What do you do post-binge?

I used to have binges when I was your age as well, and I would feel like crap afterwards. One of the mistakes I would make, would be to go on a diet, be really 'good' for a day or so, then eat something which threw me 'off my diet', then I would feel bad, and eat more, then feel worse, then decide to just blow it all out and eat it all and start over tomorrow. I would repeat this cycle every few days, then get frustrated because I was 'working so hard on my diet', but not losing any weight.

I realize now how crazy that was. Why I thought that I could just start over the next day and everything would be ok, like I didn't just eat 1000 extra calories, was just denial.

I am a lot older now and much wiser in many ways, but I still can have times when I eat something off plan and start to panic, and get down on myself. What I know now is that being honest with myself is the key. Pretending I didn't eat something doesn't make it not happen. If I eat something I shouldn't have, I just log it. Admit it. I ate it. Now, I can either continue to eat more, or I can stop there and immediately get back on track.
100-200 calories isn't going to destroy my whole week. But 1000 cals might. Especially if I do it 4-5 times a week!

Learning to take responsibility for my actions, in all areas of my life, has made life so much easier. It isn't fun or easy to admit mistakes, but generally when I own up to them, they turn out to not be as bad as I thought they were.

I had a day last week that I didn't log anything til the end of the day, and I thought I had gone way over my cals, but after logging everything, it was only 130 cals over my goal. That wasn't that bad. If I had gotten down on myself and felt like I had 'blown' my diet, then I could easily have gone over 500 or more, and it would have made an impact on my week, but it didn't.

So the plan you have for not eating anything unless you log it, is great. No matter how ugly it is, LOG IT!. You cannot change what you don't acknowledge. If you do this, you may find that it isn't as bad as you thought, and therefore you can have hope of salvaging the day, or the week.
YOU are in control of what goes in your mouth. Do not let the food, or guilt, control you. Own it. Then you can master it.

I'd say the best thing to do is face up to the binges.
Acknowledging that they're happening, and understanding why you do it is the best way of controlling, and stopping unhealthy eating cycles.

I'm sure everyone on this thread will understand how hard facing up the things we eat. Everything we eat has little secrets we don't want to put n our food trackers - but truth is, 2 sugars and cream went into the coffee this morning: that stack of toast at 3am doubled your calorific intake.

Make sure you're not starving yourself during the day, because that can lead to attacks of insomnia which result in detrimental midnight feasting. Personally, when I used to go into binge mode, I'd eat literally anything (and EVERYTHING) in sight. Dried fruit, jars of mustard, frozen peas.. Half cooked cous cous was a pretty low stage. As was the dish of takeout rice my housemate threw in the bin.

I combatted it by making sure I had strict mealtimes, which seems to have done the trick!

I must agree with others that having a section for 'late night binges' is setting you up for failure. Take the word 'Binge' out of your vocabulary and definitely off of your food diary. Change it to a time frame, or 'snacks' or 'dinner' and change your protein drink to 'snack' or 'pre-dinner' or 'post workout', whatever, but definitely get the word 'binge' off of your diary so you do not see it every day.

You may not think you are planning to binge every day, but with it set up like that, that is exactly what you are doing. You see it, you will do it.

I went on a 5,000 calorie binge last week and felt horrible. I seriously considered restricting my calories drastically for the next few days to make up for it, but I decided I would instead just move on and resume eating normally the next day. I really tried to not let what I did get to me. After a week, I look and feel back to normal. It is really important not to be too hard on yourself or restrictive afterwards, because that can just lead to the stress and anxiety that causes a binge in the first place.

I just dont mull over it. *kitten* happens and you have to live your life!! But if I know I had a really big lunch or eaten something that wasnt so great, I make absolutely certain I go to the gym that day. Work really hard, and don't beat yourself up over nothing.