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! 

hi everyone! sorry i havent been posting! im trying not to weigh myself all the time and count up days all the time and just try and relax into a routine that works for me without being pressured by numbers all the time, but i did just check and i am on day 8 today which is great because i thought it was like, day 2!! haa. i messed up when i went away with my parents for a couple of days but it wasn't a HUGE binge so im fineeee. im sitting here fitting into my favourite jeans and not really fussed about how much i weigh at the moment. hope everyones doing well!

Congrats bugsy, that's great!

I know how you feel about the fitting into the jeans things. Sometimes what it takes for me to calm down about how my weight feels, is to put on my skinny jeans and my normal belt. They both stll fit, so I know that I'm obviously not ballooning up the way I sometimes think I am.

I binge too when I go to my parents house because they have so much more food than I'm used. I just want to taste everything and it often gets out of hand.

Good job on day 8.

This will hopefully be day 1 for me. A new day.

i missed this thread so much while i was gone!

Well, I made it girls! I was inpatient for 8 days, and I'll be continueing the outpatient program for two more weeks. I've been 17 days without behaviors, and it's really tough. I had to deal with a lot of feelings, a jam-packed meal plan, exercise restriction, daily vitals, monitored bathroom trips, and a lot of therapy. But I DON'T want to go back to treatment so I'm doing it right this time.

I hope all is well with you all. love,

emilie

Congrats on the 17 days. Sorry to sound ignorant, but what are defined as 'behaviors"?


I'm happy to report that I made it through last night without binging. I still woke up in the middle of the night, but I laid in bed until I fell back asleep instead of getting up to eat. As a reward I had an incredible breakfast.
I didn't cal-count yesterday, which I think may have helped. I'm going to try to get away from counting b/c I don't really need to be obsessing over every calorie anymore and I want to move past it.
We'll see how it goes.

well done soy_vey! i hate waking up at night.. i used to have a REALLY hard time sleeping which fortunately has passed now but it's so frustrating isn't it? congrats on a successful day 1 though :) i always find day 1 the hardest.

emilie welcome back :D i've been keeping you in my thoughts. 17 days is amazing!! i'm so glad you're back and that things are going well. seriously well done  xxx :)

today was good for me. i tried cutting out everything sugary and sweet cause it makes me want to eat more and more and more. i ended up having some dried fruit which isn't exactly bad but still a tad annoying. but not eating other sweet things definately helped me stop craving as much today. woop.

soy_vey, love your member name! behaviors is a term i picked up in rehab, and it's used to basically represent the eating disorder behaviors you do. So For me it's restricting, bingeing, and abusing laxatives. (We just say behaviors in the center so some girls don't get triggered by words like binge and purge)  Great Job on day 1! keep on truckin'

bugsy! i've missed you and your posts! that's for thinkin' about me. Have you tried craisins? it's my new favorite dried fruit, and i have them EVERRYYYY day with my snack.

ilovechai- We missed you! You were in my prayers and I'm so glad you're doing better! I'm really super proud of you, you sound so strong and I hope rehab helped!

bugsy- Neither of us has posted for a while, it's nice to know you're on day 9! I just made it 12 days--2 days longer than my previous record!

soyvey- Can I ask what the "vey" is for? Also, good job on making it through the night! We're all here for support, so message me, whatever, if you like.

In case anyone's interested (another boring binge story):

Today was day 13 and I didn't make it but that's ok because even though I won't feel like eating tomorrow, I will, and it will be day 1 again. I think I know what the problem was. I spent the night at my friend's last night and all she had at her house for breakfast was cereal, so I ate it, and that triggered the entire day. My plan is to make it 2 weeks without binging (I hate that word), then slowly start incorporating cereal into my breakfast routine; I refuse to let it be a trigger forever!

Going to go to the gym and work off all these extra calories tomorrow.

Josie.

Original Post by ilovechai:

Have you tried craisins? it's my new favorite dried fruit, and i have them EVERRYYYY day with my snack.

i have never tried them - what are they? im guessing cranberries and raisins? quirky name, i like ! :) im gonna google it in a min. haha. 

tothestarsxx - GO YOU!! for beating your record! totally totally awwwsummmm. do you ever buy inidivually portioned packs of cereal? my brother likes them cause he gets variety packs with like 12 different types and mixes them all together hahaha... but yeah might help with bingeing? theyre probs more expensive than regular boxes of cereal but you could just eat them for a short time to like make the transition until you felt it wasnt so much of a trigger any more. 

