So I've been bingeing pretty badly lately. I'm feeling more confident now, but I know I could easily relapse, so I've decided to write up a plan to help prevent binges.

I'm going to try to:

Keep a positive attitude no matter what. I have not failed till I have given up, no matter how much weight I gain.

Excercise at least 5 days a week no matter. "I'm too busy" is not an excuse.

Find other ways to deal with stress and anxiety. I will either meditate, workout, have a hot bath or go shopping for clothes.

Cut back on sugar. This includes fruit. They's calories that could be spent on something more filling.

Have one "break" day. On this day I will eat 2,000 calories. I want to try and eat mostly healthy food on this day. This will give my body a break from being at a deficit all the time.

Identify and avoid triggers.

If I do binge, get back on track as soon as possible. I will not let it get to me.


Triggers that I have identified:

Watching youtube cooking shows.
Looking up recipes of unhealthy things.
Deliberately walking through aisles at the store that contain binge foods.
Checking the calorie content of said binge foods while at the store.
Negative thoughts of myself.
Looking up videos of binge eating.
Looking up information on binge eating.


I'm hoping this will help. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Amy, I feel like we're often online here at the same time (early morning here!), haha.

Your plan sounds solid to me, all good things.
Since I've made my plan, I've had an awesome few weeks. I have similar things I'm trying to do also (I also do baths and clothes shopping as my best comfort and fun activities!).
I've also found that exercise is helpful. Sometimes I'll feel like skipping, especially to binge instead, but I at least commit to a workout BEFORE the binge, and very often I feel so good exercising that the urge to binge goes away!

How are you going to do with the scale?

Also, if you want to hear another idea, I've found that visualization "playing the whole tape through" of binging to be helpful. Whenever I start fantasizing about how great a binge will be, I am trying to always not stop there and imagine as vividly as possible the END of the binge as well, how my body looks and feels, how the food ends up tasting, how I feel about having binged. Sometimes I read the things I wrote actual post-binge in my journal too. I swear, it has put me off binging a few times for real!

Anyway, best of luck, and I'm still following your progress! (;

This is great advice!! I will have to try to force myself to do this! When I'm white-knuckling and having strong temptations to binge, I always think about the good parts of the binge, and I completely push all the negative aspects out of my mind. I'll have to remind myself of the aftereffects, too - what a great deterrent!!

Your plan sounds good, Amy!! I'm sure these things will help you get back on track! You can do it!

mottainai: The plan seems to be kind of working. Yesterday I ended up overeating by what I thought was quite a lot, but I didn't really binge which was good. I weighed myself and it turns out I've gained 12 pounds in less than two weeks. I was pretty devasted but I didn't let it get to me. I weighed myself again this morning and even after overindulging, I had lost 4 pounds in a day. I'm feeling hopeful that most of it is water weight and I'll lose it quickly.

I actually used to use that visual technique when I first started this weight loss journey. It seemed to work, but binging stopped being an issue so I forgot about. Definitely need to start doing it again.

DoingMyBest79: Thankyou! I think I can get back on track now. The main source of my stress, an assignment I had to resubmit, has been completed. I think that's what caused me to fall completely off track the last couple of weeks, as well as sleep deprivation from staying up doing the assignment. I managed to not binge yesterday and so far I've been able to stick to my calorie intake today. I'm feeling hopeful.

Glad to hear you're getting back on track, Amy!
Be kind to yourself. (: Any overeating even is better than binging, so it's a good step forward!
I'm sure the extra weight will be gone in no time! I've definitely seen gains that big many times, and it's true it's usually mostly water and bloating.
Hope you have another good day!

Sounds like an excellent plan to me. I notice that six out of the seven triggers you listed involve deliberate visual or verbal exposure to food or food-related topics. Given this common theme, it might be a good idea for you to curtail all food-related stimuli from your life, at least for a while.

Freelance

freelancemomma - I think that's a good idea. I love baking but I know I'll have to give that up for a while.