Mr. Marshmallow As I have written about several times before, I am a person of extremes. I have been excessively overweight, and I have been bulimic and starved myself to fit into my size 32 jeans. These days, I am in a place I would label as uncomfortably healthy.
This means I am still maintaining a considerable weight loss, but I have a ways to go. I am uncomfortable - my jeans fit but if I pass a mirror at just the right speed, and with just enough lapses in my judgment to ignore the reflection, I will catch the handles that some fool called "love."
And so it is typically when I am in the obsessive component of these "uncomfortably healthy" days that I start focusing on my eating habits more. I try to make it to the gym 5-6 days a week, but that usually ends up looking more like 3-4 days a week.
Knowing this about myself makes me focus more on my diet and eating regimen. I learned long ago that starving myself doesn't work.
It isn't healthy, despite how good I think I will look when I drop down a few sizes. I have found that wearing my skinny jeans is really only fun when I'm not falling off my rolling chair from starvation.
I have also learned the hard way fad diets are scary. I followed one diet that called for eating nothing but this vegetable soup made with cabbage, broccoli, and carrots. Since this was proclaimed to be healthy and fast, I thought, "Why not include some of this wonderful diet tea!” An herbal concoction with tremendous colonic irrigation capabilities.
For a week, I ate my soup and drank this tea, with about a gallon of water throughout the day. At some point about 5 days into the routine, the gas started. I was in my little Honda Civic on my way to work when I cramped up so bad, I thought I was about to deliver triplets.
Instead, I farted my way through three days of work. When I wasn't farting myself out of my own car, I was running for the nearest bathroom afraid to cough or sneeze - it only takes a small bit of pressure on the colon during those diets and the bowels go completely on strike, releasing their hold on the day's intake.
A few of my closest friends who knew I had been prone to bulimic episodes would insist on following me to the restroom, insistent that I was going to lose my food. After listening to the horrific sounds, they usually left me alone the rest of the day.
So starvation and fad diets are out - that leaves me with an eating plan I have devised over the years.
I love sandwiches. Put a shoe between two pieces of bread and I will probably devour it. But I found that I loved making these sandwiches out of mashed pinto beans, sauerkraut, and mustard. If I am feeling particularly saucy, I will throw on a slice of fat-free cheese. I created this masterpiece when I was living with my best friend. The problem was she had an abnormally heightened sense of smell. She would walk in the front door and tell me the milk was 3 days past its expiration date and something was dead under the sink, so a sandwich made with sauerkraut and beans convinced her I was trying to kill her.
With the holidays rapidly approaching, and more days in between these feasts to practice a sensible diet, I am coming up with new and tasty meal ideas. I have been making a lot of collard greens lately, and I think I am going to start making brown rice or barley to go with it.
I just wonder if it would taste best on sourdough or rye.
Have you ever starved yourself or tried fad diets? Which one? Are you still on it or looking for others ways to lose weight?
Comments (14)
yea, i have had an eating disorder for years. It sucks. It was mainly anorexia with some bulimic tendancies. But now i am trying to eat healthy. fruit shakes, with fiber and yogurt. And i am addicted to kidney bean salad. I only eat chicken breast and rely on nuts and beans for other sources of protein. I mean i don't just wanna be okay healthy. i wanna be super duper i could teach someone nutrition healthy.....i used to be that way...
Diets are a daily struggle for me. As a kid, I would just stuff myself into a food coma at every meal. Instead of a healthy lifestyle, I opted to starve myself because the results were immediate. If I could, I'd probably still starve myself...but I love food too much and I'm blessed with good genes, thank god!
I had eating disorders in highschool and four years later still suffer from it. I love this article, it cracks me up about how real it is to my own life. I come from a family with " Big Bones" which always justified why i was so unhealthy until a friend said "I diddnt know bones were fat". Ever since that i have had yo yo diets and still hate the mirror. My face is the only thing i look at. Ashamed of my yoyo diets which resulted in a mentality of im fat is normal.I am 5*7at 163 pounds. Unhealthy my doc says but i hate starving! Im just trying to find my nook. Any ideas?
I've struggled with bulimia, and I still do somewhat. I have never been obese, but despite now having a BMI of 22 (in the healthy range) I feel overweight. Now I have kind of let myself go, but I still obsess over food. I weigh the most I have ever, a whopping 135 lbs (I'm about 5'5"). I am not the stereotypical girl, but for some reason my brain decided to give me EDNOS. I have found that eating large amounts of healthy, low calorie food works the best. Water is a wonderful appetite suppressant.
Man, just look at these comments....eating disorders are developing like a plague. It sucks. Just because we have this in common i love you guys.
During my sophomore years in college, I tried skipping meals, not eating breakfast and lunch, and only eating a little for dinner so that I could stay under 1200 calories per day. Additionally, I drank 3-4 cups of oolong tea each day so I can speed up my metabolism. Whenever I thought I over ate, I would take stool softeners in hope of excreting the extra food. But I ended up being tired, hungry and depressed most of the time. Now I try to eat a well-balanced diet with meat, veggies, and grains. I'm still trying to incorporate some milk into my diet so I can get the calcium I need per day. It seems eating healthy, and sleeping early enables me to maintain a healthy body weight as well as a positive attitude. As long as you love yourself who cares about being a bit chubby :)
I never intentionally starved myself but in high school i'd just have no time to eat breakfast or lunch just dinner because we always ate as a family. And the summer before I started college i didn't eat very much at all. never breakfast, or lunch and usually not dinner. To top that off i smoked quite a bit that summer, which represses appetite and did a number of other unhealthy drug and alcohol related things. i have no idea how i survived. I'd take an occasional vitamin supplement when i was feeling really drained and keep going.
its never a good idea to starve yourself. your body can adapt, for sure, but its not healthy.
I have never tried any fad diets and/or starved myself, but I have honestly thought about trying to to lose the weight I need to. I don't have the will to do it.
I pretty much flat-out refused to eat when I was in second grade until about sixth. My dad's family helped rectify that - took awhile, but it worked. Now I'm a happy fatty.
I've never really tried fad diets, but I'll tell you what - Weight Watchers is AMAZING.
Ps. It'll taste best on sourdough because rye is BLEGH. Lol.
The only diet I have ever tried was the see food and don't eat diet when I was active in my eating disorder. I've never tried to lose weight for looks or my health because I never really had to do it.
Yeah, starvation definitely doesn't work. It just makes you feel bad. I think the best thing to do is run. I always see people at my school run around the lakes and they look fit. Eat healthy and run.
i mean when i was at my lowest weight which was 116, i am only 5 ft tall, my mom commented the whole time i was thin, 'omg you're look like marykate olsen...!' no i never looked like that!
and it only lasted about 3 months or so then i packed it on and then some, depressed and stuff, and then going to a new school, i ballooned up to 182lbs, i'm now like 135-138lbs-ish give or take, i don't know....but now my mom calls me fat, and stuff, and its not nice.
everytime mom sees a healthy thin, normal weight girl she always says 'oh my god! someone should feed that girl!' its like i know shes not happy w/ herself but she doesnt do anything about, her doctor told her that she was diaebetic, but now its like 'gone' supposly, i think she still has it, but whatever.....
Have you ever starved yourself or tried fad diets? Which one?
No.
Are you still on it or looking for others ways to lose weight?
No.
I struggle with anorexia daily have been for 7 years. And to think it just started with a simple diet when i was 11. I still can't imagine eating a balanced meal its scary and i can't. The food will literally sit there. Its too hard with thoguhts in your head telling you dont eat and if you do you'llbe punished and become fat.