There are very pretty homemade cookies in the lunch area, and I need to go in there to get my afternoon snack out of the fridge. It is not OK for me to have a cookie today - no room in my calories. And after binging last night, I don't think I could eat just one cookie anyway. I'm posting here to stay accountable.

Thank you all just for existing. :hug:

Edited to add: Turns out people loved the cookies, they were all gone when I went in there, except one sad-looking one that wasn't too tempting. Made things easy for me! :)

Hooray mayness! WTG on not eating the cookies. :D

ok so i feel absolutely terrible. me and my fiance' stayed at our weekend house on the river and his parents came out and we cooked....and i binged..not just that day, all 4!!! (i have mondays off) :( i ate a hamburger,beans,chips and dip, fried chicken, cheese toast, cinnamon rolls,cookies,pizza,bread (ugh reading all of that makes me sick!)...,pretty much anything i could get my hands on. i feel so awful. i was doing so good too. why can't i just say no?? i get it in my mind that it will be ok if i just eat a little bit. not like i can gain that much weight. i trick myself into thinking its okay to eat all of that and then i do..and afterwards i come down from my "food-high" and feel so guiltly and bad about myself...why couldn't i have been born skinny and not have to go through this!??!!??! whats worse is that i only have 6 months to lose 80lbs for my wedding. im never gunna reach that goal if i keep slipping up like this :( :( :(

mslrb, It will take lots of willpower to lose that much in a short amount of time. So, keep your goal in your mind at all times. That will help you say no to tempting foods. It's hard to stop eating junky food once you start, so don't even have one bite. I know it's hard, I did it for 14mo. while I was losing the weight and I just convinced myself of how bad these foods were for my health and I eventually i didn't even any them anymore, still don't. To me fatty, cholesterol, too much salt, saturated + trans fat, processed foods are disgusting. Eventually you might feel the same way. Good luck!

mslrb, I feel your pain and frustration. Having this problem absolutely sucks, no doubt. However, what's done is done. Put it behind you and don't dwell on it because that kind of thinking will not serve you well. You can't change the past anyway. What you can do is plan ahead. Think of it as a lesson to be learned. How can you do things differently the next time you go away? For me, any change in my normal routine has to be really thought out. For instance, I went away this weekend too, but I decided that all my meals will be veggies with chicken or shrimp on top. Dressing on the side to dip my fork in. I will exercise X amount of minutes doing this, that and the other. The key is to have a plan. I did plan on having some frozen yogurt and I did have it twice, but only a tiny bit and mostly with fruit inside. I've been where you're at plenty o times. I know exactly how you feel. Just move on and do better next time.

Another thing I want to mention: I have a VERY hard time not binging when I go to my parents house. I hardly ever go there for that very reason. Sad, but true. It's a trigger for me for some reason. I started binging when I was still living with my parents and I did it alone when nobody could notice. It was the beginning of the mess I'm in right now. If you know this place is a trigger, try to plan, plan, plan and if nothing helps, then I say avoid it if you can.

Hugs to you.

I am so glad this thread is here! Right now I want to EAT, I blame the biscotti I bought I had on after dinner and now I want another one(or maybe 3 more) It's hours before bed time. ACK! I'm super annoyed, I just want to eat and honestly, I'm sad that I can't :-( But I won't I'm at 1400 calories for the day so I just simply can't eat. Boy am I glad this thread is here!

Mikayla -- don't do it! You don't need that biscotti and you sure don't need the extra calories! Chew some gum or drink some tea instead.

:hug: looking forward to hearing good news at the end of the night!

