talking yourself out of a binge...
 

When you feel a binge coming on, are there any quotes or self talks or anything you do that usually lead you away from it and help you stick on plan?

My mom bought a bag of corn chips and a jar of salsa the other night, and I'm trying hard to ignore it, but it's so tempting to dive in and eat it all (I know once I start eating chips I can't stop till the bag is done). I'm actually telling myself it's ok to do it one more time, it won't hurt, I'll get back on plan in a few days.. It's PMS time and I'm more hungry than usual which doesn't help.

I've tried talking to my mom about buying me these foods and saying I don't want them...but she buys them thinking "I like them" and not understanding the "I don't want them because I'm on a diet part". She thinks I'm losing too much weight and actually thinks I'm looking anorexic (really, I'm not at 175lb and a size 14 with a big flabby belly and rolls)... so she will continue to buy them. I know I have to be in control and just not put this food in my mouth, but when I get bored, depressed, stressed, it's just so hard. I'm trying to convince myself my happiness and health in the long run are more important than the temporary happiness burying my face in a bag of chips will bring :(

If the chips are for you, throw them away. Your mom should quit buying them if you throw them away. If you're afraid you will get the bag out of the trash, open the bag, dump it it and spray it with cleaner or something. That only takes a moment, and it sounds like you would really be relieved.

If you can't throw them away (because they aren't strictly for you), that is much harder, and I have much less to say since I am not the greatest at motivation... rehearse in your mind why you wanted to lose weight in the first place. Read other people's success stories here, most every successful person had to find a way to deal with cravings.

But if it is in any way possible, get rid of what tempts you. That takes a short time and provides long term relief.

I don't buy much junk, but I do buy cereal for my kids, something fairly healthy like Honey Cheerios or Life, and cereal can be a trigger food for me. I just consider that their food. I don't eat it because it's not mine. So if she bought it for everyone, I would think of it that way. If they're just for you, then take Qualera's advice.

Snippety snip.

I second this advice. I am not particularly good at resisting my trigger foods if they are in the house. Thankfully I don't live with my mother, so I don't have to deal with this sort of thing too often. Have you tried explaining to your mother exactly why this food is bad for you though, and the sort of behaviour it leads to? A tough conversation to have (one I doubt I could have, actually) but you never know.
Alternatively, I heard this suggestion by Paul McKenna I think, where he said to try and picture the problem food as something really disgusting, like it was crawling with maggots (or worse, whatever makes you feel bad). It might require lots of practice and focus, but you never know.

Other than that, don't know. Stay strong!:?:

I find it really helps to blog about it or (as you did) make a post on the forum.

Once I've written down my concerns and made/published a plan, I'm more likely to stick to it.

I agree w/ rocketbunny .... and that's what I just did, wrote in my blog. I was having one of those binging moments and almost went off track about an hour ago. I wrote in my blog, and now I feel a little better and not as tempted.

I try to sit or lie down somewhere quiet and just let the feeling in. Make room for it. Take that "I must eat that now" feeling and rather than try to make it go away, just feel it. Tell it it can come in and be safe. But also tell it that you aren't going to do what it says, since it won't serve you well. See what else that feeling is saying. Is it anxious? Is it scared? Is it mad that your mom keeps buying stuff that you want to eat? If you do some deep breathing and just let that feeling in, but don't let it drive the bus, it will calm down and dissipate. Then take it for a walk.

I have had some success with coming in here and "filling up" in the Goal and MiniGoal forums, especially the photo albums. I've had decent success with making it a personal law to not stick anything in my mouth that I haven't accounted for in my food diary, and to keep the cumulative calorie tally running so I can see the damage. Sometimes the urge still wins - but they're getting further apart and not lasting as long. If I live for 300 years, I might beat this thing yet. ;)

As a calorie counter, I look hard at the calories on those kinds of trigger foods and ask myself if the momentary pleasure of eating a big pile of chips is worth the calories that I will spend, and the feelings of regret that I KNOW I will have afterwards. Because the pleasure *is* momentary, and I'm sure you realize that.

A bunch of "once more won't hurt" incidents is what got me 70 pounds overweight. At some point, I needed to draw the line. At some point, I had to remind myself that I'm the adult in charge, not the two-year-old who is throwing the tantrum in my head, wanting to eat the whole box of cookies. It took time, but that is what eventually had to happen for me.

The good news is that resisting these temptations is a skill like any other. As you practice and develop good habits, it will become easier to resist the "treats" that are really not treats at all, but are foods that are nutritionally void and are keeping you trapped in a place you don't want to be. So keep practicing your skills. And as the other chicks have said--if it's possible to get rid of the chips, then do so. It's easier to resist something if it's not sitting there calling your name.

Counting calories has helped me dissuade myself from binges lately but today it backfired!

I had a really really low calorie day because I'm working on a school project, running around all day, without good food. Well--I had a craving tonight for some fast food fare and I pretty much convinced myself that it was okay because I could budget it into my daily calories and be fine. I was pretty close to convincing myself to not do it but I gave in.

