Some REAL advice for bingeing

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  • AmyLRed
    AmyLRed Posts: 894 Member
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    i like your strategy! I think many people, even those who do not have bulimia can relate to a binge and the feelings associated with it. I am somewhat like the others, in that i sometimes dont even realise whati am doing until i am stuffing that third cookie in my mouth and realizing, "wait, what am i doing? ugh!"

    thanks for sharing.
  • mmmfryingpan
    mmmfryingpan Posts: 43
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    i was told by my friend who is a doctor that it usually takes about 20 days to start a habit.
    i told myself every day for a month "no you cant eat that" whenever temptation popped up and now its programmed.
    i went to the fridge today on an empty stomach and saw a chicken pie in the fridge, i picked off a piece of the pastry and just as i was about to put it in my mouth i heard myself say "no you cant eat that" and i put it in the trash, it gets so much easier with time , just practice the willpower and it gets stronger!
  • Lup120
    Lup120 Posts: 31
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    Great post and great advice thank you for sharing this.
  • sunshine_gem
    sunshine_gem Posts: 390 Member
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    This is brilliant! I'm not bulimic but I do binge a lot. I'm an emotional eater so it's not good. I play solitaire on ym phone and have puzzle books. Codeword is my favourite. They keep my mind and hands busy so I don't eat. It's nice to know it's not just me!
  • peles_fire
    peles_fire Posts: 501
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    OP: Great post - thanks for sharing your progress and what helps you. For what it is worth, when we eat mindlessly (i.e. impulsively or compulsively) we are not using the prefrontal cortex of our brains. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for impulse control and good judgment - very important things to be in charge of when dealing with any form of food addiction. By writing out the index cards, you are calling on the prefrontal cortex to step up and do its job - and when you use the cards, you are in essence switching gears in your brain. That is why it works, when you refer to the cards, you are tapping into your prefrontal cortex and taking control of your brain and body - and in turn, your binge urges. Good stuff. (IF anyone is interested, the above info is taken from Daniel Amen's book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body." Which I initially thought was cheesy until I read it. I learned so much about the brain and about how my lifestyle choices were negatively affecting my life and health. Made some changes following his guidelines and can honestly say I feel 100 times better!)

    In the interest of sharing info, here are couple suggestions my therapist gave me:

    1) If you have a place in the house where you tend to binge eat, move things around, change the furniture arrangement, put yourself in a different location etc. I used to get late night snacky urges while watching TV on the sofa. I literally switched to sitting in a different chair and found that it helped to decrease the thoughtless eating urges. (Of course, I have since cut out TV commercials entirely and whoa, what a difference that made too! No more tantalizing juicy pictures of high fat food floating around my living room!)

    2) I have a sweet tooth and always have. I used to really crave sweets at night and my therapist told me to buy a huge jar of dill pickles. I put them in my fridge and every time I got the urge to snack on sweets, I ate a dill pickle. After about a month, I could barely stand them and even the thought of sweets made my mouth pucker. Very handy little trick, unless of course you LOVE dill pickles haha!

    I think you have some really awesome suggestions and I do hope they help others. I guess the trick is to find what works for you and once you find it, get in the habit of doing it. In the beginning it is work (OP you are so right about that!) but as time passes, it becomes easier.
  • Fit_2013
    Fit_2013 Posts: 336 Member
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    Well I decided to make these index cards and start from 6/21. Let me see how it works for 10 days.

    I am perimenopausal and anxious most of the time, coloring might calm me down and not let me stress eat or graze/binge.
  • casi_ann
    casi_ann Posts: 423 Member
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    Okay, I thought about the 5 things to do instead of binge. Here is my list: 1. Set my timer and clean a room for 15 or 30 minutes. 2. Walk the treadmill. 3. Take one of the dogs for a walk. 4. Visit my mom accross the yard 5. sew or knit
  • funkyspunky872
    funkyspunky872 Posts: 866 Member
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    Okay, I thought about the 5 things to do instead of binge. Here is my list: 1. Set my timer and clean a room for 15 or 30 minutes. 2. Walk the treadmill. 3. Take one of the dogs for a walk. 4. Visit my mom accross the yard 5. sew or knit

