Hi Everyone,

Well..... I sort of binged yesterday, and ended up having nearly 5000 calories worth of food (ice cream, bread, candy)... To start with a bit of history, I haven't over-eaten in over one and a half months, and I was pretty much on a whole food diet (no refined sugars/starches).

My bf and I went to Dairy Queen yesterday, and I decided to get a small sundae. I figured that if I ate a healthy dinner, I'd be fine (and if that's all I did, I would have been well within an acceptable calorie range for the day.)

What I didn't realize was how the sugar would hit me. I didn't have any crazy energy spikes/drops that day... what happened was I went from not thinking about food, to suddenly thinking about food for the rest of the day. That sugar just made me want to eat, and eat some more. Eek! It was just... bad!

It got me thinking: often in the past when I do binge, it never stops at one day. I just have this excuse "oh, if I binge, I better get all my cravings out of the way or else it'll be harder to get back on track." Then I started thinking "what if that whole idea is wrong? What if I keep binging because the craving is never satisfied..." it just changes from food to food till a few months past and the next thing I know is I've gained back all my weight and then some.

Sooo.... my goal today then is to just get back on track and have no sugars/refined starches once again. The only question I'm asking now is, should I give up refined sugars for the rest of my life? (natural sugars in fruits, or honey is still ok). I guess I should just take this one day at a time because day 1 after a binge is always the hardest for me..... wish me luck!

Well... Let’s start it together then... I went camping on the weekend and all my food was terrible...
I binged big time. The smores were so good... I couldn't stop eating them, just like the peanuts and pop corn, along with all the other terrible foods...
Today is day 1 after my binge and it is hard, but I am doing great!!!
Let’s do it girl!!! Soon will be weekend again and we will feel so proud we left our mistake in the past...

Look at it this way- a baby, when learning to walk, will fall many times. Baby still gets up and tries and tries again. You are learning how to eat healthy. You fell, dust yourself off, and get back to work. Just as a baby will learn how to walk and stop falling, so will you with your eating. I think it's great that you've realized that you can't feed your cravings; they'll just keep coming. Eat healthier and your body will start to crave those healthy foods. Exercise more and your body will crave that.

Good luck as you work towards your weight loss goal!

I'm sooo glad you posted this. For me the answer is no. But it took 2 years to completely cleanse myself of both the physical and mental addictions. In the past my body chemistry reacted the same way as yours did. However, after eating healthy and no bingeing for about a year I actually ate whatever I wanted last week on vacation and not only do I have no cravings today (my first day back on the wagon) but by Sat after 6 days of that sort of wreckless eating I became violently ill. I had stomach pains like I was poisoned, diarhea and nausea and last night I got a splitting headache.

I think the key is an occassional cheat here and there once your confident that your body chemistry is what it should naturally be and then lots of mental preparation and self talk. If I do have a little "treat" I keep repeating in my head how this is all I'm going to have and if I want more or something else after words the answer is "NO".

But for now I'd suggest cleansing for 6months to a year before trying to test yourself. I've learned the hard way that its bologna that it only takes 30 days to cleanse.

~I don't believe in coincidence, I believe in God and I am not lucky I am blessed!~

For me, triggers are empty carbs and sugar. If I replace those triggers with complex carbs and naturally sweet foods (such as fruit), I really don't crave the junk.