Approaching this a Different Way This time.
 

I have a ugly cycle of binging, and beating myself up only to binge again and promise myself tomorrow is another day.

I'm tired of giving myself second chances. I want the binges to count towards my success or failure. So I am going to work a binge into my calorie bank, and if I do binge, I will have to make up for it somewhere.

My hope is that once I realize that the binges are messing up my calorie allotment, I will slow down. I keep a strict budget for the house, I think I can handle a calorie budget!

If I do binge, I must LOG it, this will show how much damage it has done. Rather than "forgetting it" and moving on.

I will log my binges on this thread, so I realize exactly what I am doing.**I will also log my feelings that go with the feelings of either binging or wanting to binge. A binge to me is no longer a massive eat all fest, it is an "unplanned extra helping of food, not intended for any reason other than mindless eating". I think of a binge as this. You want a cookie, you get a cookie, you eat the cookie, get another one, serving is three, so reach for another one. By now, the cookie taste is on your tongue, it has hit your brain, the craving should be satisfied, but for whatever reason you grab some more--some times you eat the whole box. Why??? That is a binge to me.**

any one else wanting to use this approach can do it here. You don't have to track calories just log your binge and make sure you don't just "forget" it and sweep it under the rug.

TODAY I BINGED:

4 X 170 CS ICE CREAM BARS =680/1800 CS
2 YOGURTS =340/1800 CS
1/4 CUP WHIPPED TOPPING = 100/1800cs (this binge is because my teenager was stressing me totally out! Plus my 1 year old was acting clingy.
4 whonu cookies= 213/1800 (I got home from shopping and wanted a coconut cookie, but the ones I bought were bad!-so I tried to compensate)

binge total: 1120/1800 cs
new total: 1333/1800

plan to recover: don't snack any more before dinner, have 3 oz roast, and a vegetable, but no starch. Use tea after dinner to fill up and keep from eating after dinner.

Good luck with your new method. I've tried to binge on steamed veggies, when I am out I am in trouble. These last 4 days I binged and averaged 2000-3000 calories for the day-not good. I promised myself not to go over 2000 and will start back on 1500 once school is over. :sigh: nursing school is not good for my binge issue. Another thing that I binge on is sugar free jello-2 cups is only 40 calories...not good to continue the binging but fighting it just wasn't working for me.

Tiff, I feel your pain about nursing school. I graduated last year. It was rough. I was also pregnant and gave birth at the end of my last semester.

the stress of having a kiddo in diapers at the same time as having a teenager is driving me up the wall.

well, I ate 4 whonu cookies. 1 serving is 3--so I consider it a binge.

so that is 213 more calories toward a binge.

I think this is a wonderful idea! Keeping track of your binges is definitely taking a step towards controling them. I might just use this thread and post my own binges, I actually believe that would help me figure out what triggers them.

I'm glad you like the idea Natasha, post away.

Okay my goal for today is no more than 2500 calories. I am at

1973.2
2500 - 1973.2 = 526.8. This is what I have for dinner.

Dinner stresses me out because SO refuses to come home at a decent time and sit down to a family meal. He's always out socializing and drinking with his friends in the neighborhood. this pisses me off, because I believe in having meals as a family.

I want to cook some roast and some veggies and some mashed potatoes, and get the teenager fed and in bed. I usually tell myself that I don't care if he comes home to eat--BUT I DO, and it enrages me when he DOESN'T.

what I got to tell myself is HOW IN THE WORLD is stuffing myself with cookies and icecream going to help with his refusal to sit down and eat at a decent time consistently? it's not.

a method to thwart myself from doing that is to have veggies in the kitchen and snack on them instead. I will try it (his mother actually suggested this to keep me from eating too much junk when I was in the kitchen)

ok so he came home in good timing. We finished up dinner & I limited dessert to 1 swedish fish and 2 dark chocolate raspberry chocolates. a total of 578 cs.

so my total for today with binging was 2551. tomorrow will be harder because I am going to stick to my 1800 limit. maybe I can do a little less to make up for the overage today. 1600 would be a good goal.

Okay, I worked out and I had an opportunity to binge, but I did not.
I stuck to 2 oz boiled peanuts, 1 dark chocolate square, and some coconut water.

yay!

going to stick to 1600, actual plan is 1675. I have to make up for the binge I had yesterday.

hope everyone has a binge free day, but if not don't be afraid to post it.

Hi Jendiet
This is exactly what I started doing a couple of weeks ago! I wasn't logging the binges as I was too ashamed, but what is the point of tracking if your not being honest with yourself. So I started to log it all, the cereal to try and prevent the binge, then the chocolate, the biscuits and the sweets. It looks really bad and I would hate family to see it, but I am surprised to see that I still manage overall to have a weekly calorie deficeit, though not as much as I planned. I guess if we are going to do this we need to be accountable. Good luck.

That's great. I am committing to log with you. You can do it! Good plan. Don't forget, exercise will reduce the calories taken in.

This is a good idea, also the logging of calories might let you see that even if you do binge, it doesn't mean the whole day is a write off.

yes milly, I wouldn't want my family to know EXACTLY what I eat when I binge, but I feel this is a trusted area to really be accountable for it and yes serendipity, the logging shows me that I can RECOVER with a plan.

thanks clownfish, I know the exercise would be another way to recover what I did. I just have to learn how to take the binging in stride and adjust for it. I used to binge and purge and that is not acceptable.

I loove this idea! If you don't mind, I'm going to post here when I binge too- not because I try to just forget about it, but to give me accountability.

Nothing to report so far today!

yay KYmommy, nothing to report is a GOOD report.

Well, i did binge today. It wasn't huge, but I caught myself before it got out of control. I actually did twice, but was reluctant to call the second one a binge. But it is attitude too.

1ST BINGE
5 pieces dark chocolate raspberry squares 220
1 pc dark chocolate covered oatmeal square 80
coconut milk 80
creamer 70
ice cream 170
binge total 620 cs

I did come home with very low blood sugar, I was shaking, and I was starving, and i tried to do the right thing and eat some thing with carbs and protein, but I was stressed out from missing a potential job interview call, and the baby was fussing madly, plus my teenager came home.

the 2nd binge actually happened while I was trying to avoid binging. I was snacking on sugar snap peas, but I was in binge mentality because the baby was fussing, the teenager needed to go to bed, and i was genuinely hungry and felt deprived.

2nd binge:
creamer 70
coconut milk 100
binge total: 170

daily 790/1800

I call this a binge because of my mentality. I was mixing the two together and drinking it out of a small container, but I did this mix and drink several times before I stopped. I was angry because I felt so should just rescue from the fussy baby I have had to deal with all day, and not try to "unwind" while I dealt with it.

I did do just a few cals over 1800 with 1835.

daily total wasn't too bad.

Well it's the deficit of calories that count so maybe you could just look at that as an Alternative Diet Day and don't give it a second thought. You had a very stressful day and if that type of food now and then helps you through then it's not failing its adapting! It gets windy sometimes and we need to bend or something will snap. Keep up the good work of caring for yourself and your family.

thanks milly, I appreciate the understanding.

today I am feeling so tired, I want to eat for energy, but all my thyroid tests are now "normal". so what is it. I know you shouldn't have to have caffeine to get going in the morning. normal people don't.

I've been trying to strengthen my adrenal glands with herbals. hope that makes the difference.