The bright side is that while binging on the fast food, I tried to focus on how quickly I ate it, how unsatisfying it felt for my body, how potentially threatening it is for my health, and how nutrient deficient it is compared to the food I make for myself at home. I'm hoping to remember that next time I try to tell myself that I'm allowed to binge. AND...I'm not going to have such low calorie days.

You know, I've often thought if I could just quit eating all together I would be okay. But because we have to eat to live, it makes it harder. So I adjust my universe to have good foods and everything else. I try to keep "everything else" out of my line of sight, out of my house. But, as in your case, that is not always possible.

So, for "trigger" foods, I just say to myself, "Corn chips and salsa (or whatever is the problem food) does not exist for me." You have a whole universe of foods you can pick from. This stuff is just not in it.

But let's say this doesn't work. You're about ready to put something in your mouth. Stop. Set the alarm clock on your cell phone for 20 minutes. You can wait 20 minutes, can't you? And once that 20 minutes is past your craziness will have passed too. It works for me. Hope these ideas might help.

Ding DANG, y'all! One of the first keys to success is cleaning up your environment. THIS

My mom bought a bag of corn chips and a jar of salsa the other night, and I'm trying hard to ignore it, but it's so tempting to dive in and eat it all (I know once I start eating chips I can't stop till the bag is done).

is NOT helpful. If she is buying these foods for you,

...she buys them thinking "I like them" and not understanding the "I don't want them because I'm on a diet part".

thank her, and THROW THEM OUT. IN HER PRESENCE. With grace, and without being angry. Without making a big scene. Thank her, say that you can't eat this kind of food anymore, immediately open the package, pour water into it, and throw it out. Right away. And thank her again, and emphasize that you appreciate her thinking of you, but a bag of carrot sticks would be a way better thing to buy.

It isn't productive for you to expect to be superhuman and should be able to avoid those foods which for you right now CALL YOUR NAME!!! If the chips are for you and you don't want to eat them, thank her for the gift and get rid of them.

You are totally human in this. I can't have a bag of chips in the house. I really can't. It isn't good for me. I have to fight the urge NOT to snack out. So IF they come in the house, they get hidden OR thrown out if I find them. That is our house rule. A good talk with your mom may not be effective as she still buys these "gifts" for you, but your actions will speak louder than words and will eventually sink in. She will stop buying these if she sees that it is wasting her money as you throw them out every single time. And I think your strength with this totally ROCKS...

Kira

I'd advise you to engage in a little dialogue with yourself. That usually works for me. Say, I'm sitting in the living room watching the telly, and there's a pack of cereal in the cupboard in the kitchen (cereal is my trigger food - I can easily eat three full bowls just like that once I give in to the first).

I ask myself these questions;

'Will eating this make me happy once I've swallowed it?'
- Answer: 'No - I'll only feel weak because of giving in.'

'Will eating this help me lose weight?'
- Answer: 'No - It'll keep me from acchieving my weight loss goals.'

'Will I ever get to where I want to be if I continue like this?'
- Answer: 'No - I cannot let this kind of behaviour continue.'

'How will I feel after eating this?'
- Answer: 'I will feel like a failure because of giving in, I will feel fat and also as though I will always be fat.

'Do I want to feel like this?
- Answer: 'No.'

'How will I feel if I resist the temptation?'
- Answer: 'I will feel accomplished and happy that I was able to resist. I will know that it's one more step, and that all these little steps in a row will result in me getting the figure I've always wanted and being happy with myself. I can do this.'

'Do I want to feel like that?'
- Answer: '**** yes!'

After this, the need to eat is usually if not gone entirely, then a lot easier to ignore. You can do it!

I always hesitate before putting something in my mouth. I think about it, and stop myself from impulse eating by thinking "are my emotions hungry, or is it my body?"

and thanks to my boyfriend being a stick-thin, picky eater (with the metabolism of a god, I tell you! he make me jealous, lol) who reads the nutritional information of all foods out loud, I've gotten into the habit. I've also educated myself and half-memorized the healthy daily intakes of things like calories, sodium, sugars, carbs, etc. --of course, you can't overgeneralize that stuff and say that such-and-such amount fits for everyone, but if you have an idea of what the "average" limit is, you'll find yourself re-thinking that bag of nacho chips, or that candy bar (I said "Oh, **** no!" to a Hershey bar earlier when I saw it was 220 calories PER BAR!).

I also like to compare the amount of the food versus the calories. am I really going to consume a couple of ounces of chips that contain hundreds of calories and won't fill me up? or am I going to get my butt up to the kitchen, find myself a nice apple, and have that sweet, fiber-filled treat that will make me feel full but has a fraction of the amount of calories and about a billion more benefits than that handful of chips?

my favorite site for giving myself a reality check on this is: CalorieGallery.com

and on top of that, I distract myself from binging by browsing the "nutrition" tag on StumbleUpon... 8-)

I guess for me another way would have been to only run errands with as much cash as I need for what I needed. I was feeling sad and instead of feeling my feelings I decided to soothe them with some pizza since I had my debit card with me. My stomach promptly rebelled even though there wasn't that much cheese and I spent some time on the toilet....

I did track all the calories in Sparkpeople, and am just going to keep moving forward today. And journal a bit about what I'm feeling.