Hi,

I'm new to this forum...I just started looking at it about a week ago, and just joined today. For the last few days, I've been wondering if I've been doing something wrong. For several months, I've been on a routine. Monday through Friday, I am very strict about what I eat. I'll have a bowl of cream of wheat for breakfast, then a lean cuisine frozen lunch, then a healthy choice meal for dinner. I'll have a plain salad or some carrots at the end of the day sometimes as well. On weekends, however, I change what I do. I'll eat pretty much whatever I want. If it happens to be a waffle craving, I'll have maybe 3 homemade belgian waffles at each meal w/ a little syrup (I've never been a fan of lots of syrup). This past weekend on Saturday, all day, I had a small loaf of cranberry pecan bread and 2/3 of a large loaf of cinammon raisin bread (no toppings), b/c that's what I was craving. Another weekend, I had 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and 4 for dinner. In total I probably eat maybe somewhere between 2000-3000 calories/day on weekends (not sure how much). I find that during the weekends I'll put on about 3 pounds, but I lose all of that by Friday of the following week, and I start over again. As you can imagine, I kind of look forward to weekends.

My rules keep me from craving unhealthy foods during the week b/c I know that the weekend will be there soon. I don't really feel restricted by my diet during the week, I like my lean cuisine meals. It seems to enable me to maintain my current weight, but is this bad binge behavior? Please...any thoughts/advice would be very helpful. Thanks!

Hi!

Do you use (fitday)? I don't see many proteins, but I sure do see a lot of carbs. That may be where your problems are coming from. I try to keep my carbs around 200-220, but I bet if you start recording what you have, you'll see that your carbs are a lot. I'm not sure how old you are or anything about your exercise level, but you'd have to be a marathon runner in order to burn those carbs off. A nutritionist told me to cut out the lean cuisines and healthy choice meals as she has never come across anyone who ever lost a lot of weight eating those. I think she may be right because when I cut them out, I started to lose weight again. She told me that processed foods should be kept to a minimum and that whole foods (fruits, veggies, dairy, meat, staying away from red meats) are best.

Best of luck in your weight loss!

kitty

Hi there

Although you are maintaining your weight this way, it doesn't sound like a very healthy way of living nutritionally. Your weekday diet doesn't have much in the way of fresh fruit, vegetables or complex carbohydrates. The Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice meals really aren't all that healthy. A lot of the nutritents have been processed out, and the Lean Cuisine meals are very high in sodium. As for the bingeing issue...I think that's really a question that only you can answer. Do you feel out of control on the weekends when you're eating these foods? Again, my issue with it is that the nutritional value of a day of Belgain Waffles or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches is zilch. How about one waffle with a peach sliced over it? Then something different for your other meals.

Congratulations on the weightloss, BTW! That's a great accomplishment. Keeping it off in a healthy way is what you need to look at. We have a whole forum called Maintainers that you might want to look at.

Mel

I would consider your behavior "binge behavior," because your are over-supplying your body, meaning your body doesn't nutritionally need 7 PB&J sandwiches, and you are trying to relieve frustration, anger, sadness, or some other emotion by overeating. Unless it truly is hunger, then you definitely are not getting enough to eat in the week. But as far as that goes, my opinion is objective, and most binge eaters decide themselves whether or not a binge occured.

I would tell you (if you can) to stop bingeing on the weekends, because before you know it, the behavior will spill over into the weekdays, and you'll find yourself in a vicious cycle that's almost impossible to break free from.

BTW, I linked your old thread in the CIC forum, so hopefully some other CIC girls will try to help you out

Seen as I'm a binger , I would consider this binge mode. I agree with what HarpoChicoGroucho said. Possibly your strict rules make you binge more on the weekend because your body feels deprived of all the vitamins and minerals it needs. I have a tendency to eat strictly then I go into binge mode. I'm trying for balance but find it hard to achieve. It starts with a meal, then a day then a week and on and on.

I might have a Lean Cuisine once a week but then I add a cup of veggies and a fruit. These meals leave me way to hungry and nutrionally are bad. I would munch on some fruit if you want something sweet.

If you look in the maintainers some have a meal where they have what they want to eat but it may be once a week or even less. I also notice even most of them control this meal and don't go hog wild. This kind of eating is hard on your body. I agree that eventually it will spill on to other days and a gain will result.

