Controlling my thinking

the best thing I found to help me want to get healthier was to start reading about it....buy some magazines like Weight Watchers, Prevention and Self...they have tons of articles in there about fitness, nutrition, success stories, tips and recipes. I found the more I learned, the more interested I became...sorry to hear about your leg, though and hope it gets better soon. you can add me as a friend if you want.

Often what people see as hunger signs are actually signs of thirst, so I try drinking a full glass of room temp water with lemon. If after 15 min I still feel really hungry then I eat a healthy snack, like yogurt, an apple-usually something related to what I am craving - maybe even strawberries dipped in chocolate chips if I need the chocolate or a Kashi coconut dark chocolate granola bar. Eating healthy snacks often helps me to not binge, as does eating every 3-4 hours lightly. I also came across this pasta that I am going to order called "miracle noodle" and it has 0 calories and 0 carbs and well 0 everything basically, and supposedly is like regular pasta, reviews seem good too (and it is only made of water, a soluble fiber, and calcium-thats it!). My main suggestions against binging is to 1) plan your meals out the day before and try to stick to that (maybe even premake them), 2) if you have an extreme craving then have a taste of it or make it into a healthy version, and 3) eat regularly (every 4 hours or so) throughout the day so that you do not get to the point where you are starving, and lastly drink lots of water!!

I think what you’re asking is how you can disrupt the obsessive thought patterns that your normally try to silence with food. Aside from doing the hard introspective work (aka therapy) to get at why you punish and sooth yourself with food, there is a technique I learned to do to break myself out of thought patterns that were hurtful. It’s called mudra, and among other things is a concentrated breathing exercise. You can do these completely sedentary. Here’s a link to a few that you might find useful: http://www.innerpeacemassage.com/sixmudras.html . Often, just finding some space to breathe and quieting that anxious inner voice opens up space to get you to deal with those thoughts and feelings you were trying to squash with food. Because, for many of us, it’s not what we’re eating, but what’s eating us.