how do you discard binge food?
 

All right... I feel so embarassed to be writing this.. will I clog the toilet if I flush cookies and cake? Should I soak them first? I don't want to throw them in the trash because a) I don't want to keep seeing them there and know that they are within reach! b) I don't want to sift and eat them from the garbage if I became desperate :o What do you do when you want to get rid of tempting or binge food?

Even now that I'm writing about getting rid of them, there's a thought in my head that suggest I eat some more before I get rid of it, just because I can and after this there won't be more. :mad: Seriously. what the ****. and I should be more upset about bingeing. I really should be. This complacency is not a good sign.

Well you need to get it out of sight out of mind for sure! I would take it out to the dumpster here cause there is no way I'd be able to get it back from there, can you do that? Otherwise you could put it in the normal trash and put something yucky on top of it. Oh and the little voice in your head is in everyones head, that's why cravings are so hard to overcome at times. When I think I'm going to binge I make some tea or something and then preoccupy myself with something like this site to remind myself of my goal!

Get rid of that stuff ...
 

Yes, I agree with these ladies; you must get the junk out of the house. If you have a lot and it's still new, you can give it away to family, friends, neighbours, or a local food bank. But if it's just small stuff, stomp on it and throw it in the trash. Sweep your floor and dump the dirt on top; you won't want to touch it then. LOL!

I realized that there are just certain foods that I can't have in my house, cuz I can't discipline myself not to eat them ~ like cookies or chippies. I do allow myself a treat once a week, like light popcorn; this allays cravings for me. If need be, purchase only one serving, that way you cannot over-indulge. Do whatever works best for you.

A fellow encourager ... Rosebud. :hug:

I always hated people who wasted food until I started doing it too. I throw out some food pretty often now and I feel awful doing it. So I try to toss it outside so either the dog or birds can eat it. Because although yea, it does stop me from binging on it, it is still wasting and I feel guilty.

I had a binge for the first time in ages the other day and when i decided I HAD to stop i soak the remaining cookies (yup, I'm a sweet tooth too!) with soap dish water so they were gross, wrapped them in a plastic bag and threw them in the bin!

Good Luck, I hope you found a way to get rid!

I have a cat...so when I want to get rid of something I put it in a small plastic bag and then clean the litter box putting the clumps in the bag with the food. Tie it up and take it to the outside trash.

The dish detergent trick also stops the garbage picking behavior in its tracks.

God its awful to admit that I have garbage picked.

Thanks all. I've never gone through the garbage but some days I wonder if I may... I soaked the stuff and then flushed it down the toilet. Thank goodness! Healthy breakfast for me this morning :)

I completely agree with you all. I can't have any of my trigger foods in the house. I just went grocery shopping this morning and for once didnt buy any of those foods. Somehow at the store, i convince myself that this time I will be able to eat only half the bag or whatever. It never works. I have now realized that until I have a handle on this, I just can't have that food in my house. Otherwise, I feel guilty and get the thought in my head that this will be the last time I can eat that food so I binge. I basically use my body as a trash can instead of throwing the food out like I should be. I'm a huge non-waster and my family never let me leave the table without finishing what I put on my plate. This could be part of my problem. It's definitely better to throw out what you dont need. I read somewhere to think of it as waste, you are either going to put the waste on yourself or in the garbage. It's waste either way so its better to just throw it out. I agree, that throwing something disgusting on top is the only way to do it. Did anyone ever see that Sex and the City where Miranda ate an entire chocolate cake. She tried to throw it out and picked it from the garbage and then put dish soap on it. I just thought of that while reading these posts. Stay strong ladies. Know your limits and be true to yourself. If you know you can't have that food in your house, then don't bring it in. It is a lot less tempting when you have to go out to get it. Have a great day everyone.

I think just about anyone who's ever had to deal with bingeing has been there, done that, so first and foremost, don't feel alone :hug: I have done as some others have mentioned--I put whatever it is in the garbage and then make sure to put something wet/stinky/gross on top of it so I both can't see it and can't take it out again later (and yes, I've done this before if, for example, I threw out a package of cookies still wrapped in the celophane so the actual cookies were not touching anything else in the trash).

Also, I now live in a 16-story building, so I have a trash chute at the end of the hallway that takes all the trash into a dumpster in the basement, so that's a good option for me now, too.

About "wasting" food--I used to feel bad about it, but isn't it really just as wasteful to eat it when you don't need it? It's not like I would ever send such parishable items as cookies or ice cream or whatever to a starving third-world country, so I don't feel bad about completely trashing junk food. I don't feed it to animals, either, because it's often even more harmful to then tham to me since thier bodies aren't used to it.

Whaever you do/did with it, I want to give you a HUGE congrats on getting rid of it!! This battle is one bite, one meal, one day at a time, and today you won :cool:

Give it away. I usually either eat it little by little over a week and promise not to buy it again or I share it with someone. I don't throw away food. If you get the urge to eat cookies drink a liter of water and we'll see if you can eat those cookies.

Exactly.

Hi Beautiful,

Looks like everyone has left some great tips!

Personally, I squirt shampoo all over my binge food, but I like the dish soap idea even better because it's cheaper than shampoo.

Wishing everyone luck!

Also, if it is like a cake, then I mash it up in my hands and really goo it up like playing with playdough. Then I can feel like I have "experienced" the food through some sense before I get rid of it by throwing it in the trash. But if you do this you must be able to have to will to wash off your hands immediately. Otherwise you'd lick your fingers.

