Dear Over 50's:

Last night I went to a movie with a friend who met up with a group in the theatre. They'd planned to go to a restaurant afterward but I didn't want to go.

I went home, then ate, then ate more. I don't know why I did it but I'm still stuffed. I've had a big problem with night eating. I've overcome it but every now and then it comes back with a terrible force.

I saw on TV that there is a part of the brain, a type of pleasure center, which is stimulated by doing things that make you feel good. They showed a rat with an electrical wire attached to his pleasure center.

The animal would touch a metal bar to receive a pleasure stimulation and completely ignored the things which produce pleasure naturally, like sex and food. FOOD???

Wow, I nearly fell off my chair. Yes, I know that food gives pleasure, however fleeting. It's like drinking, shopping, sex, drugs, gambling, and smoking; all those addictive pastimes. Unfortunately, they're all followed by negative consequences.

One of them is guilt, which I'm suffering from right now. And escaping from is guilt the perfect reason to seek out more pleasure, like food.

So around it goes. You eat too much, feel guilty, eat more to sooth the feelings, feel worse, get fat, eat more to forget the guilt, and on it goes.

Chiqui

Hi all. Count me in the over 50 group. Chiqui try not to beat yourself up too badly. I have a problem night eating also. If I'm down about something I'm apt to graze all night and never really be satisfied by what I'm eating. If I see myself heading that way I try to remember to drink some water or make something hot to drink. When I slow down by sipping something hot the urge to binge usually passes. I don't keep junk food in the house so if I do overeat it's LC stuff at least.

Mousie, thanks for the good words. I will try hot tea and see what happens. Sometimes here in Canada it gets cold, even in June, so I will try LC hot chocolate.

You are right - food, even LC stuff - only fills the space but doesn't satisfy. Sometimes I have this uneasy feeling that something's not going well. That's when I want to eat. I can't put my finger on what's bugging me.

Sincerely.

Chiqui

Hi everybody! Doing real good on my diet. Lost nineteen pounds so far. Had to stop using heavy cream in my coffee. Three days keto strips did not change color, before I figured out what it was. Hot today. Went to yard sales for a while. Been eating a yogurt every day. Look forward to that. LOL Let me know how you are doing. Lorilynne

Lorilynn:

Can't use heavy cream in the coffee? Have you found an alternative? What kind of yogurt do you buy>

Cheers from Chiqui

Chiqui, Dannon Plain full fat, or any Blue Bunny variety(find at Wal Mart) it is sweetened with splenda. Or you can make your own. Can also make yo cheese. Use in place of cream cheese or sour cream. Also good mixed half yo cheese half Blue Bunny.

Hi guys, speaking of yogurt. I buy that full fat stuff too. Try adding a teaspoon of sugar free jelly, it is such a creamy dessert, quite a few carbs but not many calories.

I can identify with the night eating! It's like I've turned into a newborn again and need my 2 am feeding! I do it to put me back to sleep.

I'm a horrible sleeper in the first place and have been since my son had seizures 37 years ago. I would be up all night just feeling his forehead to see if it was hot. He had the seizures that were caused by a temperature but his temp didn't have to be that high.

[COLOR=blue][B]ChloeMae[COLOR=green] Belated Happy Birthday! Hope by next bday you'll be able to eat cake without guilt?

[COLOR=red] Lorilynne I don't understand why cream in coffee reduces ketosis? My sister makes a great pudding with whipping cream and gelatin, see recipe at Mischa's journal. She is down to her last 10 pounds and lives on the stuff.

[COLOR=royalblue]Chiqui - why don't we invent a pleasure bar so we can quit getting pleasure from carbs? I'd be willing to touch a tingler if it took away my desire for carbs!!! Some days you just have to have them! It is such a battle!

[COLOR=green]Chantal30 That journal thing is hard at first but once you catch on it's easy. I forget now what I did to get mine to show. Try and ask the person in message #1 in your journal section. If not, PM me and I'll try to help. I have a whole nother person to lose also.

I love cottage cheese with cinnamon and Splenda - makes me think I'm having dessert and I don't have to cook anything - I hate to cook! Of course, I used to eat cottage cheese with catsup also which makes friends look at me askance!

[COLOR=purple] I finally got an appointment with a dentist for 12 noon tomorrow. My tooth is acting up again and I dread what he will say! Being on Medicare without good dental insurance can sure put a dent in one's pocketbook! That is why I've put it off - dont' know what to expect in the $$$$ bracket - it's the first time I've been without dental insurance in years. Retirement can do that to ya! Madi

Dear Group:

Yesterday I went to a family function at my cousin's house. I took a look at my relatives and we all look similar - round! Everybody brought a dish. The food was good, but sooo much of it. We devoured the whole thing.

I got this insight: Isn't stuffing yourself an abuse of food? Isn't it as deadly as drugs in the long run? Would any good doctor prescribe overeating as a remedy for anything?

Yet I do it all the time, and sometimes with foods which are no-no on anyone's diet. I am medicating myself via the fridge. This is dangerous territory.

