Totally messed up on New Years Day, we had family round and I very much overindulged on Roast Dinner and several desserts and then sat around eating as much chocolate as I could get my hands on with the excuse that I would staet dieting tomorrow.
Ridiculous
But that is behind me now onwards and upwards (downwards on the scales hopefully!) , this is Day 2 of abstinence and I can do it and I will not give in to sugar cravings.
Tillie: Thank you! It was great to be able to have a 'cheat' meal without guilt AND be back on track immediately afterwards... I've had zero cravings and it's been super easy to stay on plan. Wishing you much success today
Sarahjb: Welcome on board! That is exactly how I see this too... if I make it to 90 days, it'll be a permanent change.
BippityBoppety: Love your attitude - what is done is done and it's time to move on... exactly the way of seeing things I'm trying to learn as well
2013 has been going really well for me so far, and I'm amazed by how easy it has been to be back on track after a cheat meal. Usually eating something non-paleo has given me crazy cravings for days or even weeks afterwards, but this time I've had none of that. Staying on plan feels very easy and effortless at the moment Some body anxiety tried to mess up with my head (I'm about 7 pounds bigger than I was a few months ago and although it could be much worse, the way I gained it is what bothers me, and it's mentally tough to yo-yo even when it's just a few pounds)... but I'm moving on, forgiving myself, and doing my best today!
Day 5 and everything is going well The secret for me seems to be (in addition to shifting my mentality) is that I allow myself an unlimited amount of homemade raw chocolate I make (it only has very "clean" ingredients such as raw cacao mass and no sugar)... and the thing is that even though I allow myself to eat as much of it as I want, it's so satisfying that I only have a piece or two a day... and this way I've no cravings for anything else, so it's completely effortless to stick to my paleo meals of meat and vegetables. If I still occasionally feel like I need to eat something extra, I have a green smoothie, and again, the cravings are gone.
I'd love to join you all! I have struggled w/ binge eating since I was a teen. 205 was my highest weight back on 12/31/12. I haven't beinged since 12/30 so I've went 5 days so far. I woke up this morning realizing I would be home alone all day. I was so tempted to start a binge, what better day to do it? Home alone, could eat all day and no one even know it. I didn't do it though. I am really proud of myself!
It's so good to have you with us, Amy! Wishing you much success...
I'm still doing well, although because of not having been able to exercise during the past couple of weeks because of health issues, I'm definitely not losing any weight. That is alright, though; I just want to eat normal amounts of food and feel relaxed, that is all... losing a few pounds would be and will be great, but it's not a priority.
I feel really inspired to try out some kind of intuitive eating – dropping all the mental rules I have with eating and learn to listen to my body more closely. Even though I don't count calories anymore and only plan what I'm going to eat very loosely, and mostly just eat when I'm hungry, I still do have some rules in my head, such as that I have to eat at least two times a day and that, say, five times is too much (and it is true that my body doesn't handle eating that often well... but perhaps I still wouldn't need to have that as a rule in my head). But I feel like I want to try dropping all of the remaining rules and just do the obvious – take my mind off eating and let my body decide what it needs... what animals do in nature I eat natural, paleo/primal, whole foods, so my body knows well how much of them it needs (unlike with unnatural things like sugar, which can mess up the systems of the body), so I can't see any reason why I couldn't trust simple hunger and satiety signals.
I think I'm starting this tomorrow and I can admit that I'm a bit nervous – I haven't done things naturally like this since I was a kid and perhaps not even then! But perhaps eating really doesn't have to be complicated at all... and I can learn to do it this way, one day at a time.
Sounds Like a good Idea sarahL I've been working on listening to my body more lately and realized that I really don't need a lot of food to be satisfied.
I use to get so tired of eating cause all I've ever read was that I needed to eat to keep my metabolism up.Maybe so when I first started my Journey but now I don't want to eat till I'm stuffed just cause i think I need to keep up my metabolism.I've stopped thinking that way, feel better and see that eating 3 meals a day is something that I can sustain.
I've stopped thinking that I need to eat in a hour after waking up cause I read it on a book somewhere.I eat when I'm hungry,maybe 3 hours after I get up.
Thinking that I need to eat more cause I've exercised.I eat when I'm hungry,no matter how much I've exercised..most times I am a little munchy afterwards but I'm not thinking I have to eat on a grand scale because of it.
