I've managed to stay on-track with losing weight for a year and a half, having strong will and determination not to eat junk. As of last week I had finally reached my "maintance mode" and couldn't be happier. However, before I started losing weight I had issues with overeating on sweets and thought I had finally gotten rid of it. Unfortunatly that doesn't seem to be the case. It started a month or two ago when I suddenly got a craving for ice cream. But instead of buying a container of it, portioning out a single serving, and enjoying just that...I downed the entire thing. I thought to myself that I'd never do that again, get back on track and things would be fine. I was good until I had another craving and another and so on until I repeated the pattern once or twice a month binging on sweet foods until I felt sick. I never gained back the weight but it has now gotten to the point where I binged twice in one week. This week it was one day of pie and bread. Then last night it was 500ml of ice cream, half a box of Oreo cookies, and some cinnamon bread stuff I baked. I tried some of the suggestions I've read on here; chew gum, workout, keep myself occupied. But once I get a craving for something specific, I just have to have it or it nags at me for days until I do. Today I feel utterly disgusted with myself. I'm probably going to gain 10lb + back from this week and be right back to where I was a year ago. I'm so embarassed and ashamed of myself. I thought I had control and now it seems that I don't. I want to start fresh as of today, eat right, no junk, workout, and try some damage control. How can I get past this? I feel like crap both physically and emotionally and all I want to do is crawl in a dark corner and cry. How could I do this to myself?
Try not to get discouraged. Pick up the pieces and re-do the puzzle.
Next time you crave something sweet, have only one serving - that should satisfy your craving and the food never tastes as good as the first two bites.
I understand perfectly, same thing happens to me, the craving, that is. I try to not have those treats in the house and that helps. I could never have a whole pie or whole cake in the house. When I go out I will have one dessert or if I am at a friends and the offer dessert I will have one. I could never have a container of ice cream in the house. I know my weakness and do not tempt myself by having those things around, but I don't eliminate them entirely . Moderation is the answer.
As bargoo mentioned, try not to keep that stuff around, at all possible. But I understand that's now always possible or you're in situations where good food is just plain going to be around, and we need to learn how to deal with it.
I'm VERY much like you. Staying on plan while I was losing was fairly easy for me. I was so thrilled with my changing body that I didn't dare want to screw it up. But after a year or so of maintenance, it just plain got dull. Eating "on plan" was boring, I wanted to eat "normal," and I was tired of caring so much about calories and what the scale said. I gained back about 5-10lbs this summer. I went from 125 to 135, but anywhere under 130 is "goal weight" to me. Right now I'm 132.2 (as of this morning). Amazingly, with all the junk I was eating, I didn't gain back more than that.
Once you start to slip, have one binge, then it gets easier and easier to have another. You fall into the trap of "I'll be good tomorrow" or "I won't binge at all next week." But it becomes so easy to. And then you get that terrible out of control feeling like you feel like you're destined to fail. It's a slippery slope and becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.
I'm the same way with sweets as you are. I don't have the desire to overeat anything else, just sweets. We have this dang cookie tin at work that is always filled with Oreos, Chips Ahoys, and other delicious and ragingly unhealthy stuff. For the last, ohhh, 3 months or so I literally started every single day saying "I am NOT going to have a cookie today." But everyday after lunch, I'd be saying "Well, just one cookie isn't going to kill me." An hour later I would have eaten 5 more cookies, and I say "Well screw it, I'll start over tomorrow." By the time I went home from work, I had eaten about a dozen cookies. You think you're embarrassed...I've been eating about a dozen Oreos EVERY DAY for MONTHS! Like I said, amazing I haven't gained more.
This week I finally got serious. I started taking it hour by hour. I tell myself "I could maybe have a cookie later, but I don't need one now. Maybe in an hour I can have one." By the end of that hour, I realized I probably didn't need one for another hour. And so on. I only had one cookie this week, and it was a planned and counted 70 calorie Oreo, lol.
There's hope, you just have to figure out how to get your momentum back. Get one foot on solid ground and pull yourself back up. Once you have one good day, the next day is easier. The next even easier still.
