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! 

lilithinwaiting: don't feel discouraged. getting started is the hardest part! I used to eat like that and there is no way I come anywhere close to that anymore. keep working at it...one aspect at a time just start whittleing away the bad habits. it will change!

risabelle: I am going to the library this week to pick up whatever I can find from JA. Then, yes, I will have more questions, I am sure! This is a hard process to learn...listening to ones body but you have convinced me that I still have some learning to do! cool that you are sharing so much!

FOR SOMEONE WHO DOESN"T NATURALLY KNOW THE DIFFERENCE, it is such a fine line between being FULL and overeating. *lol in frustration*

Jean's books are on hold for me at the local library. Looking forward to reading them. But, I do have to say that I have been on the binge highway these past few days, in trying to stay a step ahead of all the emotional demand of family. After a full month of very relaxed association w/food, I am sure I just got run over. Looking back at these few days, there is absolutely no way that I could curb my outrageous eating simply by eating healthy, well-balanced and enough. From my personal experience, my behavior associated w/food is deeply entrenched in my family's emotional complexities. I am finding a LOT of value in Shrink Yourself right now/in looking at bingeing as having a psychological component, too. Based on what you've told us all @ JA, risabelle, I am sure that I will find value in reading and applying her teaching, too. But, I know that I will have to pull from as many sources as I can in order to regain control of something I might never have had control of in the first place!  

Hey everyone! It's almost the weekend! YAY!

Anyway I figured I'd drop in with a short update. I'm very happy to say, that ignoring the last time I binged last last weekend, my diet has been pretty much ruled out of most sugars, and I've been adding a lot more protein to my diet because of training (running 5k almost every day again! achilles is about 80% recovered!). I think the sugar before was the worst thing for me and would always make me hungry. But while I was in amsterdam for about a week and a half, we didn't really get a chance to eat often, and had pretty much no food in our hotel, except some cereal. Otherwise, nothing to just much on or eat compulsively. I think the change in lifestyle over that time and the huge change I've made since I've been back have pretty much completely destroyed my urges to overeat. Except last last weekend ahaha.

But anyway, today marks day 13 without bingeing! Im pretty positive I'll make it through the day, so I'm posting it anyway!

Oh and a small accomplishment for me last night - after work me and my co-workers went out for one of their birthdays and they all got margueritas and cheesy nachos. And I didnt have a bit of either! Though, a shot of tequilla was 'forced' upon me/was requested by the birthday girl, so I enjoyed. Afterward I sat outside at a chinese restaurant with my dad and has steamed vegetables with a little but of pork. Then munched on my carrots after. Hows that for self-control? ;)

Enjoy your day and weekend!!!

-Alex

I'mmm bacccckkkk!!!

I'm determined to stop the bingeing once and for all. My therapist and I are working on the concept of "divorcing" Ed (my eating disorder voice). I was doing well for a few weeks, and then he called me back, telling me to eat everything in sight-becuase i deserved to be fat. And i listened. BUT today i'm starting over, and i'll beat my last streak (i think like 4 weeks)

days without bingeing: 1

sharonclaire, im sorry to hear you've been struggling, but it sounds to me as though you're pretty sussed about what you're going to do about it! best of luck. i hope you find some way of overcoming this, even if it's not through JA or SY. just don't give up :D

alexwilliams it's good to see you posting! im so glad you're still doing well and running again and things. way to go avoiding the nachos ahaha :)

ilovechai welcome back :) 4 weeks is an awesome record but i bet you can beat it this time! good luck!

im on day 23 wooooop! only 5 more to beat my record, im so there. 

hi bugsylover, yup, I AM sussed and in it for the long haul! lol just started pilates and you are right, one way or another, or, more likely, by pulling in strengths of all these practices, I'm going to get it.

I want the month of July for me, too! you go, girl! 

I'm back... after a few weeks of relapsing about 2,3 times a week........................... yikes.

