Binge Free and Overeating Free in December
 

Hi Everyone,

I didn't see a new thread for December so I figured I'd start one. This thread is for anyone looking for support to end, limit, or understand overeating and binge-eating behavior. All are welcome!

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a tolerable Monday. :) I returned home after a week at my in-laws. After eating relatively well all week, I launched into a weekend of moderate binging. I know it is in response to the stress of being in someone else's home and not having control of my food/schedule/freaking room temperature, etc, all week (especially, of course, my food). Today I am back on track and feeling rather serene (though 4 lbs heavier than when I left :o)

i'm restarting my binge free and weight loss journey today. at the end of the month i'm returning home for holidays and i don't wan't my family to see how much i've balooned up in one month. i've had some crazy binges in the last few weeks. my weight is at the highest ever since i reached my goal a few years back.
i made a plan, now i just have to stick with it!

good luck to all of you who are on board ;)

Wow, can't believe I've been on the forum a bit more than a month and it's time for a new thread! Glad you started a new one, thesame7lbs.

I must admit that I didn't do so great with Thanksgiving. I mean, the day of was fine, but I indulged in leftovers more than I should have. No binging, but I meant to get back on track after allotting 2 days for Thanksgiving and one day of some leftovers, it was more like 3-4 days. Oopsie. Today was a good day though and I think I'm back on track :)

Also, my cousin announced on Thanksgiving that she's pregnant and due in the summer. Very exciting news, my cousin and I are close and I can't wait to watch her child grow up. Wish it was me who's pregnant, though. She got pregnant the first month she was off hormonal birth control. Hopefully by the time the baby is born, I will be pregnant as well!

thesame7lbs and missunshine— I hope I don't sound like a broken record on this subject, but if y'all have trouble with binging, I strongly recommend that you read Kathryn Hansen's Brain Over Binge. She has a simple and powerful technique for how to say "no" to the urge to binge that looks to be a game changer for me. I'm really excited about it! Of course only time will tell, how helpful it is in the long run, but so far, I feel like a whole new binge-free person. (See my sig.) =smile=

Hi everyone. November wasn't a very great month for me. I didn't end up losing anything and think I gained about 2 lbs. I slacked quite a bit with my portion control, though I improved by the end. Had my birthday yesterday, which I decided not to feel guilty for and had a fairly unhealthy dinner (roast chicken, jacket potatoes, chicken soup), though I just had one piece of chicken. Anyhow, I'm determined for this month to be better. I'd like to restart my exercising which I haven't done for months, and I'm aiming for just 30-45 minutes of walking or swimming 5 days a week, which I think is doable.

Hello again :D

I have a new resolve this month to get back on track and mentally prepare for Christmas so I don't eat too much of anything! I managed to beat the binge last year where my weight gain stayed under 1kg, so I'm aiming to do it again this year. My new goal this month is to stop my midnight snacking. I've decided that I can't eat after 10pm (because I'm usually up until 3-4am). It worked last night, so I'm going to keep it up :D

:goodluck: to everyone else this month!

Oh man, I'm wanting to binge tonight. It's because I'm angry. Anger is my hardest emotion to just live with and not stuff myself with sweets.

But I feel stuck with this commitment I made not to binge for 30 days.

So....that's that. No binge for me. =arrrrrggggghhhh=

Fiona, I hope the rest of your evening got better! I think it's great you came here to post rather than give in!

My victory yesterday was eating well... [until book club, which was wine-and-dessert-heavy]... and then NOT continuing to indulge when I got home. I'm really proud of myself for not having more treats late night.

Hope everyone is having a good day. Mind over matter!

thesame7lbs— Thanks for the support. Good for you that you had sweets with others, but then did NOT indulge anymore after getting home! That's always a hard one for me: the "I've already blown it, so why not eat more?" craving. That's why I didn't go to my family's Thanksgiving this year: I was afraid that I'd give in and have a piece of pie, and then go on a binge in the aftermath.

