It sounds so simple. Don't binge. Eat healthy foods & quit when you are full! I need help! I feel I know every idea on how to do this! Yet the last 4 days I have not stopped! I guess I know the answer to this. Writing this out reminds me I did not get on here at all this weekend or today until now. Sigh. Guess I'm still waiting for that piece of advice, magic words? that will make how to do this click inside my head and turn into success. Does anyone else feel like this? When you are in the middle of bingeing nothing else matters! Nothing but the food I am stuffing in my mouth or the gummy bears I'm snacking on. I think I am addicted. Is that a cop out?
For me 95% of stopping binging is stopping it before it happens. If I'm in the "middle" of one it's too late and I'm screwed...
So for me all my binge control behaviors are before the start
1. Never letting myself getting super hungry and having healthy options around I run to when I start to get hungry.
2. Carefully calorie counting so that when I binge I really see how much it screwed up my day
3. Strongly avoiding having binge trigger foods in the house, note I find I have had to do this less as I've made progress in controlling my appetite. At the beginning I had no chips, sugary sweets, etc in the house.
Thank you for your replies. I won't give up. I can't give up. That would be subjecting myself to a lifetime of misery. I do tend to stop the calorie counting once I blow it. I know the last 4 days have been an additional 1000 calories a day! I need to remember I AM addicted.
I agree with RANDOMCARDS ~ stopping the binge before it happens is much easier than afterwards ...
1 -- get the offending thing out of your house; throw it in the garbage. Better yet, how did those gummy bears get in the house in the first place? Don't buy them anymore; and don't buy anything else that you can't eat only a few of: it may take a while to figure out all your trigger foods, but it works!
2 -- have a big mug of coffee or tea or water or bowl of soup or a piece of fruit like an apple or pear to make you feel full -- make it a rule that you have to have that first before any other snacks.
3 -- have something to eat, but just choose something healthier. It is better to have a sandwich than eat half the cupboard because you are hungry. Most binges start off with just a little of this or that and grows into mindless munching; so just have something that fills you up and get it over with!
4 -- ask yourself WHY you are eating? You know something triggered that little binge. What was it? Be honest ... Did someone say something that hurt you or offended you? Make you angry? Make you sad? Unfair? Do you dirt? Get out your pad and paper and start writing out your feelings so you can read them later ~ get those feelings out! It's OK to be mad or sad or cry ... that's normal! Give yourself permission to feel. Feel your feelings -- don't eat them!
5 -- Deal with the real reason for the binge. Make a list of strategies to deal with those emotions (listening to music; journalling; reading; meditation; doing a hobbycraft, praying, singing, etc). Are you bored? Make a list of things you have to do before eating anything ... like coming here to 3FC's.
6 -- lessen the damage: choose the healthiest thing you have in your house for your binge. Not the best idea but better than the alternatives. Have a bowl of cereal or soup or a salad. Have some toast and cup of tea, etc.
7 -- Try Distraction: get out of the house for a while; go for a walk or a drive; or go visit a friend or relative; or lastly, go to bed early ...
Yes! I think all of that will help. I think I might print those off to remind me. It is very easy to not log on when I know I'm failing. I think having a reminder on my fridge will help remind me to log on! I eat for every emotion I have!
I hopped over here to suggest the distraction thing. I have something I have trouble dealing with and it is my equivalent of a binge. Whenever I know I am headed for that dead end, I just go walk around the block and tell myself I will fall apart when I get home. Usually by the time I've gone and come back, the cycle is interrupted and the crisis is over. If not, I do it again. Eventually, the crisis is over and I have not "needed" to fall apart. I walk pretty slow, and thankfully it is almost always just once around the block! You could do something similar for yourself to try out the technique. That same process helped a lot of the people on my quit smoking forum when I was quitting and I have found it appicable for a lot of situations.
How long since you quit smoking? I quit a bit over 14 months ago. Gained 35 lbs in that time! Well, technically 50 because I lost 15 last fall and gained it back again! Went from hiding my feelings by smoking to stuffing myself with food now.