Don't worry, just climb back on the wagon. I have lost a fair bit of weight and fallen off the proverbial a few times but I climb straight back on and retrace my good steps again. Please don't beat yourself up too much. Perhaps, instead of totally staying away from these foods, treat yourself occassionally to them (maybe once a week) Just a little bit here and there then you might find you don't get the urge to binge
We've all been there. As you note, maintenance doesn't have the thrills that losing does, so there's not the daily reinforcement of weight loss to keep us on plan.
When I get the munchies, I indulge in some low-cal but tasty stuff that I keep around just for that purpose.
And I go to my closet and bring out my now-skinny clothes & try them all on in different combinations and admire myself. (Yes, narcissistic, but it works.)
I bring out the one huge pair of pants that I used to shoehorn myself into and try them on to remind myself how far I have come.
Lastly, I build into my plan some regular treats so that I don't feel deprived. I never get cravings because the treats are there ongoing.
You can turn the page and get back on plan. Our worst enemy in this community is the all-or-nothing mentality--"I blew it so I might as well give up." No, that's not true. Get back on your plan and don't reproach yourself. Every lapse is a learning opportunity. You did well before and this slip doesn't define you. You CAN do it!
Is there maybe a psychological reason? I have the exact same problem you described and I've found with myself that usually there is a mental reason for my sudden loss of control.
For me, it's really important that I have a very specific goal that I am striving for. Being healtier, looking better next summer and so on are too vague for me or something. I never stay motivated enough to avoid craving and binging if I'm using motivators that generic. Obviously, I want both of those things, but they're just not strong enough.
I need to be trying to fit into a particular piece of clothing or have a diet buddy I'm trying to keep ahead of. Something like that.
Junk food is like heroin. I know that I'm damaging myself, I'm ashamed when I binge, I'll try to hide it from people, but when I get into a binging/craving cycle almost nothing can stop me.
It's 95% mental/psychological and only 5% physical. It's terrible.
This is the one subject so hard to discuss in weight loss groups. I think it is the most important thing we must understand in each and every one of our journeys. It WILL happen to us all.
It happened to me 3 times in my adult life, where I lost 80-120 pounds in one shot, kept it off (the last time for 7 years) and then gained it all back and then some. I even maintained my weight at 295 pounds for 5 years. But then one day I found myself weighing 317 pounds. I have spent 2 years taking off half of my excess weight and been struggling the whole last year with getting past this barrier I am at. And without blinking, 13 pounds crept right back on.
One would assume that major weight loss is an incentive alone to never gain weight back or go through the old binge behaviours (loss of control) when control was very much a successful accomplishment during the active loss phase.
I have no answers, other than to admit I am also going through this. I am currently writing about it on my blog, if you are interested. All I can do is take it literally moment to moment because I am in an active binge stage and trying to get back on my plan. All I can come up with is that we must understand that eating is a meal to meal decision for the rest of our lives. We either reap benefits of a healthier body and mind or we pay the consequences of poor choices. I am paying one very dearly.....midlife onset diabetes. I wonder, had I maintained the 120 pound loss all these years (since 1989) would I have diabetes now? Wished I had comprehended that back then.
I cringe every time i see someone saying X pounds gone forever, as though by saying it, it is true. I know for me, the only way the weight will stay off is if I master my binge issues.
Last edited by one small bowl; 10-25-2011 at 09:04 PM.
I guess we pretty much all have this issue, and I don't about you, but I always feel like "no one has it worse than I do," but after reading these posts, I don't think that's true.
One of my roommates came back from home this weekend, and brought with her a HUGE (and I mean HUGE) bowl of Halloween candy. She is the only one out of the four of us not actively trying to get healthy. I know her intentions were good in thinking it would be nice to share this ginormous bowl of chocolate with her beloved roomies, but putting it in the middle of the living room may not have been the best idea. It would sit there and taunt me, "Eat me! Just one tiny piece won't hurt. It's only about 50 cals. Come on, just one!" So I would eat one. And once I had eaten one, I had to have another before the taste left my mouth! Then another, and another!