Yes, my evening eventually got better: I just listened to the voice in my head crying out for sweets, making sure that I felt separate from it, until finally I was exhausted and fell asleep. That was the first acid test of Kathryn Hansen's Brain Over Binge technique. She says that once you start ignoring the voice saying "Binge!" that eventually it gets quieter and quieter until it goes away. I am SO ready for that. I feel really blessed that her book came along right when I am eager to give up binging completely, eager to put all this nonsense behind me. I kinda think that you do have to be very ready to quit, for her technique to work.

Tonight I've been beseiged with cravings for sweets. I'm eating macadamia nuts and trying to ignore the hubbub in my head. No binge behavior, just Zevia soda and macadamia nuts.

I hope I don't have to go through many more nights like this before the urges to binge die down and go away. This feels like giving up a powerful drug. I was a bigtime emotional eater for nearly 50 years, and this is the first time I've tried to give it up completely. I guess it's not surprising my brain is kicking up a fuss.

I'm trying not to fight it... just letting it roar without acting on the urges...

Keep going Fiona, you're doing awesome :cheer:
I eat when I'm bored or when my mind isn't busy and when I'm stressed too. Your mind will kick up a fuss for a little while, but it does get easier! Just keep going with what you are doing and you'll find one day that the urges are gone.

Thanks for the support, Rhiko... I've been meaning to tell you: I love the picture of your beautiful cat! My husband and I usually have a pair of oriental shorthairs runnin' 'round our house, but we are currently catless, as we wait for our breeder to come up with a new pair of kittens for us. I've been surprised, these past several months since our last cat died, at how hard it is to live without a cat or two. They may be smaller than people, but they take up a lot of space in our hearts and our minds. =smile=

Hi there,
I'm new - just today.
I am realizing that uncertainty, as it relates to my health, creates hopelessness in me which is my hardest emotion to live with without stuffing myself with sweets; specifically Reese's peanut butter cups.

Thank you :) Hopefully you get a new kitten soon :D

Haven't posted in this thread for a few days, mostly because there's been nothing to report. I've done a good job at sticking to eating what I should. A couple of times I've wanted something sweet and a tiny piece of chocolate has taken care of it- I consider it okay for me to have a square from a chocolate bar, I've been munching off the same one for a month now and half of it is still there.

We also finally got to the store yesterday (the roads were terrible for a few days, we'd originally intended to go on Tuesday), so I have all manner of nutritious choices to pick from. The past few days were basically eggs, clementine oranges, peanut butter, cheddar or string cheese, and whatever healthy leftovers and frozen veggies I could scrounge from the freezer. We now have a type of apple I haven't tried before, grapes (love grapes!), raspberries (love raspberries!), carrots, cucumber, 2 kinds of tomato, zucchini, and 2 kinds of lettuce to pick from! Plus I picked up 2 new kinds of tea to try and we have stuff for me to make dinner for the next few nights, both recipes are things I've never made before. Made the first one last night and we loved it, hoping for the same success tonight :)

Going to the store was kind of hard though, didn't help that I was hungry. Although normally I'm not super into candy and sweet things, the holiday season is a time I really associate with desserts. There were so many tasty looking, festive treats at the store! Would have picked one for myself for dessert to go with my "free meal" in a few days, but they all came in big packages. I just want one. Swung down the Christmas candy aisle to get some Reese's PB trees and ended up putting a bag of Gingerbread Twix (interesting!) and a bag of peppermint nougats in my cart as well. My hope was that my husband would want to try the Twix as well, but he thought they sounded gross. For the peppermint nougats, I was thinking maybe eating one could replace my little square of chocolate if I really want something sweet this month. Problem is, the bag was really big! Before we checked out, I put back both bags and instead grabbed a small bag of Brach's Holiday Mix, which has a rather pretty variety of different hard candies, I think in assorted flavors (only tried on so far!) I picked them instead because a) hard candies last longer in your mouth, b) the bag is small, and c) I don't think I have ever in my life overindulged, or been tempted to overindulge on hard candy. Carefully selected my first piece yesterday, it was raspberry flavored and quite enjoyable :) Resisting the siren song of all the holiday treats and emerging with just a bag of hard candy (and the PB trees, which are for Christmas with my in-laws) is pretty good I think!

