I have been over weight or obese basically my whole life. I've dieted/exercised on and off, for various amounts of time and my weight has yo-yoed. But I've always (until now) looked and diet and exercise as a package deal.

The problem is, since I have issues with binge eating, I can eat healthy and controled for only so long, then I'll go off the deep end and binge. Sometimes a binge can last a few days (for anyone that binges, you know what I mean). But in the past when ever I went off my diet, I immediately gave up exercise too.

This time I've separated the two.
I exercise.
And when I binge, or am eating poorly. When I eat the wrong foods or whatever, I still go to the gym.

And I have found that doing this has really helped me see exercise as a part of my life and not just something I only do when my eating habits are perfectly healthy.

When I did the weight loss eons ago, I tired to keep up the exercise even when the weight didn,t come down because of my out of control eating, but one, looking back and with more maturity I realize how immature that was. So what if I wasn't, losing? I was at least slowing down the gain! I was at least doing something good for my body! So I too this time, no matter what will not give up the exercise. The exercise part of it is actually the harder to restart for me anyhow. I hate thinking about all the strength I lost and have to rebuild.

So good for you for realizing that too!

I too refuse to give up the exercise, regardless of my binges. I have had to work on this and be completely dedicated to the idea of exercise no matter what else comes up.

This is great advice! I've always seen diet and exercise that way too, although usually when I binge it's depression that triggers it, which also triggers me to slack when it comes to exercising...I'll keep this tip in mind, though

That is a great way to look at it. Even aside from weight loss, the exercise will make you stronger and more capable so that's always good.

Its been very helpful for me. When I don't have the "strength" to control my eating, I just let it go and focus on staying with my workout. I have depression issues too. I've found that when I stop exercising they go from bad to worse. Which is another reason I have begun putting exercise before dieting.

I've been having the same problems lately in that my eating has been pretty crappy and so I stop exercising. It's like I need to do both or neither. And so I've been having problems getting back on track.

This is a good perspective to take, separating the two. Thanks for starting a thread about it. It's totally made me think about the whole losing weight thing differently.