Thanks everyone for your encouragement-- I'm ready to start fresh today!

Atoms- the venting did help, but everyone's responses helped much more. hmm sometimes I feel like EVERYTHING triggers me to binge... Boredom, stress... But mostly being lonely and family issues (my family and I don't have a good relationship at all). So I usually can identify the triggers, but haven't yet found a better way to deal with them...

Ollieharr- that was me yesterday! Somehow I managed to fit 4800 calories of health food (plus one candy bar). But I had apples, black beans, protein shakes, peaches, almonds, fiber cereal, garbanzo beans, vegetable soup.... I stil feel yucky today- but I totally tried to justify it at the time.

Amygdala- I'm trying not to-- I always tell others to not feel bad about slip ups- and then I remember- its easier said than done! But today I'm trying to treat myself the way I would treat a friend with an eating problem... I'd never tell them they were disgusting or a failure, so I shouldn't do it to myself either....

Hope everyone has a great day today and makes it through feeling galley and in control! Lets do it!

I am a new member, and definitely a binge eater. I have been known to eat an entire bag of candy in a day! I would love to join this little group and have others to understand with me the binging issue. I don't think theres anything wrong with having a PIECE of candy, like a treat or whatever, but not a bag of candy! So heres to having 1 piece of candy a day and not devouring the whole bag in a single sitting.

Three weeks going on four weeks binge free.

Here are some things that have worked for me:

1. Don't have any of the items that you love in the house (e.g. chocolate, chips, ice cream). If you want it you actually have to go to the store to get it for me this is too much work lol.

2. Try to eat every 2 to 3 hours and have protein at each meal this will keep you full. Have things like nuts, peanut butter, greek yogurt, wheat bran (I put this in my oatmeal, protein shakes it keeps me full for hours trust me)

3. Chew gum

4. Herbal teas also helps. My favourite is Chai Tea.

5. If your craving something sweet try grapes, granola bars or if you want something creamy try flavoured greek yogurt. If you are craving chocolate try adding unsweetened cocoa powder to your smoothies or greek yogurt.

6. Plan and write down everything you eat.

7. On the weekends I cook in bulk and portion them out in containers that way I don't have to think about food just grab the container and go. The less I'm around food the less I want to binge.

8. Listen to music or go for a walk.

9. Also you can add crystal light to your water.

Hopefully, this helps some of you. You can do it I never thought I could last this long and I love food lol

Hey guys, i haven't been here in a while in part because i've kind of stopped/failed at dieting, but i wanted to say that i did stop binging. I probably haven't binged in over a month. That is not to say i didn't have days that i was very hungry and ate more than usual, but i never binged. AND i never felt like i wanted to.

The only thing that solved my binging problem was to stop dieting AND eat whatever i wanted. I know that is not the healthiest thing, since sometimes what i want is ice cream and cookies. But for a while i just let myself have whatever i craved, and finally, after a few weeks of that, i found that food no longer had any power over me. Before, i used to CONSTANTLY think about food, and carrot cake was this holy grail that i would just think was so delicious. Now i really don't care. If you put a slice of carrot cake in front of me now, i could eat it, but i could also not, if i had something else to turn my attention to. I never felt that way before. For me, the only way to this point was to not put food on a pedestal in any way; now i feel like it's just food, it's always there, i can have it if i want, but i really don't feel the need to eat constantly anymore.

I'm definitely in. I haven't binged since Sept. 30!

I have realized that I tend to binge when I feel stressed, tired, pressured, anything like that and then am alone for a long period of time. Today I have been in my room most of the afternoon working on homework and projects and I was thissssssssss close to bingeing, but right now I am going to force myself to put on workout clothes instead and get a couple miles away from the delicious fiber brownies and bars under my bed! I want to have a good, on plan week and I will not let these stupid sugar urges ruin it!!!


hopefully putting my mind on something else will do the trick, arc trainer, spinning, maybe some weights and abs, and if I still want a dumb brownie later i'll have one
key word one

fitmel, torontogurl, surfergirl2, pink hurrince - Well done! Thanks for the inspiration and tips.

Ailsa - Great decision and will power! Hope it worked out for you.

cheyenne - Welcome to the challenge and hope today worked out for you!

Jessica - Identifying your triggers is definitely a good step. As you keep working hopefully you'll soon find different ways to deal with them. Loneliness and boredom are two big ones for me too. The boredom I just need to find something else to do (crocheting is a good one, keeps my hands busy) but the loneliness is a little more complex. Hope today has worked out for you!

