,Would anyone be up to a challenge of refraining from compulsive eating, overeating, bingeing and other compulsive food behaviors for 90 consecutive days? What this "abstinence" means would be completely up to you and you could either decide to share your plan of action here or keep it to yourself. All ways of eating would be welcome. What "abstinence" means when it comes to food is different for everyone.
It is often said that it takes 21 days to change a habit, but at least for someone like me who has had varying issues with food for all of my life (mostly anorexia and orthorexia, now the past few years overeating and bingeing to some extent and generally feeling stressed out about food most of the time), I doubt 21 days would make a lasting difference. But if I were able to stick to this for 90 consecutive days and handle the emotional and psychological issues without food and separate myself from the urge to overeat for that long, I think it'd really do something. I've been without overeating for three months or longer before, but during the time I was severely restricting my calories and going to the other extreme, so it didn't make any difference on my relationship with food. But 90 days of normal, healthy eating and eating for nourishment and not for any other reason... it'd feel almost magical and so freeing. Currently I'm mentally so occupied with food that it's almost impossible to imagine the freedom not having to think about food and not having to stress about it and my body would bring... but I'm more than ready to find that out!
I feel like I've come to the point where I'm ready to tackle the real issue and finally leave these food issues behind.I know from experience that going one day and one moment at a time is the only way to make this work for me, so I'm not going to be too concentrated on the number of days - but I also know from experience that after a couple of weeks, when you realise how far you've already come, seeing the day count starts to be another motivating and comforting factor, in an "if I've already been this successful, surely I can keep it up today as well!" way. Also when I'm aiming to go for something like 90 consecutive days and I know I'll have to start the count all over again if I slip up, the slip up isn't going to happen as easily as it would if I only concentrated on one day at a time. (That said though, if I do slip up, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, but simply move on, and keep trying my best in the present moment.)
I'm planning on starting my 90-day challenge tomorrow (December 21), but I realise this time of the year isn't necessarily the best time to start for everyone, so everyone is more than welcome to join later any time that suits you best
I'll write down a more specific plan of action later (probably only for myself), but for now I've only a very basic plan and have decided that my successful day is being paleo/primal, low carb, three meals a day, nothing except water in between them. I can eat just as much as I need to satisfy my physical hunger but not more, and physical hunger is the only acceptable reason for eating. I've eaten paleo & low carb for years, so it's not a challenge, but eating only for hunger and decreasing my portion sizes definitely is.Happy Holidays everyone! I really hope to get some company to do this with... this could be a great thread for support and a place to come to when you feel like relapsing. A little like Overeaters Anonymous group I think (but I wouldn't really know since I've never been to a meeting, I don't think there are any in my country) - a safe and judgement free place to come to for support.
Will keep checking in.
