Setting limits to binges

I have "followed" you in here since you were new, cheered on your ups and been saddened by your downs - and now I'm not sure if you're getting better or not. I think the whole idea of "binge" brings a lot of negative associations. So many rules, dividing foods into food you like and healthy food - it seems to me you have an idea of ALLOWING that implies outside control, you're desperate to CONTROL yourself, but what you need to practice, is AUTONOMY.

There are no rules of how little you can eat in one day, occasionally, and stay healthy. If you were lost while on a mountain trek, you'd still be alive when the search group find you the next day. Hungry, cold and tired, but alive and healthy. The reason why we don't recommend "not eating" as a weightloss strategy, is that you get hungry when you don't eat, and you're not in the mountains, unless you think about your situation as surrounded by mountains of food. It's hard to deny oneself pleasure that is right in front of us, free to grab. A reasonable strategy is to aim to balance pleasure with physical needs. The details will depend on your actual life and schedule, but EATING REGULARLY is a way to not only ensure proper nutrition, but also create PREDICTABILITY that will reduce anxiety around food.

Many of your points on your list tend to work well because they are sensible, or can be used sensibly. But that depends on your approach. If you approach it in a loving and caring way, curious and patient, your relationship with food will improve. If you use them as ways to deny or deprive yourself, that relationship will deteriorate.

I am all for eating in company whenever possble. Eating in company, as in, with people you like and trust (no bingers or anorectics - no jugdment from me, just reminding you that you are your number one priority), can make you focus more on the company than the food, seeing how the others eat can help you pace yourself, practice sharing, create new, positive associations with food, making food into a more ordinary thing.

Having regular meal times is a good idea. It will help you get in touch with your hunger signals and regulate your appetite. It also creates predictability, you know there is a meal coming up in x hours or minutes.

Weighing and logging food, yes. Knowing how much you're actually eating, will make you more aware of your intake, and you can relax more when you know you're eating enough, but not too much.

Balancing food groups, flavors, textures, yes. All foods have nutrition, and a good meal has a little bit of many things. You need a range of nutrients every day, but you can indeed choose how to get them in.

Eat your largest meal any time of the day you want. For most people, this is the "social" meal after the day's work is done.

Just buying what you need when you grocery shop, that's a good idea. Plan your meals, and figure out how much food you'll be able to eat up in a sensible fashion, until next scheduled shopping trip. Not having a limitless stock of all foods at home, and having to wait until you get new supplies, gently forces you to "share with the future you".

Not overbuying is a good thing, but do it sensibly - some foods are more expensive than others, your shopping basket will normally be a little different each time. You could practice buying just what's on your list, instead of having a price limit.

Being price conscious is good. Look for bargains. Bulk buy when the price is right. But it's smart to never bulk buy of these categories: Perishables, foods you know you'll overeat, foods you're not sure you'll be bored with.

It's also smart to not make/bake anything you have trouble moderating, if you find yourself alone with them.

Learning how to cook is a great gift and can be great fun. If you cook meals you like, you will feel like a winner. Ordinary, traditional recipes are "healthy", avoid the "low cal" versions, they just won't satisfy, so you eat more.

Exercise and meditation are great ways of taking care of yourself. When you feel strong and safe and pampered, the urge to overeat gets weaker.

Awareness is good, because using words activates the parts of your brain that are dedicated to logic, planning, choice, so you're strengthening those parts, not just allowing your emotional/primal pathways to run amok.

Taking time to sit down and enjoy your meal is good, but I think the "eat slowly" part is borderline ED.

I have never experienced taste fading when I eat. The last bite is just as wonderful as the first.

I want to add some more that I remembered. I used to have a really bad/ambivalent relationship with food (but it's fixed now; that's why I'm so engaged). In a transition phase, I used the expression "damage control". Today, it makes me cringe, but at that time, it was a great help. I'm not practicing it differently, not in principle, I have just named it differently - and I strongly feel that what we call things, is important - now I call it "making it easier to make better decisions, and harder to make bad decisions". This includes not having large amounts of "too easy to eat" foods in the house, eating regular, satisfying meals, getting enough rest, exercising moderately.

I couldn't sleep last night until I had some chocolate spread and chocolate chip cookies. Before, I would feel bad about it, deeply regret it, angry with myself, weak, and try to blot it out of my memory, and then eat some more just because I believed I was weak and felt sorry for myself, and to remove the temptation. And buy more later, in case I had visitors Now, I just log it. The difference is that I don't aim for perfection, and still, I have an overall much better diet.