Below I have linked two YouTube videos that are by blind YouTuber Molly Burke. The first is about her weight gain, the second is about her weight loss.
https://youtu.be/RpSknUIfAe0 Weight gain

https://youtu.be/cOIhWyNAueE Weight loss

Molly Burke is a young woman who does lifestyle videos or vlogs about her life and how she gets through her life as a blind person. I find her very personable and expressive, and hopefully she is relatable for you. Best wishes.

I’ve been going to the same thing pretty much as soon as I got diagnosed and my eyes got to the point where my friends kind of no longer wanted to hang out with me as much I’ve been stuck inside way more and just been laying in bed or sitting in my office desk chair all day and just eating a lot out of boredom and to comfort me because I feel like it’s sometimes the one thing I have control of and can do in the privacy of my home without having to see. And I was trying to eat better and work out but I feel like I’m just gaining more weight and now with corona keeping me inside even more than before it’s just gotten worse and now since I can’t see what I look like I’ve become way more self-conscious and insecure because I don’t know if maybe I have this something wrong with me or a blemish of some sort or with my body looks like fully and so I just kind of assume the worst

I define addiction as something that you love more than living.
Put down the alcohol. It is a depressant. It isn't helping. I hope that you love yourself enough to see this and make a change.

This happened to me too, to a much lesser extent and only for a few months, but it is fixable.

I guess this is the internet in 2020 so we have to carefully separate talking about weight as a health issue from how you feel about yourself. From what you're saying I get the impression you know full well what's going on and it's just tough to deal with everything at once, which sure, it is, and I think most people have been there at some point in their lives. The mind stuff you have to deal with, but I bet it will be a lot easier to deal with things you can't fix (like sight problems) if you do something about things you can fix (like maintaining a healthy weight.)

The hard reality is that it is very very easy to do exercise then eat way more calories than you exercised off. You can bust your ass running around all morning then undo it in ten minutes eating. Exercise is a good idea anyway, but most people find they have to be a bit careful about what they're eating in order to lose weight. I'm not some sort of puritan about it and I'm not going to tell you lettuce is great, I love a pizza as much as the next person, it's just something you have to find a way to do. You can help yourself out massively by working out how to make meals that are both tasty and low calorie. It can be a bit expensive if you want stuff that's quick to make, tastes great and is healthy, but it does exist.

Personally I don't exactly calorie count, I don't find it's necessary, but I do maintain a rough idea in my head as I'm going through the day and that seems to be enough. Another hard reality is that if you are doing that and it isn't working, you are underestimating the calories you're eating or overestimating the exercise you're taking. It is really amazingly easy to do that but on the upside, if it's not working, you just need to adjust your estimates a bit.

Again I suspect you really know all this but I hoped it'd help just to lay it out there. Maybe we need a recipes thread for stuff that's easy to make (especially without sight) and tastes great without being too bad for you, that'd be pretty good.

my heart goes out to you. The media, our families, and our inner critics can be mercilessly cruel to us as women.

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Secondly, I want you to know that being blind doesn't have to limit your options at all. I don't know if you're in the States, but if you are, look up the National Federation of the Blind (NFB).

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I mention them because my life has literally been changed afetr receiving training at their centers. Through a series of nonvisual techniques I've gainde, I've been able to travel across the country independently, work as a freelance writer, go to school, read books at bookstores along with my sighted peers, shop for groceries, run, walk, jog, cook for myself, bake...you get the picture.

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What's more, their techniques teach you to figure out why and how something works, not just procedural steps. This method of structured discovery enables me to figure out things on my own, especially when I encounter novel situations when there's no sighted person around.

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Finally, if you have questions about being blind or just need to vent, please feel free to send me a chat or PM. I'mhappy to answer any questions you might have or direct you to resources.

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Good luck, and keep your head up. Work on your mind and heart, and your body will follow.

Everyone is different, but counting calories and finding a way to get exercise without it feeling like a chore has worked well for me. I like listening to music and podcasts a lot, rather than sit on my ass and do those things I go outside and take a walk while I do it. I’ve tried running, treadmills, lifting weights and all those things would feel like a chore pretty soon. Taking a walk outside never feels that way for me. And I’m not an outdoorsy person by any means, but getting out in the sunshine really does help with my depression and anxiety. Swimming is also a good way to burn excess calories without feeling like you’re "working out". Also, I really like lunch, so I skip breakfast and have a nice lunch and a light dinner. You’ve just gotta figure out where you can cut things without feeling like you’re depriving yourself and forcing yourself to do something you hate. Ultimately you have to decide if your health and what you see in the mirror is worth more to you than what you put in your mouth. Dessert is nice, but so is seeing the scale drop. But when I get on the scale and I’m a pound less that feels good all day, dessert feels nice for maybe 5 minutes. Good luck!

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