sakuya3834 said something and Ilene and I too had a bit of a face stuffing episode and it all got me to thinkin' about binging.

I might be about to ramble, so skip on by if you'd like ...

I haven't experienced all these and have mastered none. I've read a bunch of what other posters say and so on. Feel free to elaborate ...

Boredom. I cannot stand to wait ... even if it's just waiting for a favourite show to start ... I nibble. I try to combat this with a warm drink or good nibbles like baby carrots or flinging some dumbells around.

Actual stomach growling hunger, which doesn't happen to me very often. I need to stop and think. It's OK for me to eat, I just have to be careful what I eat. Planning, planning, planning ... being low on groceries is a demon for me.

The treat ... the comfort food ... the fun food ... I still struggle with this.

Hormones ... PMS, peri and real menopause ... hormones are powerful and puzzling. We just need to try to understand what's happening and fight the good fight.

The accessibility of foods. It doesn't necessarily help me to have individually packaged foods (like the prep for BFL). I'll have more than one packet. But it might help you. It does help me to keep treat type stuff out of the house.

I have some nebulous thoughts about intuitive eating. Please read more by Meg and Mel on being wired wrong to do this properly. I cannot do it.
Although I think that we crave when we are lacking, I'm not sure many of us can be sure what we are lacking. Sometimes I crave sweet, sometimes salt. I'm sure that's not what my body needs. I never find the right thing to eat. I hope that taking a multivit with minerals is helping with this. I think eating a good variety of foods might help too.

I got up to stir my oatmeal and ran out of ramble ....

Susan I think this will be a constant lifelong struggle for me as well. I remember my grandmother well, though she passed away when I was only 13, thirty years ago to be exact. She was a phenomenal cook. Really hard intricate stuff and she was a great baker as well. She never touched the stuff. Never. Never. I spent a lot of time with her. I used to sleep over her house every Friday night. We cooked and baked together. The only thing I ever remember her eating is a half of a kaiser roll and she had to have a Swiss Miss hot chocolate. That's it. She just didn't like food. To this day I have never met anybody who was not interested in eating. It was so odd, because she used to make these huge family gatherings and then not eat. She did smoke like a fiend though. How I wish I could have inherited her dislike for food. That was not to be the case. That's an understatement.

I can hardly wait for menapause to be yet another factor in my lifelong battle with food.

Without a doubt Susan, the house MUST be well stocked at ALL times. Always. Planning, planning and then planning some more is key for me.

Diva, I feel for you. I'm sorry you are struggling now. You'll get through it, you always do. You can get through ANYthing.

Sakuya, Good luck to you. I have no doubt you'll get that nasty binging under control. It is a struggle we all deal with. Sigh.

Welcome to Abbyin and rai

My husband, also not calorie counting, also the weight just drops off of him. I wish I had someone cooking me great healthy meals. Other then myself that is. Sigh.

Thursday's calorie's - about 1100.

Have a great calorie-counting day everyone.

Good Morning and brrrrrrrrrrr!
DH just told me it was 30 degrees below zero this morning with wind chills. I forgot who said they get our weather a day or two later, (Mary?) get your insulated underwear out.
I'll post my calorie/menu then get back to gab.
Friday... calories 1,140 Fiber... 60 grams Fat 23%
Breakfast:
Vitamins/Salmon oil - Fiber One - Flat Out pizza with sauce, Elk meat, leftover ham, mozzarrella cheese .

Lunch: Apple/Squash soup - Ham Pasta Salad - Applesauce with FF/SF Cool whip (Have you noticed, I love cool whip )We also eat lots of applesauce, two of our fruit trees are apples and I freeze gobs of applesauce every year. The nice thing about that is it's free and no sugar or pesticide spray is used, all organic. Lately I've been sprinkling a few [Fiber One] granules on top of the Cool whip. It's really good plus my fiber has been in the 60's for the last two days. Geezzzz Diva, you've got me pulling out my dictionary, I couldn't remember how to spell granules!

