depressed/over eating/bad choices/chronic pain

[Pats]

I am recently recovering from a long depression and a long time of making poor eating choices. I developed a bad chronic back pain about 6 years ago that has really limited my ability to excersices. Thus, I stopped trying to eat right and just ate whatever and when my depression kicked in and worsened I began badly over eating.

Now I am at my all time worse weight, just exploding in fat. However, my depression is getting better as I have started taking better care of myself again in other ways that were also lacking during the depression. Now I am becoming encouraged that I want to do something about my weight, but it is hard with my back pain and my living situation. I live with a room mate who does all the dinner planning and most of the grocery shopping and we're all on a shoe string budget.

Anyway, I must find a way to make myself start making better choices, decreasing my portions, cutting out unhealthy snacks, and at least adding frequent walks to my life style or I'm going to start running into some health risks. Not to mention what being at this size is doing to my self esteem.

Any thoughts or prayers appreciated.

 

[scraparcs]

I would offer to be a buddy, and will, but you could probably use a model more reliable than the Lel.

We could always go to dinner somewhere healthy, hehehe

 

[Soulwings]

I'm sorry to hear about the chronic pain - that's got to be something that's really hard to live with. But there are ways to lose weight, even with limited exercise.

As far as eating goes, healthy food is slightly more expensive, but by decreasing portions, it would probably cost about the same. Eating balanced meals, with an increase in protein and decrease in carbs (although I am not suggesting going on a no-carb diet - your body needs the carbs just as much as it needs everything else) would be a good plan. Eat small meals, and in between the meals allow yourself a small snack - a fruit (any small fruit, or a half cup of juice) or some protein like yoghurt (I love yoghurt ) - but make sure that you avoid carb cramming. You probably will have cravings for carbs, so allow yourself to eat them sometimes, but whenever you are hungry or mouth-hungry, don't go for carbs, go for protein. Protein raises your metabolism and with a higher basal metabolic rate, you will lose weight, even if you can't exercise loads.

All of this I learned in treatment this summer, so I'm really not just making it up off the top of my head. It's a diet that I live by.

What type/amount of exercise can you do?

And I wanted to say that I'm glad that your depression is getting better. That's definitely encouraging!! As far as self esteem goes ... for every negative thing you think about your body, you've got to think something positive. I learned in treatment as well that the mind often plays a large role in what your body does. It may sound strange, but the more you appreciate your body and take care of it, the better it will "behave" for you and do what you want it to do.

I hope some of that rambling helped. And I'm always here if you want/need to talk.

 

[Lissagirl]

Pat, I can identify with what you are going through, and I will pray for you. I will pray for you to find the strength you need right now to make the better choices and follow through. *hugs*

 

[Pats]

I would offer to be a buddy, and will, but you could probably use a model more reliable than the Lel.

We could always go to dinner somewhere healthy, hehehe

I'm sure we could both support eachother, seeing as how I already do consider you a buddy/friend anyways. And, yeah, we could go out for something that hasn't been fried in dough, lol.

I'm sorry to hear about the chronic pain - that's got to be something that's really hard to live with. But there are ways to lose weight, even with limited exercise.

As far as eating goes, healthy food is slightly more expensive, but by decreasing portions, it would probably cost about the same. Eating balanced meals, with an increase in protein and decrease in carbs (although I am not suggesting going on a no-carb diet - your body needs the carbs just as much as it needs everything else) would be a good plan. Eat small meals, and in between the meals allow yourself a small snack - a fruit (any small fruit, or a half cup of juice) or some protein like yoghurt (I love yoghurt ) - but make sure that you avoid carb cramming. You probably will have cravings for carbs, so allow yourself to eat them sometimes, but whenever you are hungry or mouth-hungry, don't go for carbs, go for protein. Protein raises your metabolism and with a higher basal metabolic rate, you will lose weight, even if you can't exercise loads.

All of this I learned in treatment this summer, so I'm really not just making it up off the top of my head. It's a diet that I live by.

What type/amount of exercise can you do?

And I wanted to say that I'm glad that your depression is getting better. That's definitely encouraging!! As far as self esteem goes ... for every negative thing you think about your body, you've got to think something positive. I learned in treatment as well that the mind often plays a large role in what your body does. It may sound strange, but the more you appreciate your body and take care of it, the better it will "behave" for you and do what you want it to do.

I hope some of that rambling helped. And I'm always here if you want/need to talk.

Thank you. That's along the lines of what I've been thinking. It's just puting it into action, planning what to eat and how to manage meals at work, and sticking to it! The latter, I think, will be the hardest for me of all.

I agree that when we carry ourselves better and think more positively the outcomes will always be better.

For excercise, even walking is difficult, but it's something I want to work on. Swiming is easiest, but I think I'm going to have to join a gym with a pool to make that happen since I don't have access to one.

Pat, I can identify with what you are going through, and I will pray for you. I will pray for you to find the strength you need right now to make the better choices and follow through. *hugs*

Thanks.

 

[scraparcs]

Yeah -- my cell phone is kind of between numbers now but when I can get this sorted out, let me know!

 

[Pats]

let me know when you get things sorted out, Lel