Tothestars- I wonder what it is about cereal that seems to make so many people want to binge. I've heard it over and over. I imagine it must be that most breakfast cereals are refined sugars and simple carbohydrates that spike your blood sugar.. plus they are heavily sugar laden anyhow and come in those huge packages. I have a few suggestions for breakfast cereal issues: 1. Incorporate a healthy breakfast cereal into your routine so that it isn't such a "treat" that you want to eat it like crazy. 
-What I do is I buy hempplus granola. It is all natural, uses I think either agave or brown rice syrup as a sweetener, and has 140 cals per 1/2 cup- about half of what normal granola has. But it still is sweet and crunchy and tastes sorta like a treat. Plus it has lots of good nutrients in it. I take that and I mix it with a cup of puffed corn, puffed millit or puffed kasha. Which is about 40-60 cals a cup. This adds a lot of bulk to my cereal so I feel like I'm eating a ton, but I'm not eating  ton of cals. Plus it is all whole grains. You can find the puffed kasha and stuff usually on the bottom shelf in a bag near health food cereal.. its only like 2 dollars a bag. Oh, and my username is sorta in reference to the term oi-vay!


ilovechai- I too, love chai and am drinking it right now! Once again, welcome back.

bugsy- For my really sweet cravings, since I don't eat refined or added sugars in things except once in a blue moon, I eat fresh or dried dates. Some people don't like them, but they are super sweet and about 26 calories per date. Get one or two if you can buy them in bulk at the grocer and it can help satisfy the craving while still being healthy, natural sugars.
I've found that with dried fruit its good for me to buy out of the bulk bins(which I do anyway cuz I love them!) because I can get one or two pieces of fruit. Otherwise I'll eat a whole bag of it.


Last night was night 2 of no binging. I didn't count yesterday either, just ate tons and tons of salad and fresh fruit that I picked off of trees and bushes while wandering around town. At around 10 pm I had a ww tortilla with some black bean spread and a chunk of tofu. I think that helped keep me through the night.
I am avoiding the scale like the plague these days.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

P.S I got a new bicycle yesterday so I will be riding to the edges of the world and back with excitement. That should make me feel better.

Hello all

I would love to join... I have a very similar problem... especially when drinking... I tend to drink a bit too much wine and then when I'm done want to eat up anything crunchy or cheesy or sweet anything it's causing a serious weight issue for me... I've gone from a size 2 to a size 8 in a very short amount of time and have been working on getting in the middle a size 5 just so I can be balanced out. I know the cause of my weight loss stunt is Alcohol and binging late nights....sometimes even if I'm not drinking I will want to have something in my stomach before I fall asleep just to sleep... so it's nice to have a support group about this .... oh and when its TOM forget about it I'm a binging banchee!!!

s.o.s ... soraya

I too...have not been posting in a while. Was sick last week, and didn't exercise much, which makes me feel like crap...but going to the gym and exposing myself to all the nasty germies wouldn't help the sicky part. Went for walks both fri and sunday tho...so not tooo bad. Eating wasn't horrible all week until Sat night after the concert we went to...ended up eating Mels (diner) at 12am...after 2 pints of cider...ate 1/2 blt, fried fish AND calamari, AND fries(not allll to myself, but still!) made me feel gross. So...I would be here on day 2...again. Haven't managed to make it past 5 days really. It's those damn weekends that kill me!!!
bugsylover - welcome back :) yay on fitting into your jeans! I'm wearing a white jean skirt today that I haven't worn since I came back from spain summer of '05...came out of my "clothes I'm too big to fit into" box...YAY
soy_vey - welcome  I too...love the name!!! is vey for the jewish part of "oy vey"?
ilovechai - welcome back and congrats on being out of inpatient!!! how often do you check in when you're in the outpatient program?
tothestarsxx - welcome back and right on for jumping right back on the wagon today!

Hope everyone has a great week!

soy vey is a company of really well marketed soy products w/a very romantic story behind it. but, I get the impression the story didn't end well...

risabelle...they all breezed right by your message, didn't they? lol. I think they'll just have to do it the hard way.

