"People Don't Fail. Diet's Do" - discuss (Page 2)

I had almost the exact same experience....My doctor made me cry when I was 12 by telling me I was fat.  My whole family is very big anyways...tall broad shouldered and most of them are over weight, (I joking say that my parent should not have bred).  It has permiated every aspect of my life.  For those that don't understand...compulsive over eating, isnt just like having McD every day or every once in a while.  An example (some people have already heard this from me before, and know that it is hard for me to tell, but I think people need to know what it is like) of what I go through when I binge, I will buy 2, 1 pound bags of cookies at the grocery store at lunch...eat 1/2 of one bag...take the rest of one bag home and share them with SO, telling him I got them at work.  Later, I would sneak down to my car and eat the whole other bag.  After eating a full meal.  I would not be hungry when I did this, I did it because I have an emotional connection with the food and needed it.  The whole time I am sneaking the food I am furious with myself and sometimes crying because I cannot control it.  After doing this almost everyday, I stop feeling like working out, because its useless.  All self esteem and motivation disapates, and you are left only with the emotional need for the food.  It disgusts you and at the same time you need it.  It is the only thing that makes you feel anything.  You try to rationalize it, but you know deep down that there is not rational explaination of what you are doing.  Coworkers and friends, who don't understand, tease and offer you food...saying things like, comeone you can have just 1 peice of chocolate...what they don't understand, is that to a binge eater, there is no such thing as 1 peice of chocolate.  Once you gain control, there is the constant fear that if you eat anything that is a trigger, then you will loose control again and start binging.  This is where the fear of walking through the grocery store really becomes difficult.  This is really on my mind right now, because I am just coming off of a binge, where in just a few weeks I gained 15 lbs.  Which isn't the worse I have ever gone...

I cannot speak for those who have stated they are compulsive over eaters, but this is what I go through everyday.  And then I read a post where people make it sound so easy to just "take control" of your life again.  And I wish when saying that they could tell me how.  How do I do that?  When I see an obese person, it scares me.  Not because they are obese, or for their own mortality, but because I know I am one very small step from being them. 

Ok...I am really behind on work...and I have said far too much as it is. 

"Diet's" don't work ...... as has been mentioned.  They are a poor temporary solution to a bigger problem.

Lifestyle changes, nutritional habits, and excercise work ........ hence the reason a lot of people are here on BT and successful!!

I agree with your premise:  some healthy food can be pretty cheap.   Beans/legumes in general.  A pound of lentils is, what, 69 cents?  Yes you have to pay extra for fresh veggies, but you can find them cheap too if you're not super picky.  (Huge bunch of mustard greens:  99 cents.  Can you get any healthier than that?)  Tonight I'm making a big batch of vegetarian chili - even with the shortcut of using canned beans, all of the onions/tofu/beans/tomatoes/chili powder probably costing me little more than $1 a serving.  Bell peppers might bump that up.  Dried beans would have made it cheaper.

The trouble is, to eat like that, you have to know how to COOK.  Plus, it helps to NOT have a taste for processed foods.  People who have grown up on frozen pizza, pop tarts, and fast food have trouble with both unless some kind of big re-training occurs.  "Diets" that encourage the consumption of "reduced-fat" processed meals don't help with this.

And runningwoof:  thanks for letting us know about your battle.  You are doubtless not the only one here so affected.

parodixically, I think a lot of unhealthy food taste like junk also.  I could get fat and happy eating heart healthy cashews.

as we all know - the trick is moderation.  Diet (in the common cultural sense) aren't moderation but rather are starvation. 

Well, one man's trash and so forth... but I actually prefer the kind of food I cook to most other food.  Sure, if I go to a nice restaurant where each entree gets its own stick of butter, it tastes great once in a while... but I wouldn't want it every day, you know?  And other restaurant food just leaves a lot to be desired.  More "manufactured" by combining certain pre-prepped things than "cooked" fresh together.

And then there's chocolate.  So I do like unhealthy food too, just not for the main meal. 

I totally support everyone's point of view on this thread, and would like to further add my gratitude to Runningwoof for being so honest.

I spent several years puking my meals, but never once put my finger down my throat to do it. I am able to 'bounce'  food, and can vomit on demand, which is what I had got into the habit of doing. I was self-aware enough to tell my doctor that I thought I was a headcase, and she tested me for everything medical under the sun before she resorted to agreeing with me! She was amazing, and because of her proactive stance and the counselling that she sorted for me, I got through that, and stopped the habitual self-hate stuff. It's incredibly powerful, but I still feel stupid when I tell people about it. That's my lasting scar really.

Part of the deal with doing my first (and so far only!) tri was to honour myself by treating myself better. I now have a totally different view on eating, and I think the whole issue of diets was encapsulated in this thread; a diet is viewed as a temporary  measure. It is ridiculous to assume that you can return to doing what you've always done food-wise afterwards and expect to get different results. As said in earlier posts, lifestyle changes and attitude adjustments are what's needed, and some addressing of your emotional attachment to food and the act of eating.

So, maybe the billboard should read: People Don't Fail. Diets Do. But Sometimes The People Selling The Diet Need To Tell You More About What To Do Afterwards To Not Turn Back Into The Goodyear Blimp. Or The Diet Really Will Fail.

Not quite so catchy though, is it!

Ha ha ha ha ha....LOL...