Caregivers that are trying to diet.

Just picked up a German word on Facebook -- kummerspeck. This is the excess weigh from emotional overeating. It is translated as "grief bacon." I thought about this thread as soon as I read about kummerspeck this morning.

That sounds about right, grief bacon. I love bacon and bacon sandwiches and I am also german.So far, on day 3 of not so much a diet but trying to react to "mother stress" with something other than eating myself silly.

I'm on the other side of things. Stress makes me not eat. My mother has had a UTI this week, so it has been a week from hell. Her doctor told me she would prescribe, then didn't. Then the lab had a false negative on the urinalysis, so her doctor didn't prescribe. Mom knew she had one, and I knew by the psychotic behavior that she probably did, so we went to urgent care. Her urine sample looked awful, almost like renal failure awful. She has a bladder infection. Doctor gave her a shot and prescriptions. Thank goodness! If the med community only understood what a cg goes through when there is a UTI.

But anyway... I lost 4 lbs this week. I think it was all lost from my brain and nerves.

I think you gave the lbs. to me.

Ah, success for one night only! Entertained thoughts about donuts, you know the kind, like Gershen explained, a second on your lips, forever on your hips? Because I knew you were all here, with support, we had the last of the healthy kale salad mix with a sesame seed white dressing, instead of going out for a donut. Ok then, you all have to watch out for me (not really) because I am the one who goes to a spa, spends money to diet, then sneaks out late to buy candy at the nearest open store just for fun. Guess I missed being bad as a teen. Good choices for us all today!

Jessebelle, you need to talk to Sharadale, her mom was in the ER with a UTI. I really empathize with the dangerous delay in treatment these days, dipsticks!!

Timbuktu, you borrowed my saying! That's ok, because have I got some pounds for you! No longer accepting pounds here! Where shall we send them?

My husband is such an enabler. Still tried to tempt me with Mcdonald's for breakfast.He stops by there after he drops mother off at church. I thanked him for the offer but I lovingly declined but again reassured him I appreciated him asking me. He feels bad about how much my life has changed with mother moving in and how she acts towards me and he tries to "fix" everything with food.He was obese as a child and even now is a type 2 diabetic.He is a retired nurse and knows all about what he should eat but he is a man and well enough said on that.

I did it! At least for this am I am below the highest weight I have ever been. Still to ashamed to actually post how much I weigh but 3 yrs. ago just before mother moved in I was down to 170lbs. and still losing, exercising, had a great job and then with one phone call from her the 19th of Oct.2012 both our lives changed. I had to stay at her home that month trying to make arrangements for care and this was also Halloween. My big relief was to run to walmart and buy multple bags of chocolate candy and when she just got to be to much I would make some lame excuse that I had to lay down and would go in the bedroom and consume bags, yes , bags of these chocolate candies and just lay in the bed and cry and eat.Only now do I feel like I am getting a handle on things.So no matter what guilt trip she tries to lay on me today, I am TEFLON.

AM started off rough with another podiatry visit for mother, she was not pleased with what the podiatrist had to say. I was thinking I am really gonna mess up my diet today.Got home, decision time, is it gonna be mayonnaise to solve my problem or take my dog for a walk.You have to understand the emotional turmoil for an emotional eater. Got my dog's leash,told myself to just keep moving. Got his collar on and practically ran out the door before I could think.Once I got the walk started the anxiety started to leave.It's the getting started that is so hard. Just have to remember how much emotionally better I feel after the excercise, the same pro.blems are still there but I feel better able to deal with the mama drama.

Well the diet part is going soso... so I decided to up the stakes and do someting else to make me feel a bit better about myself. I got my hair cut (short for me) and highlighted!! It feels so much better.. and looks better too! Now back to the eating situation.... I seem to eat better at work, as I pack my food and thats that. I have been able to avoid the sweets, etc that are always popping up at the hospital (thank you wonderful families.. ) Made a big pot of chicken corn soup, been eating on that. Tonight is salisbury steak ( made 9 instead of 6 to cut down the guilt,) and the gravy will be mainly mushrooms.

