Hi Linda,

I'm a post-snipper and I couldn't find anything to snip in your post.  I
want to comment on the whole of it.

First, congratulations on your epiphany.  My fat loss started with an
epiphany, too.  I decided I wanted to lose fat and just figured out what
I needed to do to do that.  I've gone from a 22 to a size 14 and I'm
still shrinking.

I think WW has some flaws and I just want to touch on that, although you
know more about how you followed the program than I do.  First of all,
WW is about "weight", and I really think you need to be about "body fat
percentages".  I have no idea if 140 was too skinny: 140 pounds of WHAT?
 If you are still at 28% body fat then you were probably too pudgy at
140.  But if you were at 23% body fat (my goal) then you were probably
lithe and strong at 140, even if your skin didn't reflect it (yet).

About skin - I think mine is starting to make a tad bit of progress,
nearly two years into my fat loss.  Drink lots of water, eat lots of
fish, use lotions (mine has alpha-hydroxy in it) and be patient.

Part of my fat-loss journey has meant focusing on different struggles
along the way.  I've had lots of them: how to get enough water in the
cold winter when I don't feel like guzzling from the fridge, how to
address my eating-for-entertainment, how to fit exercise in, how to
dress myself... I swear, some struggles sound big and some sound small,
but they were all things I had to focus on and figure out.

My weight loss program is this:

1. Eat less
2. Exercise more
3. Repeat
4. Forever.

Please don't neglect to consider steps 3 and 4... they require their own
struggles and attention.  It's what I'm working on right now.  (My knee
is slightly injured and I'm struggling to figure out how to change my
exercise and how to eat even less because I'm not as active, for example.)

It sounds to me like you need to sit down in a quiet room and figure out
why you are over-eating.  I really liked a small book called
"Fattitudes" by a husband and wife team (Willert?) that explores the
emotional reasons for eating.  It was important for me to stare them in
the eye.  I recommend you do that introspective work.  If you can't get
it on your own, seek professional help.  It's too important a piece of
the whole picture to let it slide.

I also hope you'll join us as we work through the various steps in this
journey.  We're at different places and have different weak spots, but
we all have insights and ideas and some of them might strike you just right.

Good luck!

Dally
244/177/169

Hi Linda,
Dally gave some great advice in her reply to you and I don't have much to
add.  It's really hard, actually near impossible to curb compulsive eating
only by eating when you are "hungry."  One of the problems with an eating
disorder is that the signals are screwed up.  The program that I'm on
encourages eating 6x a day at regular intervals whether you are "hungry" or
not and surprisingly whether you are still binge eating or not.  It's a
behavioral approach that will eventually curb the binges to the point that
you can actually gain control over them and stop them (or so I hope).

The 6 meals a day plan is also encouraged by Body for Life/Eating for Life
and the author Bill Phillips has numerous studies he cites in his books that
encourage frequent small meals to keep the metabolism working more
efficiently.

The program that I'm using right now is in a book called Overcoming Binge
Eating by Christopher Fairburn and I highly recommend it (the book, not
necessarily the program).

Jenn

Hi Linda, I am also a compulsive eater, and I want to eat even after I
had enough. I have two thoughts here, 5'6" and 140 lbs is pretty thin,
maybe thinner than your "setpoint", maybe that's why you are
hungry. Secondly, this compulsive eating is not going to go away and
we simply need to learn to live with it and compensate for it. The way
I compensate is, I do not eat after 6 pm (when I have too much access
to the fridge), and I eat a lot of low calorie vegetables. (3-5 lbs
per day). Been maintaining my weight loss for 8 months.

Dropping foods that are hard to resist also helps.

i
223/173/180

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char*p="char*p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
        "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

Hark! I heard "linda-renee"
<lovemycatsbuthatethatspam@meow!postmark.net> say:

Hmmm, I remember a "Linda-Renee" from a.a-s, once upon a time. :-)

<snip>

Yikes! Why do people feel compelled to make comments like that??

Well, look at it this way -- you can work off that 10 pounds now or
work off a lot more a year from now. Stop the bad habits before it
really does get out of hand -- you know what to do, and you know you
can do it! You must want to, or you wouldn't be here. At least, that's
my 2 cents worth... :-)