Binge Eating

I go through cycles. My trigger, like a lot of people, is stress. If I'm stressed I just want to eat ALL THE SUGAR.

I deal with it in 2 different ways, depending on my mood.

1: give in, and try to limit the binge by keeping to my calories, or just know that i'm going to get a bump, its short term, and will pass and be forgotten about in the long term. Also Ill give in, buy that packet of cookies, then share it with my co-workers. I look good, sharing chocolate and I get chocolate without eating the whole packet. Win-win.

2: recognise that I'm stressed, and try other things to ease the stress, running/walking/talking through my stress.

I'm currently going through stress that I KNOW is going to be like that for for a few more weeks. I'll do a combination the the above two. Today is no 2. tomorrow may be 1.

Binge eating has stolen years from my life.

Today was another "Day 1" of doing better. I had my meals prepped and planned. I got a Fitbit, I walked a while at the gym. Then after the stress of an argument with my dad, a wake, and getting rear-ended, I binged. I'm so tired of this cycle. Please tell me there's a way out of this disease. I've been fighting for 4 years. After reaching my goal weight for the second time last fall, I regained 100 pounds. 😫😔

I've struggled with BED for decades. Therapy helped -a lot. I also joined a group on Facebook called Eating the Food. They have a very different approach to food. Science based, no nonsense, no diets, just lifestyle changes. I gave myself permission to eat whatever the heck I wanted. Nothing is off limits. This was the best (and hardest) thing to do. Yes, I gained weight. But food to me is no longer good or bad, clean or dirty, it is what it is - fuel. It helped me stop binging because there is no restriction whatsoever. But I still have my setbacks, they're just not as full on blowout like they were. I can put back a bag of cookies, and have forgotten I had ice cream in the freezer! I've been weight stable for 2 years now, and even lost the initial gain without effort. But now I'm having health issues that the weight isn't helping, so I need to start making different choices that better match my goals. So here I am, doing my best to not be obsessive! 😆

I also struggle in the evening as well and one snack leads to another and another and so on. So one thing I’ve learned is not to keep any “cheat” foods stocked. Another thing I do is buy the snack size instead of buying the full size if it’s available. I had a real issue with binging on PB sandwiches or just simply eating it out of the jar. Now, I just buy the Jif to Go or Justin’s Almond Butter packs to prevent that. Lastly, I’ve found that intermittent fasting (18:6) has done wonders for my snacking at night. It does truly help you to decipher the difference between true hunger, thirst and boredom.

I struggle with this to some extent as well. I have found, like others, that I am more likely to binge eat when I'm stressed. I also have found that I have been treating binge eating as a "me time" activity for when I spend my introvert time alone. To combat this, I have tried to find other me time activities that I will enjoy such as creating an 'at home spa' session, reading or writing in a journal. I also took up knitting as a way to keep my hands busy while watching TV alone instead of eating. This is all still a work in progress though!