Determing the causes and effects

I'm trying to figure out why I binge once a week. At first I thought my binging was due to the serotonin neurotransmitters released because of my recreational pot use. However I have taken a bit of a vacation from my habit and I still binge. Could it be part of my circadian rythym now? I feel as though I eat enough so sustain my appetite. Any tips?

More likely that some part of you feels you are entitled to binge once a week for whatever reason. Unless you're bulemic or have an eating disorder it's just a matter of deciding to just stop.

I have no eating disorder and I'm have no intention on losing just maintaining. I don't enjoy the bloated feeling I get but I feel as though it's inevitable. I know it's a mind over matter kind of mentality I should approach... but does anyone have any suggestions?

Well, although I am not binging, since I still watch how many calories I take-in daily, I have found that I am "craving" sweets for some reason.  For example, I had planned to cook myself some Barilla Plus pasta, ground beef, and nonfat cheese for a nice protein meal, but I ended up eating 15 Vortman sugar cookies (975 calories) as I walked home from the grocery store.  Thus, I ate a bunch of unhealthy calories in place of a really nutritious meal I could have had.  So, maybe, there is some "trigger" in you that, because you are not eating a certain kind of food such as something sweet or something salty ( every so often my nephew who watches what he eats will eat a large sack of potato chips because he craves that for some reason) or something oily or something greasy, or whatever, you suddenly get the urge to binge to make up for it.

Original Post by proletariatrebel:

I'm trying to figure out why I binge once a week. At first I thought my binging was due to the serotonin neurotransmitters released because of my recreational pot use. However I have taken a bit of a vacation from my habit and I still binge. Could it be part of my circadian rythym now? I feel as though I eat enough so sustain my appetite. Any tips?

what are you doing when you're not bingeing?  are you depriving yourself? (see above: if pilgrim wasn't starving, if pilgrim was eating regular cheese instead of nonfat--yuck--pilgrim would not have eaten 15 cookies).

i've never been a binger, so i can't really relate to that, but i'm in maintenance now.  i can tell you that i weigh every day, and when the weight was starting to creep up, i sat down and made a list of all the things i'd been eating that had contributed.  it was a long list, and that was the good news: i didn't have to cut out everything; i just had to cut back. 

but when i say that the weight started to creep up, i'm keeping myself in a very small range.  i don't want to go over 135, so when i hit 134, i set limits.  130-133 is fine, but i'm determined to stay there.

I don't think that's my problem. I've been a vegan/natural food eater for 2+ years. The only sweets I enjoy are fruits. I really don't like the taste of fast food, candy, dairy or meat.  I usually binge on grapes... haha. Hmmm.... maybe I have a vitamin definecy? Thanks again for the input or maybe it's my new job and I'm not eating enough. I dog walk, bike and run. Maybe  my body is trying to compensate for the lost calories? I feel as though I eat enough though. I take in about 1800 a day or maybe more since I don't really keep count anymore. I'm also 5ft 1 and about 108 pounds. I eat a lot and every 2-3 hours to keep blood pressure at bay.

pgeorgian: Overall, I think you make some good points.  I think making that list is good advice.  Also, your advice to cut back and not necessarily cut out is a good point.  I could eat 4 sugar cookies and not 15.

There are a couple of things, though, I would question. 

One, I am a cheese lover, and I used to eat way too much regular cheese (i.e.--220 calories an ounce, and I would eat 8 to 16 ounces for snacks with crackers, etc.--).  Nonfat cheese has 45 calories an ounce, I like the taste of it, and I use it on pasta, homemade pizzas, cabbage and lettuce salds, and with lowfat crackers.  I like it so much that I drove 60 miles round-trip to Wally World to buy several packages of it. 

Two, my occasional "craving" for sugar type things such as sugar cookies is connected to the fact that I pretty much cut out from my diet all refined sugar foods.  I doubt if it connects to my cutting out high-fat regular cheese.  I do eat a lot of apples, berries, and similar fruits, which have a high natural sugar content, but fruit does not give me the same satisfaction as when I ate a lot of milk chocolate and pastries and drank a lot of stouts and porters.  Stouts and porters are strong in alcohol and sugars.  So by cutting out so much refined sugar from my diet, I think I have to work hard to forget how much I liked those foods/drinks that had it in them.