I have been doing pretty good lately but I know a binge is just around the corner. That is when I usually blow it and go up 2-3 lbs. and get so discouraged. Is there any food that satisfies without doing too much damage when you are absolutely sure you are going to lose it?

The best advice I can offer is to try and control it. In other words, have a planned 'binge" of sorts. Try and figure our what it is that you're craving -- sweets? salt? A particular food item? Determine what it is that you're craving so badly that it's worth binging on and find a way to work it in to your week. Sometimes you'll be surprised that you really can work this in without totally abandoning the program. If you add up any banked points for the week and any exercise points you may find that between that and a well planned day, you have enough points for an extreme meal that feels like a binge, only much better, because you're able to maintain control through it all. Promise yourself (and follow through on it!) that as soon as that meal's over with, you'll be back to your regular WW routine.

I was able to do this fairly early on in my WW journey and went to Red Robin. (I'm not sure if you have those in your area, but they serve the most incredible hamburgers!) The sandwich I wanted with fries was 23 points. So I ate a light breakfast and lunch, went and ate the whole thing! I was very full leaving the restaurant but felt so good emotionally for coming home, journalling it and seeing that between my low-point day and a few points I had banked, that spurge was 100% on program.

Kim

One good thing to do is stay in touch with your feelings so you can figure out what might be eating at you. It may not be a craving at all. Last week Tuesday to be exact if it wasn't nailed down it went into my MOUTH! It took me until Wednesday to figure out I was stuffing those feelings of anger. I ate because I was mad at my son. I sure showed him didn't I. He is 30 and can be a pain at times. Next time I'm not going to let him upset me. Next time I will control the situation.

Karen-
I have a son who is 14 and can get on my nerves most times! It's sooo enlightening to know that he may drive me nuts well into his adult life!!!LOL
I too have trouble controlling a binge once it gets started and they are almost always motivated by something else other than hunger. A few times I have reminded myself how far I have come (56# lost)and how it feels and how this has happened before and how I felt. Sometimes this strategy works, sometimes not.
Thanks for sharing.

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Donna
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Hi,

It sounds like you see a pattern to your weight loss journeys. I'm not sure what clues you in so that you're so positive that "a binge is just around the corner" and "you are absolutely sure you are going to lose it". It seems to me that you might consider the possibility that you expect to repeat old patterns. That can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What I do in situations like this is journal. I write whatever is in my head until the reason for the feeling comes out. Than I brainstorm on paper possible ways to deal with whatever is going on.

If you discover that you are repeating an established pattern, you could try figuring out what triggers this pattern--a certain number of pounds lost, a certain number of weeks of "being good", whatever it might be. The answer could contain a clue about how to break the pattern.

Also, you might look at your journal and see if you are using the flexibility of the program to its best advantage. Sometimes we decide to lose weight and can't get rid of the idea that we must deprive ourselves of our favorite foods, meals, some people deprive themselves of a social life--no dinners out or parties because they feel out of control.

It's important that we work on changing our attitude so that we plan our food, exercise, etc. as a way of living our whole lives, not thinking of it as a diet program we do until we reach goal. In order to plan the lifestyle change, we have to include everything that is a part of life by using the tools WW gives us--banked points, exercise, altering recipes to allow us to fit them into our plan more often, etc.--so that we can live this way, even after we reach goal.

The last thing that I've noticed in my life is that the worst thing I can do is allow myself to be a perfectionist. Life isn't perfect and I'm not perfect. So, if I have a slip, I use my journal to figure out what happened and plan how to deal with it the next time. I don't always follow my plan right away. It takes practice, but eventually I do get there. There are a lot of old habits I've replaced with new ones, but some of the changes have taken years to become true habits. Anyway, it does take time and we have to be patient with ourselves.

I'm not the fastest loser around. But I'm getting much better at maintaining during the times I'm not losing, rather than gaining it all back. One reason is that I haven't just given up. Even if I decided I didn't want to lose any more weight right now (which I did for at least a year), I still worked to keep off what I lost previously. That, to me, is a real success and it gives me hope that once I do reach goal, I have a good shot at staying there. (I made a conscious choice to lost in increments--lose a certain amoung of weight, maintain for a while, then set a new weight loss goal. It's slow, but I feel better about how it's going for me.)

Sorry this is so long, but you hit on something I've been thinking about lately. Hope some of my ramblings are helpful.

