Binge eater

Emom1209
Emom1209 Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
Hi everyone! I'm a huge binge eater and don't know how to get control. I'm also on meds that cause increased appetite and need to be super controlled about what I eat. I know my diet needs to change. I hate breakfast and end up eating a high calorie blueberry muffin and inches coffee which I know is awful. I just feel lost on how to get started. Any help would be great thanks!!

Replies

  • ultrahoon
    ultrahoon Posts: 467 Member
    For me, pre-logging the days food in the morning allowed me to see roughly where I would end up. Then I could spend a few minutes tweaking things. I find it a much more sustainable approach to incorporate the foods I consider special treats into a diet of things I don't hate.

    I tried to eat 'clean' and 'healthy' before, but it just meant I fell off the wagon hard because food had become just this needed thing to stay alive, rather than an enjoyable experience of indulgence.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Is that a Costco muffin? Then I might go with your "awful" assessment. That sucker is two meal's worth of calories! But if you want to switch to a McDonald's blueberry muffin you would be fine. Just log it. That's not hating breakfast. That's incorporating the foods you enjoy in to breakfast.
  • fortytwotrees
    fortytwotrees Posts: 2 Member
    I'm also a binge eater. I don't know what to tell you. When you're not binging, you just have to think of something that you know is more important to you than food: getting healthy, losing weight, reaching x goal in x time, etc.

    When I binge, I don't care about those things. I just care about food. But over time, you can train yourself to bring up these goals and and they will bring you out of the mindset. It's not easy, but the longer you do it the more it works. But there will be times when you still binge. It's a very long process.

    There are also books that can help put everything in a different perspective and provide a way to deal with the emotional side of binge eating, because it is an eating disorder and isn't necessarily just a matter of will power.
  • 50andfabu
    50andfabu Posts: 112 Member
    It's a very difficult habit to break. It's complicated with physical, emotional, and psychological components. I still struggle with it, but what works for me is eating three good meals (spreading my calories equally throughout the day). When you are hungry it is harder to fight the urge to binge. When you don't have the physical hunger pangs, you are just dealing with emotional/psychological issues.
    Here are a few things I did:
    1. There is a certain chair where I used to sit at the end of the day to watch TV. Over the years, it became a trigger so I sit in a different place and a different room.
    2. Initially don't worry about cutting your calories too low. Be reasonable and focus on eliminating the binges.
    3. Really focus on how good you will feel when you go to bed or get up the next day and you have NOT binged. That is a great feeling!
    4. Avoid your trigger foods. For me, diet soda makes me hungry even if I have just eaten so I can't drink it very often.
    5. Figure out "what's eating you". The mindless, escapism of the binge as fortytwotrees said is part of what we want. Maybe you want to talk about what is troubling you by calling a friend or journalling.

    Good luck to you.

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