Obese, diabetic with high BP; need help with food addiction

I've been a diabetic since 2004 and diabetes runs on both sides of my family so I am very aware of Diabetes. It is always fun and games until you're getting a foot or leg amputated. Don't be that person. Learn to read labels and count not just calories but Carbohydrates. Listen to your doctors and take your meds as prescribed. Eat right and live right. Eat proper helpings and limit sugar intake while living an active life going to the gym or taking walks around your house or down the road. The longer your A1C stays 7.0 the more damage it does to your organs (i.e. Liver, Kidneys Eyes, Heart etc.) So it is imperative that you eat smart and live right. Only you can do that. Good luck to you.

Start takeing garlic pills

What does that do?

Look at the Wheat Belly way of eating. Book or on line. It changed my life and now I know I will have one.

I joined the Mayo diet Clinic, and it does have great advise, but it is too expensive for me. I know it can be said that not eating junk food would make up the cost, but I don't eat a lot of junk, I have to eat what is on sale, and what is not expensive. So I end up eating rice, potatoes. Everything eat is roasted, baked, steamed, fresh & frozen, I watch my salt intake, not sweets, no sodas, I use stevia for sweetener. I do have coffee creamer if I find it on sale. So many days I don't eat anything until dinner. The last time I was weighed I was 276...the biggest I have ever been. I have sever stenosis in my back and several bone spurs on my spine. I don't have diabetes YET! I have neuropothy and take meds that may cause some weight gain. I am so frustrated! I have a three wheeled walker I use inside and out, and a cane if I go to the store or Dr. appts. Everytime I think I might have a few dollars extra for the month,a new health issue pops us, even though with Medicare I end up paying hundreds of dollars. I have gotten to a place I don't want to see a Dr. for anything. I have tried every diet plan, institution, wight watchers, diet center, overeaters, I understand I am a emotional eater, and I try to watch it, but sometimes, food is the only thing that seems to comfort me. Does anyone understand this? I want to find a way to connect with someone who struggles and succeeds through it all. HELP
PEACE & LOVE ...JJ

HI JJwest! Don't give up! First, please have a GOOD MD assess your thyroid function. If you are hypothyroid, weight is gained so easily. I have hashimotos hypothyroidism and polycystic ovarian disease, pre-diabetes, and began to balloon in weight when I was 19. Could not stop eating, or I got the "shakes." An endocrinologist told me weight control was ESSENTIAL to controlling glucose metabolism and to preventing diabetes, heart attack, and endometrial cancer given my diagnosis. In 1977, My mom sent me a book about FIBER called the "Save your Life Diet." Though it is out dated, it was a great incentive to me: https://www.amazon.com/Save-Your-Life-Diet/dp/0394498801 Well, since then I have including FIBER in my diet in the way of vegetables, bran, whole grains, dried beans (cheap, and makes great dinners and side dishes), high fiber breads and beverages, etc, and mostly chicken or fish. I have kept off the 20 lbs I lost in 3 months in 1977. I eat in moderation, constipating foods like cheese/dairy.. Nowadays, many products exist with fiber+ options. But simple cereals full of fiber, and oatmeal, are filling and help me avoid fatty choices. Supplement with Cinammon or fresh ginger to make it seem more "interesting", if needed. With your cereals, you can use a non dairy "milk" that is supplemented with protein such as soymilk, oatmilk, almondmilk' available at my nearby WalMart superstore. I find I am more "full" longer if I combine fibersources with proteins. Strawberries (fresh or frozen) are the most affordable of the gangbuster nutritious fruits, so I eat them in moderation, as well as 1/2 apple a day. I try my best to keep my weight within a 3lb variance of "goal," for 40 years now. I have to say Fiber is AWESOME; filling & delicious, and inexpensive options exist. If you feel the urge to eat, consider substituting healthy "snacks", maybe try 2-3 frozen fresh grapes with whole grain cracker dipped in yogurt. Eating them slowly may help you feel full faster. I wish you the BEST in your monumental efforts to be as healthy as possible.