Does anyone else here in the thread find that tea helps them with eating what they should? It's definitely helped me. Tea doesn't have any calories, so I can pick whichever variety pleases me and there are basically countless options, especially if you get into the world of tea blends made by small companies. Sometimes I'll add a tiny bit of milk or Splenda to the tea, but my default for years has been to drink it as is with nothing added.

Anyway, enough about me. Fiona, good job resisting, especially when facing your most difficult food related emotion! That must have been hard. I hope the book is correct and the desire to binge will wane the longer you resist it.

Thesame7lbs, nice work resisting eating what you shouldn't the evening of the book club! How have you done since then?

Rhiko, how are you doing?

Jubilee, welcome! I am pretty new as well, but everyone has been very nice. Identifying the emotion that leads you to overeat I think is an excellent step towards changing that, good job!

I'm doing good. Thanks for asking :) I've managed to not eat after 10pm all week and I've not binged or indulged :)

I also drink tea in place of eating... I have one after 10pm now when I feel the urge to eat. I have light blue milk (NZ) that is also 98% fat-free, so in all my tea is only 14 calories max because I like a double shot of milk lol

Thanks for the welcome, HuggerBunny. Sounds like you did great at the store! I am envious that you have no problem with Reese's peanut butter products. That bag of trees you mentioned would not have made it home intact in *my* car!

I did pretty well eating out with family tonight at a Mexican place: not a single chip! It was great because I've never left that restaurant without feeling distended. :dizzy:

J.

Fat fat fat and not the good kind either. All started with one little taste and not sure why all the way back to just before thanksgiving I binged all vacation and then did well this last week and binged all weekend.

Mainecyn-- There you are! Hang in there, you've done it before, you can get back into a good pattern, I know you can!

Thank you Mrs Snark, I have made it thru today so far and doing better. It has been a horrible couple weeks. I feel terrible emotionally, and physically. Its one of those things that we have all thought, "Why did I do it, what started it, what made me binge?" I cant remember, I don't know what caused it except for opening my mouth and shoveling food into it. It honestly was the worst binge episode I have had to date so far.

Mainecyn, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you think. Take it one day at a time.

I've been pretty happy with December so far. Not started exercising so far, but I'm going to do it today. Food wise, I've been doing well. Mainly I'm cautious about Christmas and New Years, but I'll take them as they come.

Well, I ended up having to modify my Atkins very low carb diet because it was making me severely depressed, but I'm happy to report that (A) the addition of a serving of muesli at noon seems to have cleared up my depression, and (B) I resisted the urge to follow up the first time I had the muesli with a binge.

When I went to the grocery store to buy more muesli (since I'd been eating my husband's supply), it was such a strange feeling, to be buying carbohydrates, I was sorely tempted to pick up a bunch of cookies. But I didn't. I'm not even sure why, except that using Kathryn Hansen's Brain over Binge technique for nearly 20 days straight is beginning to have a momentum of its own.

No one is more amazed than I am that I have made it this far without a binge...

Mainecyn, I'm sorry to hear you had a rough time after Thanksgiving! I enjoyed leftovers longer than I should have, too.

Another check in for me! I've done a good job resisting cravings and sticking to my plan. Today is the day once a week when I get to have whatever I want for a meal! I'm going to have 7Up, mac and cheese, and will bake reindeer shaped peanut butter cookies later tonight. I also told myself I could have one of the Reese's PB trees I purchased a few days ago, but I'm not really craving it and don't want to eat it just because I can. Sweets never were my downfall (I've thrown away so much candy over the years and missed out on so many desserts that I saved for later but were eaten by someone else) and I do NOT want to turn them into my downfall!

Four nice things weight loss related have happened for me this week. First, I hit 203 pounds, so 17 pounds lost. I've lost 3 pounds since November 19th. Not bad considering I admittedly haven't been sticking to my healthy eating plan as much since it's the holiday season. My goal is to be down to 200 on January 5th. The second thing was that pants that were only a bit loose on me before now will not stay up without a belt. The third thing is that I'm down 2 holes on my belt from when I started this! And the fourth thing is that the mother of a child I provide therapy to asked if I'd lost weight, she hadn't seen me since the very end of September. Admittedly, I find it embarrassing when people comment on things like this, but it's good to know that my efforts are showing some.

