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!
I have to go check out the NT website. Didn't think of that. I will let you know whether I can log on...
Take care!
ilovechai - its so difficult to move to higher levels of care, especially in an addiciton or ED situation. I think you should be very proud of yourself for taking that step and especially talking to your friend. I wish you the very best of luck, let us know when you can how its all going!
bugsy - great to hear you're keeping the positive outlook even with starting back at the baseline. But you've made it so far already, I dont think you have too much to worry about ;)
sharonclaire - from what I've seen in the posts in the past few pages, and ever since you've been here, is that you are giving fantastic help and guidance to many in this thread. I hope everything is going well for you, and I thank you so much for everything you have inputted to the thread and the people looking for support. Youre awesome!
To all of whom I have not had the chance to chat with or who are new to the thread I hope you all find the guidance and support you are looking for here and wish you all the best of luck! I know I have HUGELY benefitted from the thread, and hope everyone makes fantastic progress :)
Personally... hmm I'm going to have to search back to figure out my days...
Ah ok. I think this is day 40 without bingeing. Just to fill you in, these are some more changes I have made to my diet that I think have been helping me quite a bit:
* I have been zig-zagging my cals, so they look something like (mon-sun) 1600-1400-1900-1600-1300-1800-1600
*I have been carb cycling: 35%-25%-45%-35%-25%-(REFEED :D) 55 to 60%-45%
*I have increased the amount of fat in my diet to AT LEAST 20% of daily... I usually aim for 25%-35%. And only healthy fats like fish oils, peanut butter, nuts etc.
*Keeping sugars below 40g/day, most of which come from fruits.
I think the up in calories and fat have helped a lot especially because of all the training for the triathlon. Which is in 2 weeks and 3 days! AHHH! My super-cool triathlon suit (UNITARD!) will be delivered next week :D
Anyway that's all I've got for now! Take care everyone and I hope you're all doing great :)
-Alex
Elizabeth,
There are different signs of "success" for the Naturally Thin individual. Among the most important: normalization of appetite, elimination of overwhelming cravings for poor quality food, stimulation of metabolic rate, ability to focus on living instead of dieting, and energy for physical activity. All these changes must preceed weight changes, and they are symptoms of readaptation. A number of my clients have considered themselves naturally thin from the first or second week on the program, regardless of their size. I think this is a very wise and helpful attitude to adopt. Naturally Thin people are free to eat well whenever they are hungry, and they do. So, success is so much more than losing weight, and you deserve to have a life NOW, even if you are not actually thin.
Sincerely,
It was signed by JA.
Anyway, it's a long process because it's a life process. I have never been a dieter...I've tried but it made no sense to me...it was SO much work. All this requires you to do is to eat sensibly and tune out the panic around you and tune in to the inner you. It's runs along the line of Eastern philosophy and really goes against the grain of Western culture.
What I read in the JA forums was a lot of people WHINING. They really don't want to do the work it takes and they are looking for ways to bend the rules. Jenny, you are not doing that. You are allowing the process to run it's course...it's frustrating and scary at times and you are expressing that...but, you are not asking anyone else to do this for you!
My suggestion to you is to learn to get focused on other things that make you feel really good and put this on another burner but continue to feed yourself healthy foods until you are full. Unlike dieting, we have to learn to measure progress on NT every few MONTHS instead of every few hours/weeks. So, DO come back here to look for support frequently and to talk about the pitfalls! And DO send me a personal message whenever you need to.
The reason I encourage you to persist w/NT is that I AM experiencing the plusses JA lists in her comment above. I am sure that you may be, too. I hope you will stay w/it Jenny!