    These all sound great, but I wanted to share a bit more advice... You want to make sure that you go no more than 2.5 miles an hour on the treadmill, with no incline. You do NOT want to replace bingeing with any extreme exercising. I have to be extra careful because I already have exercise bulimic tendencies as well, but even if you've never had tendencies before, disordered eating can take many different forms, unexpectedly. Be mindful, your walks should be peaceful. Save the cardio for another time.
  • casi_ann
    casi_ann Posts: 423 Member
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    Thanks very good advice Emily :)
  • casi_ann
    casi_ann Posts: 423 Member
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    Thanks for the very good advice Emily :)
  • denmark979
    denmark979 Posts: 112 Member
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    when i feel the urge to binge, i take a look at one my old fit photos or think about my weight creeping up more. so i'll go bath, read a book, watch a movie. just anything to take my mind off eating. its all about learning self control. but you should binge everyone once and awhile so that you won't feel deprived.
  • funkyspunky872
    funkyspunky872 Posts: 866 Member
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    when i feel the urge to binge, i take a look at one my old fit photos or think about my weight creeping up more. so i'll go bath, read a book, watch a movie. just anything to take my mind off eating. its all about learning self control. but you should binge everyone once and awhile so that you won't feel deprived.

    I think I have to disagree with you. Bingeing is very rarely about self-control. Over-eating or over-indulging? Sure. But bingeing? No way!

    A binge (to most people) is sudden, fast, and uncontrollable. One minute you're busy doing something, and the next you're standing in front of the fridge, shoving anything you can find down your throat.

    I'm not saying it's always like this -- some binges (especially if you tend to have bulimia) are pre-planned. In that case, it's typically defined as a binge just on the basis that a large amount of food was ingested in a short amount of time. Some binges consist of smaller amounts of food, but it's the lack of control that labels it as a binge.

    If stopping bingeing and other eating disorder behavior was as easy as maintaining a little self-control, then we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.

    As far as 'bingeing every once and while so you won't feel deprived".... I also disagree. This shouldn't ever be the case. You should NEVER feel deprived if you're eating right. If you're talking about bingeing on junk food, there's not much difference there either. You should never feel deprived of your favorite foods either, even if they're so-called junk. It gets repeated a lot on MFP, but I don't mind because it's the truth... MODERATION, BABY! :) If you love donuts for instance, it's normal to have one or two a week. It's not normal to deprive yourself for a month and then go on a donut binge. Hey, having a donut once a day even fits in with the term moderation -- you just have to watch whatever else you're eating around it.

    (Notice how I use mainly sweets in my example. I just wanted to say that I've never found pizza, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, etc. as being generally unhealthy. I'll have pizza for every damn meal if I please; I've got my grains, proteins, veggies, diary, and sometimes even fruit there!)

    On the other hand, I find that socially accepted 'binges' are okay every now and then. By socially accepted binge, I mean Thanksgiving or Christmas. You might disagree but I think it's fine for people to stuff themselves silly on these days. (And if you don't want to stuff yourself, that's perfectly fine too.) :P The holiday shouldn't be ALL about the food, of course, but you should definitely enjoy yourself -- whether that means you eat 1000 calories or 5000 calories.
  • peachyxoxoxo
    peachyxoxoxo Posts: 1,178 Member
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    Good advice.. I found a similar suggestion on something-fishy.org (eating disorder support website). So far I haven't hard to use the cards I made but even just reminding myself I have an alternative to bingeing has helped me immensely.
  • suziecue66
    suziecue66 Posts: 1,312 Member
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    OP: Great post - thanks for sharing your progress and what helps you. For what it is worth, when we eat mindlessly (i.e. impulsively or compulsively) we are not using the prefrontal cortex of our brains. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for impulse control and good judgment - very important things to be in charge of when dealing with any form of food addiction. By writing out the index cards, you are calling on the prefrontal cortex to step up and do its job - and when you use the cards, you are in essence switching gears in your brain. That is why it works, when you refer to the cards, you are tapping into your prefrontal cortex and taking control of your brain and body - and in turn, your binge urges. Good stuff. (IF anyone is interested, the above info is taken from Daniel Amen's book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body." Which I initially thought was cheesy until I read it. I learned so much about the brain and about how my lifestyle choices were negatively affecting my life and health. Made some changes following his guidelines and can honestly say I feel 100 times better!)