Wow, today was a stupidly bad day for eating, and it's only afternoon.

I've eaten about 4 times since I woke up, and not all of it was healthy food. Even the healthy stuff I ate were big portions. I don't know what triggered this ridiculous binge today but I'm trying to keep myself busy for the rest of the day so I don't eat any more.

ILoveVegetables— Sorry to hear about your rough day, but hey—you get all kinds of credit for coming here to post about it! If you possibly can, next time try to post before the overeating happens...

HuggerBunny— Good for you on your weight loss and also for resisting cravings! Your once-a-week meal sounds nice! I bet those reindeer PB cookies were good. You're a lucky woman that sweets are not your downfall: I would not be a fat person today if sugary treats had never been invented. =laugh=

mainecyn— I'm so sorry you're goin' through a difficult time. Do you have someone with whom you can talk about what's goin' on? You know you can write about it here. I'm new on this thread, but from what I've read so far, you seem like a very special person. =warm smile=

Jubilee77— I hope you'll come back soon and tell us more of your story...

Mrs Snark— So what's new with you? =grin=

Rhiko— Good for you that you can stave off the urge to eat with a cup o' tea. I do something similar in the morning to get my day off to a good start: I have two big mugs of Mexican coffee. But I'm afraid my coffee has rather more calories than your tea, because I put real cream in it: it's allowed on my low-carb diet. I also drink hot chicken broth as my "dessert" after dinner. Give that lovely cat a nice rub for me!

I had a surprising moment in the Co-op grocery store today: I was waiting for the office to approve my exchange of Familia muesli w/ sugar added for the kind with no sugar, and just as they handed my box to me, I realized that I had been standing right next to the basket of my favorite huge organic cookies, and hadn't even given them a glance. And I knew that's where they were always located, on the shelf in front of the office, because oh boy, I used to binge on those puppies: I used to buy like half the basket at once. I just can't believe it, how quickly my binge behavior has gone away...even with my adding the carbos to my diet, I only think of them as a daily serving of muesli, not anything else!

Fiona, sweets aren't my downfall, it's savory carbs. Pasta, breads, rice, potatoes, crackers, chips, tortillas... I love them all. I'm not following the Atkins Diet or anything, just cut out the above as well as sugar (not counting sugar from fresh fruit), then once a week I can have a meal plus beverage and dessert of my choice and once a meal I can have some other non-meal treat. I also allow myself a small square of chocolate or a small piece of hard candy if I really want something sweet, that happens maybe 3 times a week. So far so good!

Since going onto a medically supervised diet on Nov. 1, I've been binge free. That doesn't mean I haven't had the impulse to binge. I just didn't act on it. I'm hoping, as time goes on, this will lead to a retraining of my behaviors and a permanent change of habit in response to the impulse to binge. I dream of the day the binge impulse is gone forever and I can have a normal relationship with food. I do have to admit, being low, low carb right now and getting sugar out of my system really has improved my mood. I just feel better in general.

Hi. I'm new to the thread, but I've been lurking for a while, and I want to say that I admire you all and can relate to your struggles with bingeing and the urge to binge.

Problem for me was it wasn't just Thanksgiving, that day. In fact, I did ok that day because there was everyone watching. I ate later that night after everyone was off doing other things..then the day after until this Monday I binged every single day. I mean eating half a pie, make a batch of pancakes and eat the entire batch myself, bags of chips, candy, cereal, that was just one day. I did this every single day until this Monday. I ate all my normal meals, but I also ate this amount on top of it each day. I ate so much each day I became physically sick and spent lots of times in the bathroom, or would be doing ok and then have to rush to the bathroom. I suffered from upset stomach, acid reflex, diarrhea, and constipation. Its not been pretty.

Thank you, this is why I keep coming back to this board and this post with you all. I tried to reach out to my husband over and over. I tried explaining to him that I wasn't just over eating, that I was binge eating and explaining just what it was like and that I was having such an unbelievable time being able to stop eating things I shouldn't and stopping the amount I was eating. I explained the gaining weight, etc.

