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! 

hsegdash, thanks for responding! So, you're inclined to overeat due to stress. Have you tried replacing that behavior w/a more positive one? for instance, getting a light healthy snack or just a glass of water and heading back out the door to walk off the stress? if so, does this work for you? Your other concern is that you are in an environment that encourages overeating/poor choices. That one is tougher and can add to the stress. I think I've read that if you fill your plate once and eat that and then pick yourself up and remove yourself from the table and the room, the longer you absent yourself, the less likely you will overeat. does that make sense for you? is that something you have tried?

I think there are behavioral changes that one can make, like making sure to eat healthy foods at certain intervals, dictated by one's body's needs but then there's this monster that needs to be fed.

I lost 7# and then gained back 2 due to emotional eating. I'm realizing that more than anything I want to lose more. I really do! It's time and I want to understand bingeing in total. For me it's loneliness that ties me up. I know I eat to fill that emotion. It's not easy when you can see your bum behavior but can't quite reach it.

Ah, well, anyone else want to climb on the chopping block and be dissected by an amatuer?

Hello everyone! Im new to calorie-count and I've been having "food issues" for the past year or so. I've always been an emotional eater but since I've been back at university I feel as if bingeing has literally taken over my life. Nearly everyday for the past month I've eaten very healthy during the day, and then night time comes- only then, when I'm alone, I stuff my face with whole tubs of ice cream, bags of chips, packs of muffins ect. until I am so full I feel as if I'm going to explode. I've never been overweight, however I gained about 5 pounds my freshmen year (last year) and that was when I first became "weight conscious" I guess you could say. In an attempt to lose those 5 pounds, I lost nearly 30 pounds in the summer by becoming obsessive about exercising and calorie counting. I seem to have taken a 180 spin in terms of my eating habits. Sept. 1st I weighed 110 lbs (I'm 5'6.5 tall)...I weighed myself yesterday and the scale said 122lbs!! My bingeing has caused me to gain 12 pounds in less than a month :( It scares me to think about what i'll weight this time next month if I don;t get a handle on this now. Thats why I've decided I need to take action...

  The negative impacts bingeing is having on my social life, school work and bank account are making me so unhappy. I've decided that I'm going to stop letting food control my life starting now! I know it will be hard but I'm confident I can do this :)

Days without bingeing - 0 (this is going to change!) 

sugarplumbum, don't despair. What goes on can also come off. choose healthy foods and eat when hungry, drink plenty of water and be active both socially and physically. it sounds like you lost that 30# too quickly. don't 'diet' anymore...that's how people screw up. just eat sensibly. your body will find its optimum in time. remember that: IN TIME. It takes time to develop those healthy habits and time for ones body to adjust to them.

i have gained 2#. That is surprising considering I'm just coming down from a never-ending wildly out of control episode. I say it was wildly out of control but, hey, not like its ever been before. for one thing, i wasn't chowing down on hohos and mocha mochas...yes, I did have one coffee in the past two weeks w/soymilk and lite. but one didn't beget another. AND my calorie consumption was more than I've grown used to but certainly NOT anywhere close to where it was when it was the total out of control ME. and I was still active...socially and physically. so, many, many kudos to me because I think some of the changes I've made are permanent.

so, my first goal is to lose 21# over the next 7 months. that is 3# a month. This will be so interesting to me to see where I end up by next May 1.

My secondary goal is to have a big garden by next year w/lots of veggies to share w/the FOOD BANK.

yeah, i made it two months last thursday, then blew it last saturday. (pack of oreos, chips, peanut butter, granola bars, cereal...all after a regular 2000 cal. day)

so i'm back to week one. hopefully week two will go as planned, and i can get past the 2 month mark next time.

stay strong everyone. and remember, eat enough during the day and you won't binge at night!

I love that this thread is here. I was angry at myself this evening because I went 50 calories over my alloted count... began contemplating a binge, since I'd already blown the day. I came on here, and browsed this thread, and all of the people going for weeks binge-free are such an inspiration. I think instead of reaching for those graham crackers, I'll go read a book.

 

 

WOW, horsinaround23, that is way cool! I need an off/on switch.

ilovechai, that's me, too, but I figure that I'm on a general trend DOWN and that's all that matters. everyone local reminds me that the longer it takes to lose the weight/to change the habits, the more likely it is that there will be lasting results.

One more reason to eat more slowly (thereby consuming LESS): the esophagus wears out w/abuse...gerd/acid reflux can happen and does to many of us as we age. gerd is really the stomach acids heading north and wearing out the protective lining on the esophagus. yikes!

Just one more interesting thing to consider.

today I am finally back on something that resembles healthy eating. take care, all!

I stopped myself from binging last night. It was after 12:00 am and I was starving. I couldn't even sleep for awhile because of it. I had worked out yesterday and ate the reccommended 1,500..but found myself still very hungry. I thought about grabbing the package of Chips Ahoy! Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies..but said to myself, no. It will put weight on you that you have worked so hard to lose. So I went right back into bed and eventually fell asleep saying that the scale tomorrow would probably show a lower number since I did not give into temptation. Sadly, I actually gained a pound...eeek! But, I'm still proud I stopped myself because it probably would have put me in a downward spiral so I'm happy about that.