Supper: Turkey Breast with stuffing - Cauliflower - Large lettuce/vegetable salad w/olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing

Evening Snack: Squash Pie w/Cool Whip
Skim milk

It's cold here too Bobbolink!

I had a good day yesterday with a 870 deficit. I'm hoping I'm back on track. I haven't had any cereal binges for 3 days now.

I'm back!
Susan... I use Tone's "Garden" Seasoning on everything. It's salt free and the first two ingredients are dried onion and garlic, my favorite. Great article you rambled about, my eyes perked up when you said, " We crave when we are lacking". Oh so true, when I look at other peoples Fitday I just want to go to their homes and clean out the pantry, stock their refrigerator with fruits and vegetable and get rid of all the junk foods. I would make a great Food Police, but everyone would kick me out real fast plus find me boring.
Mary... What kind of dogs do you have? We're the biggest dog lovers, I would clean out the dog pounds and keep them all myself if I could. I averaged out my calories for the month of January and came up with 1,147.6. I know that's too low but I have a hard time getting all my daily calories in.
Alright... O.K. I checked out your fitday, can I come over to your house and stock your kitchen? Oh, you would really hate me! P.S. DH loves 1/2 & 1/2 half on his cereal in the morning but I buy him the Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2 and he loves it.
What does (NFS) stand for?
Rai... Good hour work out you had. I hate the elliptical for some reason, that's one of the few machines I ignore at the fitness center. Feel free to post your calories/ menu, etc. Some do and some don't, whatever helps you. When I started on 3FC, DH weighed only 7 pounds more than me so I hear ya!
Abbyin... It's always nice to have new people on this thread. Hope we all can inspire you and vice versa!
Sakuya... I feel for you. What can we do to help you? I don't know much about bingeing, is that something you've had problems with your whole life or just when dieting? Maybe what Susan said yesterday about craving when lacking something is the culprit.
Diva...

Quote:
Withdrawing from nicotine and feeling pretty cranky. It's getting so that people's inability to spell is really getting on my nerves. So I apologize right NOW for all the rudeness that may ooze out of me.

You should have known that statement was going to come back around to you and bite you in the butt! I'm biting, today I've had my dictionary out twice! All kidding aside, Thank you! Sometimes a word doesn't look right and I'm too busy putting down my thoughts to correct it. Lazyness I guess.
Nomorefatpants... I like your positive title, I started at 158 similar to you and my weight now is about the same as your's. Let's get rid of our fat pants together!

DD just called and there's no school today for my 9 year old grandson so DD is bring him out. He wants me to help him make a Valentine's box so I better go shower quick and fill in the cracks on my face so I don't scare him!

Good morning, Ladies. I'd like to say welcome to the folks who've just joined up.

I did well yesterday. I guess the pigout fest from the night before was carrying me through the day as I wasn't too terribly hungry.

I had 1100 cals, 44% fat.

My goal today is to take a break. I went 9 days in a row to the gym, and I need to recuperate. I will aim for under 1500 cals again.

Bobbi I have a black Lab mix and a chiuaau(sp?) (taco bell dog)/terrier. We also have a cat but since we got the dogs sightings of her have been few. Thanks for the warning on the cold air. I am not looking forward to it. I hate the cold air!! It's been ok lately, but I don't want it to get any colder.

Well I have to take my son to the doctor's today so I will be back on tonight to let everyone know how I did today.

Mary

Awww Bobbi,

No need to worry! How could I possibly get angry at someone as sweet as you? Even if you DO spell laziness with a Y. ;-) ;-) Where in Minnesota do you live? I went to the U of M and lived in Dinkytown a good many years.

SusanB, if you ever want to quit, let me know. I can take the abuse. LOL

Robin, your grandma didn't eat much because she smoked so much. Be glad you are not a smoker. There is nothing harder in the world to do than to quit smoking. Food control is a slam dunk in comparison.

I can't relate to binging. If my calories are out of control, then it's always because of weird food (mayonnaise, butter, stupid calories like that).

