlook on food and beverage. I drink filtered water. I don't do desserts. I don't do any refined or processed foods. I was a work in progress. This DID NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT.

I once read that 95% of dieters put the weight on. I used to be in that 95 percentile years ago because I was a yo-yo dieter.

But that is not me anymore.

I once went to a relative's house for a party. You should have seen the stuff they laid out. The wraps, the snacks. On the table there were 7 bowls of various pretzels, chips, dips, M&M's, etc. Chocolate this and Chocolate that.

Want to know what excited me? They had this HUGE SALAD BOWL with all my usual greens and stuff. I said to Alan. "oh look at this". He laughed and said: "I know you're happy"

But guess what they had in the salad?? Something I had never tried before. CRAISINS. My god, it changed the whole taste of the salad.

I had some. I never enjoyed a salad so much in my life.

Of course, I couldn't go out and buy them because they are very high carbs. But for that party, I enjoyed myself. And yeah, I had exactly 5 chips.

The old me would have just ate everything in sight. My brain now works differently. It knows what I can put in my body and what I can't.

And along with this eating is exercise. Don't walk when you can run, and dont' drive when you can walk. I walk everywhere. When my arthritis allows that is. I have very bad arthritis, sciatica, etc.

But I noticed that if I move, I MOVE BETTER.

So this along with a completely different way of viewing food, well, I lost more weight. I now have about 30 more to go.

I'll do it. I might hit 65 by the time I do it. But I'll guarantee you, I'll be in various belts and pretty skirts. To me, this is a bonus. Getting to wear nice stuff. Never could do that before.

Honestly, it's all about my health now. My brain now KNOWS. It didn't know before.

IT DOES NOW!!!

I hope I have helped to show you that if I can lose weight ANYBODY CAN!!!

It took me close to 4 years to lose 40 lbs. Anyone else would have shot themselves in the head.

But I GOT USED TO NOT EATING AT NIGHT. I got used TO NOT EATING RED MEAT. I got USED TO EATING SALADS EVERY DAY.

It's the habits. If we can change our habits, we can change our diets.

Make one little change. Don't keep anything in the house that you know is a trigger. Put the stuff that is good. If it's not around you, you wont' get tempted. Alan is like this. I can't have any more 100 calorie snack packs in the house. He would eat them all night. I stopped buying them. He just went into the fridge and got himself an orange. I CAN'T EAT ORANGES BUT HE CAN!!!

And I know that most diabetics have to eat before they go to bed or their sugar reading will go down the next morning. (I don't have this problem, thank goodness). Find out what snack you can have that won't elevate your sugar. Some protein (maybe a little piece of grilled chicken). I know I know, you are thinking "BUT I LIKE CEREAL".

It doesn't like YOU, believe me on that.


And you can pm me anytime.

Baby Steps my dear. Baby Steps. You'll get there.

Take care,

Melody