What do you do to stop when you are about to binge?
 

I've always wondered how other people handle their feelings associated with binging. When I feel like I am about to binge I take a deep breath, force myself to leave the kitchen, go to another room in the house, close the door, and watch a food documentary such as "Food Matters", "Food Inc.", or "Forks Over Knives".

I know it sounds funny, but watching a health documentary like that really puts things into perspective for me and helps me to rethink my anxious, bingy feelings. I am getting worried however, as I have been noticing my binging urges are happening outside of the house more recently. This means I can't just leave the kitchen and distract myself. Does anyone have anything that they do almost every time they are about to binge?

I chew gum and drink tea. The gum helps me the most though. I sometimes will chew an entire pack, but that's still better than an entire loaf of bread and a huge jar of Nutella. :nono:

With me it's doing some cardio exercise -it always works but I can only do that when I'm home - when I am out and it's a long way home and I am tired - then nothing will stop me

I weigh myself. If there is no scale i grab at fat. Trust me my craving leaves fast.

I just drink so much water I think I might burst. Then, the last thing I want to do is eat anything!!

On the other hand, great tips too!! I will definitely try the gum trick!!

HERE'S TO NO MORE BINGING!!!

I stop and think about all my hard work going down the drain. I think about being how I was before. That feeling for me is so strong to not go back that I fight not binging. And...it's hard. It's like detoxing. There's the urge to do it but even if you back away from it you still fight that urge. Heck I've don't it and cried once because of it, but I didn't binge. But, it's hard. So, I totally don't see what you do as silly at all. You do what you have to do.

But, when I'm out and get the urge I do agree gum helps tons! Well for me haha. I always carry some with me. I'm the gum girl haha.

I always carry a toothbrush/toothpaste with me and whenever I feel the urge to binge...I brush my teeth. And for me it really works.

I keep binge foods out of the house,deep breaths and glass of water help sometimes your only thristy and not really hungry.Also chewing gum.i do relaxtion exercises

I just keep munchies out of the house. I'm less likely to cook a whole meal LOL

I eat ice and drink tea! Or get myself out of the situation/house/store wherever. Keeping busy helps too. I make sure I always have a goal/project to do with idle time.

I write in my binge journal, it has a set of questions that have you thinking about triggers, feelings, pros and cons, food you would binge on and then it you think about how you would feel afterwards, it usually takes be 20 to 30 mins to complete all the questions and that's helpful...

Originally Posted by desiresdestiny:
I write in my binge journal, it has a set of questions that have you thinking about triggers, feelings, pros and cons, food you would binge on and then it you think about how you would feel afterwards, it usually takes be 20 to 30 mins to complete all the questions and that's helpful...

I actually just started doing this, and I actually do find it helpful. It gives me a distraction, but at the same time I can write all about how I feel without being judged.
Yesterday in fact I got a REALLY bad urge to binge and I was close to doing it, but instead I pulled out my journal (that I've filled with inspiring quotes and pictures, random things) and I just started making a list of all the things I wanted to eat. I filled up an entire page, and when I was done I actually felt better! I looked over the list and reading what I wrote didn't really resonate with me. It was as though writing the foods down just got the urges out of my system.

I won't pretend that I didn't still want to eat them, but that feeling of perching on the ledge of a binge was gone.

I have been in control for long, but I have to confess that when I binged I never knew it was going to happen. I started to snack out of boredom, and sometimes it turned into a binge and sometimes it didn't. What made it be one thing or the other was a mystery to me. To put an end to that, I learned to eat only when hungry, I stopped snacking (just three or four meals a day and nothing in between) and, what was a real achievement to me, I learned to stop eating once I was not hungry anymore. I did not know how to stop, or when to stop, because as I snacked all the time, I never got to feel hungry or to stop feeling hungry.
To sum up: I ask my stomach if it needs food, and eat till it tells me it does not need any more food.

I haven't figured this one out yet (I just went on a diet horror movie binge this weekend) so I can't offer much advice.

Traditionally, I stay out of the kitchen or get as far away from food as I can when I feel a binge coming on.

Good Luck!

Originally Posted by JossFit:
I actually just started doing this, and I actually do find it helpful. It gives me a distraction, but at the same time I can write all about how I feel without being judged.
Yesterday in fact I got a REALLY bad urge to binge and I was close to doing it, but instead I pulled out my journal (that I've filled with inspiring quotes and pictures, random things) and I just started making a list of all the things I wanted to eat. I filled up an entire page, and when I was done I actually felt better! I looked over the list and reading what I wrote didn't really resonate with me. It was as though writing the foods down just got the urges out of my system.

I won't pretend that I didn't still want to eat them, but that feeling of perching on the ledge of a binge was gone.

yup takes the edge off but yes its still hard