College Life

[amkxoxo]

So I have struggled with my weight my whole life. I'm 21 and have always been a curvy girl. At my heaviest in high school, I was around 167. I was overweight for my height of 5'3. I woke up one day and decided I wanted to lose weight. I started eating the bare minimum. I was eating maybe a granola bar a day and a small meal. That was it. I was at 800-900 calories a day. Probably not the healthiest, but I do exercise a lot and I found if I ate more I wouldn't lose weight. I have tried everything, but eating small amounts seems to always do it. I was dancing 6 days a week and the weight flew off. I felt better and went down to a good 135 pound girl. I was happy and could fit into clothes better. I could buy any clothes I wanted because they all looked good. I went from buying an XL to a Medium. I still had boobs and hips but I was thin. It was great.

 

I never wanted to be that fat girl I was again. I like to eat and I over eat out of stress. My sophomore year of college I started eating and eating again. I gained a lot of weight back and found myself being heavy again. I was so disgusted with myself. My Junior year second semester I started watching it again. I was exercising more and started dating a guy and wanted to look good for him. I was dancing 3 times a week and going to the gym on my own walking 2-3 times each week too. I started barely eating again. I became so infatuated with the guy that I spent most of my time thinking about him than thinking about food. It was awesome.

 

I would start forgetting to eat because I was so busy, that I would make myself eat a bowl of pasta or piece of chicken just cause I knew I needed too. Food wasn't super appealing either. I started losing weight it was great. My guy was supporting but liked me how I was. Ever since I was heavy in high school I always see myself as bigger than everyone else. I realized this when one day a girl walked into a restaurant. I looked at her because she had a cute outfit on, I asked my mom, hey am I her size?? My mom looked at her and then me, and goes "You are smaller than her." I was like what??? I didn't see myself that way. I have since opened my eyes.

 

The summer came and I got a sickness and lost even more weight. I looked great. I was so happy. My guy and I split up and I was so depressed I couldn't eat for a while. I looked amazing. Now I'm in my senior year. I have been back for two or three weeks and I'm eating a ton. I have gained a decent amount since being back. I can't help myself. I eat crappy things. Good things. I exercise a lot, but eat more so I don't lose. I have been drinking alcohol which doesn't help. I'm trying to get back to a good healthy place. I have been stressed and eating. I am not happy with myself and I want to lose more.

 

I am having a hard time buying healthy foods that are easy to prepare and cheap. I am on a budget. I want stuff that's tasty but not super time consuming or hard to make. I love cooking and am a good cook, but seem to be having a hard time....help? advice?? food help?? what should I buy??

[BeholdtheMan]

but eating small amounts seems to always do it

It's not really about eating small amounts...it's about burning more calories than you consume. You simply weren't exercising enough to lose weight while eating a more normal amount, therefore you had to eat very little.

 

I would make myself eat a bowl of pasta or piece of chicken just cause I knew I needed too

Pasta is actually a very carb-heavy, "fattening" food. Try brown rice, small portions of lean meat, lots of vegetables. Keep oil and salt to a minimum.

 

Trust me, there are healthier ways to lose weight than what you're doing now (starving yourself). Eat healthy, eat more, but raise the intensity of your workouts by even more.

 

I am having a hard time buying healthy foods that are easy to prepare and cheap. I am on a budget. I want stuff that's tasty but not super time consuming or hard to make. I love cooking and am a good cook, but seem to be having a hard time....help? advice?? food help?? what should I buy??

Limit your carbs to brown rice and whole wheat bread (doesn't taste as good as white rice/bread but it's a lot healthier). Buy lean cuts of meat. Chicken breast, tuna, salad, use less oil and salt. Avoid processed foods. Eating healthy is really not that hard. It doesn't taste that good but the health benefits really pay off.

 

You might also want to adjust your mentality. You sound cray-cray when you go on about how great it feels to lose weight by starving yourself. I highly recommend increasing the intensity of your workouts as opposed to eating less and less.

[tman666]

Not to play armchair psychologist here, but it sounds like you might have developed an unhealthy relationship with body image and food over the years.

