I Now Know My Trigger Foods!
 

I am addicted to Fast Food. Every time I quit fast food I go through serious withdrawls, and the last time in January, I went without fast food for a month. I allowed myself one splurge a month and it worked out very well! However, when I eat my trigger foods, I can't stop eating. I will go and eat it several times a day for days and days. I will eat anything I can get my hands on. I lose absolute control.

We just got our kitchen remodeled so we were without a proper kitchen for 6 weeks. That meant 6 weeks of eating nothing but gross and unhealthy foods. I've ballooned up to 200 pounds and this is it. I was walking 4 miles a day, eating pretty well, and I now have a kitchen again and I will be better equipped to succeed!

I hope that I can find strength in all of the stories here, and together we can all make our dreams come true. Being fat is very hard for me, and I really must be careful as I have had eating disorders for 17 years (started when I was 11). I want to be a good influence on my 7 year old daughter and I want to be able to inspire people and help others. I know that I am a binger because I am meant to help people like myself. It;s hard to remember that I was once 125 pounds and my NOW EX told me that I could stand to lose five pounds. Instead I gained 80 during my pregnancy and gained another 20 after he left me for being fat. Best thing he ever did for me! :)

This is all very hard, but I know I can do it. My trigger food is a poison. A poison that must be avoided. I CAN do it!

What are all of your trigger foods? I'm lucky in that I don't like sweets and such, but fast food is all around me all the time, so that's pretty hard! :(

I'm also a disordered eater. I started out with not eating enough and since then I've decided to take up bingeing. Always a struggle but I've realized a lot over the years.

My trigger foods are usually sweets. Anything with sugar. Chocolate is a big one too. And dried figs. As soon as I start eating "treats" I can't stop. It's all the mentality of the fact that I'm eating something I "shouldn't". I am realizing how closely related all the different eating disorders are and I hope to find some sort of normalcy in all this.

Keep posting and believe in yourself!

Thanks Bikini Dreader! Congrats on getting closer to your goal! *hugs*

I can't wait til I feel normal again! =D

Hang in there Jeanette, hopefully with your kitchen back you can start making your own food again. My trigger foods are usually are any baked goodies (cookies, pastry, cinnamon buns, donuts) icecream and pizza. I try to not keep any of it in the house because it will disappear way to quickly. Dh tries to stay away from that stuff as well (he bodybuilds, so tries to have a fairly healthy diet which helps me alot)
GL

Thanks everyone. I'm really excited about this, but sad that tomorrow is Easter and so I can't spend time at the gym. =(

My weakness is definitely sweets. I could always generally take or leave fast food. My advice, if you haven't already seen it, is to rent "Supersize Me", the doc. film made by the guy (Morgan Spurlock, I think) who only ate McDonalds for 1 month. Weight issues aside, what it did to his health was quite an eye-opener - turned me right off fast food altogether. Fast Food Nation is also supposed to have the same effect, though I have not seen that one yet.

I read Fast Food Nation when it came out. Did what The Jungle did.. turned me off that stuff for a bit but not long term.

Sadly, Supersize Me just made me hungry.

It's not hard for me to stop eating fast food as long as I tell everyone I know that I am stopping. I was a veggie for ages and before that I was a HUGE meateater.

=)

I'm like you Jeannette, I could go the rest of my life without sweets but I LOVE fried food and I LOVE fast food.... those are deffinately my trigger foods. It's hard to avoid them, but it's good that you labled them as "poisons" because that's exactly what they are. I've done a good job staying away from them since i started studying up on different foods and what they do to your body. I deffinately don't want to do that to my body. I do treat myself every once in awhile though. But, I regret it everytime. Once you don't eat it for awhile it makes you feel like crap when you eat it...

I so agree, Casey!

I didn't eat fast food for a month and only after a week I felt GREAT! Breathing was easier, I had more energy... I ate it because I was PMSing, and it didn't even taste good, but now I'm stuck in the rut again! AGH! Anyway, tomorrow is the day. Day one. I think I may start a video blog as well. We shall see!

Anything starchy is my trigger. Potatoes, pasta...especially pasta. I have a hard time having just one serving of something starchy...I crave it!

=)

I did an 87 minute workout this morning at 530am. I'm really tired now. I don't know if I should do more in a bit or if I should take a nap! *laughs*

Good for you! I started working out at 6:30 am a few months ago and it completely changed my days. YOu have more energy and are less inclined to search for food to give you that energy. I love it. I dont know how you got up at 5:30 but that's great!

I'm a bit like Jillybean - nearly everything sets me off - but I particularly struggle with breakfast cereals, bread, biscuits and chocolate - milk chocolate. I have banned these items from my house because I can't cope with them. Ironically I have no problem at all with cereal bars and I find that plain chocolate satisfies the chocolate craving and then actually dulls my appetite which has been a most welcome discovery :) I really don't like fast food - it just tastes nasty to me.

I was actually up at 445 but SLOOOOOOOWWWW to get going. I want to be at the gym by 5am M-F and do at least 90 mins of cardio a day. When I was in training I lost 10 pounds in three weeks because of my cardio and light weight training 2-3 times a week.