Anywhoo, it's been a week right now... big step especially after i hit a pretty big low... last time i attempted to purge, i just couldn't do it, i stopped and thought to myself.... "my god... what have i become" just suddenly..... i hope i'm done for good................ will chime in and out from now on

good job bugsy, beat that record!!!!

and ilovechai, i believe you can do it girlie! haha, i like the idea of "divorcing" your ed...

good luck everyone, cheers:)

illingal I'm glad to hear you held yourself back from purging. And a week in! Thats great, I'm sure you can keep it up!

bugsy you're destroying us all :D

I guess that today then for me is day 16 without bingeing :) I'm positive I'll get through this day, this higher protein diet is very satisfying and I hardly get hunger pains anymore! Or urges etc.

Oh and another add-on, this weekend was my uncle's 60th birthday, and I was able to keep myself to a tiny bit of cake and small (1/4 cup) touches of ice-cream. Yay!

Take care everyone!

Day four: So I always have a really hard time coming off a binge-streak, especially the first week, but I know it will only get better with time. I went to a new Church yesterday, and a youth group for 3 hours at night. I was really doubting it, but i felt this calm come over me, and for once I wasnt thinking about food. It was amazing.

keep on truckin' friends! i love this forum.

days without binge = 16

flakester, that is great. It has been so long since I have gone over 5 days without binging that I would probably throw my body into shock if it reached 7 days LOL I have gone 3 days but I think that last binge of the weekend before last really did something. I was sick for days. I have come to realize that alot of my binging was due to the emotions that I was internalizing from my job. My job can be stressful . I am a psychologist for the county and I see so many depressing cases. Something about having to hold it together and listen with out judgement to a pedophile who has just violently raped a 2 yr. old child and then dealing with the women who still support these men, or seeing a women who has been beaten nearly half to death and still will not leave. It was begining to make me feel like I would open fire with an assault rifle but since we have laws against that, I started taken more comfort from food. I have a wonderful friend who is a pastor of a local church and she was the one who showed me what I was doing. Now, realizing what the reason is behind my emotional binge eating, I am able to take control again of my eating habits ( or attempt to)

Wow lilthinwaiting... thats very very intense. I admire your ability to work with those kind of people. That is something I would never be able to do. I can totally understand how that would trigger emotional reactions. Sheesh :S

Alright so I'm now going to do something I dont do very often... and that is vouch for a product. I know there are people who do the fad diet thing or take over-rated or scam products that dont do a thing, but I'd like to share my experience with this certain product.

For about 3 weeks now, I have been taking CLA, which is supposed to help with reducing body fat and controlling appetite. Now, I never really believed in much appetite-controlling supplements, but I've honestly been very unhappy with my body since the injury and wanted had heard good things about CLA. it is an isomer for the essential fatty acid, lineoleic acid, usually found in meat and dairy products, both of which I dont get large amounts of.

I have to say, with exception of that last binge weekend (funny, I was off CLA at the time, but even with it I likely would have binged because of the surrounding social environment), I have not had the urge to binge on anything sugary. Now, I partially attribute this to my trip to Europe and not eating any candy there for the entire 10 days, but I truly think the CLA has something to do with it. I should mention as well that I take 3 0mega 3-6-9 capsules a day, though I dont know if they have anything to do with satiety. Also my protein in my diet is quite a bit higher, again which could factor in.

But I thought I'd mention it because since taking this product, I have noticed a drast difference and my bingeing had hugely been reduced, especially the URGES.

Anyway I hope this is helpful. I have never ever heard of CLA being harmful or having side effects, and its about 20 dollar for 90-120 capsules, and you take 3-4 a day, right before meals. It may be something to consider, and a safe option.

That being said, I hope everyone is doing very well, and I'm now on day 17 without bingeing. Gonna keep this up for a while :D

Take care!

-Alex

Thank you alexwilliams!  Do you get it at a health food store . I sure could use the extra help.