Spreads for breads are the biggest ripoff in the world! A tablespoon gives you nothing. And still! The calories are way up there!!!

One day, 14 hours, 26 minutes. 32 cigarettes not smoked, saving $9.61. Life saved: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Ok I am just jumping in. Today so far I have had 320 calories for breakfast. Frosted mini wheats and 2% milk. Well add about 50 calories because I had coffee with a little carmel syrup and splenda. I have a Starbucks close and it's hard to not stop by there 3-4 times a week so I thought I could do something at home to feed that craving. It's working so far plus it's ALOT cheaper!lol I am going to have tuna salad on wheat toast for lunch and not so sure about dinner. I know I need to start planning better for dinner. It is cold out today and we may get a tiny bit of snow later. I started going to the gym back in august and then Dec rolled around and I totally stopped. I plan to start back going tomorrow morning. Ok so I am rambling along and I hope to get to know you all better! Have a great day!!

Greetings Everyone,

Diva: Sorry for the misspelling, but hey I type fast and I'm often too lazy to double-check. I'm an engineer so spelling is my weak spot.

Petra: Did you lose (Diva that one is for you ) any weight when your eating averaged out to 810 calories or did you notice a stall in your weightloss?

Thanks everyone for the welcome, it's good to know that people have successfully lost weight by just calorie counting and exercising.

Thursday Totals:
Cals: 1160
Fat: 35g
Carb:119g
Protein: 105g

I ate dinner really late because I was waiting for my husband to get home (it was his night to cook dinner, but I did it for him since he had a lot of work last night). Anyways, he's going out of town for a conference this weekend, and his hotel does not have a gym. I'm horrible, planning my husband's demise so I can win the bet. Nah, I need all the help that I can get. Plus, I don't know what I'm going to do about superbowl. I'm already counting that day as an "L" because of all the parties. I live in Chicago (I'm originally from Brooklyn though) and the city is crazy right now.

I notice a lot of people are eating a lot more calories than me and they are shorter than me. I know I should eat more, but I like the low calories because I feel like it gives me some buffer room. I'm going to try to keep my calories within the 1200 - 1500 range. When I think back to the last time I lost 30 pounds, I did it from following the weight watchers program and running one hour a day. So, I know my calories must have been low.

I don't have any ideas on what I'm going to eat for dinner tonight. One of my student groups is having a potluck dinner, but I skipping it because I don't want to deal with the temptation.

To all the questions - no I have never binged in my life before. I was actually so meticulous with staying in my calorie range for the first 9 months or so... I was between 1200-1300 EVERY DAY and never felt deprived. I even had .5 c of ice cream every day and was fine.

Then suddenly, I started passing out after exercising. I had to up my calories because apparently I wasn't eating enough. I had to force myself to eat to meet ~1500 calories a day. Then I decided to try and maintain and had to eat 2200 calories a day. I did okay for awhile but I always had to force myself to eat until I felt sick, even though I was eating alot of meal replacement shakes as snacks, almonds, avacado, oil etc.

After about 3 weeks of maintaining, I got really fed up about trying to even out my calories throughout the day and stopped trying. I wanted to stop calorie counting but every few nights I'd put in all my stuff and find myself around 1300 calories and panic. Since I didn't want to lose weight at the time I would eat a ton of food late at night to get up to 2000-2200, and that's when the binging started. And now I can't stop.

So I guess dieting is the cause of it. But now I don't know what the trigger is to it. I will just do it even when I'm in my calorie range now. I don't even realize I'm doing it a lot of the time now until I'm either feeling sick or my husband tells me, "Uh... you do realize you're standing there eating ice cream out of the bucket/nuts out of the bag/crackers out of the box/cereal out of a giant salad mixing bowl, right?" It's kind of like I am in a trance. I don't think it's any sort of food that triggers it either, because I've binged on alot of things...although not usually things I can cook because I usually realize halfway through cooking what I'm doing. I just need to find out WHY I do it, I can't stop it if I don't even know why I do it... at least that's what I think is the problem.

