No, I gained weight as a Mormon teen, and have yet to overcome. I have other issues from being raised Mormon and I struggle, not just with losing, but self-sabotage and binge eating. And carb addiction. :)
Feeling much better since I left the cult. Under stress I tend to crave things like bread and milk. I rarely feel like eating vegetables under stress. I have come down to a four-pack. Feels good.
But not until I moved to Utah after I married. Until then, I maintained the proper weight but the stress of living in Utah, where it seemed like I was on an alien planet, caused enormous stress and weight gain. First of all, I was surrounded by people with no boundaries, who thought their pioneer ancestors outranked my education and travel, had terrible manners and looked down on me despite being hillbillies themselves and that patriarchal bullcrap took a while for my DH to outgrow. Feeling forced into a Molly Mormon mold when it wasn't me and I didn't respect that lifestyle was also a factor. So I think I was eating partly to build walls and partly because I was so angry and frustrated at how my life was turning out DESPITE doing everything the church told me to do. I graduated BYU, served a mission, married an RM in the temple and I was miserable. I honestly think I ate in a self-destructive way. Before I got married, I ate in a very healthy, organic way but seriously, I most of the time I just ate because I was MAD and it was a way to calm me down.
I'm so much happier with myself now it's easier to take the time to fix myself the healthier food I actually prefer and I rarely stress eat - a nice cup of tea works so much better to calm down and is a nice middle finger to any Mormonism, which is usually the only thing I that can get me frustrated these days. Life isn't perfect but I can deal with things much better now and don't need the food.
Now I'm a fat Ex-Mo and the stress of my job is what makes me overeat all the time. Or maybe it's the stress of having a wife that's still TBM.... Fortunately I have plenty of stress excuses to cover my overeating so I won't have to stop anytime soon. :)
But seriously, yes. I think the temple endowment when I was a pre-mission 19 year old really screwed me up. I came out of that session thinking "what's the point?". If I make a lot of money I have to give it to the church. If I buy a nice car I may have to give it to the church. Why knock myself out if the church owns my ass? This life doesn't matter anyway, it's just a test so why take care of myself? I'm paying for it now.
I developed bulimia as a teen, and then faced with poor self-image and ugly g's, and a husband who was able to help me stop purging, but didn't understand the mechanics enough to help me stop binging...I doubled in weight in a couple of years.
Thankfully, I've dropped more then 60 pounds since deciding to leave and getting rid of the garments...nice to start feeling like my cute old self again!
Nope. I started gaining weight after I found out my husband was cheating on me. The weight continued to go up through the time he left and for several years afterwards.
I have lost quite a bit of weight in the past year--still have about 35 pounds to go to where I want to be.
My sister gave me a picture over Christmas of myself in the worst years--about 5 years after my ex left me--even my ex and my kids can't believe I got THAT BIG.
I remember the winter when I was stuck in with a newborn, our fourth child, at age 42. I was so stressed that I'd pull out our MRE storage bucket, and bunch away, especially the desserts. I was diagnosed with Clinical Depression a few years later.
I gained a lot of weight from the time I graduated from college and when I left the Church in my 30s. I gained weight again after my divorce, and I'm now realizing I need to get my life together and start eating right before I start having health problems.
I've had the opposite problem. My mom (the one that left when I was 5) was anorexic. (She die a few months ago at age 84 and weighed 90 lbs.) and I don't know if just being around her for the short time I was made me feel "fat" all the time. I was always tall and well within my proper weight. But I always felt fat. I would just stop eating because I wanted to be noticed and feel like I was somebody and could do something. I never had a career,a heck of a lot of kids though. When I would be in a crisis I would just stop eating. I could go 2 weeks on dry cereal. "Hey look at me ladies at church!! See how skinny I can become??" Didn't work. Those supposed friends of mine never said a word about how skinny and beautiful (hahaha) I was. I don't know what I expected. I will ALWAYS have issues with my weight. I try hard not to say things to my kidsthat struggle with their weight. But I do think I always felt inferior to most lds women and most were over weight. I could control that but it didn't help.
I was the same way! My eating disorder didn't develop until a few years after I left the church. I never learned how to socialize normally, and I always felt inferior. I lost weight so I could be the center of attention. I had this problem until I got pregnant with my second son. Now, my weight is normal, and I love to eat healthy, but my confidence still suffers from being raised surrounded by judgmental mormons.
The stress of being mormon, the guilt, fear etc. as well as other life issues, led me to develop a life-threatening eating disorder. My bishop told me HE didn't think I had a "problem." Only after my parents made a big deal of it with the SP, did he agree to sign the papers that eventually led to the church paying for 3 months of my stay in a treatment center.
I am still angry at that bishop for all the things he said to me, because they made my eating disorder even worse.
Yes, as it was the only acceptable way to self-medicate for depression, and when I got on an antidepressant, one of the side effects was weight gain.
Then, my TBM ex-husband was one who preferred huge portions, and insisted on serving everyone including me those same large portions. Eventually, I was able to convince him that if I served myself, I would eat what was on my plate after he complained that I only ate half of what he served. He also drank sodas by the caseload and the only time I saw him drink water was in that tiny paper cup on Sundays.
Still, when I left, one thing I did was to eat healthier and join a gym, so I've lost weight. I even replaced the soda I was drinking with unsweetened iced or hot tea, coffee, and water. I'm definitely healthier than I was while I was Mormon, even if I would be judged for drinking coffee and tea.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2011 05:31PM by adoylelb.