 

You seem to oscillate between "food binging" and drastically undereating. What is even scarier is that, judging from your post, you've come to associate "looking amazing" with the periods where you were under-eating.

 

Please keep in mind that eating too little can mess up your health just as badly, if not much worse, then chronic over-eating. Chronic undereating can lead to a host of problems that don't go away overnight, if ever. There is potential for causing permanent metabolic damage and organ damage.

 

Again, we don't know you, so all of this is just coming from my interpretation of this one post of yours. However, the tone of your post left me concerned.

 

I think the first step is to look for resources/ways that will help you develop a normalized relationship with food and how you perceive yourself.

 

This might be worth a read:

 

My Battle with Disordered Eating and How I Got Over It » Nia Shanks

[amkxoxo]

Like I feel that I do struggle a lot with binge eating. I can put down a whole cake in one day then I feel horrible. I try and diet but fall back into patterns of stress eating. I think I do exercise a decent amount. I dance for 2 hours 3 times a week and I go to the gym 2-3 times for an hours on my own. I feel that to be sufficient. I also think I need to control my portions better and with the exercise I'm already doing it should come off. I am looking for different recipes I guess like how to cook chicken so its tasty and healthy. What should I eat as a side to chicken or pork chops etc.... I am aiming at cheap here too.

[setsenia]

Hi there, I eat a lot sometimes because I love food. I went down several pounds because I was eating less and depressed. Gained 7lbs of it back, but I am also exercising much more and feel great about myself. I hardly exercised before, even though I had lost weight. But being active and getting toned, even with a few extra pounds has me happier. Do you like ethnic foods? What are your favorite "good foods"? Take your favorite meal and make healthier substitutions such as light butter, substitute regular milk for soy or almond etc, whole wheat instead of refined pasta/bread, ground turkey or pork instead of beef etc...you can do it!

[Balzac]

Much of what you need is food knowledge. The general comments here reflect assumptions not accurate information.

 

Many lean cuts of pork and beef contain fewer grams of fat than ground poultry. You must read the label to determine the content of ground meat products.

 

The human body needs carbs to function and there are varying types of carbs. Learn about them. Factor in some percent of calories for fat. Think avacado as it's high fiber and good quality of fat which give you satiety.

 

I'd encourage you to use an app. My Fitness Pal is an excellent tool and easy to use.

 

Eating adequate amounts to start a new focus on long term eating plan is far superior to elimination diets.

[SincereOnlineGuy]

So I have struggled with my weight my whole life. I'm 21 and have always been a curvy girl. At my heaviest in high school, I was around 167. I was overweight for my height of 5'3. I woke up one day and decided I wanted to lose weight. I started eating the bare minimum. I was eating maybe a granola bar a day and a small meal. That was it. I was at 800-900 calories a day. Probably not the healthiest, but I do exercise a lot and I found if I ate more I wouldn't lose weight. I have tried everything, but eating small amounts seems to always do it. I was dancing 6 days a week and the weight flew off. I felt better and went down to a good 135 pound girl. I was happy and could fit into clothes better. I could buy any clothes I wanted because they all looked good. I went from buying an XL to a Medium. I still had boobs and hips but I was thin. It was great.

 

I never wanted to be that fat girl I was again. I like to eat and I over eat out of stress. My sophomore year of college I started eating and eating again. I gained a lot of weight back and found myself being heavy again. I was so disgusted with myself. My Junior year second semester I started watching it again. I was exercising more and started dating a guy and wanted to look good for him. I was dancing 3 times a week and going to the gym on my own walking 2-3 times each week too. I started barely eating again. I became so infatuated with the guy that I spent most of my time thinking about him than thinking about food. It was awesome.

 

I would start forgetting to eat because I was so busy, that I would make myself eat a bowl of pasta or piece of chicken just cause I knew I needed too. Food wasn't super appealing either. I started losing weight it was great. My guy was supporting but liked me how I was. Ever since I was heavy in high school I always see myself as bigger than everyone else. I realized this when one day a girl walked into a restaurant. I looked at her because she had a cute outfit on, I asked my mom, hey am I her size?? My mom looked at her and then me, and goes "You are smaller than her." I was like what??? I didn't see myself that way. I have since opened my eyes.