Lin

Lin, you hit the nail on the head. So many of those things ring true for me.It's as if I am terrified of success. I know when I do good for so long that I am bound to screw up and screw up BIG TIME. That usually means whatever I lose I gain back. I don't think I lose weight, I think I just recycle it!!! I have 10 pounds to lose and it's just not going anywhere. Oh, I lose a few....then, being OP to me feels like walking the tightrope sometimes. I'm balanced, balanced, balanced, wobbling, whoa! There I go, wham! Face first! And my problem is that it will take days that turn into weeks to get back OP. In hindsight I think, why, why why didn't I just go right back on the next day, the next meal?

I do need to work on my attitude. It is unfortunately, by nature, pessimistic. I think the voice in my head, when I am losing, says, "Wow, you've done good, and you NEVER do good for very long. Hmmm....you should be slipping anytime now..." And I do, too.

Wow, that's sad but true. You would think that knowing this helps.

Well, thanks for the input.

Arose, I'd be very interested to know how you know you're about to binge. What are the signs? Are you just getting bored with the restrictions on your eating? Starting to rebel? Thinking all the time about food?

For me, I'm discovering that certain foods trigger a response in me to eat a lot more. It also depends on my emotional state, of course. So if I'm at all emotionally vulnerable, I know I have to avoid certain kinds of foods.

The best thing I know of to stave off a binge is to keep journaling. Journal everything, even if you go way over points. It's the best tool I've found to keep me from going off the rails. My former WW leader once told us about a client who called her, panicking, saying she was eating an entire half gallon of ice cream and didn't know what to do. My leader told her to write it down. She told her "I'm not going to tell you to stop eating the ice cream. Just write it down. Write it all down." It worked. The woman counted the ice cream points -- some incredible number -- and wrote them down. She was able to get back on program. The blip didn't become a huge derailment.

Let us know how it goes.

--Lauren

I agree with Lauren about journaling when you are binging. Not only will it help you to stop and control yourself, I have found more often than not that my binge really wasn't all that bad and with a little extra exercise and banking a few points each day, I was able to make up for it. What is important about this (at least for me) is that I was able to see that I had not completely blown it and therefore had no excuse to just blow the whole day/week.

I guess the reason I can feel a binge just around the corner is that I am doing good! Doesn't that sound ridiculous?!!! I know it does but it's the truth. I am just doing well and that's when I "peak" and then I fall off the wagon.
This is, sadly, my lifestyle. Somehow, after about 2 good weeks, I wake up one day, literally STARVING. Real hunger pangs and starving and no matter if I use banked points, exercise, drink gallons of water, does not matter and then I am so far off program it takes all I have to get back up.
Sometimes I am not sure if it is just cruel PMS or what. As of now, today, this program is working great.
Can anyone relate? I will never win my battle at this rate. And it is a MISERABLE way to live!!!!
But you know what, today is a good day and for that I am thankful!

I can completely understand that feeling of waking up and being hungry all day, no matter what. That was my day today!

I had a 4 point breakfast (with protein), which is normal for me. I also took out some homemade pizza pockets (2@4 points each) to thaw and have for lunch. At 10:00, I ended up eating one and then the other. Then I forced myself to do some things NOT at all food related for a couple of hours (but the whole time I was thinking about food and how I was going to eat for the rest of the day). At 2:00 I had some gazpacho (0 points) and a pita (1 point). Still hungry after that, I ate some meringue cookies (2 points) and 1 point worth of a GoLean bar. At 3:00, I ate a piece of bread with a teaspoon of peanut butter on it (3 points) and at 4:00 I found myself back in the kitchen looking for something to eat when I remembered something I used to eat when I was really hungry and out of points. I heated up a can of green beans w/lots of pepper and ate those. My husband came home at 5:00 and I made dinner by 6:00. I had planned to have a 7 point dinner (gnocchi w/veggies and chicken sausage) but luckily didn't find the gnochhi to be very good, so I didn't eat them (saving myself 4 points from that dinner!). After dinner I sat down with a GoLean bar (the whole thing for 5 points) and FINALLY feel full.

It's the first time I've had a day like this since I rejoined on 1/2/01! As frustrating as it was, I'm still within my points and proud of myself for not blowing it! Luckily I had lots of free and 1-2 point options in the house so that I could eat and not end up with 100 points for the day. Before WW, I would have eaten high point foods all day long, but today I was somewhat able to control myself and keep from doing too much damage. I even went for a walk this evening and earned 2 more points for the day. At this point I'm so full that I can't even imagine using them!

