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! 

sharonclaire, Jean says that "We are positively inundated with this take-off-five-pounds-overnight thinking, and it is making us fatter as a nation.  We must start seeing it for what it is--dangerous propaganda that leads ultimately to weight gain and eating problems."

 

Jean promises no quick weight loss, in fact if she did, I would be highly skeptical.  Her program is an anti-diet, and your body must adapt s-l-o-w-l-y to the new food supply you give it (when you stop dieting and start eating healthy) so it will take awhile to send the message to your body that you are not famining/dieting/starving anymore, and then it will adapt to a natural thin weight on it's own, when it is ready, and only when it is ready.  But you must be careful to eat good quality food whenever you are hungry.  This is what she call "body-controlled eating."  Anyone dieting, counting calories, and/or following a low calorie eating plan is doing what she calls "mind-controlled eating." Of course I make this sound very simplistic; Jean goes into great depth in her books.  She is living proof that this works, as she has been naturally thin for over 20 years and has helped a multitude of people with eating issues. Jean does not believe in "emotional eating." She does however point out the different reactions to stress that a non-dieter experiences versus a dieter.  The dieter will react to stress by eating, only because her body is trying to deal with the fact that she has been dieting/restricting/ or starving herself.  The well-fed naturally thin person will actually not want to eat anything when faced with stress.  Take me for example.  When I was dieting, I had no emotional issues, just the issue that I wasn't eating enough.  So when a stressful situation came along, sure I'd want to eat! And eat! And eat! But my body had not only the stressful issue to deal with, but also the fact that I was underfed.  So it reacted by trying to solve the issue that it could solve the quickest, and that was to get me to eat to solve the undereating issue first.  Now, since I take great care not to ever go hungry, I react quite differently to stress.  I actually lose my appetite so that I can deal with the stressful issue and not have the undereating issue come into play.  This is not to say that people do not have emotional issues.  I'm sure they do, and therapists are wonderful.  But Jean doesn't want us to confuse a physiological issue (being underfed,--and obese people can be underfed people, too) with an emotional or psychological one.  She says that people have spent thousands of dollars trying to solve their emotional eating issues with therapists, then they come to her and wish they could get all of their money and time back that they spent on trying to solve an emotion issue that wasn't even there.  Jean's theory is that undereating, and not eating on time (eating too far past the time that you first felt hunger signals) and eating poor quality/low nutrient foods are the 3 main culprits to overeating, bingeing, and obesity. 
sharonclaire, it seems that you and I, although following different programs, are both seeing how freeing it is not to be obsessed with food, like we once were.  I am just so amazed at how different I feel to not have food & dieting on my brain 24/7--I can actually have a life now!  I have not binged in over 4 months.  I am eating totally body-controlled now.  Another way of looking at it is how a newborn eats--whenever it is hungry.  It will cry to signal the moment that it needs fed (you wouldn't think of telling it to wait another hour or two!), and will stop automatically when it has had enough.  I do have to be careful to always have enough quality food available whenever hunger strikes.  I cannot even imagine dieting ever again--it would be torturous. 

so cool, risabelle. Thanks for so much info. Yes, I agree, the bottom line for both of these plans is that undereating, reduced calorie eating is the culprit.

I am so happy for you. I am experiencing what you are experiencing but I've only got just over 2 weeks in. And, yes, at 2 weeks, it is already exhilirating.

After reading into JA a little, the truth is, beyond the calorie misconception, I don't know which program runs more true. For the benefit of others: Jean Antonello is physiologically based and risabelle has had great success with this. Shrink Yourself is psychologically based and I read it through cover to cover, copied over the 10 healthy eating habits and haven't opened the book since. It spoke to me. I guess I was ready for making the changes.

The bottom line was that this calorie counting reduction approach to weight loss just didn't feel good. I guess I got intelligent affirmation through SY and now I feel I am getting more affirmation through risabelle's report of JA.

Risabelle, thank you so much for sharing. I have to add you to my friends list. It was so great to run across you!