But, I was listening and I know Jenny out there somewhere was listening, too.

btw, risabelle, thanks again for all the JA info. She IS wonderful. I have worked her theory into others that I love so much and I pick and choose from them whenever I think I'm going to run into a spot. I've decided it's okay to stay so totally focused on my eating...learning to let my body be in control takes work! And, it may take a few years before I can really safely step back and handle things well/right. Anyway, I'm not reaching for junk food anymore no matter where I'm at or whether or not I'm hungry. It's just not appealing anymore.

so, risabelle how are you?

risabelle- I read your last post and I know the Naturally Thin way of life works; I'm just not ready to try it. The initial weight gain makes me wary. So I think I'll stick with my plan but I'm so glad it's working for you, for sharonclaire, and for everyone else who's tried it.

johgar- I was wondering how you were doing! Haha. I hope you're over your cold or whatever you had and I bet you can't wait to get back to the gym, huh? I love the gym!

sorayazada- Welcome! You should read back a few pages on this thread and see how far we've all come, that should motivate you! I know it does for me! I'm sorry about your weight gain, I hear from so many people how alcohol does that, I wouldn't know cuz I've never drank, but it sounds awful.

bugsy- Haha you're so cute! Craisins are dried cranberries! But I'm sure you found that out already. Btw, those mini-cereal boxes are a good suggestion but, yes, very expensive. However, they remind me of my childhood! :)

soy_vey- I wonder if it's simply the crunch of the cereal that makes people binge. Because even if I eat really sugary oatmeal or something, it doesn't do it; only the crunchy cereal. Eh, Idk. Good luck tonight- you should put a ball-and-chain on your ankle when you go to sleep haha. Oh and I was so excited when I read about your bicycle; I have one too and it's so fun; even though the front brake's stuck I still ride it like crazy! :)

I think it's a great idea! I totally understand! Last weekend I couldn't resist a huge plate of fish 'n chips-all fried and greasy! Of course I had a few beers too, then 3 late night tacos and more drinks! I went to the gym the next morning and have been doing great the past few days! 2 days binge free!

I didn't even know there was a veg company named soy vey, how cool! However it makes me feel a bit less original.

I just ate about 2 oz. of almonds, a bowl of popcorn, and 2 cups of melon while studying. However, I did this consciously and don't consider it a binge. I am hovering around 2000 calories, which is what I've been maintaining at. So.. I count this as still being okay(meep).

I have a feeling that eating all that fat will help me get through tonight :).

HI hope everyone has been doing well w/ their progress in not binging. I am trying to keep myself from going hungry when possible because i find thats when i tend to 'release the demons' so to speak and binge, usually on the weekends because more food is available to me.

I also know that at this point my body is trying to make up for what i deprived it of, but eventually i just want to stay at a healthy weight! Right now i am considered a healthy weight but i really do hope i don't go up any further!

Hey gals...I've just recently (in the past year) welcomed myself to the wonderful world of bingeing, and thus the wonderful world of the expanding waistline.

Soraya: I had a verrrrry similar eating habir to yours, I would go out, have a couple drinks, come home and spend time eating mindlessly, so much so that the next morning I'd have war-type flashbacks throughout the day of the things I ate that I didn't really remember eating. It was pretty horrible...and even after I told myself I'd cut down on the drinking, I'd be used to bingeing late at night and just eat for the sake of feeling full before bed.

HOWEVER!!! I think once you realize the pattern, it is even easier to stop - because in retrospect I had no idea I was doing it, or that it was even considered bingeing, and that other people did it too. Not to say that I don't go nuts from time to time, but I think its easier to stop yourself mid binge and ask yourself - am I even HUNGRY? sometimes you stop sometimes you continue..but there;s at least that small chance, now that you recognize you're bingeing, that the voice in your head will say, HALT! Put down the Burrito and go to sleep :P 

So Kudos to us for introducing ourselves to that little voice in our heads, and trying to find a muzzel for it by recognizing what we're doing, good luck girls.

p.s. 2 days binge freee !!

 

Hey everyone. I hope the group is still open. =)

My story:

I do really well on weekdays, but as soon as the weekend comes, I eat everything in sight. It's ridiculous! I know it's unhealthy and I really want to stop. I don't even understand why I binge. I guess it's because my life is so controlled that when I binge, I feel as if I'm "letting go". I don't know...

But I do know what I want to stop.

