BINGEING support group

Hi everyone.

I'm a very healthy eater from day to day. VERY healthy. And I'm quite proud of my diet and my will power. I eat whole grains, lean meats, fruits and vegetables and low fat dairy products. I also eat portions of nuts and drink lots of water.

But I have a problem. I'm in university, and tend to go out to the bars on the weekends every now and then. Now, I can deal with a night of drinking, because I can control how much I drink and I dont drink really hefty sugary drinks. My problem is my loss of will power to junk food when I drink. I eat so much... SO MUCH chocolate when I'm drunk! So much that sometimes I feel ill the next day, but of course, I get back on track and dont drop my calories the next day because I know it's unhealthy recoil.

After this rant, I propose creating this group to support and track / log how many days myself and any others interested in joining can go binge free. I still dont mind having small portions of chocolate throughout the day because they might be just 5g portions. I just want to be able to motivate myself to stay on track and not destroy my healthy diet every weekend.

So, I'm going to start out. Since I went all out last night, today is...

Days without bingeing: 1 (I know the whole day hasnt gone by, but I know I'll control it today haha)

Thanks! 

Last night I ended up overeating by about 700 calories, but I wouldn't consider it a binge. Usually when I binge, it is on unhealthy stuff. I ate a large banana, medium apple, S'mores Luna bar, 3 chewy granola bars, and 1 multi-grain vanilla yogurt bar so it was relatively healthy. And I was VERY tempted to go into the fridge and eat all the vanilla creme filled hershey's kisses but I didn't. SO I'm not going to say I binged, instead I overate. And I don't really feel too guilty about it, so I'm not letting it ruin my progress.

Ha, anyways, today I've already danced for about an hour and 10 minutes. I plan on doing some swimming because the water is 80 degrees, and it's pretty warm outside. And I also plan on doing an ab workout and weight lifting. All I got this year for Easter was a thing of m&ms and 3 mini reeses, so I don't have to worry about the candy. And we aren't really doing anything for Easter dinner, so I think I'll be good today.

Hopefully today will be day #5!

I'm SO happy you guys are doing so welll!

 

I'm not :(  I feel like a huge letdown!  I've just been eating and eating and eating since Friday, and it's not even time for Easter dinner yet.  I wish the gym were open...I wish I could stop!  What do you do when you can't get out of that mindset?  I'm not hungry, but it's like nothing's been able to satisfy me for about 36 hours now...ugh!

liora, when I am in THAT mindset...I do just what you are doing!!! That is why we are here.  :  )

AT the top of the motivation forum is a chat...the title is something like 'what to do when you want to eat from stress'... 

this really will pass, liora! you have had success before, you will again!

and kae, great to hear you are calling the shots! it is what you say it is and if that's your attitude then you control the monster and not the other way around!

This is day 5 and I am holding on!!! sun helps, warmth helps, positive, healthy things help...and definitely this chat ALWAYS helps. you all are great...stay with it! there's gotta be a light at the end of the tunnel...AND there are probably a lot of little lights along the way as we figure out all the ins and outs of this behavior.

Take care, all! :  ) And if this is also Purim (Jewish holiday) and anyone celebrates Purim...happy holiday to you, too!!! This is one of my cultures of origin altho we don't celebrate. I have misplaced my calendar...yikes!

also, look for the chat 'PEOPLE! Has anyone kicked the binge-eating habit?' I think you started that and the answers are great...

but, give yourself a break, too, liora! something will click!

Thanks, sharonclaire :)  I know you all know what an absolutely awful feeling this is, so I also know that I can talk to you about it and you know what I'm saying!

I did CRAPPY today.  Tomorrow's a new day, tomorrow's a new day...I ate 4000 calories Fri, Sat, Sun (each, not total...UGH)...basically with mini-binges throughout.  The binges make me bloated, which makes me feel puffy, which gives me a horrible body image because I feel so gross...etc. etc. etc. 

Tomorrow I will go to the gym, throw away the junk food, and start planning how next weekend will be different (I just still can't figure weekends out at all!!!).  I still feel like AHSJKDKHFASDJFASLEHL!!!! ASLDHFASDLFH LSAKDFJWIEFOEHNW (haha thanks, that helped), but I'm trying really really hard to get myself past it and focus on tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me rant.  And on that note, does anyone have any advice on the body image subject?  I find that binges and self-image issues tend to go hand-in-hand (with self-loathing, too, as I'm sure we're all aware), and I wish I could tame some of those thoughts. 

Oh, and that is a really great thread!  I should print it and hang it on my fridge!

