[rrjs]

I'm ready to turn over a new leaf and become the person I know I can be, inside and out. I've put on 25 lbs in the past year, and I'm ready to reclaim my old body and start to feel good about myself again. I know I can do it, but binge eating/compulsive overeating has been one of the biggest reasons I've put it on in the first place, and it's going to be one of my biggest challenges in being successful this time around.

I need to get to the root of why I eat my feelings and eat when I'm bored. Plenty of other people deal with their emotions and boredom in other ways...why is it that I use food? I could be having a successful, healthy week and one episode of cravings comes along and suddenly my progress and goals aren't worth it and I give in, justifying it with anything I can - even lying to myself. I get into a war against myself and the fact that the "bad" side of me always wins is very frustrating.

Does anyone else struggle with this? Has anyone else successfully figured out why they do this and found other ways to cope instead of stuffing their face? Please share! I won't be able to be successful unless I can cut out this one huge bad habit of mine!

[fillupthesky]

i think most of us on here can relate. i don't know if i've gotten to the root of my problem, i'm just trying to find ways to avoid it and control the binges, as well as dealing with it when i do binge (not letting it turn into a daily thing and just going crazy).

at one point, i was bingeing everyday after work. i don't have a particular food i like to binge on- i've binged on "healthy" food as well. i have this whole internal struggle when i feel a binge coming on. it's like being an addict- you get the urge, the craving to do this bad thing. you find ways to justify the binge, and almost look forward to sabotaging yourself. then while its happening, for me anyway, i feel so bad and so good and i go kind of brain dead for a while. i just keep shoving food in my mouth.

i wish i had normal way of dealing with stress/being bored and had a healthier relationship with food. for me, i think bingeing is way to self soothe. i'm just trying to me more mindful of how i'm feeling in the moment when i'm bingeing. getting to the root of the problem will take some time. i would just start by how your feeling before, during, and after the binge...that may be a place to start.

we're all here for moral support

[M0vingon]

True emotional overeating is a form of self-soothing. Somewhere along the way we missed the lessons that taught a better way to manage emotions. The trick is being in touch with your emotions enough to differrentiate between emotional eating and habit. Most overeating is a combination of these things. Changing it requires behaviour modification- be it learning to cry when you're sad instead of eat or learning that sitting on the sofa is not an automatic green light for the munchies. Then there's the cognitive stuff- how long do you think about eating before you eat? Like an addict, if you catch yourself thinking about eating your stress respons will increase until you do it- or stop thinking about it.
It's a pretty complex process that requires a lot of self observation and patience! I know there are some pretty good workbooks out there that help you do the observation stuff. I'm not sure if any of this is helpful I totally relate to where you're coming from. The ridiculous thing is that I teach this stuff to clients all day, but I haven't taken the time to do it myself. Now is that time!

[rrjs]

Thank you both so much, that really helps!