Bingers..

It is so nice to find out that I'm not alone. I feel so guilty every time I binge. I've been eating and living healthily for the past 2.5 years but there are still times that I get weak and give in. I eat anything and everything that looks good and that I can get my hands on. I keep on eating until there is still something to eat or until I almost puke. God knows how bad I feel afterwards! I feel like crying but no tears ever fell. It feels like I just sucked the life out of me. I worked so hard to keep my will together and it just got defeated by a couple of cookies and cake.

I do a lot of self talk afterwards. Tell myself to do better next time. Compensate for that unwanted calories on the next few days, weeks, months. I thank God I'm still on track. But the self forgiveness required after a binge is just damn too painful. It's so hard to give. No matter how many times I go through this process. It is still damn painful when you just finished a binge and snapped out of your hypnosis.

Im a binger too. Ive decided not let it conquer me though. If and when it happens again, I will acknowledge it on my diary and move on. Brooding about it or feeling guilty about it just triggers more binges.

I am a binger and have been since I started college. I'm sick of feeling out of control and self-conscious about my disgusting eating habits. I hate feeling so lethargic after overeating. But I hope that joining MFP will help me stay more accountable to achieving my goals and kick this unhealthy lifestyle!

I'm not sure if people could help me, as I am new to this.
I think I've admitted to myself in the last couple of weeks that I am a binger.
I think I have been one for years but it has got increasingly worse of the past couple of months.
I exercise daily.... Unless away on holiday etc, and watch what I eat, trying to eat clean as much as possible.
However sometimes I just crave something sweet, and because I don't eat it often I get hooked and just continue to eat that item. The problem is sometimes I don't even realise how much I've eaten, or even while I'm eating it I get into a zombie state and just eat and eat until I feel. I get awfully bloated and can hardly move and then the terrible guilty feelings come. I become angry with myself, for letting myself go and having no self control as I want to lead a healthy lifestyle.
I understand I may have this for life but I want to know how deal with it. I'm fr England!
Thanks

looking at this topic makes me realize that i am not alone

You can add me if you want. I binge and I also log it with no guilt and try to do better the next day.
I used to beat myself up a lot over it. I don't anymore.

I have found a book, 'Brain Over BInge' that really helped me to understand that binge eating is a a habit that gets wired into the brain. The urge to binge gets set up in the brain in a vulnerable body, often a dieting teenage body, because the brain over -reactics when it thinks the body is starving. This then turns into a habit.

But the book shows the brain is more plastic than people realise and that it is possible to change the hard wiring to binge by refusing to use it. Eventually the binge circuitry dies off and is replaced by a normal one. This way the binge trigger reaction stops.

The book shows all the writer went through before reaching this understanding, so everyone who has gone through years of binging will find a lot to relate to.

This book has helped me a lot and I don't have binges anymore.

I have also helped myself a lot by using Emotional Freedom Technique on myself. I think this works by interrupting automatic brain reactions. I try to do some every morning, working on each sad thought as it came up, and when I was binging I tried to do it about four times a day. This technique also helps release hidden emotions in a gentle way so I do not have to try to use food to blank myself out.

The one thing anyone who suffers from binge eating has to realise is that you have to eat real food often so the brain never gets the idea the body is hungry. You can eat a thousands of calories of sweet things but the brain will think the body is starved if it hasn't had real food. I try to eat enough protein to feed my body (not Atkins, just enough protein say 60 grams day), some good oil like olive oils, some nuts and seeds, plenty of vegetables, and a little brown rice or brown bread. I reckon that no matter what sort of binge has happened the only way out of the vicious circle is not to try to overcompensate, but go straight back to real food and always try to eat before getting hungry. I have found that this way I don't want so much sugar and don't feel so hungry.

I think there can be hope.

This post was very helpful.
Thank you.