So I decided to resurrect this thread (well, a little bit - it hadn't fallen that far down!) as I'm gonna be attempting to lose some weight in the New Year.
Mr Red and I have committed to get healthier from the beginning of next year, partly cos of our upcoming wedding (such a cliche!) but also partly to just generally feel better. We're both a fair bit bigger than is recommended for our heights, and whilst I don't necessarily worry too much about such things, I feel like we might suffer from less tiredness, random aches and pains etc if we were to lose a bit. I also live in hope that it might help my hip, even though I am in contact with several hip dysplasia sufferers via facebook who say that losing weight hasn't helped their pain, but we shall see.
The problem I have really is that I am very over-emotional about my size and weight (like I am about a lot of things - again, in this respect I am a cliched woman) and trying to 'diet' has in the recent past sent me into a very fast spiral of shame and guilt where I feel like if I need to lose weight to be 'better', that must mean now I'm 'bad' or 'not acceptable' or other such things. I feel stressed and guilty when trying to count calories or the like. Obviously, that is a fast track to abandoning the attempt within days or sometimes even hours.
In addition, I'm a vociferous supporter of fat acceptance and want to remain so. That isn't up for discussion, and I'm determined to resist all temptation to become one of those people who goes on about how great weight loss and exercise is, posting endlessly on social media about their losses and so on in some sort of weird attempt to gain validation and/or shame others. Obviously this thread doesn't count as it's dedicated solely to the subject and people can choose not to read if they aren't interested.
So yeah, the issue for me is how I can lose weight without driving myself mental. I'm trying to frame it, both in my own mind and when talking about it, as simply "becoming less fat" rather than using pejorative terms like "look better". I know these things are just semantics and don't affect some people (lucky!), but I have such a history of disordered and emotional eating at this point that it's really important to me to still like myself during the process, and not beat myself up about how I look right now.
My dear mother, who has grudgingly accepted that my weight/size is not up for discussion (despite upsetting me on Christmas Day last year by telling me that if I ate any more chocolate I'd make myself diabetic), is overjoyed at the news and has already started advising me on Glycaemic Loading. Has anyone else looked into or tried this way of eating?
Anyway, apologies for rambling. I need to be able to vent about this stuff without forcing it onto people that don't want to hear about it (work colleagues etc), and I would appreciate some support
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)