Isn't it becoming more and more clear sharonclaire (now that we know that undereating and reduced calorie eating is the culprit) why obesity is becoming such an epidemic?  And eating disorders are rampant?  Those who become frightened by a binge (which happens after a period of restricting food) often turn to purging, while other bingers just have to deal with the unwanted weight gain, and often turn to excessive exercising as their means of purging. With the diet industry promoting it's "eat less, no fat, forbidden foods list" mantra, and with all of the diet gurus everywhere, diet advice in every magazine on the newsstand, books & books galore promoting dieting, why then aren't we turning this problem around?  At least a tiny little bit?   Why are we getting even fatter?  Why aren't celebrities like Kirstie Alley and Oprah Winfrey model thin, with all the help, support, and diet knowledge they have?  Surely millions of people are trying like mad to lose weight by dieting, then why no permanent results?  Even if  there are results, why are they so short-lived?  Well, it's crystal clear to me.  This is the wrong path we are headed down, as a nation.  And even myself, I've been very thin by dieting many, many times--just never permanently.  And when I did gain, I couldn't figure out what was the matter with me, but again, I'd start back on the old diet, figuring "It'll work this time."  It's true about Albert Einstein's quote, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.  Looking back at my dieting history--that was me, expectingly my results to be permanent, when they never were before.  Like something magical was going to happen to make "this time" different.  When you think about it, is it any wonder that weight watchers had a lifetime membership? (You'll need to go back, many times) But a couple years ago, I sensed that my body had had enough; it wasn't going to take the dieting anymore.  I had become so tired, depressed and apathetic. My body wanted to be fed, but I was scared to feed it for fear of the results. So I was searching for an answer.  I ordered a stack of books, all used copies from amazon--the cheapest ones I could find, and the very first one I read was Jean Antonello's.  Everything made total sense, yet I couldn't believe that she had written it back in 1989 and I had never heard this approach.  Jean's voice needs to be heard and not muffled out by dieting propaganda, or this nation will be headed toward obesity like it's never been before.   I wanted to tell every unsuccessful dieter in the world the information that I now knew.  That is why I am on this website now, hoping I can open at least one person's eyes. Now I have copies of her books in 3 different rooms in my house, and have one loaned out to an interested friend.  I go back and read them all the time, I still find the information in them so compelling.  But I do believe you have to be at the end of your rope to grasp her anti-diet concept.  If you are still giving dieting a chance, and thinking you will just magically overcome bingeing on your own by making it past a certain date on the calendar, then you just aren't ready.  This is for people who see that dieting is a big crock, and want to start enjoying eating the way it was meant to be enjoyed.  Just to be fair to sharonclaire, I have not read Shrink Yourself, but I'm so glad you are having wonderful results with it.   Jean's books fit me to a T, as I immediately saw in myself that I binged because I had been famining/undereating. I was on that cycle of dieting and bingeing, not realizing that my survival instinct was kicking in causing me to eat so that I wouldn't starve myself to death, and not because of an underlying emotional reason.  So I stuck with her anti-diet plan and never did read the other books that came with the stack that I ordered. 

You sound so excited about it risabelle! It's really nice to hear. I gained weight when my son was a toddler and because I had no health problems decided I could let the excess weight alone until I was sure I'd found a way to take it off and keep it off. All I could think was how bad it felt losing weight on fewer calories...how unnatural to go through my day hungry and also how unpleasant to put time and energy into the process that seemed so unnatural! What a catch 22!

I can't tell you how nice to run into you! You are really analyzing it as you go as am I. I know we are still in the minority. I really have put the SY book down after the first reading and a few referrals. I don't like to be too dependent on any one thing because there's always some new twist on the horizon.

SO glad to be free of calorie counting. Can't express that enough.

Take care!

I had 18 days of free and easy eating. Then, last night, after two weeks of negotiating w/my son over teenage independence issues, I hit the wall. Too drained and relieved and I guess I was celebrating, too, and just ate too many cookies to call it wholesome...like 6 (that ain't nothing in my history of indulgence)! The surprising thing is that I am back to free and easy eating today...I don't feel any urgency. I shouldn't say that feeling is completely absent, otherwise I wouldn't be here, would I? But, we wrapped up something pretty monumental last night and that problem is gone and otherwise my life is calm. Yikes. There's really no need to continue the overeating behavior. Is this what healthy feels like? Well, healthy is a little unnerving. lol

Come to think of it, I have to give myself credit, too, that I didn't overeat throughout the crisis. Hey...I might just get used to being on this side of things.