Sharonclaire, I haven't been on here for awhile so I just read one of your posts from several days ago.  I'm one who believes bingeing has nothing to do with emotions.  I never had any emotional problems in my life outside of what would be considered normal, and I still would binge.  I believe my bingeing stemmed from simply not eating enough when I was hungry.  I would chronically ignore my hunger in an attempt to lose weight and it always backfired.

Now that I haven't binged for 8 months because I've been feeding myself whenever hungry, all bingeing has disappeared.

If I would suddenly start to diet again, I know my bingeing would return, regardless of whether I was having emotional problems or not.

risabella, thanks for responding. of course we all have different motivations for bingeing and they appear to be in a range from undereating to emotional eating. And, altho I am sure that on occassion I may have undereaten thereby causing myself to overeat, when I experience it, my motivation is typically due to emotional eating.

Just for clarity, it's not that those of us who are emotional eaters have emotional problems outside of the norm (after all, normal is different for everyone), it's just that we turn to food in order to avoid feeling strong emotions. Those emotions are fear-filled.

From now on, I'm going to identify myself on this chat as an emotional overeater. I think the issues are pretty different than for someone who is just undereating...

I'm an on and off visiter here.

I always say I will not binge, but I do.

Thank god, I kicked the purging of the habit. I used to be out of control with that. It's been months since the last time! :)

But I gained 7 pounds this month from just useless binge eating. The most I've made it without binging in the last month is 3 days.

I'm on day 3 today, so I'm just around the deadly mark.... :(

I'm really determined though now after seeing how much I can change my body (in a not so good way) in such a short period of time.

 

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE is what I keep telling myself.

Overeating will not make me feel better.

It's time for a lifestyle change.

illingal, self talk IS a great thing! I do it all the time. Keep it up and you will get on top of the behavior.

risabella, one more thing to add to my last comment: I am still totally grateful to you for recommending JA! She really brought big insights into food consumption/relationship for me. It's just become very clear to me that I have to lick the emotional eating when it comes around.

Hi, everybody. This is my very first post on CC though I've been lurking here for almost two years; that was when I found a different support group like this one after I googled "binge eating" (before I even knew what that was, and that other people did it). I've been a binge eater since I started starving myself when I was thirteen. I'm 21 now, and that is so far my only regret in life. That I thought I needed to do that, and that so many other (mostly) young girls think they need to do that makes me want to be ill. But I try not to dwell on it and I have been working on getting better every day. I can easily knock out 3500 calories in a single binge episode-- luckily, I've been able to limit myself to "binge episodes" lately. Previously I'd been binging for weeks or months at a time without really stopping. I had absolutely no self esteem and my personal relationships suffered tremendously. I didn't want to do anything or know anyone, I just wanted to be alone with the comfort of food.

I suspect I will always be a binge eater. I have certainly learned to control it to some extent, but all the tendencies are still there. I was doing exceptionally well over the summer when my stress level was relatively low; I think I was only binging once a month. It's more like once a week now (back at school), and I've found that the trigger is any disruption in my schedule. ANY disruption. Weekends are absolutely horrible for me. I need to get up a certain time, go through the day a certain way and be in bed by "bed time" or else I am completely thrown off and just want to stuff myself until I'm about to puke. The unpredictability of the weekend just sets me off, and I haven't found a way to get a handle on it yet. Anyone else with this specific problem?

Another problem I'm facing is grocery shopping. There is a laundry list of foods I cannot keep in the apartment, because I will eat them all in a matter of a day or two. This is bad for my health, of course, but also bad for my budget. I can't keep anything snacky and easily accessible. Lately I can't even keep bread around because I'll devour half the loaf in a day. Again, anybody else in this situation?

These days I just take it one day at a time. And when that's too much, one step at a time. It's the only way I see myself regaining control.

Day 5 :)

Thanksgiving weekend (for us Canadians) has just ended.

Major binge fest? Yes.

I feel absolutely disgusting. For 2 days straight I did nothing but eat. I could actually feel the food starting to come back up when I was lying on my stomach...

I wouldn't be surprised if I gained 5lbs.

*sigh*

So mine is bad when I am drinking too. I eat extremely healthy and i took off from drinking for 2 months because of a broken ankle and was terrified of gainging weight when I couldnt work out at all. So the last few weeks, the few, maybe 3 times I have gone out drinking I come home and eat so much that i want to throw up, but cant. I havnt had this problem before, I lost 20 lbs last year by controlling myself after drinking and just going to bed, and it worked, and now I am starting to do the exact opposite, Its happend twice this week, once on Friday I came home NOT HUNGRY at all, ate like 3 tacos, a whole box of annies mac and cheese which was like 1000 cals all together with the skinny cow bar i had too. I NEVER do this and am really freaked out right now because last night after getting home from a superbowl party where I drank, but ate healthy veggies and salsa (oh yeah and one small piece of pepperoni pizza) then i came home, at two turkey tacos, 3 chicken tenders, huge bowl of turkey chili, so so so full and already depressed but of course i needed something sweet, so i hate two yes two HUGE bowls of smart start. then it started to hurt and i started to cry. I onyl have done this when I am alone, and I am moving back in with my boyfreind in 2 weeks, praying to god that it wont happen with him around or happen at all anymore! I feel so so so disgusting today, nothing i am doing is making me feel better. I just do not want to start doing this kind of **** when I KNOW BETTER! Agh this is exactly what i needed to do is vent and see that other people have the same problem and i dont need to hate myself for it. wow sorry long post but had to get it out.... so today so far is 12 hours without binging... ha no drinking for 2 weeks will help!