Sharonclaire, you have made some excellent comments about NT. I agree, the NT forum has a lot of people struggling on it and it can be discouraging to read. But I have tried to go through it just to read all of Jean's comments, as they are the most valuable to me. And Jenny, I freaked out so badly when I first tried NT and began gaining, that I went off of NT and began dieting again. (Bad move) That move led to my worst bingeing ever. Then I decided that I'd had enough, that dieting and bingeing and always being hungry and not being able to concentrate were not normal for me and I didn't want to live like that any longer. So I went back to NT and was sorry I quit initially because I had to make up the lost ground. I could be much further ahead now if I hadn't quit there for a few months. I went through some very bad times when first on NT. When I got up in the mornings I could feel it in my legs that they were supporting a lot more weight than they were used to. I felt like others were viewing me as "letting myself go." That is very hard, I was used to looking and dressing like perfection. Now some of the styles I loved I can't wear, because I'm a lot bigger in the chest, and it just doesn't look the same with a big chest. And it's hard to wear shirts tucked in with belts because it doesn't look as good anymore. But as time has gone on, I've been feeling a lot better. No one has come up to me and said "what has happened to you?" So I imagine a lot of what I've thought other people have been thinking about my weight is all in my head. People worry too much about themselves and how they look to even notice that I've put on some weight. So I love my relationship with food now. You will eat the make-up food your body needs and then it will taper off. I have no desire to eat my former binge foods anymore, which feels so great and NORMAL now. The process takes time, but once I'm there I'll never have to worry anymore. I think that's what happens, when people become NT this way, they just drift away from any issues about weight, because that kind of stuff doesn't occupy their minds anymore, and I think it's the reason there are not a whole lot of successful NT people who post on Jean's forum--they've moved on to living their lives. It's the ones who are still in the process that are posting there, and unfortunately that can be un-motivating. Jean will probably welcome you personally if you get on her forum, and that's pretty neat. It's the same way with former bingers, people who have broken away from that lifestyle rarely will come back and post on a bingeing forum like this. I guess I'm an exception, because I want people on here to know that there's a way out of that lifestyle that has worked for me.
I've been reading parts of this thread back to January and I've gotta say it's so wonderful to know others have eating behavior like mine. I just wrote down notes from alex's post about what has helped you eat well - I like the idea of switching things up everyday and at least 20% fat is probably something I really need to do (and hadn't thought of as a way to curb hunger leading to binging). Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the great thread - I'll probably lurk here for a while if that's ok. 40 days w/o binging?? Gosh, I can't imagine going that long right now...that'd be so amazing...
Lurking is cool. A lot of folks just browse for info. Others like to comment on occassion. To some of us it's a running discussion. For me, I was so immersed in this self-destructive behavior that I still find it hard to believe I may be past it. But, it was such a PROCESS. It wasn't as tho I was done w/it overnight. I had to chip away at behaviors...AND chip away at cause and effect relationships to understand what was causing my problems.
I 'talk' @Jean Antonello now but I also gained a lot from Shrink Yourself and SO many other influences. One thing CC taught me (and I learned it unwittingly!) is that I am not going into this weight loss thing by reducing calories...yikes! There had to be another way.
So, cool that you are here, cindy! It is a really supportive place to be!
I HOPE that I am finally ready to follow my own advice...the advice I gave jenny. I've had hobbies floating @ my head for a long time that I want to start tackling. If my focus no longer has to be on my eating, maybe it's time to get other things in gear???
Time will tell. And there's no better time than the present.
Sorry for all the pathetic cliches but I have had like 5 really great nights of sleep...7.5 hours every night! I never in all my life have slept so well.
Have a great weekend everyone! Cheers!
Thanks for the post Sharonclaire - so good to hear that getting over this is possible! What are Jean Antonello and Shrink Yourself? CC groups? And by not losing weight by reducing calories, do you mean it needs to be done by figuring out how to not have binges??...that's what I'm starting to realize would help me quite a bit... no idea how to do that though... sometimes binging is the only thing that can make me feel good... (sounds absolutely horrible I know...)
thanks sharon/risabelle- i know exactly what you mean. i feel like there is more to "support" on me and that people may think that i am letting myself go.. but i just hope in the end all that matters is that i am healthy and not constantly thinking about food and then binging.
Cindy- Not sure about Shrink yourself, but Jean Antonello is author of the books "Breaking out of Food Jail" and "Naturally Thin"... i recently picked up one of her books and began her naturally thin approach to eating and sharon and risabelle both have been helpful resources.
Shrink Yourself is a program that is psychologically based. You can participate on their website or just buy the book/loan it from the library...by Dr. Gould. This is the first book I picked up and I loved it, still do. He believes that a lot of our motivation for overeating is psychological. I read it cover to cover and felt that every page had me in it! That's when my bingeing came to a grinding halt. That was June 1. I'd known that the bingeing prevented my weight loss but didn't understand it enough to be in control. SY gave me the opportunity to view bingeing objectively and to approach it maturely...with a reasoning head. But, I still didn't understand the mechanics of the binge...how could I control it physically?
