Do you binge?

Yes it's definitely a huge challenge I've struggled with my whole life, you're definitely not alone! I've noticed that when I have a better baseline- getting enough sleep, finding other ways of dealing with stress, having good balance of work/free time, etc- that I have way less binges. But my crutch is definitely sugar, it's what i turn to to soothe myself when I'm feeling upset or stressed or tired. Some things that have helped: (1) really stopping to think if I'm hungry or if I'm craving something else (2) keeping foods I'm likely to binge on out of the house (3) if that fails and the food is in the house, then having a set reasonable amount of it. For the last one, it's really important that I'm not eating out of the bag or the carton, that I measure it out and eat it in a bowl and in another room. Usually by then the need to binge has passed. Also for sweet stuff I've been using a magic bullet or blender to mix up frozen fruit, almond milk, stevia (natural fake sugar) and cocoa powder. It's almost like ice cream, and can sometimes head off sweet binges. All these strategies have reduced binge eating, but it still happens. Also try to not be so hard on yourself after it happens helps, especially to stop further binging...think about what you would say to a friend who had just binged? You wouldn't beat them up and put them down, you would help them start fresh. It's such a ****ty feeling though to be that out of control, I know it can be hard for me to always be kind to myself. Hang in there!

I realize that if I have a small amount of it I'm good. I tried to do the have nothing in your house so you won't eat it. Reality is I have a car and cash for me to get what I want. So for example I just bought some Coffee Greek Yoghurt and I also have some dark chocolate with sea salt and dark chocolate with coffee. I had two pieces of chocolate each day for the past week and I also had a tablespoon of ice cream for three days. I'm still losing weight but i still feel like I get my fix.

I try to compromise with myself and it works for me.

I have trouble with binge eating. A book that is helping me a lot is Breaking Free From Emotional Eating by Geneen Roth. Available on Amazon. Our library has lots of copies. Yours might too.

Also I just realized there's a binge eating support group on MFP: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/726-binge-eating-support-group

MsLaTisha83- Yes definitely, I've been there and I'm sure other people on this thread have too. I think that the only thing that's helped me is trying to understand more *why* I use sugar or other food to meet whatever my need is (sad, bored, tired, etc). That's taken really careful food logging AND logging how I'm physically/emotionally feeling. I spent 3 days tracking how I felt physically and emotionally every hour using a timer and writing it down. It was pretty amazing how normally I don't have any sense of how I'm physically feeling (including if I'm hungry or not). The 3 day tracking also really showed me the amount of stress and anxiety I carry around on a normal day without even realizing it...so of course I've turned to sugar and fat to make myself feel better. It was a useful exercise, I'd recommend it to anyone. Even if you just do 1 day or even a 1/2 day I think it can help just to be more conscious about how you're feeling and to see patterns.