Mikayla...I'm thinking about you too. It is SO hard at night, when we've hit our calorie limit. All I can say is kudos to you for counting calories...it's one of the best ways to stay accountable. Try to distract yourself by doing something you love..something that relaxes you....sometimes, I find some great songs on youtube that I used to rock out to when I was a teenager and I put them on and dance around and if the kids are asleep, I just watch the videos, even look up the lyrics. I also look up weight loss success stories online. Just hang in there...think of how proud you'll feel when you wake up tomorrow and you didn't have those extra items! On the flip side, remember the horrible feeling of waking up after eating too much. I also can't wait to hear good things about what you did tonight! :)

nnngh... I'm not tempted to binge, exactly, but I'm up to 1500 calories already today and I am so tempted to snack... even though I'm not hungry. I've chewed gum and drunk coffee but the urge is still there. I had SUCH a great workout, I don't want to sabotage it. Could somebody be so kind as to talk me off this ledge I'm standing on?

I have been locked away... In Binge ****... One eating episode turned into a weeks worth of cramming! I just kept going and going.... I'm trying to get back on track today, God willing. My blood pressure is out of whack! And right now, even as I'm typing this, I want to consume large amounts of food!

christy -- you're here now, that's always a good sign, that means you have a lot of support and for me at least that's half the battle :)

thinking of you. you CAN eat healthy today! i'm rooting for you!

Christy- I was in your same position last weekend. I know you can pick yourself up and dust yourself off. I am sending lots of hugs and happy, positive thoughts in your direction! :)

Today is SUCH a hungry day for me. I've had a protein shake (which usually fills me right up--not today!) and tons of vegetables and fiber, but I'm still ravenous. And there's half a cake downstairs... good news is that I don't feel particularly tempted to eat the cake. Yet. For now I'm just drinking water and hoping the hunger will pass so that I'm not tempted to eat and eat and eat.

I feel pretty committed now to this weight-loss thing. This is day 7 binge-free for me, which is a definite breakthrough. Just need to keep holding on...

hey thats awesome skyra hang in there i know you can make it just like that fih says in finding nemo just keep swimming just keep swimming lol sorry i forgot her name...i wish i had you rwill power i collapsed yesterday and binged all day...am starting new today tried to log in but no luck last night...but good for you... :)

This is awesome! I have had a problem with binge eating for years. It started about 6 years ago and just seemed to get worse and worse until I looked up and realized I packed on about 80 lbs by doing this. I have kept it under control for about a week. I had a weak moment in the store yesterday while a rack of candy was staring me in the face. Normally, I would have bought several items and eaten them all in the car on the way home. However, I somehow only walked out with a 3 musketeers. It still isn't great but I figured it was better than what I normally would have done. I'm so happy I found this! I know it will be such an inspiration for me!

cabinwife -- good for you! Glad you found us. :hug: And you're right, the 3 Musketeers wasn't perfect but you did BETTER and what matters is that you're steadily improving. Baby steps and all that. :)

Wow what a great thread or post or whatever you call it! There have been so many times that I want 2 eat! Actually right now! I eat every 2 hours (thank God) Eating every two hours is really helping me understand my relationship with food. Thanks 4 starting this... Cathy

Ack! So I had some pasta and meatballs last night (though it was whole wheat pasta) - and I had a slice of pizza. I figured I was ok because I was still at 1800 calories for the day (I'm fairly tall so I can still lose at that); HOWEVER, this morning I feel RAVENOUS. I am intensely craving a cheese scone which I am sure is like 600 calories. And more pasta and meatballs. And bread. And cheese.

I've had some coffee, and I even went down to the gym to try to work out (which usually curbs the cravings). I could only last 5 minutes on the stairmaster though (usually I work out in the afternoons, so I don't think my body has taken to it in the morning). I have to go to the library today because I need to work on an assignment due tomorrow which has got me stressed. WHAT SHOULD I DO? I intensely feel like binging. I'm thinking of incorporating a cheat day in my plan, most likely Saturday, to help me starve off these feelings, but I'm not a fan of the idea.