Sharonclaire, are you counting calories if you know that you are eating 2000 a day?  Does SY advise that specific amount?  Just curious.  With Naturally-Thin I have no idea what caloric amount I'm eating.  It could be 3500 for all I know.  It's just fun not to even care, and to eat like a normal human being again. 

this group is just what i need, i think. i need something to go to when i feel like bingeing. its too late for today - i binged :(  ..and feel like crap. but next time, i'll come here, and hopefully overcome it.

 

days without bingeing: 0 (today's shot...)

 

 

flakester, glad you're here.  Look at your eating habits and see if you are restricting calories.  My guess is that you are, because a body that has been famining (dieting) stores that hunger in the body in biochemical form, then when think you've got things under control, that pent-up hunger comes out in the form of a binge.  Binges are scary, people don't understand them, and they make you feel totally out of control, like a crazed beast.  Oftentimes when this happens, people claim they weren't even hungry to begin with when they started eating, thinking they'd just have a bite or two.  Then before you know it, it becomes a full-blown binge.  I know, raw cookie dough used to have the upper hand over me.  You see, the body is a lot smarter than we give it credit for.  It knows how to run smoothly and efficiently without our help, trying to tweak things.  Your body knows how to adjust your metabolism on its own so that your weight adapts to a naturally thin weight.  But you cannot interfere.  Dieting IS interfering.  As long as you diet, (and also if you exercise like a fiend,) your body is in a famine mode and is trying to adapt to a famine.  In times when eating is plentiful and healthy, your body adapts to the quantity you give it, based on your hunger signals.  We all know that REAL FAT is NOT lost quickly and permanently. But somehow we cannot accept that and we keep trying to do it our way, and not our body's way.  It's all about adaption.  Your body prefers to adapt to a bountiful, healthy food supply.  If you diet, it adapts to the famine, and that means slowing metabolism way down, and having your hunger overpower you to cause you to binge.  This is a physiological fact.  Then the food you binged on will just get stored as fat, because that's how your body reacts to a famine.  It needs to store that binge food as fat, because it doesn't know when you are going to feed it again.  I hope you'll respond and keep in touch.  You need to be here where people understand.

lol risabelle. I was on calorie count for a year, becoming familiar w/my dietary intake...everything from nutrients in foods to calories, etc. I know the feeling of more than 2000 and below 1500, neither of which has ever felt healthy other than for single days at a time.  Do I count calories now? No. Do I have a reference in order to communicate with CC's population? Absolutely.

I am enjoying reading your perspective.

I'm so glad I stumbled onto this forum. I had no idea that I binge. I work in a specialty foods shop and I find that I cannot keep from constantly "sampling" the sweets. It's so slow and I get bored, with nothing to do, so I eat and eat and eat. I feel absolutely out of control.

I have tried to outsmart this craze that comes over me many times. I used to bring big containers of fresh fruits and veggies to work, all washed and cut up and begging to be munched impulsively on, but I simply don't WANT them. In fact, when the shadow is on me, I find them repulsive. So I don't eat them-- I eat a chocolate bar. And then a handful of caramels, a brownie, some cookies and a soda.

Does anyone else have this problem?I bring plenty of smart, good things to eat, but I ignore them! They aren't what I want at all.

When I'm at home, there is no junk food and I eat very sensibly. I'm much too lazy to walk to the store and buy it when I feel the need to binge. I guess I need a new job.

By the way, I love hearing about what everyone eats when they slip up and binge. If folks hadn't listed all the things they ate on a binge and how much of it, I'd have no idea exactly what a binge is. It's also very helpful and comforting to know that this is my problem and so many out there share it. Thank you.

just checking in, on day 10 (feels like it should be more than that though..)

welcome and good luck to everyone that's joined recently :)