Things are good here.I know what triggers me to binge..starches/bad carbs. I've been staying away from them/found good satisfying Foods, feel better and back to the weight I was before the Holidays
Hi All, can I join you? Binging is the root cause of a lot of my issues, so I'd love some support to help work on it. SaraL, you're so good about addressing specific people who post here, which is so supportive!
I had my first good day in a while yesterday and today I feel so proud of myself. I faced two challenges: 1. a last minute lunch invitation to a restaurant that served delicious, high cal foods and 2. being home alone after I put my toddler to bed. For lunch I ordered a healthy option and dealt with the non-stuffed feelings afterwards. At night I avoided all of the desserts/junk and made some fake banana soft serve (just blended frozen bananas with milk).
Today I'm back in the trenches. My brain is going crazy with cravings, but I'm trying to ignore it. Each day (hour...minute...) is a step in the right direction, but this is hard!
Sorry about my disappearance - at first I didn't have Internet, and now I've been travelling, so I haven't been online. I hope everyone is doing great!
I did very well for 38 days (almost the best ever), but now, having been travelling for a week, my eating has been a little all over the place. It hasn't been catastrophic, but I've been eating way too many times a day, starting my morning with a coffee at a café, then later going for another coffee, maybe eating a few tapas, visiting all possible outdoor markets and snacking on fruit several times a day before having my first proper meal in the evening... I feel bloated thanks to all the sugary fruit and eating too often, so I'm definitely more than ready to go back to eating 2-3 proper meals a day and no snacking! My body really doesn't do well with fruit, so I just have to go back to my low carb, no fruit at all diet... otherwise I don't know where I'll be weight-wise and otherwise after two months of travelling!
I feel a little unsure whether I should start the day count all over again, so I probably just go for it and start from Day 1 again starting tomorrow (Feb 15). I can't wait to feel like I did just a week ago again!
Today is my day 90 - I actually had no idea until I thought to come here and counted the days! I'm amazed how much this challenge has changed me and can say that although it seemed like such a simple concept, it's one of the best things I've ever done. For the first time ever my relationship with food is healthy.
Although one of the key things I did with this project was to stop trying to lose weight (which I did), I'm actually down to my lowest weight in years. The loss has been completely effortless and unintentional, but it's for sure a nice plus!
Although today is my day 90, I'm obviously not going to change anything but will keep going. Thank you for the support along the way, everyone, and good luck for those who are still doing this!
Well... I feel like I needed to be back here for a moment. I did absolutely wonderful all summer, and great until the beginning of October or so. I made the mistake of eating quite a bit of candy after many years of not having had almost any of it, and since then I've been eating ice cream once or twice a week, and dark chocolate pretty much daily. I know it may not sound like much (ice cream, I mean - chocolate I definitely eat too much by any standards), but sugar a couple of times a week has a very different feel when it is me eating it rather than my fiancé for example, who has never had any eating issues. It just feels out of control and even during the days I eat "clean", my eating habits have changed, and not for the better.
The key issue is that because of bloating, water weight (and some fat weight), I keep playing with the thought of dieting again, which paradoxically makes me eat more. So the two things to do are:
1.) Be present, here and now, today. Don't think about losing weight, don't think about wanting to have the body I had a couple of months ago in the future again. Simply do things well today and let my body to do its thing. If I lose the weight I've gained, great, but if not, that's fine too, because the most important thing is to get back on track and feel at peace with food again.
2.) Go back to having no sugar, at all, ever. There are people who can have a little, but I am not one of them. It's just so addicting I've moments I feel doing nothing but eating ice cream all day long would be the best thing imaginable. Currently in all seriousness I don't know how I can cope without chocolate and ice cream. Which is why I need to do just that.
Now that things are a little out of control but not too much (I've gained a couple of pounds but not hundreds), it's a right moment to get back on track and do my 90 days of abstinence again. I figured this is the perfect day to start fresh since we're having our engagement party this evening - I'd hate to start my "new life" eating crap all evening, so I decided I'm eating carrots instead
Good luck and hugs to everyone else with the same kind of issues. We can do anything we put our minds to
Wow, 90 days. Congratulations. I am a binge eater, horrible binging that balloned outta control to pretty much daily. I joined a thread like this that is monthly. Somehow, after a million false starts I'm 19 days no binge. Like you mentioned, some people can have sugar and carbs and its no problem, I cant. The challenege is to keep myself to this. I did Atkins years ago and lost tons of weight and have taken over a year to get on it and get thru induction with no cheats. I'm getting stronger daily but I'm a binge eater and while 19 seems great since its the longest ive ever gone, I feel that presence in my mind.