Hey guys! How was your day? My day was good. I danced for about an hour and 20 minutes, swam for 25 minutes, did an ab workout, and lifted weights. So I have a pretty good deficit today.

Binge free day #5.

Kae - soooo glad to hear that youre feeling confident, even when theres a little "overeating" involved. And also so glad to hear you had a great day :D The gym is so amazingly gratifying in so many ways :)

Liora - rant away! Honestly, sometimes the best friends and support that you can ever have are those with ears (eyes for us here) hahah to act as some kind of output for your emotions, even if you dont expect any feedback. Sometimes just letting it all out makes the largest difference in the world. And yes, as much as we repeat it and as redundant as it gets, theres ALWAYS a new day :)

Sharonclaire congrats on day 5! I have to agree with you too.... the sun does help! For some reason or another it ALWAYS lifts my attitude, which probably somehow influences attitude in some way? just a hypothesis haha

Anyway, today was a FANTABULOUS day for me :D  Went to the gym, ran hills for 1hr 15 minutes (my tri training is paying off!!!!) then did a 20 minute self-abs workout. Amazing. Coooked for myself and the family all day, and now am back at school. Great deficit too :)

So that being said:

Days without bingeing: 6

Days without candy/chocolate (except yesterday I had 9 jellybeans, but I was SO HUNGRY I hadnt eaten in 3 hours! so Ill let it slide, and it didnt trigger any bingeing): 6

Have a fantastic night everyone!

I am a binger. for sure. yesterday I had 2800 cals, and toda 4800.
Im so lost dont know how to get through this rough patch. Its been a year that I've been doign it and Ive gained 20 pounds. which I want to get off by summer.

Today is starting out w/tea.

karliann, welcome! overcome The Binge is not an overnight process. stick with us, we are all working on it daily...in and out of the struggle but making headway.

kae you sound energized!

alex those jelly beans DO sound guilt free...9 is nothing!

liora, my suggestion is: start looking at your triggers. there is something not happy for you on the weekends...did you write once that you are not happy in your job and it's coming home with you?

time to start analyzing liora's weekends! I'm going to have two pretty busy days here but, as you all can see, I try to be never far away!

This is the beginning of day 6...3 more days and I will have beaten my record of 8! That's my current goal.

Take care all. Liora we hope to hear more from you BEFORE the next weekend! You'll get through it.

Hi everyone,

Well as you guys know yeasterday was easter. It all started out good with me eating when i was hungry, stopping when i was full until i started baking chocolate chip cookies. I knew something was coming when i started eating raw cookie dough from the bowl and couldn't stop. So i had about two cookies worth of raw dough and then about 8 baked cookies. I got sick to my stomach after that so i did not eat anything else for the rest of the day. I am not going to call this a binge because to me it wasn't. First of all because I did not go over my maintaining calories which is about 2,300 and also i did not feel horribly guilty. so im still calling this day 10 of no binging even though some of you might disagree.

  Well today im starting out the day eating leftover easter foods which include unhealthy stuff, so i need to eat healthy the rest of the day.

Even though i haven't really binged for 10 days, i still have the same thoughts running through my head when i am eating trigger foods, like the chocolate chip cookies yesterday. First i think that a little cookie dough won't hurt but i have more than a little. Then i start thinking that maybe i shouldnt have any baked chocolate chip cookies because i already had the cookie dough. I end up eating the cookies and my control goes out the window. It all happens so fast (about 1/2 an hour) that it seems like i don't really have time to make a stop to my unhealthy habit in that short amount of time.And i am always left with the worrying about whether i will gain weight from eating the cookies. I really need to get rid of this negative thinking if i want to stop binging because this is the thinking that leads me to binging.

Thanks for the support, all!  I feel much less lost!  As for the weekends...sharonclaire, you are right, I've probably mentioned before that I'm really unhappy in my job.  But, what I think is going on is that on weekends, I love just hanging around with my fiance, and I'm pretty sure that bingeing is a way to comfort myself and feel good...again, reinforcing that weekends are good and the week/work is bad!  I'm not sure what to do about that...