That's when I ran across risabelle on this chat w/information about Jean Antonello and Naturally Thin (both a book and a website!). JA insists that overeating is a physiological problem...that there is nothing psychological @ it. This is the only point with which I disagree w/JA. Otherwise I think she has given me the understanding I need in order to go on w/my life and feel in control...and PAST the eating disorder!
Both SY and NT state that reduced calorie dieting IS the problem. JA's program, essentially, runs on the premise that if you feed yourself healthy foods when your body tells you it's hungry, then you will be Naturally Thin. I am learning to eat this way. It's a very simple approach to living, it works and it is wonderful. I do feel NT already and I guess it's because I'm not worried @ when to eat or how to eat or what to eat anymore!
Hope that explains things somewhat. Support is a wonderful thing!
I am posting so much because I have made a really big change here in adapting JA to my eating. It feels wonderful but change is not easy for me. Glad all the posting is beneficial. I just find it hard to believe I feel this good.
Take care, all!
The really healthy solution to this is go ahead and eat the bulk of your food in the morning...try to make it all healthy and more varied than cereal, but, nothing wrong w/cereal or peanut butter. If you eat enough in the morning to charge up your body, you can run all day w/some small recharging throughout the rest of the day. However, when you eat so much in the morning, you want to be in control of your eating...not famished eating.
Maybe you DO want to avoid festival food but your body CAN'T handle those long spans of time w/o wanting to binge. So, it's your choice. You can carry healthy food @ w/you. If you eat enough during the morning, carrying a mix of nuts and veggie sticks/apple is not going to be much to pack.
It IS depressing to binge. So, look carefully at your options. The trick is that you don't want to deny your body healthy food when it asks for it!
hi mike-
i too used to binge all the time on cereal. One bowl would never satisfy me. So to get rid of this binge i stopped buying cereal all together, and i switched to oatmeal in the morning (i buy the quaker weight control one for its protein and fiber content) and it surprisingly keeps you full for a bit.
I do also think that you need to bring something with you to work to eat, because going all day without eating something will lead you to binge later on when you come home, since you're probably famished at that point.
good luck!
I know what you mean. I haven't let myself step on my scale, but i am still pretty obsessed w/ my measuring tape. i need to get rid of it!
I'm having a problem with binging late at night and I really need some support or even some people that understand what it's like. I'm finding myself up at 2 am(right now) post-binge and feeling really, really bad about myself so... here I am. Maybe typing about it will help.
Here's my deal:
I lost about 70 lbs via dieting and exercise and actually got too thin. I'm 5'6'' and was down to 114.5 at the lowest. I stopped having my period for like 7 months, forced myself to gain some weight and went in to the doc at about 118lbs and had some lab work done. She put me on birth control to help raise my estrogen(it was really, really low) and told me I should gain some weight.
So, I've been eating a lot more and have gained some weight. I'm now at like 122 and want to stay here. I feel good and healthy where I am.
Here's the problem:
When I first started eating to gain I got a little out of control. I started eating really late at night. Then, I started waking up in the middle of the night(like 1:15, 2:30 am, etc) and going into the kitchen and just eating mindlessly. Mostly I'd be eating peanut butter with a spoon, straight from the jar while telling myself "its okay, because you're supposed to be gaining weight". Well, it isn't a good idea to be shovng your face full of peanut butter when you aren't hungry, at 2 a.m, no matter what. I should have been gaining through adding healthy calories to my normal meals.
Now that I want to stay where I'm at, my body is still waking me up at like 2 a.m and even when I'm not hungry I'm eating huge amounts of calories. I sometimes log these, sometimes not. More recently I haven't been because it puts me so far over my calories that its depressing. I'm eating 700 or so extra calories a night, every night. My weight is going up much more rapidly than I am comfortable with.
I've been setting goals for myself, to get through 1 night at a time without standing in front of the fridge with a spoon just eating whatever I can get my hands on.. I've made it 2 days, total, in about 3 weeks or more. I even have put chairs and stuff in front of my bedroom door so that when I get up really late and start to go into the kitchen to binge, I have to move them so that I can take a second to register what I'm doing and realize that I don't want to do it. It still hasn't worked.
Plus, eating so late at night has screwed up my eating cycle. My body is now conditioned to do this, and I don't know how to condition it to stop. I am moving in with new roomates in about a week and really don't want this to keep being a problem. Plus I just want to stay at the weight that I'm at now.
Not sure what to do.. just needed to rant.
I need to forgive myself and deal with this one day at a time but it's just so frustrating to not have control of myself.
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