How do you stop yourself from over-eating/binging?

nawazarrio

I am an emotional eater and I have been doing really well for the last five or six weeks. I've been sticking to good nutrition and eating habits and have lost 22 pounds. I realize that I am making good progress. Tonight was a setback. I was angry while I was eating and I just couldn't stop myself. I fully intend to pick myself up, brush myself off, and keep on going but it is SO frustrating when this kind of thing happens. I want to be in control and tonight I let the addiction get the best of me. I hate it! So I'm just looking for advice. What do you do if you're faced with over-eating, emotional or otherwise? How do you deal with stress triggers? Do you have any other thoughts? Please, feel free to tell me it all. I don't mind long winded posts or short answers either. I'm just looking for a little help. Thank you in advance. ~Sarah

TrailRunner61

I drink a tall glass of water, brush my teeth and go for a walk. It fills me up, makes eating any food taste gross and I pray while I walk off stress. I especially pray for the ones who stressed me out.

taso42

Plan your whole day of eating in advance and stick to the plan religiously. Think of it like brushing your teeth, showering, or doing laundry - it's something that needs to be done. Feel free to have a "free day" once a week, where you take a break from logging, and just eat what you want.

Do this day after day, week after week for a few months. You will eventually develop an intuition on how to eat.

BarbaraC47

I've recently been through a tough time, being bullied at work, and trying to diet during the aftermath is really tough. I understand that eating for comfort is common and, even though I should know better, I've done it myself when feeling low. The worst part is that I feel even worse once I am through it. I guess what controls me now is not wanting to feel bad afterwards, I can't stop it but I have at least cut it back. I guess I am learning to control it slowly.... only time will tell. One thing I do know, I deserve to lose the weight - and you do too. I am not gonna let it beat me once again, I want this diet to be my last....

scha4r

I find as soon as I start down that road I can't stop. No matter if I try to eat something else or walk away, eventually I have to come back and I'll start eating again. What I have to do is get the taste out of my mouth. The only way for me to do that is get some gum or mints and chew them like there's no tomorrow. As soon as one goes stale, I'll get a new one. It's the only way for me to "trick" my body into thinking that I am still eating without eating.

Sounds awful, but I'm an emotional eater too. Gum has saved me a number of times.

kbmnurse

Usually just go with the binge. Get over and move on. Tomorrow is a new day.

littlepinkhearts

Avoid the triggers to whatever extent you possibly can....keep all unsafe food OUT of your house....try to keep the damage to a minimum and in the moments when you're back on track, look back and see how you can handle things better next time. Over time you will learn your own ways to keep yourself coasting right through the emotional upheavals in your life. Best of luck

nawazarrio

Thank you for so many awesome replies. You guys are great and there are a lot of new things in here for me to try. Thank you again.

scha4r

Avoid the triggers to whatever extent you possibly can....keep all unsafe food OUT of your house....try to keep the damage to a minimum and in the moments when you're back on track, look back and see how you can handle things better next time. Over time you will learn your own ways to keep yourself coasting right through the emotional upheavals in your life. Best of luck

Agreed! If I have ANYTHING in the house that's for a reward later... It'll be gone in seconds on a bad day. I have to buy groceries as if I am going to have a bad year. Nothing bad in the house!

My hubby does NOT like it...

kristy6ward

I find that simply logging absolutely everything prevents me from binging. Seeing those numbers total up and actually seeing the damage I did prevents me from doing it again. I also never deprive myself of anything. I crave chocolate, I eat it. Not a whole chocolate bar but savoring a hershey's nugget is enough for me. Salt? a handful of chips does it, not a bag. Satisfy cravings before a binge happens. Also helps to STOP thinking about food. Find something else to occupy your mind and develop other ways to relieve stress.

scha4r

Sorry to keep posting here but I have more ideas...

When I find myself overeating and I know I am going to continue to overeat, overeat on something healthy. If you find yourself grabbing the chocolate or ice cream go grab some carrots or veggies and go to town on those!! Much easier to overeat there and recover faster than all that sugar.

alexsmith01

I find that simply logging absolutely everything prevents me from binging. Seeing those numbers total up and actually seeing the damage I did prevents me from doing it again. I also never deprive myself of anything. I crave chocolate, I eat it. Not a whole chocolate bar but savoring a hershey's nugget is enough for me. Salt? a handful of chips does it, not a bag. Satisfy cravings before a binge happens. Also helps to STOP thinking about food. Find something else to occupy your mind and develop other ways to relieve stress.

