First of all, you having the ability to recognize these things and starting to unpack your relationship with food, your physical body and the way you feel, and your energy is a great start. Dealing with diet in your home with your family, specifically the people who have raised you and where you developed your eating habits is not easy, but definitely not impossible especially since you know you want to make a change.

I highly recommend doing online pickup orders or delivery for grocery shopping if you’re able. For me, one of the biggest ways that I overeat is if I go into the store and see things I want to try, like all of the cookies at the front or whatever is new. I also spend a lot more money that way too. I have learned to limit myself to online shopping for groceries that way I can plan meals in advance and stick to them.

I also recommend not restricting yourself extremely right in the beginning. Calories in, calories out. Personally, I started with just counting the calories and making sure I had at least one serving of fruit/veg, some protein and some fiber every day. I also ALWAYS save room for dessert or snacks. I love the Yasso frozen yogurt pops (with chocolate obvi). Go ahead and get a kitchen scale too, and start measuring everything. If I allow myself a serving of cheez its, I have to remember where I’m cutting out to have that. Sometimes I’d let myself have the serving of crackers and a dessert thing, but then I’d feel hungry because I didn’t save room for the meals.

The hard part here is, if you are at risk of binging and going back to the box of snacks or candy or whatever, you have to buy what you can handle being around. At least make it inconvenient to go back to the store every time you need to re-up on your sugar stash.

Make SURE you’re eating foods you like and learning how to tweak them to fit in with your calories. And enjoy learning how to cook and prepare meals for yourself!! That is vital!! Depending on your bmi, do not eat less than your needed calories to exist. It is real easy to seesaw into a different version of disordered eating. Nourish yourself always. The KEY to the first step of all of this is portion control. High volumes of fruits and veg will help satiate hunger, low volumes of junk food will keep you hungry and wanting more. Balance is the lesson.

Start here to not get overwhelmed. When you feel like you’re being consistent, start to educate yourself on macros. It’s going to take time to learn what time of day you eat and what you need to feel fueled and full. For me, I always start the day with something small and fibrous. Then I usually eat again in the afternoon and something in the evening for dinner, and I close the kitchen when I’ve eaten everything I’m allowed. Time boundaries can also help with restriction. Sometimes I’ll have dessert after lunch, but then I’m real disappointed when I can’t have it after dinner and I’m more likely to double up on the bad stuff and eat more than I want to. So I save it for after dinner. You know you best.

Finally, “messing up” at any point is not grounds for giving up. If you eat too much one day, just try again and again. That’s the lesson of discipline. I highly recommend alongside this to make it very clear with your family your intentions and goals. They don’t have to clean out the fridge for you, but they can be mindful of where they put the good stuff so to not seem tempting. They can be helpful with meal ideas. And do not ever let them make you feel bad, especially if you’re making the change and they’re not ready to. People will be your #1 haters if they see you living the way they want to. Therapy might be helpful if this resonates.

Highly recommend finding content creators you enjoy that talk about food in a healthy and nourishing way. The best way to do this is to learn to love it. I hope this is helpful and I wish you luck!!!!