I definitely wanted to keep eating after dinner was over, but tonight the desire to be healthy and lose weight won out and I've managed to avoid it. My best friend from college is coming in tomorrow to visit for the weekend. We either encourage each other to behave healthfully or end up eating poorly together. We'll see what happens.

Atmos- thanks! Today did go well, so I've got two good days under my belt- I'm feeling better.

Alisapearl- I hope you were able to make it to the gym and avoid those brownies! ;-)

Surfergirl- glad to hear you are doing so well! I haven't seen you around in a whole and its good to see you've felt so good lately! I wish you the best!

After two days of eating on plan I'm feeling a lot better... Hoping to continue to stay in control. I started feeling the "mumchies" and decided to head out on a walk. I am SO so glad that I did.

surfergirl- I totally agree about the whole viewpoint thing. I made it to my goal weight of 145 last april but then because i felt like I was so obsessive and controlling I just said F it during exam week, and ate everything I wanted. I gained 10 lbs back and am now in the process of losing them again, but I maintained that weight all summer long eating mostly what I wanted and never felt deprived, for the time being my issues with food totally disappeared. Now for losing weight's sake, if I dont track my calories daily then I never lose, but I just felt like food had nothing on me, no control over me. It was just there.

I hope we can all get to that spot one day where food has nothing on us and is just a nutrient to survive once we are all at the weight we want.

I still have a really long way to go but I think the best thing to do is when you feel that urge to binge, remove yourself completely from the situation if possible, go for a walk, put your ipod in, go to the gym, call a friend, leave your house or apt and go to the library-whatever works for you. breathe it out and know that the urge will pass, and thinking of other people like you guys that face the same problems and extreme cravings and guilt makes me feel so much less alone in the whole thing, support is awesome!

my goal for october is to be my own best cheerleader. if I tell myself I'm worthless because I binged or get angry with myself it does nothing positive for me and slows me down more. the punishment/guilt that comes with binges is harmful, and we have to be gentle with ourselves. look how far we have come!

sorry if that was too self-helpy. just been feeling really hopeful that the cycle will end one day! (soon!)

11 days binge free!
I was scared to give up my binges and I have found this week a living ****, all I could think about was I'll never get to binge again But with OH help I have been keeping going on plan all week, feeling miserable!.
Yesterday was our treat night (read BINGE night!) Ordinarilly, a 10"stuffed crust pizza, 1+ bottle red wine and cream cakes.
But.......I settled on 2 glasses of red wine and a grilled chicken breast shish kebab with salad and lemon.
And for the first time this week, I feel at peace with myself and actually happy! I think because I made a choice last night and it was the right choice, so I dont feel like im forcing myself to give up something I love anymore. I just simply dont CHOOSE it

EPIPHANY!!!!

Love hearing about everyone's tough, yet great, decisions. I made a good decision today too. I had an extremely tough and emotional time at work today. Normally I would have gone straight home and binged on potato chips, cheese, ice cream, etc. And I was tempted to go off plan anyway because I have a good friend in town this weekend. But on the drive home I said no, I'll do kickboxing instead. And it worked to lift my mood just as a binge always promises to do, but ends up leading me to feel even more miserable. And even with going out with my friend tonight, I'm still around my daily calorie target. I feel great!

I have come close to binging, but I didn't. I skipped lunch, which is always a bad decision, but there was no way to get a break in at lunchtime.

Amygdala- great job not bingeing! I'm glad you made it!

Libert- Congratulations on the epiphany!

Today was a little rough food-wise today, I was home a lot with my sick husband and while he slept I got bored and thoughts of food kept creeping up on me. Thankfully (sort of) those horrible feelings of my last binge are still present and I made it through another day! One step at a time...

4 days down for me! Hope everyone else hung in there for the weekend!!

Amygdala - Glad you were able to make that great decision!

Jessica - Well done on the 4 days!

I *almost* made it through the weekend, but halfway through Sunday I broke down. It was at least a bit different than my regular binges...slower and more like extended periods of snacking than a regular binge, which for me is stuffed to the point where I can't move within half an hour. So, progress? I think yesterday's trigger was a combination of boredom and some stress from work. I did break it up with some yardwork, where I was able to develop a plan of how to deal with my work situation. I felt so grown up, but then large amounts of potato chips and cheese happened through the evening.

But as I said, it wasn't frantic and I had made it an entire week before that. I won't be able to quit cold turkey, but at the very least I can make it even longer than I did this last binge-free period. Those 6 days were a long period for me and I'm going to focus on that rather than yesterday's "oops".