The first IF

DontThinkJustRun

So I'm working really hard to get my Friday/Saturday binging under control. Saturday's I'm close. By eliminating snacking and reminding myself that Sunday's long run feels horrible if I binge the night before has really really helped. Friday's I'm still struggling. Right now, I want to binge...I'm not overly hungry, I'm just bored and programmed that Friday's I binge because all week long I'm so good and DH works Friday nights and I'm all alone with my DS.

So I'm really struggling with which is worse...the guilt I feel the day after a binge or this anxious struggle I'm having right now because I just want to sit and feel numb and stuff my face...By not binging right now, I'm noticing just how much satisfaction I get out of it and that scares the crap out of me. It provides me with so much comfort...

I'll be really honest, right now I'm in the middle of an Intermittent Fast (IF). It's only going to be a 19 hour fast, didn't have the guts to go for the full 24 hour, so I'm basically only skipping my dinner and evening snack. Feel free to tell me how awful it is, I was completely against a few days ago, but did some research and it's pretty compelling. Anyway, the point of it is to see what it is that is making me binge and it's becoming pretty apparent but I'm not sure what to do about it. The other thing I've discovered is that eating and snacking in general is a trigger...so that's why I dropped snacks in the first place. That actually really really helped me in many ways. So this is sort of an experiment to see if IF could in fact help me with Friday binges. Don't worry I love to eat to much to take it too far, and I still got in 1200 cals since I'm not really doing it for weight loss purposes per se and I eat plenty every other day of the week. I'm just really stuggling right now because I'm missing that ritual and I really hope the pay off of not feeling guilty and bloated tomorrow with be worth it because I really feel like tearing my hair out right now.

So I'm not sure I really have a specific question, but maybe just looking for support from others who do IF, and specifically the ESE style I guess.

sister_bear

Am not a faster, but just wanted to give you Kudos for your efforts. It's difficult to look inward and figure out what's going on once we've slipped into a pattern.

Stick to your guns. You can do this.

changeisgood55

I used to make myself a nice big bowl of popcorn with butter and cheese every Tuesday night. I would eat that while watching The Biggest Loser. I know, I know, what was I thinking but my point is it was a habit. In my mind, Tuesday night meant popcorn and the rest of the week I did great. So I had to find a way to break the habit. So first I stopped buying popcorn, butter and cheese. But it drove me nuts not doing something while watching the show. So I started doing word search puzzles and other non-food things to keep me busy and my mind off food. It worked. My advice is to break the habit by starting a new healthy one. I hope this helps.

portexploit

I think the issue is you're going to hungry. Too much hungry isn't good either. On IF you're supposed to be a little hungry, but not to much. I started with 2 protein shakes in the day 1 in the morning one in the afternoon then my main meal. Before I knew it, it turned in to 1 shake, now none, I started to eat around 5pm - 9pm. Today is my free day, I was planning to eat with my friend but he can't make it. So I have to wait for someone else to come home from work and it's like almost 7pm. I am not really that hungry.

part of IF is to shrink the receptors that trigger hunger. Everything in life is in cycles, stress and recover. Stress = some hungry, then you recover by eating. If this cycle is out of balance it will have some concsequences. Binging usually occurs when you're too hungry.

Lolyballs

change is good makes a good point. This is a habit, a ritual you are used to doing so you need to replace it with something healthy. A new hobby maybe or join a group, take dance lessons...isn't there something you've wanted to try? At night I write, or crochet . during the day I garden and now I've joined the Y and I'm looking for a class to take. Anything to keep you occupied.

ninaisaac

OH my gosh...I am sitting here tonight telling myself over and over "You are not hungry...you are bored". I think I must've drank about a gallon of iced lemon water trying to get this "itch" to go away. Thank you for this post. It's given me a little more oomph for my fight tonight.

Swimgoddess

Dedicate your Friday nights to a new activity. Go for a nice long walk with your son or grab a book and get absorbed. Just my 2 cents.

You can't simply remove a part of your ROUTINE without replacing it with something else and expect to be successful.

DontThinkJustRun

For me binging has nothing to do with hunger...it's completely emotional I think. There are times I may overeat because I'm too hungry, but not binge.

I agree I need to break the cycle and find something else to do...what that is I don't know.

So far the hunger part of this fast is easy as can been, which I'm grateful for I get cranky when I'm too hungry:) but emotionally it's hard. I keep telling myself this is just an experiment this isn't something that's I'm gonna do every Friday, unless I like it then we'll see. I just feel myself wanting to give up and that's how I feel when I'm trying to stop a binge so I feel like if I can make it through this then I can tell myself no the next time I want to binge and know I can do it.

portexploit

For me binging has nothing to do with hunger...it's completely emotional I think. There are times I may overeat because I'm too hungry, but not binge.

I agree I need to break the cycle and find something else to do...what that is I don't know.

So far the hunger part of this fast is easy as can been, which I'm grateful for I get cranky when I'm too hungry:) but emotionally it's hard. I keep telling myself this is just an experiment this isn't something that's I'm gonna do every Friday, unless I like it then we'll see. I just feel myself wanting to give up and that's how I feel when I'm trying to stop a binge so I feel like if I can make it through this then I can tell myself no the next time I want to binge and know I can do it.

I used to do that too, when i stopped eating junk the urges went away. I do low carb, I really don't have an urge for sweets or much of anything. When I am full, I feel fine and i am done.