My weight is weighing me down

I am overweight. A friend once gave me advice on what to do and it worked wonders. However, that method no longer works. I attend many parties with colleagues where we eat junk food. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Don’t make a big deal out of it when you say no and they won’t make a big deal out of it.

  • You also pointed out that you are an emotional eater. Soothing yourself with food is not a good habit.

Q: I am overweight. A friend once gave me advice on what to do and it worked wonders. However, that method no longer works. I attend many parties with colleagues where we eat junk food. I wonder how to stay away from these parties or the food without

being seen as aloof. Secondly, when I’m stressed, I eat a lot, especially biscuits, to relieve stress and it works. Now I feel overwhelmed by my weight and I’m afraid of going to the gym. What can I do? Distressed Woman, Rongai

A: You need to give yourself some tough love as far as your friends are concerned. We are social animals, but you need to make tough decisions about staying away from anyone and anything that is not helping you in your quest to get to a healthy weight.

You don’t have to go to all the parties, you can turn down most of them to reduce your exposure to junk food. After a while, you will realise that turning them down isn’t so bad after all and that they really don’t care whether you go for the parties or not.

Don’t make a big deal out of it when you say no and they won’t make a big deal out of it. You also pointed out that you are an emotional eater. Soothing yourself with food is not a good habit. The problem is not the food in itself, but the stress.

You need to address the root cause of your stress. Figure out what is eating you and take steps to deal with it. Adopting daily stress reduction strategies like meditation and morning or evening walks in nature will keep stress at bay.

Lastly, take other steps such as exercising, eating healthy food and reducing your portions. From the look of things, your initial weight loss was rushed and even when the method stopped working, you stuck with it.

Work with a fitness instructor and nutritionist to lose weight and adopt a healthier lifestyle. I wish you success.