I don't know.

I lost 10 lbs last month. That is when my average is 810 per a day. But it would go from 790 one day to 1500 the next. I didn't really get stalled until I started working out. But I want my body to be strong not just small. So that is why I am making sure this month I am making sure that I am closer to 1200 everyday. I am burning alot more calories with working out so I think that right now my body thinks I am starving it. Mind you that I am not hungry at all. So I just want to hit the right calorie mark where I will still lose with excerise and good food choices.


My calories for today were 1230. I had a busy day with running around to the doctors and the pharmacy and all that jazz. So I didn't get no exercise in today. Which I am kinda mad about that. But I will have plenty of time for it tomorrow since I don't want to go out into the cold!!!
Mary

My calories were out of sight yesterday (enough for two of us). I did not exercise. But today is a new day and it looks like we're pretty much snowed in so ....

I am heading out to the mall in a bit to buy new sneakers. My old ones are just well, OLD! lol Then I will hit the gym around lunch time. I like to go when it's not so busy! I had about 300 calories for breakfast. I will be heading out to the grocery store later to stock up on some groceries. Last night I baked chicken in Salsa and shredded it up. We put them on Tortillas with a little bit of refried beans, low fat cheese and a small dolop of sour cream. It was really good and I have ALOT of chicken leftover. I think it may go good on a salad etc... I feel so good about jumping back into my diet and exercise routine. I think I burned myself out at the gym back in Sept/Oct. I was going every day. I think for now I will start going every other day and see how that works out. What do you all do?

Have a great Saturday! It's cold here in Pa. YIKES! lol

Good Saturday Morning!
The weather is getting colder, last night 32 below with wind chills. Valerie Joy in Chicago and Mary in Michigan (I like to call it the big Island since you're surrounded on three sides by Lake Michigan, Lake Huron & Lake Erie) get ready for the big chill!
Friday's menu
Calories...1,083
Fiber... 56 grams
Fat... 20%
Vit/Salmon oil, etc
Fiber One
Bacon Omelette (2 slices turkey bacon, 1 whole egg + 1 egg white, garden seasonings) 2 slices toast.

Skipped lunch, I was too full from breakfast. I did eat a bowl of Applesauce with FF/SF cool whip and a sprinkling of Fiber One on top and a glass of skim milk.

Supper: Salmon steak, green beans, 3-Bean salad.

Evening snack: More Applesauce with cool whip and the balance of the Fiber One serving I split earlier. If you could see all the frozen applesauce I have in my freezer, you'd pig out on it too!
Air popped Popcorn with Cheddar cheese flavoring. (I won't eat that seasoning again, I woke in the night with a migraine headache and can't get rid of it!)
Valerie Joy... What kind of cereal do you binge on? I guess I can relate since I've started eating Fiber One twice a day.
Alright... I snooped again on your Fitday, awesome breakfast and lunch. You didn't have supper filled in but I'm assuming you did great since your calories were only 1100.
Mary... I love black labs and my grandfather had a tiny Chihuahua that was so smart, he cried when she died!
Diva... I live in rural Southern Minnesota, about 100 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Quote:
One day, 14 hours, 26 minutes. 32 cigarettes not smoked, saving $9.61. Life saved: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

14 hours, fantastic! Can we dare to ask if you've added hours onto that today? You should make a ticker just for cigarettes and see how long you can go in between cigs. How many cigarettes does a package hold and $9.61 can buy a whole lot of beans!
Renee... Cute picture of you and hubby! I always eat more calories for breakfast than lunch. I'm never hungry when lunch time comes around so eating fewer calories is a no brainer.
Rai... I see by your profile that you're a connoisseur of wine like me! I haven't had a glass for 6 or 7 weeks and I sure miss it. DH and I are fans of the "Survivor" show. The new series are starting next week and we can't wait. I noticed you added your protein to your post. That brings up an interesting question, how much protein should we be eating?
Enough gabbing for today, catch ya tomorrow or Monday.