binge eating?

My advice... Don't make any food taboo. Weigh it, count it, be accountable. If you weigh yourself 200 calories of fries... You only eat 200 calories worth of fries. It's no longer a taboo food. You won't need to binge.

We can make all the excuses up under the sun as to why we binge but trust me, as a serious food lover here... I've managed to lose 1st8lb since January by watching my calories in against out. I don't feel the need to binge like I used to as I still enjoy my fave foods but without eating massive portions of them.

Greed is hard to deal with but if you want your health and well being to come first you have to be resolute and strong.

BE ACCOUNTABLE for what you stuff in your mouth. I did and now it's easy.

Honestly- ordering fries or eating the "least healthiest" option, is not a binge eating disorder. It is an issue in self control.

It's definitely a tough thing to struggle with and I don't have any solutions or advice other than what you'll read, or what others will tell you.
Find healthy alternatives.
Distract yourself... there are a million things you could do to turn away from the food item and do something else instead.
Exercise your will power and discipline and learn that saying "no" and meaning is so much more empowering than giving in.
It's easy to find reasons why you deserve it, and you most likely do, but those are just excuses.
My mother used to tell me to stop for a second and ask myself "Do I need this? or do I want this?"
Finally, give yourself permission to eat the item, in five minutes, and wait. Tell yourself "Yes, I can have this if I want too". If after five minutes you're still obsessing about it, tell yourself you can have it in another five minutes, and wait. Keep doing this and maybe after several minutes you'll realise you don't even want it anymore.
Sometimes giving yourself permission takes the taboo and the power away from the food, it puts the choice and power in your hands... and that feels pretty good.

I completely understand how you feel. I try so hard to eat healthy and stay within what I pre-log on my diary. I have found that if I allow myself to have some of it, and portion it out I do much better. There are times where I will finish off an entire bag of chips and then feel super guilty and disgusted with myself, but then I just take an extra walk during lunch or walk to my friends house or tell myself I have to run an extra mile. I try really to stay within the means but I have to remind myself that I will eat bad food, I will binge eat but I have to someone learn self control. I have the most success when food is not around me, but other than that I try to make up for it by exercising. I have successfully lost 15 pounds before by doing this (my goal is now 45) and this was with all of this.

My suggestion to you is be honest with yourself and log EVERYTHING. And I mean everything. Those two chips you ate, log it. That handful of chocolate you just consumed...LOG IT! Log everything and be honest with yourself, and that way you can get honest look at what you need to change and improve and what you can work towards. I log everything....even that .5 tsp of ketchup I put on my egg sandwich this morning...

Log Log Log...soon you will see your choices and you will make changes. Just the act of me counting out that I had 21 whopper candys already this morning makes me think Oh Crap, I really do need to go for that lunch walk that I was thinking about doing.

Good Luck in your journey...and feel free to add me!

OHHH BINGE EATING!!!

The struggle is real.

As someone who struggled with food addiction and binge eating my entire life, I totally get it. That's how I ballooned to 218 lbs in my 20's. A failing marriage and the illness and death of my mom was enough to send me spiraling into the depths of constant food cramming. It didn't matter what it was, (although if it was greasy, cheesy and loaded with carbs, that was my thing) but I was turning to food to suppress everything I felt.

The more I ate, the less I felt.

And THAT felt better than feeling anything at all.

Aside from my own emotional reasons for binging, the more I read about other people's health and fitness journeys, the more I find it's normal behavior for some people to binge after restricting and monitoring for so long. We've been counting calories and measuring foods and exercising EVERY DAMN DAY and sometimes it feels hard. Really hard. Our bodies and minds and emotions can only handle so much before we just want to say *kitten* IT and dive back into behavior that "feels good" and "comforting."

OHHH THE GUILT!!!

The guilt is real too.

I can't tell you how many times I have fallen off the wagon and have made myself feel like *kitten* about it. Which is funny, because in reality you've already punished yourself by stuffing yourself sick. It's a pseudo masochistic cycle where we punish, and then feel guilty, and then punish some more.

But don't beat yourself up. It happens. And each day is a new day. So make better and healthy choices today and start a new trend for yourself. And try to release the guilt. It doesn't do you ANY good!

For me, part of binging includes QUANTITY. I want A LOT of something. That makes me feel good. It's like visiting an old friend; It brings me back to the edge of my binge days without actually tumbling over into the abyss. So I try to make large servings of nutrient dense foods that I can eat a lot of without the calorie cost. It's not as emotionally "satisfying" (or unsatisfying) as a junk food binge, but I find it's part of the psychological puzzle for me.

I have days/weekends that I want to go nutso and just eat all the things! But I find that if I track my calories weekly instead of daily, there is a little more flux (like on the weekends when I want to enjoy some pizza and beer WITHOUT THAT DAMN GUILT!

I also try to up my exercise on days I want to splurge. This helps me stay accountable and not totally jump off the deep end!

When I first started really focusing on eating good, healthy foods and not eating junk, I completely cut out going out to eat AT ALL. I know this is REALLY difficult. My boyfriend and i LOVE dining out...it was our thing! Date night out was what I looked forward to! But it was just too hard to be tempted by the Alfredo or cheeseburger. I don't buy or make these things so I can't make these choices at home. But being presented with unhealthy opportunities led to disaster so I had to make a choice to stop going out for a bit. It wasn't until I felt good and confident in my new eating plan that I slowly introduced dining out. I had to build the self control and nutritional education first before I could be trusted to make healthy decisions dining out. It made a huge difference for me! I swear by it.

BALANCE is my lesson in this lifetime. I'm learning every day. Changing my relationship to food is key. You can have anything you want if you learn to eat it in moderation. For me, moderation is not my forte, so I'm always trying to work on this!

Remember: Be kind to yourself. You got this. Each day is a new beginning towards a new you.

OP, it sounds like going out to restaurants is a very frequent occurrence for you.

So when you go out, why do you order as though it's a rare treat or special occasion?

I'm not trying to judge or criticize, just suggesting you explore that question. If you can reframe your mindset from "Ooooh, they have cheese fries/crème brulee/insert caloric food here" to "Meh, another restaurant. The next one we go to will have yummy choices too. And the next one, and the next one." You may feel less of an urge to capitalize on the restaurant experience with maximum calories.