goodkittie, when you say you eat healthy at home, I don't doubt that you do, but you may not be eating enough.  It is really beneficial to reach a hunger satisfaction level early in the day--a good breakfast (not just coffee or a piece of fruit)  and good meals and good snacks.  Also, it is important to eat on time--not try to wait an hour or 2, or 3 because it's not a mealtime.  Mealtimes should be when you feel hungry, and not according to the clock.  If you stay well fed, and eat "on time," this will help with wanting to eat the candies when you are at work.  I think a lot of people just plain don't eat enough, even if what they already are eating is quite healthy.  There are times when I eat breakfast, and am hungry again 2 hours later, so I go ahead and eat again--even if it is only 9:00 a.m.  I try to stay so in tune with my body's hunger signals, and there are times when my last meal of the day is at  2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon, because I am so well fed from the morning, I don't feel hungry the rest of the day.  And this is great for sleeping, as your stomach is empty by then, and can work on burning off fat, instead of digesting a stomach full of binge food.   This is a complete switch from when I used to eat skimpily all day to diet--the binge would inevitably come in the evening (or earlier) and it would be all kinds of bad, poor quality food, low nutrient sugary/fatty stuff.  And try to stay away from those rules like "bread is bad," "potatoes are bad,"  and try not to eat the exact same meals every single day.  Because that can put your body in a quality famine, and that is often hard to get out of.  You could try to take foods of a little more substance with you to work, like whole wheat bagels with peanut butter or almond butter, sandwiches, nuts, or granola bars with lots of nuts and seeds.  Fruit is fine, but it often isn't enough, or what your body is wanting. 

I hate the fact that sometimes, I'm not even really hungry, or I don't even want to eat, but I don't want to skip a meal, either, because I know it's not healthy. So I get something to eat, but once I start eating, I just can't stop!

I wanna get more and more and while I'm eating something, I'm already thinking about what I could eat next.

However, if something distracts me from eating for just like 10 minutes or so, I don't want to go back to eating. You could bring me the most delicious temptation, and I wouldn't find it hard to resist.

It's just this little time that I need to stop bingeing. Or other people around me, because I'm embarrassed to get up and get more to eat, when there are other people around. 

Yes, I have found that waiting a little helps stop the surge. A few times, I've made myself wait 10 minutes before eating something else and I ended up getting distracted, halting the binge.

I agree that eating more helps even things out. When I lost almost 50 lbs. a couple of years ago, I was making sure I ate something nutritious every 2 hours. Nuts were especially good for that. I was always munching on something. Unfortunately, I haven't maintained that and 30 lbs. have found their way back.

I had forgotten all that and I've been wondering what I've been doing wrong. Thanks, risabelle!

Finding balance is key, but STAYING balanced can be tough. One trick I've seen to stop a binge is to eat something sensible first, and if you want something more, take an ice cube out of the freezer and wait for it to melt. When it has melted, you can eat something else.

okay I am on this wagon too..LOL.. I often find myself wanting to overeat when my hormones for the month kick in...and I have to find anything I can to shove in my mouth  LOL..I also find that when I am restless or bored or over at my families house I tend to not stick to my goals..I need to eat a little healthier than I have been...I really need help on this...I often find I have trouble avoiding sweets I am a sugar binger BAD.. so I am going to try to remember to post my days on here...DAY 1...so far so good..

thank you so much, risabelle, for taking the time to respond!

 

its funny, i actually just came from a short workshop at my yoga studio which was addressing one's relationship with food, mindful eating, and how your body is indeed smart, and knows what it wants/needs without overdoing it - the real problem is learning how to truly listen to my body - - but it's funny because the woman leading the workshop was basically saying the same things you said in your post responding to my first post *if that makes any sense..*

 

on a lighter note: today has been a good day. especially after the workshop at my yoga studio, i pointedly mindfully ate dinner, chewing slowly and savoring.

 

so, in conclusion: days without bingeing = 1

Original Post by elli91:

I hate the fact that sometimes, I'm not even really hungry, or I don't even want to eat, but I don't want to skip a meal, either, because I know it's not healthy. So I get something to eat, but once I start eating, I just can't stop!

I wanna get more and more and while I'm eating something, I'm already thinking about what I could eat next.

However, if something distracts me from eating for just like 10 minutes or so, I don't want to go back to eating. You could bring me the most delicious temptation, and I wouldn't find it hard to resist.

It's just this little time that I need to stop bingeing. Or other people around me, because I'm embarrassed to get up and get more to eat, when there are other people around.

oh elli i can completely empathize! this is exactly me..when i'm on a binge.

Original Post by jen1234:

okay I am on this wagon too..LOL.. I often find myself wanting to overeat when my hormones for the month kick in...and I have to find anything I can to shove in my mouth LOL..I also find that when I am restless or bored or over at my families house I tend to not stick to my goals..I need to eat a little healthier than I have been...I really need help on this...I often find I have trouble avoiding sweets I am a sugar binger BAD.. so I am going to try to remember to post my days on here...DAY 1...so far so good..

oh-my-gah i swear when i walk into my aunt's house it's like i am enveloped into a huge binge-cloud for the duration of the visit! yikes!

