So I had a very emotional week. My mom has lost her apartment and while I'm worried about her I have my own issues. I hurt my back in July and have been doing chiropractic therapies in order to try and fix my slipped disc. They finally told me that they want to do nerve blocker injections since the chiropractor isn't really helping. I was upset with my boyfriend, who I live with, and invited my friend over for a girls night. We ended up going to the grocery store and having a massive junk food binge. I felt sooo guilty. I'm so very tired of my emotional eating. I've been doing really well, but everything just seemed to be hitting me at once. Any advice on how to avoid emotional binging?

Goody3shoes, I can't offer any advice on the binge aspect b/c I don't have any experience with it but I would just like to offer my support and condolences for your situation. I hurt my back in May 2010 and this past November I finally got a break from it. I think mine was a bulging disk. I don't know if this is the same with slipped disk, but in the beginning I was trying OTC pain meds (Goody Powders), Icy Hot spray and patches, chiro, heating pad and ice. I found a youtube video by a chiro who said don't do anything (and especially not heat) but do only ice for several days in a row @ 10-15 minutes every hour to bare skin. I thought yeah, right, this is crazy and it won't work but I was desperate and getting very worried that I too needed much more invasive med. intervention.

I kid you not, after doing this for only 6 times (once an hour for 15 minutes) the pain had decreased tremendously. I did it again the next day several times every hour and the pain was almost completely gone. And I do mean this was pain! I could not bend forward at all, I couldn't lift groceries and well, you get the point. I still have days where if I over exert myself, I feel it and there is a spot on my spine that is very tender to the touch on certain days, but I can pretty much do everything I could do before these days. It's worth a shot with the aspect of surgery looking you straight in the eye. It may work for you and it may not but it did work for me.

Back to the binge...you could always try coming here, I know several ladies are here at all hours due to being in different time zones and such. Everyone here has your best interest at heart and will listen.

Emotional eater here! I've become better at it, but it has taken me a long time. Anything used to trigger me (anger, sadness, happiness, excitement) and I would reach for food...a lot of it.

Here is what has helped me:

* Knowing that after I binge, whatever emotion I am feeling will still be there...I needed to learn to focus on the feeling I was having and not on using food to take the place of the feeling.
* Taking a deep breath and removing myself from any food situation -- I've hit the treadmill, I've made jewelry, I've chewed gum, I've done laundry, I've called someone, etc. It's good to be distracted.

I can definitely relate! Sometimes, when life is so chaotic, eating can seem like the only enjoyable part left. My biggest piece of advice is to delay the binge. It's a lot easier to say, "Okay, I'll wait twenty minutes and see how I feel. In the meantime, I'll try to deal with my emotions in another way," than it is to flat-out tell yourself, "NO." What would have happened if you and your girl friend had, instead of binging on junk, discussed each other's problems and offered each other emotional support? My guess is that the urge to binge in that moment would have decreased, if not completely gone away. Other times, the best you'll be able to do is just distract yourself for a while. But always congratulate yourself for your accomplishments, no matter how small. It sounds silly, but I give myself a little gold start sticker each day I go without binging. So far I'm at two weeks, and I find that very exciting.

You should definitely check out the "Chicks in Control" board if you haven't already. There's lots of support and people who can relate there.

Thanks for the advice. I've tried the ice and it hasn't helped. They've had me on so many different pain medicines it's ridiculous. The last costing almost $200.00!!! I'm starting to get so exhausted by all the issues with my back that I'm contemplating just giving in and getting the injections. When doing the research I hated finding out that one of the side effects for the injections is weight gain! My friend was in a really good mood and though I wanted to be consoled I couldn't burden her with all my issues. I felt guilty because she's dieting too and the binge was my idea. Granted it wasn't as bad as it could have been because I got a lot of things that she likes, but I don't so the binge was not quite as bad. I tried cleaning to distract myself, but it started to hurt so much I gave up. It feels like the only thing left to me since I got hurt is eating and being lazy.

I definitely know that feeling of not being able to move like you should...it probably contributed to my slight weight gain during most of last year. 6 months of it was incredibly depressing.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the nerve block injections work for you and you will be one of those without the side effect of weight gain! If a bulging disk hurt me as badly as it did, I don't even want to imagine what an actual slipped disk feels like! I am sure you are in quite some pain.

I know exactly how you feel with the binge eating. When I'm doing good and eating healthy, sometimes I feel like it's not even worth it to try to lose weight because all I want to do is eat a ton of junk. First, don't beat yourself up over it. Feeling guilty will just make you upset, which will lead to another binge. Everybody slips up sometimes, and it's not a big deal. Tomorrow is a new day! Second -- and I know it's hard -- but you have to change what kind of foods satisfy you. If you start craving something bad and can't stop thinking about it, try to think of a good substitute for that food and go for that. Binging on a whole pineapple is much better than a half-gallon of ice cream. I know it's not the same, but if you do this consistently, you'll start craving healthier foods. That's just my two cents. Hope it helps!

Thanks Niecy, it's so hard because my friends don't really understand. My boyfriend is the worst. He's always saying that I need to go to the gym and work out. I don't know how he doesn't understand when he's the one that I ask to get my pills when I can't even move. Thanks for the support, it's nice to find someone who understands!