My husband is a sweet, caring, loving man, but he doesn't get it no matter how many times I tell him and try to explain it is not just over eating or eating the wrong things that I'm addicted and I binge, he goes, "Your a strong person and you either stop eating or you don't". He thinks its STILL is just about over eating and gaining some of my weight back. I just can't explain to him and he doesn't get the addiction or understand its an addiction he cant wrap his mind around it..yet he is aware of addiction as 30 years ago he had addictions of his own as a teen.

So, why can't he understand that food is just as addicted as drugs? He is never going to understand any of it I've run out of breath trying to explain to my DH, I could slap him in the face and say "I have a disease" and he still wouldn't get it. When I binge its not just eating a little bit of this and that, its cleaning out the cupboard, the fridge, the freezer, eating it all in one setting, everything..and its for days. Its no different than a drug addict digging thru the trash to find some they threw away, I've done it myself for food I tossed and then changed my mind.

I have done well this morning but have had two times I've been tempted to eat what I shouldn't, things that would start a binge. I have made it to today, day 5 binge free.

I am not sure where the energy and confidence has gone like it did the first time but the binge is fighting me and not letting go.:?:

Welcome, Valkyrie1!

I'm new, too. :)

**************
I've been doing well. I haven't binged since November 24th; I've overeaten, but not binged. Most of the overeating was done on and around Thanksgiving, too. Identifying what my trigger foods are has REALLY helped me. I had myself on a very low carb plan until I, too, started feeling depressed and downright achy. I know some detoxing is to be expected, but I felt lousy and weak. I can't afford those physical problems with three kids to homeschool! After adding back in some safe (non-trigger) carbs, I began to feel better within 48 hours.

Hoping everyone continues strong through the holiday season.

Blessings,
J.
:wreath:

Mainecyn: I've done this many times...and not just from the garbage inside the house, if you catch my drift.

Hoping you are able to get settled in, again.

J.

Okay, I have to admit that I don't think I've ever actually binged? Overeaten for sure. But I've never eaten an entire package of anything or a whole (or half) a pizza or half a pie or anything. I've polished off an entire box of Cheez Its or Triscuits in a couple of days a few times, had 2 sandwiches instead of one, or 2 Hot Pockets, 3 little frozen burritos, or a whole 21 oz thing of frozen mac and cheese. Once in middle school I had 4 donuts in one sitting. I definitely used to overeat, specifically carb rich things, but I'm really not sure if it counted as binging.

hi guys, i've been doing great the past two weeks and i even managed to lose some pounds...probably water weight. but yesterday i returned home from uni and i'll be staying here for 3 weeks and today is my mom's birthday party where all my family is going to be and i feel a little embarassed because i gained some weight when my sister who gave birth 6 months ago lost so much weight so fast. when i saw her yesterday i was amazed and she was overweight all of her life. i do feel happy for her but i'm so dissapointed in me. i have a goal not to gain anymore during the holidays and start losing after i get back to uni but my mom is cooking like crazy everytime i return home and it's really hard to resist.
i wish you loads of willpower to resist for the rest of the month!!!

I don't remember posting in here or not. Anyway...

I'm not new.. I've been a in and out weight loss person for awhile now. It's always i'm going to start now.. Then after a couple weeks I'm back to my same habits of overeating/binging at night.

So far I've done pretty good. Been 13 days I believe. Not a straight 13... I went 10 days straight then had a bit of a break down one night and overate. then back on the horse the next time and it's been 3 days so far. I'm trying pretty hard here. So far tonight i've done good.

Anyway thank you all for reading my posts. lol.. I needed somewhere to get my feelings out since I cant talk to my family (none of them are binge eaters/overweight).

Uggh, I have not been doing well lately.
I'm so sick of constantly disappointing myself. I'm always so good for most of the day until after dinner hits, I guess I just need to keep myself busy/out of the house.

Well, today I have work from 8 to 1, and after that I have two more finals to finish and then I'm done. Today will be my first Day 1 in a while.