To anyone interested  in how the diet-binge cycle works from a physiological standpoint, here is an excerpt from Jean Antonello's book called "How to Become Naturally Thin By Eating More,"  published in 1989 by Avon books.   Only she refers to the diet-binge cycle as the "Feast- Or- Famine Cycle." From page 38:

1. When you try to lose weight by the traditional approach, you do not eat enough food to cause a slow, natural burning of extra fat.

2. By eating much less food than your body requires on a day-to-day basis, you impose a season of semi-starvation on your body.  Your body "saves its hunger" (in the form of biochemicals, Ch.9) until a time when it can overwhelm your dieting efforts and force you to overeat.

3.Since food is available to you, and the semi-starvation or famine is artificial (self-imposed), your body's adaptive mechanisms (survival instincts) conflict with your willpower.

4. Unless, by willpower, you work your way into anorexia nervosa, your willpower will lose the battle.  You will not lose weight permanently.  You may lose weight during the famine or diet, but you will always gain it back again.

5. Your body is convinced that your survival depends on maintaining a certain amount of fat reserves, and must carefully preserve excess fat and stay ready for a famine or diet.

6. Intermittently, your body demands feasts, which you also must reluctantly provide.  You probably call it a binge or going off your diet.  It's really a feast to prepare for and recover from the famines.

7. On the diet, you metabolize fat (and muscle) that has been stored during times of feasting (off the diet) and you lose weight temporarily.

8. When your body will not tolerate the fake famine any longer, it will force you to overeat to replace the lost fat reserves, converting the excess food to new fat.  It is likely that your body will add new pounds of fat in case of a more severe famine ahead.

9. The cycle of feasting when you are off your diet and then starving when you are dieting perpetuates itself.  You are desperately trying to lose weight and your body is desperately trying to stay alive.  It is an intense and extremely uncomfortable battle: You versus your body.

10. Your body always wins in the long run because its instinct for survival is stronger than your desire to be thin.  Your only permanent loss is this battle against your body.  You will gain and lose weight, but ultimately you will stay fat or get fatter.************************************** ********

That's it.  If this cycle applies to you, I urge you to take a look at this author's website called Naturally-Thin (with the hyphen).  All three of her books have been a godsend to me, and I credit her for my success in stopping binges by stopping dieting- 4 months ago.  There IS a way to be naturally thin, by eating!!  These books will help you understand that there is nothing defective with your body; it was created to adapt to famines in just this way.  If your body was not equipped with a survival instinct, a lot of us would have starved ourselves to death by now.  Antonello explains what to do to get off this cycle healthfully, and start eating naturally, the way every body was meant to eat.  Yes, eating can be pleasurable, and you can be thin at the same time, without hunger.  See if your library has copies of her books!  It will be your first step in stopping binge-eating for good.  Learn all you can to take care of your body; it has to see you through many years ahead.

 

Original Post by flakester:

Original Post by jen1234:

okay I am on this wagon too..LOL.. I often find myself wanting to overeat when my hormones for the month kick in...and I have to find anything I can to shove in my mouth LOL..I also find that when I am restless or bored or over at my families house I tend to not stick to my goals..I need to eat a little healthier than I have been...I really need help on this...I often find I have trouble avoiding sweets I am a sugar binger BAD.. so I am going to try to remember to post my days on here...DAY 1...so far so good..

oh-my-gah i swear when i walk into my aunt's house it's like i am enveloped into a huge binge-cloud for the duration of the visit! yikes!

 I just joined, and god am I happy to find this forum!!!  I joined a gym, and have a trainer (1 month no weight change, but lost inches)  I'm a certified binge eater (self proclaimed).  My trainer told me whatever I'm eating, add 300 calories to it if I'm working out daily because otherwise I'll end up starved and binging.  He also told me its ok to eat fried chicken, or have a couple beers.  Moderation is the key, if you have a craving for fried chicken or pizza, have a piece of chicken or ONE slice of pizza.  Otherwise you end up eating a bucket of chicken, with a side of a large pizza