Should I just ignore my cravings? I'm hoping they'll go away, but they just feel to be getting stronger. ACK! Or should I indulge them just a bit? This is day 10 of my plan and I don't want to ruin all my hard work. :(

Mouse -- in your current state of mind, "just a little bit" will almost definitely turn into a binge. Drink a lot of water or tea, chew gum. If you're hungry, by all means eat, but if you're not, focus your attention on something else and know that if you continue to resist the cravings, they WILL go away. They don't last forever.

10 days is AWESOME and I'm proud of you. :hug: You are strong enough to make it to day 11. Hang in there and post again if you need to.

BTW, at least in my experience, "cheat days" don't stave off binges -- they make them worse. I get into a "oh, but it's a cheat day, I can eat a pint of ice cream AND half a pizza!" mode. And then the next day it's near impossible to go back to eating 1500 calories. Besides, in one "cheat day" I can easily destroy the work of 3 or 4 days of watching my calories, so it's just not worth it, at least for me. Do what you feel is best, but since you don't seem like a big fan of the idea anyway...

Aw Skyra, thank you for the response. Unfortunately, I went for it. I had some more pasta and meatballs, about six cookies, and then I went to Subway and had one of their disgusting flatbread melts (seriously, I normally wouldn't WANT to put crap like that into my body). I'm figuring all of this comes to 1500 calories EASILY.

I think the cravings are subdued for now and I want to get back on track for the rest of the day. My only concern is that I'm a bit of a carb addict, and by giving myself another hit I am just fuelling the addiction. (Literally: I saw a video from ABC news yesterday that talked about a study which showed the MRIs of a food addict as compared to other addicts - smokers, drug abusers, alcholics - and the same regions of the brain were affected by all groups when presented with their substance of choice.)

I know the key to losing weight is consistency. I have lost weight before, at least twice, where I was able to stick to my eating plan for over two months (I have never come close to goal, however - I think my best attempt was my first: two years ago, when I made 145). BUT THEN SOMETIMES SOMETHING COMES OVER ME AND I FEEL LIKE I JUST CAN'T DO IT ANY MORE, that it's not worth it (haha, sorry for the all caps, but that's just how all-consuming the urge feels).

How long would you say it takes for the cravings to go away if you resist them? I waited for almost two hours ... haha ... and then I couldn't take it anymore.

I guess I will just pick up and try again.

So, I am working on day 3 here. But it's my birthday and my (food pusher) Mom just brought over cupcakes. I can't trash them because the kids already saw them. :sigh:

Mouse -- oh man, this is not going to sound heartening, but I'll be honest. The time it takes for cravings to go away can vary. I read once in a dieting book that most food cravings disappear within about 5 minutes. (Of course, I read that and thought, "WHAT?! That's not true at all!" But maybe that IS true for most people? I'm not sure.) Sometimes my cravings ARE only temporary, so as much as I can I try to chew gum and do something else in the hopes it'll go away quickly. But then there was one day where my roommate made a cake and I craved that cake for 7 straight hours. Sometimes all you can do is go to bed and try again the next day -- I find that whenever I wake up my cravings have stopped. I feel sick if I eat anything unhealthy in the morning so starting with a healthy breakfast can help get me back in the right mindset.

:hug: I'm sorry you caved in, but I understand. I've done the same thing. All you can do now is try again. And you're right, consistency IS the key. You CAN lose the weight this time! We're here to support you!

Haha, WardHog - ironically they were giving out free cupcakes on campus yesterday, but I resisted ... (haha, but of course I screwed it up later - but still, I was proud about that, because usually they get me every time - so it can be done!).

Skyra - seven hours? Yuck. I think I've had the same experience more than once (and I have a hard time going to bed hungry, I just can't sleep -- so lately I've been eating a banana every night before I go to bed to help me sleep. It has actually worked well so far.)

I'm a little surprised that I binged like that today -- I slept really well last night, and have been eating well except really for the pizza last night. I think maybe the stress of school has been doing me in. However, I'm not going to do a cheat day, for the reasons you mentioned before, I will just continue to stick with my plan (which is healthy and working for me so far).