Charlotte, that is genius. I wonder if I could manage that, having it in front of me and knowing that I will be throwing it out soon and not eating it. For some reason I have an impulse to have just a bit more before I discard junk food (not so much with my regular food). But I will keep this in mind and if the opportunity presents itself, see how I fare.

throw it out...seriously. throwing away food is so liberating and feels so good. not just with snacks, it's with meals and anything else. once i i worked up the backbone to go to mcdonalds, buy something. take a few bites of it and throw it away, just to proove to myself that i can. nothing feels better. when you have the mentality that you have to finish food throwing things away really does feel great.

i will either dump tabasco sauce on it and then throw it away, or take it out of the house with me when i leave and throw it in a public trash can and walk away. i've driven down the road and flung it into the street and kept going.

Congrats on getting rid of it! But I wouldn't make a habit of flushing it or you may end up with plumbing problems. Do you have a garbage disposal? I would just grind it up in the disposal.

I hope my mom's not reading this but I would throw it out to. What is the alternative? Eat it. ;)

LOL, reading this thread makes me feel so much less alone! although i have never actually eaten anything out of the bin, (edible food has never made it that far)
my biggest problem with binge foods, is my DH does not understand, and insists on buying them for himself. That is my major struggle, i know the food is there and there is always the mentality of eating it and starting again tomorrow.

its good to hear other people struggle with this.

my last comment did not sound correct, i am not glad others suffer, i just am glad i am not alone in my problems! LOL

I thought I was good when I dumped coffee grounds on the cake I had to get rid of, but you rock!

My hero!

:D

Thanks to you ladies I just went and dumped out two medium bags of x mas MnMs and a bag of dum-dums that have been sitting in my closet since the holidays. Too bad I didn't do that with the miniatures that were sitting there before. I actually flushed the MnMs. Ds was only a bit upset that I did that, but was Ok when I told him they were bad (out of code).

Maybe I should check the rest of the kitchen now? LOL

This is a great idea.:idea:

I've always felt like I have to finish everything. Especially when my family, friends, or co-workers haven't finished something. I hate to see food being wasted and I feel like I have to save the food - rescue it - from being thrown in the trash.

It's true that it's a waste whether it's going in the trash or in my body. I have to remember that.

Thanks for this thread and knowing that I'm not alone in this. Sometimes when I binge I think no other person could possibly be doing something like this to themselves. I love the idea of dumping soap or hot sauce on the food! I'm going to have to try that because I'm sad to admit that I have actually picked something from the garbage (only if its in a container) to eat it. Its dangerous unless you just totally destroy it I think.

I'm with you ladies. This thread is great because it really does show our common struggle. It also reminded me of that Sex and the City episode where Miranda gets hooked on chocolate eclairs.

She decided the eclairs are not enough, so she ends up baking a whole cake. You see her keep going in and slicing off more and more of it. Then she puts it in the trash and you see her peek in to take another bite from the bin. She squirts dishwashing liquid all over it and calls Carrie to say something like "I have just eaten cake out of the trash. I'm telling you this in case you have to check me into the Betty Crocker clinic." I loved that. Mostly because I thought, if they've got this on TV, I'm not the only one who's done it!

I started reading this thread because right now i have binge food in the house. I lost my job this week, and the depression hit, so I lost my diet as well. I tell you, I started crying reading what you guys had wrote. I was struggling with my program anyways, so the day I became unemployed, I went to a bargain store and bought some chocolate. Not just 1 bar either. I bought a BOX of chocoloate bars. Yup, 24 chocolate bars sitting in my freezer. Oh ok, now there are only 18 bars in my freezer. Did I mention that I also happened to pick up a gi-normous (3lbs) bag of Big Foot candy? I have about 1/2 a bag left. It's disgusting. I want to throw it away, but I can't bring myself to do it. I want to start my diet fresh today - try again, dust myself off, but being unemployed makes throwing food out akin to throwing away money. Someone help! I think I need an intervention!

But candy is not food....it is poison. At least in these quantities and for the purposes of your health. I can tell you that the act of disposing of binge food is sometimes the most empowering thing you can do.

Anything unopened can be taken to a food bank, other than that, dispose dispose dispose.

And since my biggest trigger foods are all of the melty variety (ice and whipped) I usually go for the sink. Hot water and wash it away.

I agree, most binge foods aren't "food" at all. They're piles of excess calories, often with little or no nutrition. Do not feel bad about throwing this away.

Scooping it in with the cat litter - excellent idea!

I've been known to buy a binge food, eat some of it and realize what I'm doing, and whip it out into the weeds as I'm driving (not the wrapper or anything, just the food that will biodegrade or get eaten by a critter). And speaking of critters - the squirrels in my yard have had a few gourmet treats in the past! When I get to that "what am I doing?" moment, I stop what I'm doing and immediately hurl it as far as I can into the back yard.

omg! i never watch SIS but i saw that one!!!! i totaly related too. ha ha

I bought a big bag of Baked Cheetos the other day (they are my favorite snack food ever) for the first time in awhile. I told myself I could control it and only eat small amounts every day. I had a bad couple of days with depression and two days later the whole bag is GONE. 12 servings turned into about 2! I feel absolutely disgusting about it and I wish I'd thought of the dish detergent thing myself. Now I know I just can't have things like that in the house at all!