I'm fighting the urge to go binge right now. I reeeally want some cereal my cousin has bought (he's living with me for the time being). I keep telling myself to continue reading and posting on here, that it's not *technically* my food, even though no food is specifically for the person who bought it, and that its way too freakin' late to go ruining my day. I know the tips were directly towards me, but thanks anyway ladies (and dude! ). It's very helpful.
You are so not alone in this. Come over to "Chicks in Control" section of this forum sometime, where people are posting about coping with their own binges: both the aftermath & their efforts in learning to stop a binge that's begun, or to avoid bingeing in the first place.
For me, anyway, I think of a binge as myself trying, temporarily, to get out of my life & obliterate all thinking, all feeling & all tension through eating. What I'm doing is trying to find some peace & to quiet my mind & to hide from all the demands on my time & energy.
This need is not bad. And I am not bad or wrong for having that need.
The problem is when I try to take care of myself by eating. Because I don't know many other ways.
Clearly, eating is no solution. And the aftermath of guilt & pain & unhappiness is not worth it.
My lifelong issue will be learning how to take better care of myself & finding alternatives to this "escape" through eating.
My question to you is: What is going on in your life that you are needing to escape from, at least temporarily? What is chasing you? What in your situation has become unbearable or at least very difficult to deal with?
i quit smoking and turned to food as well. I think the best way to break a binge is to start counting those calories (even if you find you are eating 3000 calories a day) just start measuring and counting EVERYTHING. Also, getting in a good workout might help get you back on track!
that is the worst feeling when you feel like you have no control. However, remember that if you were strong enough to quit cigs you can do this!
I quit smoking on August 27, 2008, a little over a year and 1'2 ago. And I gained something like 80 lbs. during the process. And yes, I stuffed myself with enough food for a small country for a while there. But my goal was to quit smoking no matter what. And I did. I've made my new goal to lose the weight I gained doing that plus a few pounds. Now I will do that NO MATTER WHAT. It's harder to lose the weight than it was to quit a 34+ year smoking habit. Go figure. But it can be done. And if I can do it, anybody can do it! Especially you. You have a head start...only 50 lbs to my 80+ ...lucky you, huh? Perpective. You just need to measure differently sometimes. And try that breaking the cycle/interrupting the binge before, during and after thing...it honestly works. You may also want to see about some counseling if there are issues you can't cope with yourself. Or a support group with other people in the same situation. Sometimes it helps just to have someone listen and care,
I find that planning is important, but most of all, I need to have meals that I enjoy and look forward to. If I'm going to put in the time to make a nice meal that is healthy and delicious, the urge to binge is easier to fight because I know I'm going to have a nice meal.
I think that as bingers, we have an all or nothing kind of attitude, which leads people to think that eating healthy includes plain tasting food and hunger. And it's not true! I can feel comfortably satisfied after a lovely healthy meal--that helps me not binge.
Hey girl, yeah the others are right, try to get the thing that gets you out...eat it if you have to, but don't get any more. If other people around you aren't helping with that it doesn't help either. Anyway, on top of this, getting out might help you, exercising might help you too...maybe not at first, it didn't help me at first, but sometimes if you're bored or stressed, a long walk helps. Binging does happen. I don't think binging can be gone forever, many people might disagree. I think breaking the habit, making it less normal is the first great thing...and that can take a long time. Maybe you need more direct accountability...maybe get someone in there with you, get a friend over who can exercise with you, just be there with you...something like that. At least you know it's been your replacement for smoking.......perhaps trying to get a new replacement? I know, tougher than it sounds.... I tell ya, I certainly try not to keep big things of ice cream around anymore...whoosh it'll be gone in 2 days! Yeah, and there is a binge forum here too, they're awesome in there as well. Well, I'm done rambling for today, have a great one!
Ideas on how to stop when in a binge (rambling)
). It's very helpful.