Consistency is key -- but I've been struggling with this (how do you keep going when the motivation's not there? I guess you just do). I'm young (21), and even at my high weight I am 160, so I'm hoping I can "retrain" my body and this won't be as hard to keep up in the future.

Thank you for the support! It is much needed + appreciated! :D

Originally Posted by Skyra:
BTW, at least in my experience, "cheat days" don't stave off binges -- they make them worse. least for me.

Isn't that the truth...I don't think I ever thought of it that way... when I cave into a temptation... what does it really do... do I actually feel better?

H. E. double hockey sticks NO! Thanks Skyra for the light bulb moment!

Cathy :)

You're welcome Cathy! I do what I can. ;)

Mouse -- bananas are great snacks. :) I eat them at night when I'm hungry too. And as for getting motivation ... you're right, the motivation isn't always there. I think everybody has their non-motivated days. A couple things that help me are a) posting something on the forums (reading success stories, or checking in with other people who struggle with binging, are particularly motivating for me) or b) looking at myself in the mirror (naked!) and saying to myself, "Do you want this to be the best you ever look? Do you want this to be the healthiest you ever are?" (A resounding no, of course.)

(PS. I'm young too, 22, and I've never been fit or particularly healthy, so I'm hoping I can retrain my body too and that maintaining will be easier than losing. We'll have to see how it works out.)

Hey all, new to this place. Been doing good for two weeks on my own, had an overwhelming urge to binge today. Not a huge one, but one nevertheless. Now i know about this thread, I will check in here before i hit the fridge. Thanks.

Kiwi2cute

I really wanna binge right now. I know that if I do, I'll feel horrible in the morning. A combo of PMS, severe migraine head ache pain and having the kids here on Thanksgiving vacation is making me weak. I feel like eating so many things. I wanna go to the fridge and go crazy, but I"m trying really hard not to. I'm watching The Biggest Loser so that's helping too. I'm really hoping that typing this here will help me stay focused on my goal. Thanks for listening. By the way, this is a step up for me because normally, I don't even think straight to come and post.

I didn't binge last night! I realized that I still had some calories left, so I ate half of a Pomello (it's like a grapefruit) and that helped me with that terrible urge to binge. I got on the scale this morning and I was down another pound! Yippeeee!!!!

luckymommy, how did last night work out for you? :hug:

I know that when I'm feeling sick/weak/worn out I tend to get that urge to binge. It makes sense in a way, biologically - my body feels weak, it thinks I might be hungry, and I start thinking about food because that will "fix it." But if the weakness is from other things, food WON'T fix it... maybe I'll get an hour or so of a sugar rush, but the next day I'll feel even worse. What you did yesterday, identifying the reasons you want to binge, is usually helpful - thoughts are more reliable than feelings, and knowing logically that I don't NEED more food can help me deal with FEELING like I do.

LuckyMommy, You made a wise decision and it paid off didn't it? You lost a pound. Now next time you want to binge, do the same thing. Great job!

Thanks Mayness and fruitlady! I'm here again because I want to binge yet again. It sucks to be back in the struggle so soon. Just a few short minutes ago, I was fine! I was proud! But now, my husband has put together some left overs from Thanksgiving and I want to make myself a huge plate of food too. I didn't even eat the best parts (which I won't mention, since it might make readers want those things). Now, I'm feeling like I want it, I want it, I WANT IT!!!! Ahhhh!!!! Ok, hopefully, typing this will give me some accountability. Just when I think I have things more or less under control, I'm finding myself back at square one: the struggle square. The turmoil square. The longing square. Ok, enough whining! Sorry! ;)

Don't apologize...Support is what the forum is for. I'm also here tonight because I wanted another plate. Holidays are emotional times for good reasons as well as less pleasant ones, and it's hard to watch others indulging when it almost feels Scrooge-like to try to maintain control. Even if you slipped after you posted, that doesn't mean you have to slip again. Look how far you have already come! You are an inspiration to me. I know you can make it to your goal! :hug:

Luckymommy, Fight it with all your might! Remember, nothing tastes as good as thin feels!

