I would consider myself a food addict in the way some are drunks or junkies. I HAVE to have food. It makes my day. It makes my life. I eat when I'm sad to cheer myself up. I eat when I'm happy to celebrate! I love to eat. I don't eat because I'm hungry, I eat because I like food, and it's good. Appetite suppressants wouldn't work for me, because I eat when I'm not hungry. I don't believe in the 'lifestyle modifacation' and 'change your eating habits' crap because no one is going to convince me I don't like chocolate, greasy burgers, gooey cheese, mayonnaise and pasta. I do, and I want to eat them. The taste of them makes my life more enjoyable. To think that I'd have to live the rest of my life on tasteless 'lowfat' foods, steamed or raw vegetables and water I'd just as soon keel over now.
So- do I have a weight problem? No! I eat, I get fat, no problem! LOL! Okay seriously, this is the story: when I was a teenager I was one of those girls who could eat anything and everything and it just didn't stick. I was naturally a good size. But as I got older, it stuck to me faster. Over several years, I had gone from 125 (I'm 5'6" and I was skinny) to 189. My Mom said I had really changed my 'look' and didn't look like myself. She said I looked like someone stuck a tire pump up by butt and blew me up, and she wanted to stick a pin in me like a balloon and let out all the excess air so I'd look like myself again!
My brother had been heavy since childhood, and he went on a diet and lost 50 pounds in three months. I said, if he can do it, so can I. I did! I lost down to 139, which was a good size for me and I was proud. I didn't want to be a bag of bones, just smaller. People who saw me couldn't believe it and told me not to lose more because my face was looking sunk in and my arms were boney. The air was out of the balloon at last.
How did I do it? I ate 1000 calories a day, regardless of what it was. If it was a double cheeseburger at 750 calories, I knew I could only have a bowl of cereal the rest of the day. After I started losing, it was okay to 'cheat' once every week to ten days and chow right on down at the buffet and it didn't show. Once in awhile does not hurt, don't deprive yourself or it will only make you feel more hopeless and wanting to give up. That is what made me give up in the past, all those diets that wanted you to weigh your broccolli on a little scale, or give you points in a book and then you only lose one or two pounds a week. Uh-uh. I needed to see results for my suffering! My cousin lost 110 pounds in six months the same way. Oh, I also walked, and rode a bike for exercize, but I never went to classes or joined any clubs and I never bought any how-to tapes. One more thing, and this is gross- my brother and I satisfied our taste for sweets with what he called the "Clinton Diet"- you know how Clinton said he smoked but didn't inhale? Well this was eating and not swallowing. No, I don't mean bullimia. I mean, bite it, chew it up, get the taste of it in your mouth, and spit it out. As disgusting as that may sound, it works, because you don't feel deprived of that glazed donut and you don't have to let your eyes water at the sight of German chocolate cake. You feel satisfied because your mouth got the flavor and the chewing, but the calories never hit your stomach. I'm telling you, this worked, and I couldn't have lost the weight without it.
Still, I love food. After staying slim for four years, I took up with a group of friends who liked to eat out. I ate, and I ate, and it was in places where there were big meals and I couldn't "Clinton" anything. Then I got back into snacking on donuts and cake at night. After two years of this, I had regained almost all the weight. But, I lost it again, with U2 as my inspiration. When I heard they were touring, in Jan. 2001, I thought, I can do this again, so I won't be fat at the shows. By May I was wearing my cool jeans again. It worked!
But- since the tour has ended, and I have become very depressed for several reasons and very addicted to the internet (duh!) I am starting to pack it back on. I haven't gained it all, but enough that I can't wear hardly any of my clothes, and my mom is calling me fat again. (BTW, all my siblings and their spouses have or have had some sort of weight problem, but I am the only one she has ever made fun of or criticizes) So for me, not for my Mom, or my husband, or U2, but for me, I'm going to try to fit into my cool outfits again by summer. Wish me luck, and good luck to everyone on this thread, no matter who you are or how you feel or what you want to do. And, yes, I know yo-yo dieting is VERY unhealthy. Maybe this will be the last time, but probably not.