@minda77 I noticed your post was back in October so I hope things are going better for you now. I too am a food addict. I find if I have something that I really like it's hard not to take additional helpings of it, whether it be sweets, cheezits, or anything along that line. I have lost about 50 pounds in the last year or so, more before that. The two biggest aids for me were using myfitnesspal.com to track my food, it really makes you accountable and helps you resist grabbing that cookie that you may walk by or whatever else. The other was using a fitness tracker. I use Misfit because it's one of the few you can use in the water and the biggest part of my exercise is in the water due to two bad knees. Water exercises do not have the impact on your knees that other exercises do, but they really can be a good workout. I find that it is what you make it to be. Some people in the class do things more leisurely, and let's face it, that's not helping much. You really have to put out an effort. I wanted to lose weight because I was waiting for a liver transplant and just in case I wanted to double list I know that some transplant centers, not mine, require a BMI under 30 which mine of course was not, so I was just making sure that would not be a problem.
I highly water exercise for anyone overweight trying to lose. It helps a lot, and at the health club I go to all the other people in the exercises are really nice, it's like being with a group of friends. I brought some sheets to my PCP and said I figured he must have other overweight patients who could be helped by using myfitnesspal. He said he did but none were as committed as I was. Hmmm, did he mean I should be committed? 😉 My husband says I'm an addict now.
Good luck with this.
JK

I definitely know about food addiction. I am 68, and over the years, I have lost more weight than I weigh right now. I put on weight after my first child, and more with my second. My family called me fat my whole life, but looking back at pictures, I never was a bit overweight. I did put on weight my senior year of high school, mom took me to her Dr, who was really obese, he gave me a diet to follow, and diet pills. I lost the weight, then met my husband. My first real weight loss was when Weight Watchers came to our area. I lost over 100#, then my husband, who was in the Air Force, got transferred, and I lost my support system, of the weekly meetings. The next time I joined Overeaters Anonymous, when they first got started, and lost the same over 100#. Then the group lost the meeting place, so I lost my support system again, and gained the weight back, again. Then, I started hearing about bariatric bypass, and had that done 7 years ago. I lost 60 pounds, then quit losing. I maintained that 210# for about 4 years, then was put on meds for nerve damage pain, and started to put it back on again. I'm at 235# now, and not happy about it. The doctors thought I would be a good candidate for the surgery, since I had managed to lose the weight twice, but they didn't realize that the reason I was able to do it was the weekly meetings, and I thought they would have more support than the once a month support group they provided.
If it was possible to undo the bypass surgery, I would. Actually, I wish I hadn't had it in the first place, because now my body doesn't absorb nutrients, so I have to take loads of vitamins, and am supposed to eat lots of protein, etc. I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place. I went to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting a couple of times, but it has changed so much, it didn't help me any more.
So, I have pretty much given up. I try to eat the things that will help me lose the weight, but my husband expects me to cook him the foods he likes for dinner, when I would rather just have a salad, etc, but I don't know how to cook meals he likes, and not eat what he eats, like casseroles, hamburger helpers, etc, We end up with more leftovers than I can use as it is.
So now I pray and do the best I can. I know God doesn't want me to keep hating myself over this, so I take it a day at a time.
This is the first time I've seen this site, maybe it will help, hearing other food addicts share what they are dealing with.

@noreenf, as I said in my prior post, I lost so much weight on myfitnesspal.com that I am a huge advocate of it. I have lost weight in the past, like you, but not this well. That, my fitness tracker, and pool exercises have really kept me going. At my highest I was about 90 pounds more than I am now. On my fitness tracker you set a goal and if I don't reach my goal I get so mad at myself. I keep upping it by small amounts but more often than not I go beyond my goal by quite a bit. If evening rolls around and I am not at my goal I jump on my recumbent bike and pedal away -- BORING. My son's boss recently bought the same fitness tracker and he tells me I would crush his boss. My son is so proud of me for having done so well. He is a real fitness addict, food and exercise.
JK

@noreenf, I'm glad you found Connect and this group. It can really help to have a peer group to help us meet our goals and encourage new behaviours. Have you heard about Mayo Clinic's Healthy Diet Experience? @ihatediabetes writes about it here http://mayocl.in/2lLlELX
What helped you the most when you had weekly meetings to attend? How might we replicate that here?