This has been happening every day this week. My other two roommates and I all agree that we don't want this candy within sight, but the other one won't get rid of it. We had a little tiff, but then made up and tried to find a compromise. I hope it works. :-/
Otherwise, I have found it helps me to keep treats in the kitchen. But treats that are already pre-portioned. Pudding cups, 100 calorie desserts, etc. This way I can get my chocolate fix without overfilling my bowl or going back for another after another after another. It might not work for you, or it might not work forever (even for me!). All I know is, I CAN'T just eat one piece of candy, and I don't think I'm alone.
Water, water is my cure for cravings. Also what someone else said "I will have an ice cream in an hour, after I finish this task" By the time the hour is up or I finished the task I no longer craved it. If I still am, I will have a big 32 ounce cup of water and drown my craving. works pretty well.
Wow. I sat here reading your post and reading everyone else's posts...and feeling, for the first time in years, like someone understands. I struggle and struggle and struggle with binge eating. It is so hard for me.
I don't really have any words of advice for you. I just want you to know that I too am in this boat. Don't get down on yourself. Just try again.
Bringing God into my every day lifestyle & choices has helped me. I have to ask God for the strength each day, hour and sometimes each minute when the cravings have set in. I fail a lot but that is me failing my loving yet forgiving Lord who I dont want to fail. He gave us a temple (body) to take care of so I try and focus on pleasing God with my choices.
Dont get me wrong I do fail but asking for God's strength each day helps because I am weak by myself. I find it very helpful living with other people so I dont binge in the house. Surround yourself with people as much as possible and go to bed at a decent hour. I have been getting cravings at night so I have been cutting my tv shows short, drinking a glass of water then going to bed.
We are all on a similar journey and this website is great for support. Blessings and good luck!
It's so good to read all these posts and identify with you all. I am waking up after a crappy weekend, both food-wise and personally... And I am realizing that those are pretty much one and the same. It was a weekend at my mother-in-law's house for the most part, with so little control over what I can choose to eat and everyone always looking and analyzing what I put in my mouth, too. I've been on track for a month, really attentively working to eliminate the foods that I KNOW are triggers and give me the old bingey feeling. After all that very clean eating for a month, honestly, I only ever saw the scale go down 2 pounds, though I felt so much better and like I could handle facing myself and not hiding in the "shame closet".
If there is one thing I can say for sure, it's that calm, moderate, and nourishing eating completely changes how I feel about life in general, whether or not it makes a physical difference on the scale yet. I found myself feeling hopeless and disgusting after eating junk all weekend, and realized what an AWFUL PERSON I turned into towards my friends and family, just because I was having a battle with food, a battle I just went ahead and let myself fall into.
When we don't feel proud of the way we are feeding our bodies, it's so easy to not present our best selves to the world or give our best to our loved ones. Hating that I ate pizza and chips made me all weepy and impatient and pissed at my family, which left me depressed, which made me binge more. Not a fun cycle! So I say this morning, as a new week starts, I HAVE ALL THE EVIDENCE I NEED. No extremes, just calm eating, clear-headedness, and accountability, and I will both like myself better and be better for those I care about.
Does anyone else notice this connection between how we eat and how we treat others and approach the world? I just see it so clearly, that in a binge mindset, there's no capacity for me to be the generous, tolderant, loving person I want to be. And THAT is something To be embarrassed about, to think I would let food prevent me from being a good wife, sister, stepmother, daughter, friend, etc.
Okay, just my little revelation to add to the bunch
Hey, you know what? You caught yourself doing it! You can be conscious of what you're doing; don't let yourself get hung up on what's happened in the past or beat yourself up over it! You're not in denial. You made some mistakes; and we all do that and are going to do that! Slipping doesn't mean you're a bad or shameful person, because you *are not*.
Take it hour by hour if you have to! Take a good look at your environment: has something changed/do you need to tweak things a little bit? Do you have a good, trusted friend that you could reach out to for support (I know it's hard to do that, and scary, but sometimes sharing with a good support partner what's going on can really help!) How's your stress level? I think the upcoming holidays can be a real primal time for anyone, even if it's happy stress and anticipation.
You can get back on track; especially if you use this opportunity as a wake up call instead of a beat-yourself-up call.
So embarassed