Days without bingeing: 2

infiniteheart, yours is a very common story to all dedicated dieters.  Sooner or later when on a restrictive diet, your survival instinct will kick in and inspire you to eat when you are not even hungry. Your body stores your hunger in biochemical form until it unleashes at a time that you wished it wouldn't--at a party, picnic, special occasion, after drinking, late at night, on the weekends, at Grandma's house....etc.  Your survival instinct is stronger than your will-power, and your survival instinct will win in the end, leaving your frustrated and confused because you binged when you didn't want to, and after you've been eating so healthily, and exercising just like everyone says is the right way to lose weight.  I would go into this more here, but I've done it so many times on this forum already that my fingers are cramped from all of the typing, so forgive me, but Jean Antonello's website Naturally-Thin.com can answers all of these binging questions for you.  She has 3 books that explain it and the books offer help to stop it once and for all.  You may read about her program, and chose to ignore it, but I'm here to say that if you keep dieting, you will keep binging, and likely you will start to GAIN weight from the binges.  Maybe you won't binge everyday, maybe not every week, but you will continue to binge.  If you don't believe me, just keep checking in on this board to see if anyone has uncovered the secret cure for binging, while trying to continue dieting.  I dare you to read through every one of these posts to try and find the secret anti-binge remedy.  Dieters are not new to us in the 21st century, and neither is binging, although it is getting a lot more prevalent.  People from your mom's generation, your grandma's and your great-grandma's generation have dieted.  Has it worked?  I mean has it REALLY worked, so that the lost weight stays off, never to return and torment the person again, and never cause the person to binge?  I was looking for a secret way to stop binging for 22 years, and I'm almost 48.  Then I decided it was insanity for me to think I could  keep doing the same thing over and over, diet after diet,  and expect to have a different outcome, an outcome that didn't include bingeing.    The sad part about it is the diet/fitness industry is perpetuating the whole problem.  They offer the diet to you, you lose weight, things are looking great!  Then, wait a minute, you start binging!  Better UP the exercising to burn off the extra calories, then wow, you finally reach your goal, hurray, until you realize you are still binging, so you diet even more restrictively,and  exercise more often, but the binging continues and pretty soon you realize how lucky it is that Weight Watchers offers a Lifetime Program because you realize you are going to need it your whole life.  Does anyone else see what is happening here?

sharonclaire, thanks for asking!  I'm doing great!  And you?  Are you continuing to sleep well?  I'm 6 months into NT, and I believe the first 6 months are the most difficult.   You can't believe that "eating" will actually help you get to your NT weight.  It's very hard to let go and trust your body.  You have so much fear of gaining, not knowing where your weight will end up.  But I've gotten a couple "You look so much healthier!" comments from people I know and trust, and I believe them.  Somehow I thought I looked fantastic when I was skin and bones, but now I'm realizing it looked just as horrible on me as it does on everyone else.  So I feel confident to continue, and it'll be great to see what transformations happen in the NEXT 6 months. I keep reading Jean's books all the time, as they still speak to me, and I still need to hear it.  NT continues to make more sense to me every time I read them.  I don't think humans were meant to struggle with diets.  Gosh, they are time consuming, painful, frustrating, and disappointing. (Thank goodness you didn't succumb to this lifestyle, sharonclaire )Bodies are capable of regulating a naturally thin weight, if people would only respond to hunger cues on time and not ignore them.  Ignoring hunger (dieting) puts your body in starvation mode in which it stores up fat for future famines, and the next day's diet is a famine!  Eating, according to hunger cues from the body, stabilizes metabolism and will make your body more efficient at burning fat!   It was designed to work perfectly, but when people diet, this messes everything up.  A diet will condition your body to store fat.

I don't mean to push any of this down anyone's throat, as it may seem like I am.  i just want the info to be available to anyone who is ready to hear it.  If you aren't ready, please carry-on as usual.

Nights without binging: ZERO

 

Bummer.

Last night I got up at about 2:30 and ate about a cup of blueberries, half an ounce of almonds, a chunk of tofu and about 3 cups of cereal.

 

I had been logging all day, too. Funny thing is that I woke up this morning and I'm still hungry, but I have energy. I'm eating some complex carbs and then going off to the gym to lift weights in a bit.

I'm trying not to get frustrated. I probably just didn't give my body enough calories yesterday.

 

I'm on maintenance and feel like this 1800 cal a day allowance just might not be enough, period.