Emotionally Bouncing Back After a Night of Binge Eating

Miss_Meliss86

After a very challenging and emotionally draining day at work, I found myself home alone and not being able to stop myself from eating the sweet food in my house. I knew I was doing it...but couldn't seem to stop myself...

How do you recover from nights like these? I had already planned a trip to the gym tomorrow, but emotionally I just feel drained and feeling like crap :-(

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

chicbuc

You move on and know that tomorrow is another day. You can't undo today's binge. You can only focus on tomorrow...one day at a time.

MissJanet55

Sometimes I find I don't bounce back so much as slowly claw my way back an inch at a time.

In AA and Al Anon they talk about "act as if" - in this case, act as if everything is fine and this was a perfect day. Proceed from there rather than from a sense of shame and inadequacy. It sounds weird, but it works.

aminakhan1980

Nothin' you can do about it now. Forget it ever happened and move on. I do it all the time.

DLSlim

Treat yourself with love and kindness, ask yourself what's up, and try to prepare yourself mentally to prevent it from happening next time (always the hardest part, in my experience).

Oh, and drink a ton of water.

lynn1982

Tomorrow will be a new day, so start over then. And try to go to the gym tomorrow as planned. It's hard, I know. I had a binge yesterday and today...I feel so sick but I know how important it is to get back on the wagon tomorrow. Or to "claw back" on it, as MIssJanet55 so appropriately stated!

bettertracie

Honestly, just tell yourself YOU are stronger than the sweets and tomorrow is a new day to show yourself you can fix this!! I have to remove the food from the kitchen otherwise I can't make myself stop sometimes too (emotional eater too, and I'm an emotional basketcase 75% of the time lately).

I tell myself everyday that the world may be going to HELL around me but I can control two things:
1) The food I put in
2) The work I give out at the gym and on the streets ( marathoner)

Just gotta pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back at it NOW.... Get that mindset heading out the door before you go to bed tonight, run a few miles, take a hot shower or bath, and go to bed telling yourself "THIS ENDS NOW!"

Hope it helps... It's been getting me through...

luadams2

We're human. Don't worry about it. Just get yourself motivated and get back on track.

Miss_Meliss86

Thank you SO much for the words of encouragement everyone :-) I have just finished a massive glass of water and am going to get off the computer and go read a book in bed. I have to work tomorrow (gotta love those Monday-Friday jobs that still require an occasional weekend) but am bringing my gym stuff with me and not coming home until I go!

You are all awesome!!! Tomorrow is definitely a new day

tommygirl15

Pick yourself back up and brush yourself off. You can't undo today, but you can make better choices tomorrow

Lauren2H

Sometimes I find I don't bounce back so much as slowly claw my way back an inch at a time.

In AA and Al Anon they talk about "act as if" - in this case, act as if everything is fine and this was a perfect day. Proceed from there rather than from a sense of shame and inadequacy. It sounds weird, but it works.

Excellent idea! I've struggled with binge eating for years and know intuitively this is great advice! Yesterday I had a bad bad food day, yet I woke up laced up my shoes and got out the door. I finished my whole workout and felt better emotinally even if the workout was a little rougher then usual. But I'm having another bad bad food day so maybe acting "as if" will help combat the "screw it / last supper" mentality...

Hang in there! You can do it!

Sqeekyjojo

Sometimes I find I don't bounce back so much as slowly claw my way back an inch at a time.

In AA and Al Anon they talk about "act as if" - in this case, act as if everything is fine and this was a perfect day. Proceed from there rather than from a sense of shame and inadequacy. It sounds weird, but it works .

Well, for the user, yes. For everyone else around who had to deal with the consequences of the drunk's behaviour, whilst they happily pretend nothing has happened, not so much.



Something has happened. You went back to old habits that will hurt you. Why was that? Was it because the stuff was there, so it was easier to say 'I feel bad, so I have to eat this stuff'? Could it be because in some way, you were subconsciously looking for a reason to do it? Or because it's been there, permanently nagging at the back of your mind that there's loads of really good stuff sitting and waiting for a bad day? Or could it be because you've cut down too much and you were too hungry to reason with yourself that all you needed was one sweet thing, so you went for tons of it?




One positive thing to consider is that if you've eaten all the sweet food in the house, there isn't any left to grab later on with you reasoning that it's too late to make it any better, so may as well carry on. DON'T REPLACE IT.

If you don't replace it, then you aren't in the same position next time you have difficult feelings to deal with.




At the same time, using it to reinforce negative images of yourself can mean you convince yourself that you are helpless, weak, unable to do this anymore, so may as well give up, etc - so look at what contributed to the binge, whether you have bought of not disposed of the food previously because you were in some way planning all along to have this binge; whether you dealt with a difficult situation or emotion badly by using the old coping strategy of putting as much food in within as little time as possible; whether you haven't been eating regularly, so had a crash in blood sugar - any, all, some or none of those things could be what led to you doing this.

Use that knowledge to plan how you will react next time, for example, by not having the sweet stuff in the cupboard, by responding differently to difficult stuff, such as by walking away, deep breathing, saying 'No' to somebody - whatever is your strategy, it will work better than a) somebody else telling you that it doesn't matter, when it does because it's upset you and b) that there is only one way to deal with it next time.

MissJanet55

Sometimes I find I don't bounce back so much as slowly claw my way back an inch at a time.

In AA and Al Anon they talk about "act as if" - in this case, act as if everything is fine and this was a perfect day. Proceed from there rather than from a sense of shame and inadequacy. It sounds weird, but it works .

Well, for the user, yes. For everyone else around who had to deal with the consequences of the drunk's behaviour, whilst they happily pretend nothing has happened, not so much.

My understanding of this is that it doesn't mean to pretend nothing is wrong. It's about thinking of yourself in a positive way when you don't really believe it.
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Personally, I have found that having all the inisight and intelligence in the world about my situation doesn't help one iota when it seems impossible to put it into action. That's when the rubber meets the road, and you have to actually go forward. Which is not to say working things through isn't very worthwhile. It's just not the only piece of the puzzle.

NCchar130

I actually try NOT to spend too much time reflecting on an off day. If I overthink it, I can convince myself I've failed and it's over. It's just a day. Life happens, sometimes we eat too much. It's about what you do most of the time, not that one day.

This is what I remind myself - before I really got started and committed to changing my lifestyle, there were so many times I had a day of eating less and exercising. I didn't lose weight because it was ONLY a day. Or maybe I'd do it for a week or a month and lose a couple of pounds. But I didn't stick with it long-term, so didn't maintain it. So a day where I go over on calories or whatever by 1000 or more (and it's happened more than once) isn't going to do the reverse and cause me to gain back all the weight I lost. It's about what you do MOST of the time, not on any one specific day.

Miss_Meliss86

That's a really good way of looking at it NCchar130 :-) I really appreciate the fresh perspective!

Again, thank you SO much to you all for the words of encouragement and advice, it is truly appreciated!! I managed to get back to the gym today and had one of my best workouts in a while!!

This community is so fantastic :-)