Family crisis causing fears about food to resurface

Last Friday at 3pm my mother in law was given the diagnosis of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia....a rare and agressive type of leukemia.  That started a whirlwind of changes for our family as she had to be admitted to our local hospital immediately, then received platelet transfusion and was transferred to OHSU (Great hospital in Porland, Or).  We spent the weekend with her getting her settled in and started on chemo.  I did pretty well eating wise with all the added stress, until yesterday.   I logged all my food and ended up eating almost 1500 calories.  It was back to my old habits of grazing all day and eating the dreaded white flour carbs.  Had a few deep fried foods (fish, veggies tempura style), cookies, corn chips and salsa, etc.

I know I need to give myself a little grace here, but I am so afraid of lapsing back into the old habits and gaining all the weight back.  I am not yet to goal and need to stay focused.

So, if you feel so led, please pray for my MIL to respond well to her chemo and for me to not go back to my stress eating ways!  Working on being very low carb today!  Thanks so much for letting me vent.

 Vent away!  That's pretty traumatic news.  Will definitely keep you and your mom in my thoughts and prayers.  

Maybe carry a protein bar with you for those munchie moments.  Praying for your family during this traumatic time.

I think everyone is going to have  day somewhere that means not following as closely as you should, but under these cir****tances, I would just get back on track and let it slide. Prayers to your family..

 Send prayers your way.  

Prayers sent!

Do the best you can with eating and just take it one day (or one hour or one minute at a time).  I do that often to make it through stressful times.

 I totally feel you. My step father had his 3rd stroke a week ago. This one was very bad, and we thought he wouldn't make it through the night. I was just over 2 weeks out from surgery when this happened. I had one bottle of water with me at the hospital, and had to bring a thermos of soup with me, while I stayed with my mother as support. I struggled to get my liquids in and definitely couldn't get enough protein in me throughout the first few days. Thankfully he not only pulled through the night, he started to move and speak after two days. If it wasn't for me still being on a liquid diet, I probably would have done the same thing as you. Don't beat yourself up. Just take it for what it was, and get back on track. Helps to always have some protein snacks on hand. Less temptation to go looking for food, when you have it with you.

I haven't started using protein bars yet, mainly because I haven't found one that I like that doesn't have a bunch of carbs, but maybe a protein bar would be the lesser of the two evils.  Protein bar....or snacking.   I think I vote protein bar.  Guess I'll start experimenting with different brands.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and sending up the prayers.

I tried an OH YEAH chocolate caramel today and it was pretty delish. Unfortunately I am only 3.5 weeks out and after my first bite I realized it had peanuts in it so I didn't eat it.  I chewed that one little bite for about three minutes though.

I am sorry to hear about your MIL.  My thoughts are with you.

 I'm so sorry to hear about your family's troubles. My thoughts are with you.

Be nice to yourself and buy some little treats that are not food related, like a nice lip gloss, some pretty hand lotion, and a magazine.

On the eating front, remember the mantra don't fail to plan, plan to succeed. For me, my bag of tricks inclues beef jerky, whole grain crackers, little cutie tangerines, vanilla protein powder and instant decaf coffee with my shaker bottle, and the Unjury Chicken flavor. I also load a case of water in the trunk, along with those little water flavor packets ( I like Pink Lemonaide and Peach Tea). And a pack a little cooler for the day with lunch meat and cheese.  

I will be thinking of you and hope all goes well.

Lynda