I may be somewhat of an emotional eater but feel I am mainly a hungry eater and/or eating for energy to get through all
I have to do. I used to rely a lot on diet pop to lose weight in the past and keep it off, but the word is mixed these days on how it affects health. I like a caffeine fix and do not like coffee or tea so my substitute for diet pop is regular pop, which is just more calories. I wish they knew for sure about diet pop. Certain flavors and brands I really like. Plus there are a number of different sweeteners to study up on, and see which is best regarded. Someone sold caffeinated water but it is about a dollar a bottle and
I think they are phasing it out. I thought of buying caffeine pills but I am not sure they sell them by themselves and I don't want to figure out how to cut them up and such and not overuse.

I do sometimes eat fast food breakfasts that are healthy such as oatmeal or an egg white sandwhich. It is good to know they are available when out and about.

I do know if I can go about a week or two of not eating at night and getting through the hunger pangs I can change my eating habits and can get by with less food without being ravenous. It is just hard to do this lately with a lot going on.

Good luck to everyone though!

Jennifer, I find those low cal soups (Progresso makes some yummy ones) are a godsend. You can have the whole can for less than 200 =300 cal. And the fliud fills you up. If you like it thicker, add some saltines. Of I am wanting a sweet snack I grab a low cal instant cocoa.

" I can't eat while the turkey ghost is looking at me!",
says the avatar. (Avatar subject to change any moment).

pamzi, I like those soups too! I add some extra veggies like frozen spinach, broccoli, mushrooms. Yummy and healthy.

Well,messed up my diet just a little bit yesterday,stressful day taking mom to chemo.Sitting in God's waiting room yesterday,having to listen to the other patient's moan and groan,I know they have every right to feel the way they do, I just felt like a trapped animal listening to all the misery.At that moment I really wanted a pack of cigarettes instead of food for some reason.However, as I write this I am already thinking how to fit my walk in today. Instead of trying to arrange my walk around other things I have to do, I now make my walk one of the things I HAVE to do just like taking medication.

Good going timbuktu!
With all the doughnut talk on the whine thread recently I gave in yesterday, yummy... but when I craved a bedtime snack I had a piece of sugarless gum instead. One win, one loss... we'll call it even!
The dreaded S word is in the weather forecast for the weekend, it's always harder to force myself out the door when colder weather arrives.

Wish we could send you some warm, cwillie. It's still 90 F down here in the daytime.

Sis called me to vent about her problems, I found a kitkat that I had squirreled away. I wonder if there are any more....

My husband and I went to a new donut store, it had door handles shaped like two D's, and a drive thru (used to be a tacobell or something. The donuts were sparsely iced, so little icing, why did they bother, and ugly too, not appetizing at all. Only one each, we felt girgily in the stomach, and for the first time ever, he reports loose something, I didn't hear him right, but I had to inspect the inside of 3 public bathrooms throughout the morning. Just not worth it! Donuts are over-rated, pick something else, or make them at home. How will that store survive after all the grandparents inform their children, "You call that a donut?"

Thank god I am so rural there are no convenient donut places or fast food.I have started to incorporate grocery store runs just for me in all my traveling up and down the interstate for Mommy Dearest's many many MD appts.I now make sure I have my little dinners and salads/soups that I need to make my meals.Don't feel sorry for my mother, she eats out once a week wherever she wants to, I can't remember the last time I was in a restaurant.My husband grills steaks for himself and her at least once a week,I don't really like steak.Weight has hit a plateau but that is to be expected. My walking is paying off, my pup is getting more used to being on a leash and the alone time is priceless.

holy cow, I walked up some stairs and my legs didnt scream at me. I havent lost an ounce, but I count this as a win..... especially since my mother called me stupid about six times in a row yesterday...