I did have a bagel and cream cheese, but I figure it's okay, as that was breakfast and only 350 calories. I snack on apples and celery and have protien rich meals for lunch and dinner. =)

I'm not going to feel guilty anymore. I will make good and bad choices, I'm sure, but the point is to BALANCE.

This is my first message - just joined up. I've been on my "program" for three months and it was going great. I had lots of resolve to stick with it and my progress was great. I'm using the past tense alot now as I'm discovering the old binge eating part of me is starting to take center stage again. Its so frustrating! I'm hoping hearing from others facing the same challenges will help boost my emotional state to do something other than consume everything in sight! :o)

Good luck!!!! I really think that we all can do it!

I seriously think I have some kind of deficiency. I had chinese food today for lunch (uggghh) which is basically starch chicken and sugar.

I didn't know before I actually got recipes and made a chinese dinner once...but you use about a box of corn starch when you're making just one thing of General Tso's. Not to mention about 10 cups of sugar...

Seriously, I physically crave it when I'm hungry.

I'm in the exact same situation Jill.. I steer clear of that CRAP. And you are exactly right, once you get the will power to stay away from it for a couple of weeks you don't crave it anymore. But I know if I eat it just once I will be back in a rut again, and I do not want that. Fast food will help you gain the weight back real fast. (maybe that's why they call it fast food...hmmm...?)

I was craving junk all day. I still had alot of calories left I could consume around 4pm so I allowed myself ONE SERVING of chips. it was hard to put down, but I did it.

I'm hoping that this time around I can be strong and this will be the time I succeed! =)

Wow.. this could have been written by me. Eating the six "100 Calorie" packs that are in the box, finishing the entire container of sugar-free ice cream, eating stuff I don't even like... It's just insane. If I buy any sort of snack food I'll first grab a small portion, but then I cannot stop thinking about the rest of the package, sitting in the pantry. I won't stop thinking about it until I've eaten it all so that finally it's gone. It's quite discouraging. What makes things worse is that my boyfriend (who is *very* skinny I might add) basically lives off cookies, crackers, etc. I often devour entire packages of his food when he's not home, and then rush to the supermarket to replace it. Of course if half of the orignal package was already gone, I have to also eat half of the package I've just bought to make it look right :( Crazy, isn'it ?

So yeah.. my trigger foods...anything with sugar, especially breakfast cereals, anything crispy, baked goods, hummus for some reason, ice cream, rice (especially white), and countless other things.

You guys I have done the same thing on several occasions, and my bf is diabetic, so he has to keep sweets in the house for when his blood sugar gets too low... also we live right near a grocery store so it's easy for me to get binge foods... it is definitely an out of control and insane experience for me too.

I'm adding graham crackers with peanut butter and jam to my trigger foods list. It seems I will make anything a binge food if I really want to. Not a good weekend for me. I will stop saying that I'm starting my serious program now. (But I am!). I'll let you know what other foods I find to binge on.

Well, I was starving by the time I got home, and had chips and pickles and pizza rolls. I got up to about 500 calories before I could stop myself.

It's teh first time I really started to binge in over a week and I just paused and thought of what I looked like and what a terrible example I am sending to my daughter (she tends to binge! What have I done?)... I stopped.

I'm done for the day. I've been drinking lots of water lately so I know I am hungry b/c I'm really hungry and not thirsty.

I'm going to weigh myself next Monday. I'm scared. I've been eating fairly well (I let myself eat out once a week, one serving of whatever I want) and doing 90+ minutes on the treadmill everyday. I'm so scared this isn't going to work and I'm going to look like this forever.

Well, I've been sick so I've been eating pretty badly.

Working out is at a minimum b/c all I want to do is sleep. I have exams next week and teh week after so I imagine I'll be studying a lot. *sigh*

Hopefully I'll get well soon so I can get back on track.

I am an all or nothing gal to. I don't have a particular trigger food. I can and will binge on anything. It's crazy. I have been thinking about how I am going to handle that. I'm not totally sure yet. I think I get so caught up in the moment that I just turn off that part of my brain that tells me it is not okay.

Fast food is my trigger also. I never ate it that often in college but since I've started working very long hours it has become the norm. I eat if for breakfast, lunch and dinner because it's easy. Beyond making me fat, it also triggers bad headaches and zaps my energy. I've tried giving it up many times but it usualy only lasts for a week and then I cave. :(

I too am like this. I crave grease and starches more than sweets, but I crave sweets sometimes too....
For me its all about everything in moderation.... I've come to the conclusion that if I allow myself to have a little bit of something every now and then, rather than completely depriving myself, I am much much less likely to binge and I stay on plan way better.
I also pack my lunch and snack to eat at work. If I dont I never make good choices and go for the easy and junkie solution.
If I ever stray and binge for a meal, I get back up and dust myself on and start again immediately..
Slowly but surely, I am losing weight and becoming a healthier me...
We can do this girlies!!

I hear you. Fast foods are my trigger, too. I remember getting something from McDonald's everyday after classes AND going home and eating as well. Now, I haven't had fast food in a few weeks and I don't even miss it. It's like it's out of my system now.