You have done great!!!  17 days is amazing.. I nearly over did it today .. My son is moving back in for the 3rd time in a month ~arghhhh~ but I held it together pretty good. I did go over my cal. limit, was doing 1250 and had 1300 . Not too bad.   I am going to try that CLA. Thank you for the great advice..

 

Best of luck to you!

Sharonclaire, you are all so inspirational, am so glad to have come on here and this thread really has great insight. I am on day 4 of no binging , tomorrow day five.  So many of have this disorder, it is amazing to see how many of us suffer from it but the blessing of being here is being able to see how so many of you  have over come it.

Great job!

You can do it!!! Do NOT worry about the extra 50 calories, not one bit. You're likely ~500 below maintenace for a sedentary lifestyle, so you're still at a deficit and moving toward your goals! I actually cycle around 1300-1600 during the week, and also have 1 re-feed day of higher carbs on every 7th day, aroun 1700-1800, to keep my metabolism and insulin sensitivity in check. I would highly suggest it, it also keeps the hunger down, and can help prevent plateaus :)

For the CLA, they sell it at most health food stores or nutrition stores, I go to Nutrition House (Canada), or you can even buy it easily online, depending on if youre willing to wait and pay some shipping. But it's pretty common so it's likely you should be able to find it easily.

I should just reiterate again to anyone else reading that this is just an addition to my regular diet, I dont use it as a fat loss product as I dont know if it truly has significant effects or not (yet...), but it has seemed to help so far and I have only ever read good reviews :)

thanks for sharing alex! im going to do some research about CLA (never heard of it before) and look into getting some maybe, because i eat next to no meat or dairy.

im on day 28 today, which is great but im getting hungry a lot more and finding i eat maintenence pretty much every day even if i plan to have a defecit! i think that's ok though, i'm just trying to listen to my body and eat enough to keep it happy. :) today my plan is to try and have more protein, after reading alex's posts. 

it sounds like everyone's doing really well at the moment. flakestar, lilthinwaiting, alexw, ilovechai, congrats!!! how are you doing, sharonclaire and illingal? xxx

Hi, All! I'm here, bugsy, thanks!

Things are going surprisingly well despite the family. lol Since the initial shock-binge episode, there's been no other incident.

I think I am enjoying my life. Seriously...it's taken forever for me to feel I could say that.

Anyway, I am working on Pilates exercises to strengthen my torso and improve my posture and my latest read is French Women Don't Get Fat. She is a fun read w/fun recipes but the truth is that her message is the same as all others...this is all about habit formation. It takes time to get the results you want.

So, things are going well. I think July is going to wrap up into another good month, despite my family blip.

I've gotten busier at work so will be by when able. Nice to see you all still working it. Lillith, hope you find some stress relievers! Exercise? Therapy? Hobby? Take care!

Wow, I haven't been on in a very long time. A lot has changed since I've last been here. I've moved to Guatemala, and I recently moved to a new community that I don't like. To add to my disliking here, there are no paths where I can go running so no exercise. Good thing is, we're moving back to where I like, and there is an exercise path. :) I'm hoping this will help my binging. I binged yesterday and 3 days before that, then 2 days before that. I was doing so well, but now I've fallen back in the binging episodes. I'm hoping this forum will help me once again.

My birthday is in a little over a month, and I want to not binge until my birthday and then past that. I want to be happy and not worrying about my weight on my birthday which is my sweet 16 :)

So today is day 39 until my birthday.

Good luck to everyone, and I look forward to getting to know you guys better.

hi, kae! sounds very exotic living in Guatemala. It's a process, kae! Glad you are back. Wow! Sweet 16. So YOUNG! :  )

wooop im glad you're feeling good sharonclaire. and pilates is awwwwesome! welcome back kae and good luck! sweet 16 is so exciting eee. 

today is my 30th day without bingeing. my main goal was to try and get to my best friends 18th birthday party without bingeing, and the party is 7 days away! so im nearly there, yayyyy. (kae - your first goal is 38 days, and mine was 37 days! so if i've nearly done it, you soo can too!! :D)