    In the interest of sharing info, here are couple suggestions my therapist gave me:

    1) If you have a place in the house where you tend to binge eat, move things around, change the furniture arrangement, put yourself in a different location etc. I used to get late night snacky urges while watching TV on the sofa. I literally switched to sitting in a different chair and found that it helped to decrease the thoughtless eating urges. (Of course, I have since cut out TV commercials entirely and whoa, what a difference that made too! No more tantalizing juicy pictures of high fat food floating around my living room!)

    2) I have a sweet tooth and always have. I used to really crave sweets at night and my therapist told me to buy a huge jar of dill pickles. I put them in my fridge and every time I got the urge to snack on sweets, I ate a dill pickle. After about a month, I could barely stand them and even the thought of sweets made my mouth pucker. Very handy little trick, unless of course you LOVE dill pickles haha!

    I think you have some really awesome suggestions and I do hope they help others. I guess the trick is to find what works for you and once you find it, get in the habit of doing it. In the beginning it is work (OP you are so right about that!) but as time passes, it becomes easier.

    Great comment. I like the info about the Pre-frontal cortex and impulse control.
  • Ziggyzambo
    Ziggyzambo Posts: 46 Member
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    Step 4. Watch an episode of your favorite sitcom or tv show. (I watch How I Met Your Mother)

    Just don't watch the episode where Lily's stuffing her face to fit into her wedding dress ;)
  • slkehl
    slkehl Posts: 3,801 Member
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    If you get through steps 1 - 5, and you still feel like you need to binge, DO IT. Your body and mind are telling you something. This is your way of coping, and there's nothing to be embarrassed about. After your binge, make sure you go back and journal again! Writing down the feelings associated with each binge will help you draw patterns between them, and the more you understand yourself, the easier it is to forgive yourself.

    Very interesting technique! Seems counter intuitive but actually a great idea!
  • funkyspunky872
    funkyspunky872 Posts: 866 Member
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    If you get through steps 1 - 5, and you still feel like you need to binge, DO IT. Your body and mind are telling you something. This is your way of coping, and there's nothing to be embarrassed about. After your binge, make sure you go back and journal again! Writing down the feelings associated with each binge will help you draw patterns between them, and the more you understand yourself, the easier it is to forgive yourself.

    Very interesting technique! Seems counter intuitive but actually a great idea!

    Your first goal is to just start stalling each binge. Like I said, the longer you stall a binge, the less likely you will follow through. If you do end up following through (which sometimes you will and sometimes you won't), then it's best not to feel guilty about it. :) I'd say if the five steps don't do their job at least once in the next two weeks, then you might need to try different steps or add another. And if they only work once? That's pretty damn great too! That's one less binge than you had the last two weeks.

    I have days where I pull out my card, get halfway through my first step and realize that the urge is gone. I just continue on with my day. Other days, I have to go through the entire card once or twice to stop the urge. Then some days, even if I do everything I can to stop it, I still follow through. I just accept it, re-use my card to stall/stop purging, and move on. It's a learning process.

    I always thought a goal of 'stopping' a binge was way too much to handle. I feel so out of control and helpless. So you start small... And with proper nutrition throughout the day and using different coping mechanisms, things should progress.
  • Carrie704
    Carrie704 Posts: 176
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    Good techniques! I have tried so hard and sometime stall it. I go through periods of times when I dont even think about binging and I lose all this weight and something happens to cause me to lose control and before I know it I've lost control.
    It's very odd with me, if I go months without touching something unhealthy I'm ok but if i have ONE thing that I shouldnt something inside me goes off and I over indulge and binge. I cant just have one, I am better off with none. Am I the only one like this?
  • brooke432
    brooke432 Posts: 17
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    Great advice! Thanks for posting :)
  • today6212
    today6212 Posts: 86 Member
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    I am recovering from 14 years of bulimia, I joined to understand how to eat normally and workout. I find that going for a walk after eating dinner is really helpful. I dont feel as full afterwards and can relax. This has been the hardest, yet most amazing 5 month journey! I feel energized and just alive. Goodluck with taking your life back

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