Sorry I haven't been able to provide as much support the past few days!  I will reread and catch up with you all :)

 

I can't decide if I should be congratulated or condemned. I had a "mini-binge" on Saturday. I had a frozen Amy's Thai meal (310 calories). It was so good, but sooooo small!!! Then I had an entire bag of Orville Redenbocker Smart Pop (240 calories), and two granola bars (320) and carrots and an apple (140). After that I went out with friends and drank a Mango Mojito and a mexican dessert, kind of like a doughnut.  This is a lot of food and calories. This was all after eating about 750 calories for breakfast and lunch. I consider this a mini-binge and could have had waaayyyy more. So I feel guilty and proud at the same time. For instance, I did not have any chips and salsa at the restaurant and I did not come home and eat the left over pizza in my fridge. ALso, I weighed the same in the morning as I did the day before prior to my binge. Ahhhhh, just wanted to get all that out. Thanks!

silver, of course we're all mature enough to be able to judge for ourselves what we'd call a binge and what we wouldn't. But, I think it's helpful if we all challenge one another sometimes, too. Notice that in your first post you are making comment about your behavior. BUT in your 2nd post you are defending/justifying that behavior and then finally questioning it yourself. so, take some time to really think about what you did. Essentially, you ate @ 10 cookies. Maybe that's not as much as usual...give yourself credit for that! If, tho, you still have THOSE (self-condemnation) thoughts in your head, then really weigh out your behavior...maybe this cookie eating incident is NOT healthy. You make that ultimate decision...we are just all here to encourage you! take care and hope this helps you resolve something today!

liora, that's why we are in a group...this is give AND take. You don't have to apologize. Just take some time to think about how you'd LIKE your weekend to be. And then start planning it so that you are in control. Also, hope you are looking for another job, meantime! lol

okay...I'm off for work for a while! :  ) 

hahaha 1234! I think we've all had mini-binges on the way to learning how to curb binges all together! it's all a process and you are saying that you didn't go to the extreme this time...remember that and how it feels because that will/can be a jumping off point for you next time you want to do a full binge...maybe you just won't need to go to THAT extreme anymore since you stopped yourself once and it was a good thing!

4 days and determined to make it through easter monday brunch/ egg hunt with cousins. maybe ill go for a really long walk tonight to burn off any excess chocolate =) anyone doing the same or other exercise in order to eat a little chocolate?

and good job guys- the fact we're all still posting shows we're determined and can do it!

Hey all! I am really proud..it seems like most people have been gaining control over binges, to the extent that they end up being the "mini-binges" that Silver et al are talking about, where you stay either within your calorie target for the day, or eat some extra calories of good stuff like Kae said.  I don't really know if I binged...on Saturday I was doing really well, and then I went over my normal calorie target with my friends by not too much (so I ate my maintenance calories).  I felt pretty crappy about it, even though I had worked out that day, and, lo and behold, I weighed myself Sunday morning and was 3 lbs heavier!!! I tried to chalk it up to water weight or something, but I have been feeling so crappy since then, and am now afraid to weigh myself again (I might wait until tomorrow morning).  So then all day Sunday I felt like I looked like a pig, and you know what that triggers...luckily I wouldn't call it an all-out, uncontrolled binge, but I ate like 1 slice of deep dish pizza, one piece of thin crust pizza, 1 truffle, & a couple pieces of easter "gum" which ended up being about 607 calories. My overall calories for the day, then ended up being ~1300 to 1400, which was where I had wanted it to be, but was at least half comprised of that sort of "garbage" food, so I feel gross right now =( =(

 I feel so horrible, and I didn't even get that out of control!! Plus my friend took these pictures on saturday night that were REALLLY unflattering of me and really have impacted how I feel about myself...

Well, I guess today is a new day, and I'll say Day 2 without bingeing (I'll count Saturday as one..)

creedy23, don't beat yourself up! You look pretty damn inshape to me from that little thumbnail, and if you stayed in your calorie range there is NO way you gained 3 lbs fat in one night. its probably from an overconsumption of sodium which causes your body to retain water (you might already know that), but I'd suggest just watching the sodium and drinnking looots of water. I know how you feel about the pics- my friends take loads and theres always some that make me feel ****, but w/e theyre just pics, and we're here to get in shape. i use them as motivation :P Good job on the minibinge that stayed in your calories.

Today's my family's easter celebration day, so I saved my cals for the chocolates and feel pretty queasy right now from those cadbury eggs, but hey- I don't feel like eating anymore :)

I really want to thank you all for your input :)

creedy, I think feeling 'really horrible' (guilt plus the physical discomfort) is part of the binge cycle. so, you can change your self-talk and fight the guilt. And if you're feeling horrible from overeating, then remember that feeling and you'll learn to contrast that to feeling GOOD and eventually the good and healthy feelings DO win out.

yep, jolie...cadbury eggs are SOOOOOOOOO rich, they make me queasy too.

we are a REALLY supportive bunch...this is COOL!