Hello mica, I also am "stupid" and an "idiot" according to my mommy dearest and she doesn't have dementia.I was already in trouble with her by 7 am as I decided to go walking simply because I wasn't in a lot of pain at the time, I had the energy to do it, I didn't go walking yesterday because I had to make an 80 mile roundtrip to town to pick up Mommy Dearest's pain med so she had to wait to get her foot soaked because of the toes she refuses to amputate that constantly stay infected and she is now on the 10th round of oral antibiotics since Jan. of this year. She is scheduled for foot surgery this week on the toes she needs to amputate and already she is making me aware that she is unhappy with the MD's postop instructions. But I am going to keep this between her and her MD and not get in the middle.She does not like this at all, she wants to take no responsibility for her own health. Well,I am not going to let her kill me so I went for a walk this am and it was great,she will still get her foot soaked today but not at the expense of my health. My energy is limited at present. I hope that by continuing to exercise and lose weight my energy will increase and this will in the long run make me a better caregiver,my mother also wins but doesn't see it that way.

Took an 84 minute walk to day, it was great. Hopefully this weight plateau I am on will break tomorrow.

You e doing great, Timbuktu, just hang in there and the plateau will break!! Even more importantly, you are feeling better and thinking better!! And Mm is just fine with your Care!!

Afraid to weigh this am, this plateau I have hit is very aggravating,just what I need more aggravation. Making myself go walk this am, just want to see just a smidge of weight loss in the am,something has got to give. I would be the last person on the planet to starve to death. I could live ten years on a loaf of bread.

Well,it's been an emotional day here at the ranch. Momsy dearest got all in a snit about the way my husband "talked" to her. In getting to the nitty gritty basically mom is on hi dose morphine and my husband is basically deaf, not a good combo for communication,also mumsy is very impatient with the "help" which would be myself and my husband.NO, she doesn't have dementia just on a whole lot of morphine and now her social filters don't cover for her so well,her HUGE narcissism is showing.But despite my husband's growling and my mother crying and looking for pity and sympathy as she sits in the little art studio my husband and I put together for her,it also has a 50 inch screen tv I STILL went for my 2 mile walk and I have not gorged on food. I am not going to let these 2 kill me. I didn't survive my mother as a child to be destroyed by her now.

Wow, way to go!!! I know for myself it's incredibly not hard not to reach for comfort food when stressed, and your day sounded really really stressful!!!

I look quite the site when I walk, have an orange hunters cap and vest,boots that are for riding and walking,hybrid boot.Got my 6 month old boxer puppy in his pink breast collar and off we go.I so take my phone with me ,when walking yesterday mumsy called wanting to know when I was going to soak her foot,I replied it must be difficult to wait but that I would be home in about 15 minutes and then I hung up. My husband was at the house, she is never left alone.When I got back he said she was all in a huff, about where was I and she wanted to go down stairs NOW(art studio).So when I got back home I made it a point not to go to her art studio and proceeded to do chores around the house. I know her foot will get soaked but my health is coming first over foot soaking.

Finally,! the plateau has shifted.I will now fess up my starting weight cause I have now lost 10lbs.,happy happy joy joy! and after yesterdays soap opera drama from husband and mother I can't believe I didn't eat the fridge and contents. I came in at 245lbs. this AM! So of coarse you now realize my starting weight was 255lbs. It just hit me when about 10 days ago I hefted up a 50lb bag of horse feed . I am carrying twice that amount of feed on my hips,knees,ankles feet everyday single day,every step I take.3 yrs ago TODAY I got the phone call from mother that changed both our lives, I went from 170lbs and still losing,riding horses, working a great part time job to 255lbs, 2 back surgeries,haven't ridden a horse in a year ,mother is now my full time job in just 3 years. I knew this had to stop, I wasn't going to make it for the long haul.After yesterdays emotional theme I was po'd at both my husband and mother. He can't hear and she is very impatient and I am looked at as the "bridge" between the two. I let them both know I am still going for a walk but I also matter and being that I am the only one in the house that is physically able to bend over and pick up objects that gives me more votes.