I don't mean to sound morose, but with what the rise in morbid obesity, with it's related heart disease and diabetes, it's good reason for concern. I read somewhere that it's like digging your grave with a knife and fork.

So I came up with this new idea. I pretend there's a doctor in the house (no, not Doctor Chiqui). Every doctor has to take the Hypocratic Oath which begins with "Do No Harm". I've written this on the board at the entrance to my room.

I am listening to "The Invisible Doctor" and she's telling me "Do not harm". I am trying to unburden not only my spare tire, but the very heavy mental notes I carry around all day regarding crucial things I didn't feel like doing.

Procrastination is doing me a lot of harm. For me, and I suspect for most of us, NOT doing it is more painful and time consuming than just doing the darn thing and getting it over with.

So today, I started doing them. I went thru a pile of mail that previously I just didn't want to deal with. Found some surprises and important papers I'd been looking for.

How do I usually deal with undone tasks? By eating the emotional fallout. And that's really dumb. How can a donut renew your prescription? Will a hamburger take those pants to the tailor for alteration? No way. And isn't that doing harm to one's soul?

So I am listening to the Invisible Doctor today. And she's telling me to get off line and take those clothes to the tailor right now.

I know this is not low-carb stuff but if anyone else is overeating when they should be doing other things, you might recognize these feelings.

Chiqui

I love your way of saying can these inanimate objects do our chores for us while we stuff ourselves. Great!!!

That was an excellent story and very interesting!

I know I have medicated myself with carbs for years and then beat myself up afterward. Is that anyway to treat my best friend? After all, I'm the only one who will not leave myself until the very end!

I was really putting myself down for not being able to control my eating habits and it was such a great revelation to me when I started LCing - it wasn't me - it was the choice of food. When I LC, I do not crave food and in fact I have to force myself to eat. My Aunt told me I had a weak character - one more reason for a good beating of myself. I did tell her, she's wrong - I have a wonderful character - it was just being besotted with carbs. Hugs, Madi

Dear Madcreek:

Wow, what words... are you a closet librarian?

That aunt who said you're weak was probably not so strong herself. I know that people of her generation were not as sophisticated as now. But it still hurts. Here's another gem from the same generation.....

My brother told me, during a discussion on our fractured family, about an opinion voiced by my father. My Mom said to my brother (and maybe to me), "Your father told me that 'you're nothing and your kids will amount to nothing'."

Isn't that a lovely message to relay to one's children! How much harm can you do in one saying? My dad demeaning us kids, and mom mother repeating it to us. My mom was ignorant of the fact that words spoken by parents have a direct effect on a child's idea of himself/herself.

So it's a good thing, Madcreek, that you know your aunt was wrong, even tho the words stung like daggers.

Sometimes those words come back to haunt the speaker. Like my Dad. He never made anything of himself and, sadly, is in poor health because he never took care of himself. My mom remarried and had 30 years of companionship and travel with her late husband. But both had strained relationships with their children.

As for us grown-up kids, we're screwed up but 2 out of 3 went to University after age 35 and are homeowners. One's got a degree and a good job. One is happily married and has a bread&butter type of life. And the last one is me. Having been raised poor in the city's worst slum, I think that 43 countries and 3 languages later, I haven't done that badly.

So let'em say what they want. The rest is up to us. If I have to get my life back on track by watching what I eat, so be it.

Cheers from Chiqui
PS: The doctor was out today

Hi all. I hope everyone is doing well. I'm doing fine food wise but I just lose so slowly. I was at goal and could just kick myself for pigging out from Christmas until New Year's. It's been this long since I'm back LCing and all the regained weight still isn't gone. I can't believe how fast I gained some back and now it's months and some of it is still hanging on. That should teach me a lesson!

Mousie,

I LC'd about 20 yrs ago and lost quite a bit of weight. Nowadays, older, and on medication, it's a different story. It's more difficult to move.

I noticed that the weight comes off very slowly. The scale doesn't move much but the clothes become slightly looser.

Keep trying, you'll get there. We who were jackrabbits are now turtles.

Cheers from Chiqui

How'd ya know? I've been a librarian and loved every minute of it except putting soiled books away (you'd be surprised how dirty they can get, a lot of people like to eat chocolate and read). Ha!

I was a childrens, county and state librarian. My favorite thing in the world is to read. I used to eat and read but have toned that down considerably. Nice thing about LCing is you can eat and read and not gain as fast as you would otherwise.

I guess we all have those "skeletons" our parents put in our closets. My mother, the night she died, told me she should have never given birth to my sister or me. By then, my heart and mind could handle comments such as that and laugh. She said it because my sister and I never did embrace her religion. We do learn to not let comments such as this ruin our days anymore.

My daughter and I have gotten to the place we can discuss the past and our reaction to it. It really amazes me what influences a childs mind. Things we don't even have a clue about are the things they remember. Madi

Madi - are you a Flybaby? I think I read in one of your messages that you were doing a fling - or maybe it was having a fling?