Still a newbie with binge issues... Be gentle

spazmother0727
spazmother0727 Posts: 55 Member
edited September 19 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I just binged for the first time in a while :embarassed: .... I had to admit my horror and face my fault. In the middle of your successful weight loss, have any of you binged? How did you cope? Did you dust yourself off and get back on the tracks after that horrible derailment? Or have you not binged at all?

I had a really bad day and just threw myself in the arms of food. :sad:

I feel like an alcoholic that just drank a beer and stepping into an AA meeting.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

Shari

Replies

  • spazmother0727
    spazmother0727 Posts: 55 Member
    Hi all,

    I just binged for the first time in a while :embarassed: .... I had to admit my horror and face my fault. In the middle of your successful weight loss, have any of you binged? How did you cope? Did you dust yourself off and get back on the tracks after that horrible derailment? Or have you not binged at all?

    I had a really bad day and just threw myself in the arms of food. :sad:

    I feel like an alcoholic that just drank a beer and stepping into an AA meeting.

    Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

    Shari
  • Mufasa0331
    Mufasa0331 Posts: 334 Member
    First off dont beat yourself up. Everyone trips up!
    Tomorrow is a new day to start fresh...

    NExt time you feel like you are about to binge or have that urge and you don't have a healthy indulgence (I am loving the Hunts sugar Chocolate pudding for 90 calories currently) reach for the phone instead. Call a pal and vent or blog.

    I usually call my best friend back home in TX and she makes me feel better.
  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
    I have dealt with binging since high school (maybe middle school?). I am pretty sure that binging was a major contributor to my weight gain during those years. So I have learned a lot about my issues with food over the years.

    First, if you want to look at it as recovery from an addiction (and that makes a lot of sense to me) then of course you are going to have relapses! I certainly have and will continue to have them probably for the rest of my life.

    Second, dusting yourself off and getting back on track is incredibly difficult, but completely necessary if you want to keep working on this. It is really easy to give up after a binge and I have so many times before, but it will not change things in any positive way.

    Third, I really had to get to the bottom of why I was binging. I don't know that I can give you a clear answer about why I did it, but I have a few good guesses! Try to work through your reasons for turning to food in that way and finding healthier ways to take care of yourself.

    Most important, don't beat yourself up! It is part of the process and you will absolutely make it through this! It is one bad day, but you have by no means blown it. Give yourself a little extra TLC tonight and forgive yourself. Start up again tomorrow and get right back at it. I think it is really brave to admit that you binged. Good job! Hang in there! Hope this helped.

    :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • rjjarvis
    rjjarvis Posts: 55
    I'll repeat here what I said in another forum on this site.

    I listened to a sportscast a couple of days ago and they were talking about one of the baseball teams in the playoffs that played really stupidly and made lots of mistakes. One of the sportscasters said, "how are they going to be able to get past this awful, embarrassing loss and manage to compete with the other team the next game?" Surely this experience is really going to drag them down.

    But the other sportscaster said, no, one of the attributes of a professional ball player that makes them a thing apart is that they can put past embarrassments aside, and just get out there the next day and play as if it never happened, giving it 100% with no thought as to the incredibly stupid and uncoordinated stuff they did just the day before. If they couldn't do that, they just couldn't play at that level.

    So, obviously, the point is that, if you want to play this weight loss thing at a successful level, you have to leave behind your mistakes, and start each day as if nothing at all bad happened the day before. You can't be hampered by your past errors, or you won't do your best.

    Be a professional. Start each day anew, and play your heart out, have no thought for the past, just make today what it needs to be. Understand that you will occasionally make errors, but don't dwell on them -- sure you can learn from them, but the point is to use any lessons you might learn to make you a better player the next game, not to trip over them and allow them to make you fail.

    So you had a bad day. Big deal. It's just a day. Start again, pay no attention except to what you have to do now.

    My friend Demetrios lost over 80 pounds in less than a year. He was very compliant during the week, but he allowed himself 1 day out of 7 each week to cheat. He figured that he needed to build cheating into the system if he was going to succeed. I'm doing the same, and it's working pretty well -- it keeps the cheating contained.

    You had your one day this week of cheating. Now follow it with 6 compliant days! And don't fret about it.
  • msarro
    msarro Posts: 2,748 Member
    You can do it. We all get tripped up - heck, some of us will trip up for an entire month or even longer. I ended up screwing up most of my summer because of lack of money, plus time spent out with friends. My fault.

    The real test is whether or not you get back up on your horse. You can do it. No one is a machine :)
  • donnagilmore
    donnagilmore Posts: 22
    I use to say... oh I just had a bad day, I will be better tomorrow. Well not anymore. There is no excuse to baby myself. Now when I binge I count how many calories I went over and determine how much cardio I have to do to fix the little binge. Let me tell you that will cut down your binge party quickly! When you make yourself responsible for your food actions let me tell you it sucks but it works. Take responsibility and do 50 jumping jacks asap!
  • Phoenix_Rising
    Phoenix_Rising Posts: 11,417 Member
    It happens to the best of us. I think most binges are emotional, so try to pinpoint those emotions. Try to get to the root of the emotional issue. The binging is a sympton, not the root problem! And ss stupid as this sounds, maybe keep around lots of low cal foods if you feel you might binge.... 6000 carrots is a lot better than 6000 cookies!

    Most importantly, don't beat yourself up. You slipped up. It's a new day. Resolve to do better today. Focus on the here and now, not the past, and not the future. Live for today, and be happy in today. :flowerforyou:
  • spazmother0727
    spazmother0727 Posts: 55 Member
    Thank you! I appreciate your words and suggestions. You are all right on the dollar when you say that tomorrow is a new day and just because you slipped does not mean that it is all over.

    I do know that food is my crutch for my feelings and problems. I do know that food will not cure my problems, just add to them. I have not been exercising, I need to start slowly and get strong again.

    I know I am going to write a lot in here, I have so many questions and need advise... Just because I have lost weight in the past (healthy way or unhealthy way) does not mean I know it all (of course, LOL), our bodies change as we get older, just because I lost weight a certain way 8 years ago does not mean I can loose it the same way again.

    You all are wonderful! I appreciate everything. :flowerforyou:

    Shari
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