If I hadn't of been journaling, I'm sure that I would have either 1) totally gone off program or 2) believed that I had, which would have forced me to deal with the very difficult task of getting back OP. But, because everything is written down, I can just write today off as one of those difficult days that I got through! And it feels great.

I guess the point of this very long, and somewhat rambling message is simply to say, keep your journal! That along with the other tactics people mentioned, you'll get through it. And each time we successfully get through these tough times, it becomes easier to handle them in the future.

Good luck!

Kim

I try to remember, H.A.L.T.

Never allow yourself to get:

HUNGRY

ANGRY

LONELY

TIRED

This has been my pattern lately. And I noticed it is, without fail, that week before. Because I'm not always regular, I can't guess or prepare for when I should expect a binge to creep up. But, I recalled how a little over a year ago, this same routine kept me at a plateau that I finally broke. What worked for me then was to make a strict rule of 3 meals only. No snacking-just water, diet coke or black coffee between meals. That left me no room for extra unplanned points- snacks is where I tend to blow the points. IT worked then and it's working again. It also leaves me a nice amount of points for all three meals when I don't waste points on in between meal snacks.

I think that people need to find the root of why they are binging and find other ways to deal with the stress/lonliness/etc... so that it becomes an automatic reaction instead of eating. Keeping certain foods around to satisify your binge may not be the best idea-you're still binging and continuing the habit. I don't mean to sound all high and mighty though! I haven't binged since last summer when I feel like I truly began dealing with my problems and now I'm losing weight without sabotoging myself. This last week though I had 3 interviews for three different graduate school programs and man, did I binge. I felt completely out of control of my life and future. It didn't help that I and was in three different cities within 5 days. One night I was taking a bath in my hotel and just started bawling. I'm so glad that it's all over with-what a horrible night. My point is, we all have to deal with the root of our weight probelm before we can truly be lifetime members, whether it's purely bad eating/exercise habits or emotional probelms or both.

thope

I just wanted to say I am so glad I found this thread!!

I have been OP since the end of December. I had done great with working in 3 birthday partys (at Pizza Places) and 2 Bdays at home (Yep, that's lots of cake!) But, I still managed to stay OP... Then last week, they had this stupid dinner party at work that I didn't stay for, but when I saw the leftovers in the fridge the next day, I said I was just going to have 2 stuffed mushrooms, and 2 little garlic bread crunchy things. That was great, I wrote it in my journal, and was completely satisfied. But then, I just went nuts, I opened up the fridge, and before I knew it I had eaten almost all of the leftovers... I was so mad at myself for not getting up to go for a walk or something when I started craving all of that stuff.

I felt so miserable afterwards :mad: The rest of the week and weekend just went downhill after that and I showed a 2 lb. gain at my meeting!

BUT - after my meeting, I was like O.K. at least I came to my meeting and faced up to the facts. The old me would have not gone and weighed in and pretended like it never happened...(Like I have anyhting to prove to anyone else but myself :)) I fugured out that I must have been eating like a ravenous animal b/c I was bored. So now, if I'm sitting down, and start to feel like noshing on bad stuff, I get up and go do something...walk, laundry, balance my checkbook, anything!!!

Thanks for the great ideas... I really needed to read this now!

Lisa K.

Arose, are your hunger points and binges at all related to your cycle? Mine sure are. As Garfield says, the week before TOM for me is murder. I want to eat everything that isn't nailed down. I know about the pattern now, I just haven't quite figured out what to do about it. Taking calcium and magnesium daily seems to help, although it takes a couple months before it really kicks in.

The main thing is, just keep with it. Even if you overeat and go off program. Keep journaling, keep counting, keep exercising, keep drinking the water. One of the worst things you can do is fall into that perfectionism trap -- "I ate over my points, therefore I'm off program, therefore I've blown it, therefore I'm hopeless and a failure and I might as well just keep eating." NO! We don't have to do that! We're not in a race here, and this really is a lifestyle, not a diet. We're not perfect. Life happens. We *will* eat over our points sometimes. The main thing is, what do you do afterwards? Just give up? Or say, "OK, sweetie, you ate too much. You're human." Be good to yourself. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, write it all down -- and move on. One day at a time. No guilt, no self flagellation.