I think it's different for different people, because if I have say, a bag of mini chocs, it's all well and good to say that I'll only have one because that's what I'm craving but in reality as soon as I have one I'll want another and another.
It's better for me if I don't have it at all - chocolate is my weakness, and when I have it I crave it, but when I don't have it I don't crave it. For example if I have a chocolate brownie for afternoon tea today, then for the rest of today and tomorrow I'll be craving more. If I don't have it the cravings pass. The main issue is when I'm not strong enough to ignore the cravings and "just have one" and then I start eating brownie every day for afternoon tea! Haha.

crimsontech

These are all excellent replies! Personally, I try to binge on carrots or other veggies, keep the bad stuff out of my house, log everything before I eat it, and once in a while yeah, I have a "cheat day" where I eat close to my BMR in calories. Just don't let it get you down to where you just give up on the diet and gain all the weight back. You're stronger than that!

paeli

Biggest piece of advice I can give you is each day is a new day. If you over-eat one day, start RIGHT back on track the next day. Do not get pulled into a cycle of thinking it is OK to eat poorly because "well, I've already overeaten". It is a super tough habit to break and we're not all super-powered, we are bound to "fail" sometimes, what makes a success story is that you pick yourself right back up and continue on the next day!

jnhu72

I will start by saying I have by no means conquered my binging-In fact very far from it. However I am learning new tricks to stop it. This is a suggestion that a friend on here gave me: Before you binge get a piece of paper or journal and write down all the reasons why you feel like you need to binge. Do this for 5 mins. Then take a few mins to go over the consequences of the behavior. Keep writing and you might find that you don't even want to do it because your doing it as an emotional response instead of hunger. Let me know if this helps. Some other things I do: paint your nails-if they are wet you can't eat. I watch t.v.-though it's not the best thing to do it beats binging. Go outside and enjoy the fresh air-even at night when I want to binge sometimes I go sit my porch and just chill out. Occasionally I have went to bed early just to avoid a binge. Take a nice hot bath. Count to 100 before you eat.

jnhu72

Biggest piece of advice I can give you is each day is a new day. If you over-eat one day, start RIGHT back on track the next day. Do not get pulled into a cycle of thinking it is OK to eat poorly because "well, I've already overeaten". It is a super tough habit to break and we're not all super-powered, we are bound to "fail" sometimes, what makes a success story is that you pick yourself right back up and continue on the next day!

This is so true! When ever I fail I wake up the next day with the attitude that I will not fail again and today is a new day and I will lose the weight! If you start everyday like this eventually you will win!!

sarahd150

One thing I think helps is eating a bunch of smaller meals or snacks throughout the day. If I know I'm going to be eating every 2 hours, I'm usually not even compelled to go dig out a treat when I have a rough spot during the day. I also am less likely to think that I am STARVING and overeat. I pre-portion out several snacks during the day (usually at least 1 vegetable snack, a little bag of almonds, a piece of fruit, a yogurt, a 100-cal cookie pack) and plan to eat them throughout the day. That way I'm able to eat as often as I want, but everything is portion-controlled from the start. And if I'm really stressed out, I may eat the cookie early in the day and save the veggies for after I'm calmed down, haha.

lmelangley

Brush your teeth or eat a strong mint - something that will make food taste not so good. Find a tea you like without cream and sugar and drink several cups in a row (I recommend decaf). Take up knitting or crocheting or some other craft that will keep your hands busy. Clean your toilet. Go to an art gallery - no eating inside.

adina1050

umm ive been studying for a while and my test is in 7 days and its 11;06 in the morning and i practicly had 1 and a half bagel 2 pancakes one gogurt and lots of fruit i feeel so horrible yet im still not full

Anycleavers

Yes, everyday is a a day with no mistakes. Everyone falls, get back up and try again.

I keep two pictures in my head at all times. One is where I started, at 330lbs. totally flabby, and the other is my goal, 230lbs and fit and feeling good. Whenever I need to make a choice on what to eat, whether it's ordering out, at work or at home cooking, I "consult" these 2 pics and question if what I am about to do gets me closer to my goal. Yeah, I'm a bit strange, I know. But it works for me.

Do not get down on yourself, look toward the future. Go read some of the success stories on here, there are some very inspiring folks here. You CAN do this.
Cheers