I am a sophomore in college, and we have late night convenience stores in our dorm. I didnt eat dinner today because I had something to do for my sorority, so my boyfriend and I just went to the c-store to pick up some stuff. Instead of getting a sandwich and a drink, i walked out with mac and cheese tv dinner, huge bag of chex mix, a tall gatorade, a kit kat, and reeses. wtf is wrong with me?? i joked with my bf like, "oh my GOD im starvinggg dont judge me hahaha!" and he fell for it because he loves me and doesnt see what i see. he has no idea about my serious food, binging battle. its so hard to be at school where you can have ANY food, chip, drink, or candy you want. I need some self control.

advice?

Ugh, girl, I'm with ya. I'm having the same problems right now. I forgot my lunch today (2nd time in 2 weeks) and I was STARRRRVING at work within 2 hours of my shift start. Someone left bagels, so against better judgement I had one. Then I went to CVS to get anything... I resisted what I really wanted which was chips, donuts, candy... all of it. I got a flavored water, salted almonds and a kashi protein bar. I'm full right now, but feel like I cheated. (It's not that bad anyway) I just wanted chicken and spinach, with banana and carrots.

I feel like I'm depriving myself of "good" food, therefore setting myself up for a binge. This week is tough too, because I have a funeral and a birthday party to go to on Friday and I feel like I just wanna sit and eat an entire pizza.

One step at a time, I suppose. Do I want to gain back the 1.5 lbs I dropped this week? No... so keep on firghting the good fight.

It's hard. hard. hard. hard.

Well, you know, in adult life, there's all kinds of food everywhere, too. In the workplace, people bring trays of cookies, donuts, there are pizza lunches, birthday cake for coworkers, etc. There are birthday parties out at bars, and cocktail parties...and when you have a car and run your own schedule, you often find yourself in places where food is available and you're starving with only a convenience store to sustain you.

The key is a contingency plan. So go into that late night convenience store when you're NOT HUNGRY (right after a good, healthy meal, on a day you've worked out and are on plan). Look at the options. Note the healthier items, and maintain a list in your head. Maybe even stock a few in your dorm fridge. Then, when you're hungry, you have a starting place and you're not just looking at wide aisles of crap. Go to the places with the healthy options and make a selection from those options.

In my life, I face situations like this all the time...airports and hotels with little convenience marts for business travel, busy days full of meetings, etc. I have to work my strategies. I carry protein bars so I never go into a food shopping situation starving. I try to get to a grocery store to get healthy stuff when I land. I know, in every major airport I regularly fly in or out of, which restaurants have healthy options (Sacramento Airport SaladWorks - I love you!). You get the idea.

The world is full of bad food options. You have to learn and apply strategies to avoid falling into the ever-present junk food traps.

Like mandalinn said the key is to have healthy snacks on hand at all times so you can keep yourself from going into starvation mode. At work I have a lot of temptations too but I find that I have to plan plan plan by bringing in my lunch and snacks. Make a point each week to go shopping for these healthy alternatives. I also make a point to treat myself one to two times a week at the most that way I don't feel so deprived. You can't be perfect everyday. The key is to not go too overboard.

Last week we had a breakfast potluck at work and I gorged myself on baked goods, I felt so guilty afterwards but I got back on the wagon right away.

I agree, the temptation doesn't stop after school, there is always food everywhere and once you're making money with a job there is pretty much nothing stopping you from eating whatever you want. Except you! In my job, there is food (lots of junk) freely and readily available all the time, and for free! I barely even need to walk to get it, it's usually in close range. Which means that it's up to me to keep myself from going overboard. I think once you really decide what you want you will start to make the right choices. Good luck darlin, it's not easy but it is so worth it!

Your big mistake was skipping dinner--once that happened, the chances of you falling off the wagon went up tremendously.

This is why planning matters. It's a huge pain in the butt at times, but it's the only thing that works, and it gets easier. When you find out you've got something unusual going on, the first question in your mind needs to be "What will I eat?", and you need to come up with a specific answer, not wing it and hope for the best. Sometimes this means packing dinner as well as lunch, sometimes it means an extra trip across campus that you'd rather not make (good exercise, though!), sometimes it means eating out based on a careful choice made in advance.

Plan, plan, plan--choices made on the fly never work out so well.

Great post Mandalinn, those were my first thoughts, too! It doesn't get easier once you're out of school! I'm constantly in meeting conference rooms surrounded by buffet lunches and dessert trays!

I also agree with Shmead that once you skipped dinner you set yourself up for terrible challenges! Planning is so key to winning over binging!

It sounds almost anal, to say this, but one of the first things I think of when I get up in the morning is what my meals will be that day. I don't consider it obsessive though. It is simply good planning. So I decide..will breakfast be egg, fruit and toast, or will it be oatmeal with a handful of nuts? As I am getting my breakfast together, I also look for what I plan on making for lunch and dinner. It almost seems as though meals are all I think about when I am thinking about what I will eat for lunch while I am preparing my breakfast, but it is important to me to KNOW what the day hold for me food-wise. This way, if I am at the convenience or grocery store in late morning, I can walk past all the junk and think "oh no..you have some fresh broccoli and chicken just waiting for you at home". I KNOW where my next meal is coming from, and can bypass the tempting stuff.
I have come to realise that after 6 months of controlling my food I honestly no longer crave most of the bad stuff. Every now and then when I got out with the husband I do stare longingly at the nachos on the menu, and have, on occasion given in to the urge, but it is no longer a MUST have situation. I have not had a must have moment in a very long time, and hopefully I have trained myself well enough that I never will again. It is the must have mentality that is our worst enemy.

College is no different than not being in college. When you have a fulltime job and everyone heads out to the restaurant for lunch (or at my work, breakfast AND lunch), you need to learn to say no. No to office lunches, no to office birthdays, etc.

Food will always be in your face. You just have to learn to say no - it doesn't matter when or where you are in life.

I was recently pregnant and that is probably one of the hardest times to say "no" to overeating, because people literally look at you like you are a bad person if you say no when pregnant. Learn strategies to say no.

I bring dinner to my sorority events ALL the time. I brought a packed lunch to our recruitment/rush events in a cooler. I brought lunch to our mother/daughter tea, despite lunch being provided.Seriously, I can't think of a single event, even the ones I've run, that I haven't had a little bit of time to cram some healthy food in. Don't just plan to "grab something whenever": bring your normal dinner to the event and just eat it.

Even if its not a food-centered event, don't skip dinner because of sorority. A handful of almonds or an apple doesn't take long to eat, you won't get too hungry and then you'll make better choices when you have your "real" dinner. We also had one of those convenient type stores on my campus. I avoid it at all costs because its just too tempting. Its hard to convince myself to eat an apple when ice cream looms right next to it. Esp. when hungry, stick to your plan

How about getting a little fridge for your dorm room? Stock it with stuff like spinach, eggs, fruit, turkey etc. Then if you have to skip dinner, you can just throw a bunch of stuff in a bowl and eat quickly without having to eat frankenfood from the c-store. You might also want to think about getting a blender and whipping up some green smoothies for emergency dinners or breakfasts. A big green smoothie can help keep you focused in class too.