Oooooo I had a really close call last night on the emotional eating front, but I managed to squeak through with my streak intact. What happened was, my husband Bob and I were talking as we were getting ready to go to bed, and something I was saying about how moderate exercise elevates one's mood got Bob all defensive (because his agoraphobia has him housebound these days) and he more or less bit my head off. Normally I would have protested and we'd have had a chance to clear the air, but right after Bob's outburst, he put his head on the pillow and promptly fell asleep! I mean, one second he was making me feel terrible, and the next second he was snoring.

So I went downstairs all in a storm of feeling treated unjustly (which, I should add, Bob rarely does). I was irritable anyway from my incipient virus, so I was really mad. Anger, I have discovered in the past few months, is my biggest trigger for having an episode of emotional/compulsive/binge-type eating. And it's especially dangerous for me to get angry on a Friday or a Saturday night, when our local Starbucks drive-through window is open all night long. Even though it was like 2 o'clock in the morning, I could very easily have popped in my car and gone and binged on those big Starbucks oatmeal raisin cookies I love so much, with a vente-size caramel macchiato to boot! I swear, y'all, my right hand had already picked up the car keys before I caught myself. =whew=

So what I did first was to practice Kathryn Hansen's Brain Over Binge technique of separating yourself from the urge to overeat, where you view the urge as what she calls "neurological junk" from a lower part of your brain that you, the person in charge, choose to ignore—not fight, just ignore. That got my head considerably clearer and allowed me to put the car keys down.

And then I quietly and deliberately fixed myself a small serving (1/2 cup) of muesli. This may sound silly, but it was like that little bit of carbs served as an escape valve for my overheated brain. I ate the muesli slowly, concentrating on every bite, then went to bed.

Now I'm not counting that small serving of muesli as emotional eating: rather it was an emergency measure to help prevent emotional eating.

So that's my scary tale of rage running amok... =laugh=

I've done ok over the weekend. I haven't felt strong, but I have made it. I am already worried about Christmas vacation and being home. I thought about tasting cookies this morning as I was baking them, almost convinced myself, then pulled away. If I can just keep at least that much self control.;)

I've been wrapping presents since this afternoon. I've got it all done. That is something in its self right there. My son got the tree up, now we have to string the lights, and actually hang stuff on it. Only issue, there just isn't much room at all left to move around in the living room now. We have a new sofa and an extra chair since last year. It makes it even more difficult in a small area with trying to install a tree in there as well.

I kept busy so there really wasn't much eating or thinking of eating. I should tell mysef that I even baked "goodies" and didn't try a single one. The are for my husband's party at work tomorrow.

I am still feeling such guilt over ruining how well I had been doing. I mean I had been about 25 days binge free and I can't even remember completely:?: what sparked it, it always does..so how do I prevent it? I haven't relost the weight I regained, I can see it in the waist band of my underwear-tighter in the hips or rolls down, and the top has a bit coming over it again. grrrr.

Ok, it looks like I've made it a full week again. Thank goodness. I've got a little better control today, its day 8. I have been keeping myself as busy as I can it does help.

I look at everyone here in the thread and realize that we all have so many challenges in our daily lives, so many expectations from other people as who we are and what we do for them.

I don't feel like I "own" myself, does that make sense? Anyone else know what I'm talking about? I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, a daughter in law, and x wife (unfortunately you get dragged in to deal with them at times), an employee, a supervisor, the bill payer of the family making sure all bills are paid on time and where they need to go, the grocery getter, the laundry, the dishes, the meals, ...so many different things. I don't see me, I don't' know what i like or dislike anymore, in all honesty, EXCEPT FOR WHAT I EAT. This is all I do know..

I am expected to make more than 100% of myself and my time available for everyone in the family, I don't ask for anything for anyone yet I am the one who hears, if you get a chance can you do this, or why is my this or that...I'm empty, I'm in the negative. Nothing ever fills me.

Well, one more day just about done. I have kept extremely busy during my break from work. I had to take the oldest to the orthodontist this morning. Before that, grocery store, been home on break and have spent it doing dishes, tackling laundry, vacuuming, and doing everything I can not to think about eating what I shouldn't.

I hope everyone is doing ok, its very quite around here lately, but I am assuming we are all very very busy with things going on.