[mem7883]

I have been doing well on a SBD plan over the past few weeks and feeling relatively comfortable in my skin, which is great. I decided to really face my eating challenges, which have plagued me, it seems, since birth, and work especially on my out-of-control cravings for bread. South Beach holds a lot of promise for stablizing blood sugar and lessening the "I need the whole loaf" compulsion, and I'm committed to it. My whole plan has seemed to make me calmer about eating in general and for once, a lot less guilty about eating in general.

Over the past few days though, a little sneaky bingey feeling has been creeping up, one that isn't satisfied without MORE of whatever tastes good. Even while I'm successfully sticking to plan in terms of the content of my diet, the portions are getting larger and I'm getting those familiar feelings of bloat. Even if the foods I'm overeating are "good" ones, I recognize that they're in embarrassingly large quantities. Tonight, for example, I went back over and over for portioins of roasted squash and ate blueberries by the cupful. Yes they're healthy foods, but the guilt seems to hover close by, and the out of conyrol sensation makes me hesitant about proceeding with the South Beach plan, where I should start re-integrating in some more healthy carbohydrates. Should I just wait to even touch a piece of whole-grain bread until I feel calmer with my veggies and such?

I feel simultaneously guilty for the excess food and proud of myself for totally avoiding triggers and junk.

I know it's all a mindset, it's just crazy how one day can feel so seemless and satisfying, and the next day I'm like a ravenous food monster...how to get back the calm and control?

Does any one else have those episodes of overeating healthy things and struggle with conflicting feelings about it?

[4xcharm]

Looking back, the first time I remember eating an item to excess was when I was about 13. I would sneak up and down the hallway to the diningroom to quietly open the cookie jar and take a few. But I would keep going back. No one ever said anything the next day, when the jar would be almost empty, but the jar didn't empty itself. I would do this night after night.
Jump to the present, and I am now almost 60 years old, and I still will eat until empty container, and overfull me. I rarely will bring trigger food - things like cake and ice cream - into the house, because I know I will eat until gone. But even good bread will do it. I love hot toasted bread and butter. I
I have managed to keep my weight under control for most of my life by under-eating some days while over-eating on others. So I guess over the very long haul of my life, calories consumed and expended have evened out.
But I know I really have a problem with food. Never anorexic or bulimic, but always aware of what food is available, and how I'm going to handle it.

[Kernjamie]

I know that for me compulsive overeating or binging was a cause of a deeper problem that I was not addressing, or I was soothing with food. Usually people that have a problem with this don't really have a problem with food, but the overeating and binging is a symptom of a deeper problem that they don't know how to deal with or they choose to numb with food because that is what they were taught at a young age.

[joeywants]

Oh man do I know that feeling! You want to talk embarrassing? I can throw back vegetable like nobody's business. I actually suffer from carotenosis (yellowing of the skin from high vitamin A/betacarotene intake).

Then there's the egg whites....

I'm planning to start WW with a friend next week and the 0 point fruit/veggie thing scares me a little. It seems like anytime I follow an eating regime with unlimited anything it is out of control.

[Jamie1985]

This is very interesting. It is not even junk food that inspires guilt, it is just overeating. Are you just craving the feeling of eating and because you are not getting the type of food you want you never really feel satiated?
I think I have experienced this before, I did a sugar detox and I wanted to eat all day but nothing made me feel satisfied. Even if I was eating something healthy I still felt off. How do you feel when you do it?

[lushless]

I felt the same way recently, when I ate a whole cantaloupe in one sitting! I knew it was way too much and I could feel that bingey feeling of being out of control and numb taking over!

[Munchy]

I remember that I used to go through periods of depression and eat a lot of healthy foods. I'd eat veggies non-stop, and one time I even ate an entire carton of eggs, cooking one egg white at a time and disposing of the yolks.

I went to OA for the behavior even though my weight stayed low since the calories I ate weren't too much. The best thing I did for myself is nutritional therapy. The compulsion to overeat is an issue to me, because it was so tied in with my emotions.

[lossforlife]

I am a self obsessed OTT raw spinach eater. i have eaten a bag a day for 4 years now and absolutely love it. It is also great for snacking on. Not too sure what I love so much I am slightly concerned that I am getting too much vitamin A and folic acid but there is nothing wrong with necking veggies