Does anyone else ever feel out of control when it comes to eating? I know it is our decision and will to put what we put in our mouths, but sometimes I feel completely out of control. If I screw up the day's diet, I eat whatever and I can't stop. The thinking is sort of along the lines of, "well, might as well, since I've already messed up. I can just start again tomorrow."

Hi LawGirl, I feel completely out of control. I'm down about 18 lbs and feel myself losing it. I've had a couple of sudae's this past week and chocolate chip pancakes this morning. Sometimes I don't even want what I eat. It's like I'm trying to sabotage myself. I've been up and down for years, mostly up. I get on track and feel great, wondering why I didn't do it sooner, and then all of the sudden I'm binging out of control. I need to get this weight off for more reasons than I can count (health, looks, self-esteem,wedding, hating fat clothes, etc.) I guess what I'm saying is that you are definitely not alone. It's like they say about alcoholics: one day at a time. I don't know what the answer is (obviosly). My plan is to make a list of all the reasons I need to stay on track and look at it every morning, as well as the consequences of not. Maybe even look again after work. I know the only advantage to going off the plan is that I get to eat all I want. That's it: eating all I want. It nearly destroys most every thing else in my life. So far however,that small joy has won out over every other happiness. It has been a terrible price I've paid. I hope for both of us that we can get and keep control.

I know what you mean. It makes us feel terrible, but still, we can't stop it. Thanks for telling me your story. I know I'm not alone. It's just so hard.

You are definitely not alone. I have been out of control for a while now. Prior to that, I was in so much control that I barely ate anything. For me it all had to do with not valuing myself and not assuming that I was ever good enough. I have tried to change that and by assuming I can do this and get things back in order, I have been able to nearly stop all binges. If you make it an all or nothing thing or a diet or with too many rules, In my opinion, you are making it really hard on yourself. YOu feel like a failure if you have one of your restricted foods or if you dont' work out one day. Then you give up. I say, take one day at a time definitely. So you had some extra food today, remember that tomorrow and start a new day. Every single choice you make matters, maybe one day, you will have no bread before your meal or you wont put butter on your toast, but that all adds up. Be proud of the choices you have made up to this point and keep it up! Its not easy. But think about the reasons you want to lose this weight or be more healthy. YOu are doing it for yourself not against your own wishes. Eventually, you won't want to eat the stuff that doesn't take you to your goal. Keep that goal in mind and you can do it.

Keep posting!

Thank you. You're right. I need to not let one little slip cause my whole day to go down the tubes in terms of eating. If I eat one bad thing, I should just let it go and still stick to the diet and not binge.

Bikini Dreader put it well. I used to be a fairly regular binger, and am doing much better these days. The trick for me has been to take the focus off losing weight/dieting, and concentrate more on getting my eating behaviour back to normal. In other words, not bingeing is more important that sticking to this, that, or the other diet. Weight is coming down - slowly, but the needle's moving in the right direction, and that's enough for me. I can recommend a book - Fit from Within by Victoria Moran (I got it at Chapters) - it helped me gain a lot of perspective, and I still re-read parts of it regularly.

I have that feeling EVERY day. I have to think...which do I want more...this Blizzard from Diary Queen or loose weight and buy new clothes??? It is hard and unfortunately I don't have any answers.

Somebody put a quote up here once - sorry, I can't remember who - and it went something like this...

Eating something off program, then saying "well, I blew it, I may as well eat everything in sight now" is like slipping on the top step, then saying "well I blew it", and throwing yourself down the rest of the stairs.

I love that one, and I think it is so true - just because we have one off-program treat doesn't mean that the rest of the day has to be a write-off. One treat will not make a significant difference to our weight-loss. But that all-or-nothing diet mentality will, because it turns one "slip" into a binge. Then we binge again to punish ourselves for the first one.

It is SO crucial to learn to be able to have a little slip, accept it, forgive ourselves, then get right back on program immediately - not tomorrow, not Monday, but immediately. Easier said than done, trust me, I know. But I think it is absolutely necessary, in order to be able to beat the binge-monster.

Talking about out of control. I know that I was out of control, but I never knew how hard it would be to gain the control back.

I am not on any particular weight loss plan. I basically try to stick to whole foods. I do have a problem with binging, but for the last week, I have controled it. I don't eat after dinner. Increased excercise to 5 days a week. And I have lost a few pounds.

Last night the weirdest thing happened. I do not know when I did it, but at some point, I got out of my bed and got a spoonful of peanut butter. I remember smelling peanut butter during different times of the night, and waking up thinking a ate peanut butter. All I could smell was peanut butter. When I got out of bed, I had peanut butter smeared down my arm, peanut butter on the pillow, and peanut butter on the sheets. I found the spoon and it still had peanut butter on it. I dont' think I ate much of it, because of the amount I found on everything and the spoon had a bit left on it.

I'm surprised my dog didn't jump in my bed to figure out what that strong odor is.

Is this behavior pathetic or what? I was so afraid, because I may be eating other things that I don't even remember. I have an apointment scheduled with a physcologist . (can't spell) My appointment isn't until the 18 of April.

Have any of you ever experienced such behavior?

This isn't exactly the same thing, but it's a funny story along the same lines. My friend Jesse got home from the bars one night and decided to make pudding. She said she made a whole parfait with chocolate pudding, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. She brought it up to bed and fell asleep before eating it. She woke up with pudding all over her and the sheets and the pillow and everything. She was pretty pleased with herself that her attempt at a binge-sesh in her bed was spoiled by falling asleep. Just thought I'd share, and good luck figuring out what's going on, I'm sure a psychologist will help you get to the bottom of it!

I have one other thought. People keep bringing up taking it one day at a time, and I believe that is really the key. The other night I was thinking it might be a good idea to eat the other half of my huge sub I had for dinner. I decided, no, you're not hungry, so wait unti lthe morning. If you want to wake up and binge go ahead. I woke up, had some cereal, and went on with my day, because usually (though I must admit I can wake up and just start eating random leftovers and things) morning isn't a big binge time for me.