I was hesitating with my answer because I have no idea what these lean cuisine meals or whatever are and how healthy they are...And unlike me, you already lost weight (Congratulations!!).

But your post made my shiver.
I did the same thing years ago. And it was the beginning of my long struggel with ED.
I ate less, healthy, diety the whole week. Lost 3 pounds. On the weekends I ate everything in sight. Gained three pounds. Lost them during the week....
I did that for several years, in bad months I had a weight difference of nearly 20 pounds because of my bingig/ starving- game.
And some day I wasnīt able to control my weight during the week. I gained weight.

After years living that way, I was told from a Dr. that I am bulimic. I said "No I am not" because I wasnīt purging that often.
But after all, being bulimic means "eating a lot of food in a short time of amount and taking actions to control the weight" (sorry, couldnīt translate that well enough).
Itīs not just purging, itīs laxatives, itīs exessive exercising and starving after the binges. All those unhealthy and excessive actions to "undo" the binge.

And in my point of view, it looks like you are eating a lot of "instant" food (all that microwave stuff). That doesnīt sound like a healthy connection with food to me....

Your eating behaviour seems to jump from one extreme to the other. I wouldnīt consider that healthy. After all, what worked for me is trying to find the middle path....

Ok. After all, itīs just my opinion. Very subjectiv point of view. It coud be different for you.

Kate

Thanks so much for this advice. I've been doing this routine for a few months w/ good weight maintenance, but recently thought that this might not be such healthy behavior. After each weekend, I do sometimes think that if I ate evenly over the week, maybe I wouldn't gain any weight, and I wouldn't have to lose weight Mon-Fri just to keep up.

I used to cook quite a bit, but about 3 years ago, I started a job that had me working around 120 hours/week. I was living in a large city, and I got takeout for dinner every day, and I also was given lunch at work every day. (That's how I got to my highest weight.) I was also too fatigued to exercise. The last couple of years, I've had a more normal schedule, but I just haven't been able to get back into cooking...Despite the fact that I watch quite a bit of the Food Network. That's how the Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen meals slipped in. Because of their set portion control, I think that is how I lost most of my weight. However, I have realized that this might not be the best thing for my nutritional status. I'm 29 years old, so not much time to keep building the bones.

I have to admit that I am a carb person. I don't like eggs, cheese, cream sauces, and really have little desire to consume meat. In fact, if I didn't eat the frozen meals, I probably wouldn't eat meat/fish more than once or twice a month. I like fish/chicken, but just don't really have a tendency to buy them when I'm in the store -- maybe because of the cooking thing. Also, if I cook at home, I'm afraid that the leftovers for the rest of the week might actually be eaten in advance, if you know what I mean.

I do like fruit, but in the past, I've been concerned about the additional calorie content. I've bought some fruit the last week, and I'm trying to get back into it.

My work schedule/routine has kept me from overeating during the week without much difficulty, thought it does get harder if I'm at home for a few days. I don't keep much food in my house...so there really isn't much choice re: overeating during the week. On the weekends, I just go buy what I plan to eat for Sat and Sun. Hopefully, I can start to transition to a more healthy schedule.

It has been really helpful to hear from all you...I think it is helping me to start to be more realistic about my situation. Any additional comments/suggestions would still be helpful. Thank you!

Here I go again....

I am a "carb person" as well- mostly because of the same reasons you are. I was a so- called "Pudding vegetarian" (means that you donīt eat much meat/ proteine, but a lot of high sugar foods instead).
Around two or three months ago, I decided to go "real vegetarian" (no meat, no fish). But I try to learn to cook with meat substitutes (itīs called Tofu in Germany- donīt know about the US) and eat more whole food and fruits.
It worked for me, although I think I am quite under that "magic proteine intake- frontier".
Please donīt throw stones or something like that at me, but carbs being super- duper healthy and proteine being bad a few years ago, I just stick to my programm and wait until that low- carb- movement is over. Could be very soon, depending on the person who is paying for the newest researchs...

I just try to find a healthy relationship with food. After all, food is fuel for my body (and brain), so I try to find what works best for me.
I think trying to disconnect food- emotions a little bit is helping as well.

I am always wondering how "natural thin" people eat...

BTW, binging during weekends is quite common among binge eaters. Weekends are the hardest time for most of us....

Hope you have a nice day,

Kate