I've been on my journey for years, and probably the most important tool for me, and I think many would agree for them as well, has been planning. My question is this: at what point does planning turn into obsessing? I can't decide if there is a line where eventually too much planning is just too much, or if it is relative and what might be an extremity for one is just the key to success for another.

For the past few months I have been having the most awful struggle with food binges and although I've clearly gained weight as a result, I just become a zombie and cannot stop myself. I am a die hard planner, list maker, give me a box to put a check mark in and I don't need any further rewards. So I've been toying with the idea of starting an hourly checklist, something to keep me mentally focused hour by hour so that if I'm having a particularly hard time right now, all I gotta do is get through this hour and then I get to give myself the green 'you did it!' check mark and a mental pat on the back for making good choices for one more hour of the day. Seems kind of sensical, but also a little obsessive. Yes? No? Just looking for some outsider opinions.

For me, an obsession happens when it starts to interfere with your daily life, so I don't think this plan is necessarily obsessive as long as every second between those hours your thoughts aren't consumed on checking off the list then I think that would border obsessive.

Long-term, you should ask yourself if you could resist binging if for some reason you could not mark off every hour.

In my opinion, you should try to find out the root reason of why you have the urge to binge lately. I think solving that will help you much more in the long run if binging is an everyday occurrence for you; so if something similar occurs in the future you can recognize why, but this does seem like a sensible idea if you just have occasional bad days or if you are working to regain control over the root problem and just need a way to fight the urge in the mean time.

No matter the time frame of your checklist, I think what's important is to make sure that failing one check won't make you give up and binge more. Allow yourself a lot of room for error. Go easy on yourself. This might seem counterintuitive, but in my experience binging was caused by ANY obsessive behaviour around food, including any kind of strict scheduling. Binging stopped for me when something in my brain changed and I became more relaxed around food. So I believe it's caused by a kind of perfectionism and wanting to control everything. At least in my case it was.

^Actually, everytime I have tried to determine what causes me to binge, the only thing I could settle on was exactly that. When I'm in the flow of a routine to the point that I don't really have to track or measure or think about it, I don't feel tempted or impulsive at all.

I thank you both for your input and will definitely be keeping these perspectives in mind.

Studies prove that the more you restrict and control your eating the more you binge. It's like pulling a bow and arrow. All the planning and restricting is like pulling the bow tauter and tauter. The more taut you pull the bigger the binge is. Diets lead to weight gain, it's a fact that not many people are willing to face even though they themselves are perfect examples of it, over and over and over again.

I know that this is a serious question for you and no laughing matter, but this statement made me laugh out loud!

Now the daily, hourly check list does sound a little obsessive, but if it is something short term that is going to help you, I say Go for it! People have done far worse. We gotta do what we gotta do.

Good luck to you!