What you do *after* you overeat is the most important thing of all. The only failures are the ones who quit trying.

--Lauren

Lauren, I really do think mine is TOM because the minute I am 'done' I am a normal person again. Seriously, I have done this enough to know my pattern and this week I am at the top of the mountain. I think something horrid happens when it's that time and that is honestly when I gain and it takes me the rest of the month to lose it.
Like I say, I truly "recycle" weight. It is a vicious cycle. I can't even maintain, I would be thrilled to maintain but I go wacko. I take extra calcium but I don't think that really helps.
And I have true cravings....I mean I can spot something a mile away and can't get it off my mind until I devour it and then some. And then I snap like a twig.
Again, this is a good week. In two weeks, I will not even be able to post because I will be at the bottom of the barrel.
I am going to try, though. As usual.

Arose I know binging for me is also related to my cycle. I used to have more than a week of severe cravings but then I started taking Sarafem for PMDD which really helped with the mood swings and the severe cravings. I am currently off the Sarafem but I think I'm going to go back on it next month. I also take Calcium which seems to really he helping as well. If you find your cravings are really, really bad as well as modd swings and bloating, you may have PMDD like me. It's just a more severe form of PMS and the Sarafem may help you alot. You may want to talk to your doctor. I know that when my cravings used to hit, there was actually very little that I could do about them. Take care and hang in there!

I notice that if I'm likely to binge, it's emotional--upset angry, etc. For me, a little of that binging food (esp. pretzels and ice cream) doesn't satisfy, so I have to work hard to not eat any of it!!!

TOM--a week before TOM, I am truely hungry, not binge-y. Like LaurenH and Garfield, it just seems like I can never get full. So, I tend to eat LOTS more veggies and water, some more protein, and tend to be at top of points range or just over. I'll exercise a little more and use a few banked points if I need to.

Most important help for me: I'll self dialogue-- "It's only for 5 days and I know I can get thru this healthily. I will not undo the positives I've had during the other 3 weeks of the month for this. I know I will succeed." Luckily for me, I know as soon as my period starts, I'm really not hungry, so I tend to eat at the lower end of the scale.

It took me awhile to realize this pattern, but now that I understand it, I can keep it in check.

Exercise--this keeps hunger down. Self Dialogue--keeps spirits up. Eat more veggies and healthy food--even if I go over in points, it's NOT with junk food.

Hi,

One thing besides what other people have suggested that helps me during PMS is to drink an extra quart of water every day. I doesn't totally stop the water weight gain, but it does seem to decrease the amount of water I retain. And I can gain anywhere between 2 and 5 pounds. More water seems to keep it closer to 2 than 5. And less water, for me, seems to mean fewer cravings.

Lin

Thanks for the tips, I will try. I seriously can't even mentally stand the thought of PMS. It terrifies me and I know now that it is for good reason!
It's funny, because after it's over I do get OP, but no matter what, when I start eating out of control, I truly believe that this time I will never, ever be able to be in control again. Does anyone else do that?
Even though I always get back on, there is that space of time where I believe I have broken over to the realm of, "that's it, I've lost it, here's the real me and why did I ever think it would be different?"
If I could break that, that would be a serious breakthough for me!!
Thanks again for all the encouraging words.

Wow! That was awesome Lin. I needed that.l I tend to binge and don't know why i do it. I am new to ww and i am going to need all the support i can get and idea's. Thanks Gals. Take care. Shirley

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Shirl.

Maybe someone said this already but...try to analyze what nutrients you might be short on. The typical ones that send me into la-la-land are fat and protein. I tend to get a bit too little protein anyways, and in order to stay safely within my points range I tend to cut fats. So if I feel the urge to binge, I try a few "controls" first. A protein shake is a good start. Also, adding a teaspoon of olive or flaxseed oil to pasta can do it (I've even been known to take the teaspoon of oil like medicine! Sounds gross, but when you're fat-deprived, nothing tastes better).

The foods I tend to binge on, of course, aren't healthy protein and good fats, but sugar and 'bad' fats (oh those greasy burgers and french fries!). So if I can head that binge off at the pass by feeding myself well, usually it'll just go away.

Of course, sometimes I have emotional binges; I'm better at those than I used to be, but it's a lifetime process to get past them. I agree completely that the crucial thing is to add up the points, journal them, and then move on--no reverse banking, no exercise-as-punishment, no looking back.