 

The summer came and I got a sickness and lost even more weight. I looked great. I was so happy. My guy and I split up and I was so depressed I couldn't eat for a while. I looked amazing. Now I'm in my senior year. I have been back for two or three weeks and I'm eating a ton. I have gained a decent amount since being back. I can't help myself. I eat crappy things. Good things. I exercise a lot, but eat more so I don't lose. I have been drinking alcohol which doesn't help. I'm trying to get back to a good healthy place. I have been stressed and eating. I am not happy with myself and I want to lose more.

 

I am having a hard time buying healthy foods that are easy to prepare and cheap. I am on a budget. I want stuff that's tasty but not super time consuming or hard to make. I love cooking and am a good cook, but seem to be having a hard time....help? advice?? food help?? what should I buy??

 

 

 

This was really descriptive, and I almost echoed the sentiments of the response by sanaqueen up above.

 

So much of what you describe here is to be expected, yet I am so comforted on your behalf by my clear sense that there is so much psychology involved that you can and will meet the challenges you face.

 

So many feel it the case that their own physical limitations keep them from being able to progress beyond a certain plateau - and it might be true.

 

But the way you wove your stories from personal life and your resulting sense-of/need for food, really fit together!!

 

Sadly, I'm no good cook, so I can't answer your questions, but I just want to encourage your efforts looking forward.

 

And I hope a talented nutritionist finds your post soon.

[kiss_andmakeup]

OP, I'm going to slightly echo Tman and point out that every time you've felt you looked "amazing," you were (a) seriously ill, (b) seriously depressed, © seriously under-eating, or (d) all of the above.

 

Do you realize the kind of relationship you are establishing with your body and food?

 

It's time to start looking amazing at the same time as feeling amazing. The cycle you've established is unsustainable - you can't (or shouldn't) stay ill, depressed, and food-deprived forever - which is why you've put on weight recently. You haven't learned how to just be healthy for the sake of being healthy.

 

That said - you're in college, so I know it's hard to cut out alcohol completely, but I would seriously consider cutting back. Do you drink soda? Even if it's a diet variety, I highly recommend getting that toxic sh*t out of your diet completely.

 

I also recommend always having healthy snacks on hand. I say this as someone who's currently in school myself - I know that if I don't take a few minutes every morning to load up my book bag with little baggies of trail mix, fruit, protein bars, etc...I'm going to be eating out of a vending machine all day. So if you have long class days where you know you'll be tempted to grab a bag of chips from the machine, or pick up a quick pizza at the student center, plan ahead and stock your bag with some healthy snacks. I make my own trail mix baggies with bulk mixed nuts and dried fruit, and it's a lot more affordable than buying the pre-packaged stuff.

 

As far as cooking goes, I'm not sure how much I can help you since I only cook vegetarian meals. My best advice is to use the internet to the fullest - there are so many amazing recipes out there, and many of them include the nutrition information per serving. Personally I absolutely love VegetarianTimes.com...I find so many awesome recipes on there that I never would have dreamed up on my own.

 

Going back to my original point, though...I think you just need to start from square 1 and learn how to truly eat healthy. Not how to eat nothing, or not enough...but genuinely healthy. Does your university have a nutrition/health program or school? I'd seek out one of the senior students and ask them to help you out - they'll likely be thrilled to have the practice, and you'll have some personalized, tailored insight on your diet and overall health.

[amkxoxo]

I don't eat on campus I buy all my own food and cook it all because I have a kitchen. I dont drink soda and never have because I hate it. I have a slight addiction to sweets like pastries, cakes, cookies, and donuts. I just love them. I sometimes like splurge on those. I do love fruits and veggies too and eat a lot of them. I have a leg injury and have to be off of my leg for a while making it even harder to stand and cook a nice meal. I've been eating a lot of cereal yogurt smoothies and snack foods that are easy to just grab since I can't stand long. I love chicken and pork chops and some pasta dishes. I'm a girl so I have myonthy cravings when I have my period. Its quite severe. When I have my period I want to eat like everything in sight. Sweet salty and sweeet again I eat it all.