Thanks K8t and fruitlady! I have found this board to be a life line. There is nobody I can call or that understands how this feels. Luckily, I went to sleep after that post and I didn't give in. It's the first thing that popped into my brain this morning when I woke up: I didn't binge! :) Yes, it could have easily gone the other way, but it didn't. I'm not sure that would have been the case had I not come on this board. Thank you so much!!!

:cheer3::cheer2:YEAH!!!!!:cheer3::cheer2:

Good for you, luckymom!!!!

That's great luckymommy!!!

wow luckymommy. My binge triggers have been running rampant. I am on my period. Stress with relationship. Stress with school. Migraine headaches. I don't know why I think eating will help with that god awful pain, I just get sick to my stomach....

you did great. I need this thread. I needed it LAST NIGHT. oh well, there's no rewind button. Just keep pressing on.

Hi everyone :) wow, as horrible as it sounds I'm glad there are other people out there that have the same problem I do. It's less harsh feeling not so alone about it. I binge. I eat compulsively, to celebrate, to fill a possible void, to get rid of boredom. I'm learning ever so slowly in my heart (because in my head I already know this) that eating more never solves a problem. It makes my problem bigger. I work at night, my husband works during the day. So I have a lot of opportunities to hide overeating. Even then I eat at home and when I go to work I am absolutely surrounded by candybars (we have a snack food fund), things people bring in, the Holidays are here. I know I have to be extra dilligent but it is just so hard. I feel like I have no excuse to let my guard down because I know if I do I go overboard...or if I do and say, "ooooh it's just one day", I might just do it again later that week. I've done it about 3 times this week. I'm not as cruel to myself as I used to be, I used to punish myself with food thinking I deserved nothing better so I'd keep on eating. I've discovered I don't have just one trigger food. It is also impossible for me to keep only healthy food in the house. My husband (who has the metabolism of a horse) doesn't have the same problem I do and I could never ask him to get rid of everything just for me. I've also learned to control it a little bit on a day to day basis...but if my friend offers me something it is soooo hard to say no. I know I know, I should tell people not to offer me things. I just need to vent a little. I didn't used to be obsessed with food. I'm getting better but what I really want is to lose ten pounds. I'm not overweight but I would really feel a lot better about myself if I had a little less jiggle. Plus I feel like it would help me learn how to control myself. Knowing I can do that would just help soooo much. At the same time I know it will be me and know one and nothing else pulling myself out of this vicious cycle of losing a pound or two by eating right/exercise for a few days, and then overeating it back on. Each time I do it I want to give up. I don't want to get as bad as I was before where food was my heaven and my ****. Hopefully this forum will help. I feel inspired when I read everyone's posts :) I'm not alone. The darkness is a little less dark.

Welcome Laeah. :hug: Yes -- you're not alone. Glad to have you here.

Skyra

I'm having a binge emergency :(

I've been doing SO well on my diet for 3 weeks. Honestly, my cravings haven't been too bad, I've been filling up on smaller portions, and I've just been truckin' along.

But for some reason, today has been hard. I've been studying for tests all day (finals are coming up). Before, I would always let myself munch on the worst foods during studying. My thought process was "I'm doing a really boring and un-fun activity...might as well make it more enjoyable with a Snickers bar or 3." Well I'm having those same feelings, but somehow celery and carrots just aren't as enjoyable as junk. I've felt the craving for some garbage brewing all day.

I keep going to my cupboards and fridge thinking "Alright, I've been good, time to give myself a treat." But I know that if I start with that, it will just snowball into a big nasty binge. I HAVE been good on my diet, but I do NOT want to set back my progress. Fortunately, I tossed most of the unhealthy junk snacks. Bingeing on celery and carrots can't be that bad, lol.

Ugh, somebody snap me out of it!