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...

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!

yup takes the edge off but yes its still hard

I like the journal idea. I was doing well on my diet, but we went on vacation and I got off. After coming home, it was hard for me to get back on because I felt so hungry after my carb overload. Now I've been back on the diet for only 4 days and hopefully will keep binges away.

Keep trying to find a way of eating that will get results without that intense feeling of panic/desperation. Have been doing some reading on Ghrelin and appetite so also trying to keep that at bay. HTH.

I do what those of you who keep journals probably do, but I don't write it down.

I sit with myself for a minute and I try to identify what I'm feeling. Nearly always, it's anxiety, though sometimes it's anger.

My therapist gave me a good question to ask myself at such moments: "What is the fear?"

Once I name it, one part of me, the logical, sane part, recognizes that eating rarely, if ever, assuages the fear. There's usually something I could actually **do** to help myself, some kind of action I could take that would put me more in control.

That could mean curling in a fetal position on the sofa or crying. Fine. It's pathetic-looking and dramatic, yes, but it's better than eating.

I think that will work for me. I'm going to try it next time I get the urge. I'm always thinking I want to be less than I am now but I like the idea of looking to the past and not undoing the hard work I have put in.

this sometimesworks for me. I add the calories of everything I am craving or about to eat in my fitnesspal app and it makes me not want to eat it. However, there are times when I don't add it because i want to eat it and adding it makes me not want to eat it! So it sometimes works and sometimes doesnt... What doesnt work for me though is going for walks or doing something to take my mind off it etc. If the urge hits, it hits :(

I tried the thing last night where you write down in a journal everything you WANT to binge on... and it worked!!!!!

If there's a scale, I weigh myself and remind myself that it may NOT be such a good idea.
If not, then the journal trick works, or just hop on 3FC :)

I went into a binge disorder program. Somehow did the trick.

since I started a thread about binging, this is a new tool for me, but the thought of posting it, made me stop and the thought of hiding it made me feel dirty, so I didn't do that either. I just didn't binge.

Nothing helps for me. When the urge hits.. It hits.. I try not to think about it.. but I can NEVER get food off my mind.. I hate it. So I just stay up in my room for as long as I can. Actually one thing that does sort of help is If I go to bed early. (My binging normally happens late at night)

i leave the house. so far thats been the only surefire way to NOT binge. a walk makes me feel better, and then i dont want to eat because i burned some calories

Having little food in the house is a good policy. I used to buy food for the kids and ended up eating it myself! Now there is bread to make toast if they want, but no more cookies or donuts! They got used to that, and I see them eat buttered toast and enjoy the treat, while I eat a little piece with Icbinb...
If you have to go to a food store every time you crave something, laziness may prove to be stronger than gluttony! LOL!