I have been overweight my entire life. I am 23 now and would like to change it but I often use food as comfort for other things such as stress from school, work, and home. I am a single mom and I don't have a lot of time to go workout plus I have a 2 year old who I don't want to see get fat. I'd like to change for myself and for her. Any suggestions?
I don't know if you are overweight to the point of health implications or if you are seeing yourself as overweight and you are near your ideal weight. But I DO KNOW that eating for comfort or stress is the biggest reason most people are overweight. Another reason for weight gain is not taking the time to care for your self first, which can be hard to do if you are a single mom with a 2 year old. When we don't take good care of our self, life can be so much harder. When we are coming from a good place (often the result of self-care), we have so much more to give. I admire your wisdom of knowing that children model behaviors more than good advice. Here are some suggestions that may help you.
1. When you feel like eating and you know you are not physically hungry, especially if you just ate an hour ago, write just one page about what you are feeling. It may start out like this. "I don't know what I'm feeling, I just want to eat." Just start the process and the rest will flow. A lot of times you will write something that consciously you did not know was bothering you. This is a key. When you know what feeling you are trying to push down with food, you may find you do not have that need, because now you have let that feeling surface.
2. Eat 3 nutritional sound meals a day until you can find out your hunger levels. You need to be acquainted with your appetite again. Rate your hunger on a scale of 0-10. If it is too long before your next planned meal, you may decide that a level 8 requires a snack or piece of fruit Don’t forget to eat breakfast; it starts your metabolism for the day. If you want to lose weight this can really help.
3. Start out with increasing your activity level instead of going to work out. I bet you could play a game with your 2 year old in the park or on the floor that would be equivalent to a workout. Or take a short walk with your daughter in a stroller. Start your new activity just for just 10 minutes a day. You may be able to do this twice a day or maybe 20 minutes at a time, 3 times a week. Over time this will make a big difference.
There is more information about disordered eating or eating disorders at www.rebeccashouse.org
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