As you may know, I have always struggled with my weight. This became much worse when I took 22 bipolar meds in three years and gained 80 pounds. That was in 1995-1998. I have lost 50 pounds and want to lose the last 30 so that I can be of a normal and healthy weight. It’s reasonable. My problem is that I lose it and then gain it back and it doesn’t seem to stop. This time I have to lose it and keep it off as it’s not healthy for a 46 year old woman to keep going up and down with her weight. It’s not healthy for anyone!
I know how to eat correctly- I was raised on natural food and have spent all of my life seeing western and eastern doctors equally.
My problem is junk food. It helps me feel better when I’m depressed.
I belong to three mastermind groups- one of them is with my friend Lorraine. She is an extremely natural eater and is unbelievably healthy- I admire that. For our mastermind, I help her with writing and getting published and she helps me stay on track food wise. My first commitment to our mastermind was to stop eating at fast food joints. I did it. I feel better.
Do you want to join me? This is easier than trying too much at once. This simply means you bypass:
McDonald’s,Burger King, Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, etc etc.
So many people with depression eat this junk and so many people mania do as well- when they remember to eat!
Here is the plan. I have stopped eating fast food. Period. I made a promise to my friend and have asked her to hold me to it. When I think of pulling into those places- I truly picture her and what it will be like if I have to tell her – I will be so disappointed that I disappointed her and myself! This is a way that helps me stick to my promises.
If you would like to stop fast food and join the BipolarHappens.com fast food challenge- let me know. We can do it together. I now have to find alternatives to the junk, and I find that I am eating a lot more natural foods. Like I used to!
I wrote about this in a blog quite awhile ago – and have finally started my plan. Let’s do it together. I promise to post regularly on the topic and be honest about my progress.
Julie
I would also like to commit to giving up fast food joints. I think it will help to be part of a group of like-minded people working towards a common goal!!
Hi Lisa,
Two weeks and counting for me. It was so much easier than I thought. One interesting thing is that I eat a lot more fruit. Fruit is so good for you and it really is a fast food if you think about it. I am eating more vegetables at night= and eating my mom’s good cooking. I was living on junk and it has mostly stopped in terms of driving around. I just stopped wheat this week to see how I feel- that cuts out a lot of junk without making me feel so deprived as I would feel if I said no to ALL junk food. That will happen!
Please send your comments and we can work on this together. I’m interested to know what you are doing if you can’t drive up and order something.
I would really like it if other readers would join us! Lose weight and feel great! julie
I have been struggling with mood disorder/bp II meds-related weight gain since 1996. I went from 109 lbs. (under my healthy weight, when diagnosed at 18, in a severe episode of depression) to 160 lbs. over a period of several years (basically my college years.) I was in denial about my weight gain because I had always been slender with a very high metabolism and although I was raised on healthy and many natural foods, I could eat much of what I wanted to eat (large portions of healthy foods, and then the treats once in a while such as ice cream and cinnamon rolls and cheeseburgers and so forth) and not put on weight. I had this thought set in my mind, “It can’t be ME who has gained weight.” It wasn’t a true delusion but I was not willing to face the truth of the situation. I did work hard over eight months in the mid-2000s (loosely following Weight Watchers points and regular exercise/gym workouts) to get back to a healthy weight for my body type and height (140 lbs.) It didn’t last – and I have been struggling back up in the 160-170 lb. range ever since.
In March of this year, I started to work with a health and wellness/nutrition counselor. I know there is “no quick fix” to my health and wellness concerns when it comes to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight. But I basically am on the right road now, and my counselor encouraged me by asking me to set goals. One thing she is reinforcing with me, and that I specifically want to share with others who live with mood disorders, is that it’s OK to revise the goals you set – and more than that, it is OK to revise goals and not feel guilty about doing so. I have to keep telling myself, “Self, it is good as long as you keep taking steps forward, no matter how small. It is just not good when you stop taking steps, when you stop trying.”
I have been doing well with concentrating on certain areas of diet and exercise at a time. Since March I have been able to revamp how I view breakfast meals and to change the content of what I eat in the mornings. I am now working on lunches and have made headway there. Dinners are tricky because they involve my hubby and preschooler, and working around others’ dietary preferences and working with hectic schedules in terms of making meals from scratch is a particular challenge in our house. I am not a vegetarian but I love many vegetarian dishes I have tried, so one of my dinner-related goals is to learn how to make at least three vegetarian dishes we can eat at home. I can certainly expand my goal from there -it is just a starting point to eating more vegetables at home as a family – but it is not so major of a goal as to get me too overwhelmed. My hubby does most of the cooking in the house – and I am so grateful – but cooking some vegetarian meals will get me involved in the process, as I do not like to handle raw meat.
I have been walking as many times a week as my schedule allows, and now my goal is to get back to workout exercise (by starting in the free workout facility at my workplace.) My long-term goal is a deal I’ve made with my hubby- I’m working toward us getting a family membership at the local YMCA but to show I’m committed to regular exercise (b/c I’m the one who drops the ball on that), I need to exercise at the free workplace facility for six weeks straight, at least three days per week. I am trying to schedule next week as my first week of this regimen. It is so hard because I don’t enjoy exercise in a gym – at least until I start getting reacquainted with it and feeling/seeing results – I just need to get out there and do it one day! Plus, I plan on attending a free Zumba class in the community one day per week as one of my workout days – I just haven’t been able to make it there yet b/c of my schedule. My counselor says, “If you’re too busy to exercise… You’re just too busy.” Some wise words… along with some other wise words from my psychiatrist, who tells me that exercise needs to be mandatory for everyone but especially as part of treatment for people who live with mood disorders.
Julie and others who are doing the fast food challenge – I admire that! For me, a general approach is, I find it is not good to totally deny myself a food as in, never eat it. I will give myself an allowance of sorts- I eat a McDonald’s breakfast once per month and save it for when I need a quick meal at work. Or, I try to eat as well as I can at a fast food place if I am there with others (We eat a Sunday lunch out with my in-laws each week and we often go to Culver’s, a fast food restaurant that seems to have some healthy choices. Or, I will get a cheeseburger there but a thin, one-patty burger and then will just share my hubby’s fries and not drink soda, which I usually stay away from anyway.) Otherwise I mainly eat at Subway and at local coffeeshops/cafes/sandwich shops when I need to eat a lunch out at work, and my family is good about staying away from fast food when we are out, just the three of us – we usually go to ethnic sit-down eateries. I am trying to treat myself to one fairly healthy lunch out per week during the work week, and then eating food brought from home or driving home three minutes away to eat there. I’ve also found that organic frozen meals are good for when I can’t get home from work for lunch.