BINGE CITY

keyer23

Good morning MFP friends. Confession time. I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad evening. I didn't go to the gym for the first night in 6 days which is unusual for me. I am an avid exerciser. But I had a particularly large amount of things to accomplish at home. Well, obviously eating was one of those things, I just didn't know it when I made my plan, lol. Can you say B-I-N-G-E? UGH. Ate the rest of the biscotti that was in the house (mistake - leftover from company), then ate cinnamon graham crackers (yes, a WHOLE sleeve), then caved and made edible chocolate chip cookie dough (just happened to remember I had a recipe for same). The ONLY saving grace was I froze 2/3 of it and only actually ATE 1/3 (like that wasn't enough!) Couldn't even bring myself to throw the rest of it into the garbage so I'm setting myself up to fail yet again! So where am I now? Remorse, regret, disappointment, disgust. Oh god how I hate food addiction. I'm like food-a-holic on steroids. Why oh why do I do this to myself? And what drives me to binge every 3 or 4 weeks? HELP! How do I stop this vicious cycle?

mklanc95

I feel your pain! What I do when I binge is I try not to beat myself up about it, and continue with my diet. Stay calm, cool, and collected (but also try to make sure you are disciplining yourself) The food you binged on is not gonna make you gain all the weight you lost, if you just continue with your diet. Also if you feel cravings for heavy foods like cookies, eat them on assigned cheat days. I find on my cheat days I rarely binge and love to savor the food I haven't had in a long time. Like 2 weeks ago on my cheat day I had a small flank steak, I savored it and enjoyed it.

pelleld

I've been thinking about binging and what it means for the last several months. I never considered myself a binge eater. Prior to coming to MFP there were a few foods that I would occasionally over-indulge in but I never thought of it as bingeing (and still don't). However, I now clearly have some food that if left in the house I will binge on. Toll House cookies, Simply Caramel candy bars, Friendly's coconut ice-cream, skinny cow caramel candy, oreos. Its a fairly short list, and fairly easy to just not have it in the house. But every once in a while I will try again to have it in the house and control myself, and most times I fail. It makes me wonder what has changed and why these foods can bring on a binge, when it has never been an issue for me before. I confess I don't know much about bingeing or how to over come it. For me I have just decided that my key to success is to stay strong in the grocery store and just don't bring the stuff home.

Thanks for posting this.....maybe this thread can be a place to come and get support and learn tips from others about over coming this. I am anxious to see the other responses and hopefully learn a few things!

skyfall91

Im trying to control binging too. I would go through a whole multi pack of sweets/crisps whatever every day. Now Im telling myself, "what would you prefer, eat all this in one go or portion it out so you can have some everyday?" Thats working for me right now as I like to have a little treat in the evening and it stops me feeling deprived. Hope you can find a way to help yourself x

clbrown720

Hang in there, you will focus and move forward, you are a strong woman, don't beat yourself up!

Graelwyn75

I have pretty much accepted mine which also occur every 3 weeks or so. I do not have cheat days or cheat meals, as they call them, and now, rather than call them binges, I am just calling them a refeed. I work out pretty hard, and simply make sure I get in a good workout the next day, consisting of cardio and weights, to make the most of the extra calories. I find that the more I consider it to be a really negative thing, the more it happens. I have also noticed that quite a few people start binge eating when they start trying to lose weight, and wonder if it is because of the diet mentality, or because the body is trying to return itself to some sort of set point weight. It is interesting.

keyer23

I have pretty much accepted mine which also occur every 3 weeks or so. I do not have cheat days or cheat meals, as they call them, and now, rather than call them binges, I am just calling them a refeed. I work out pretty hard, and simply make sure I get in a good workout the next day, consisting of cardio and weights, to make the most of the extra calories. I find that the more I consider it to be a really negative thing, the more it happens. I have also noticed that quite a few people start binge eating when they start trying to lose weight, and wonder if it is because of the diet mentality, or because the body is trying to return itself to some sort of set point weight. It is interesting.

Very good point, well taken! I try not to deprive myself of any particular food if I really get a hankering for it. That way I satisfy the craving. I bank calories from the previous days or deduct from the following day. I do find that I have these "spells" of uncontrollable eating which really bother me. That's when its a bag of this or a box of that instead of a serving size. I think your negative self-talk statement is a great one. Thanks for replying!

keyer23

Im trying to control binging too. I would go through a whole multi pack of sweets/crisps whatever every day. Now Im telling myself, "what would you prefer, eat all this in one go or portion it out so you can have some everyday?" Thats working for me right now as I like to have a little treat in the evening and it stops me feeling deprived. Hope you can find a way to help yourself x

Deprivation can be a real enemy for me. I have a hard enough time when I'm still allotting a few of this here and a few of that there! I try hard to ration as you speak of above, but there are days when I just go hog wild. I eat until I'm literally sick. I SO need to get this under control.