how I've learned to overcome my binge eating

Okay, so I wasn't going to post until January...giving myself a break, but I have to share this, because it may be helpful to someone out there

I start binge eating generally after meals when I sit down at my desk to do work.  Its a combination of boredom, procrastination, my love for food, guilt etc....

however, I have found that if I have lots of beverages on hand I can avoid food

I have a 2-liter of water on my desk at all times, as well as diet soda and diet lemonade, flavored water etc. sitting around.  I alternate between water and other drinks (because I need some flavor in my life) and I can get through my binge eating episodes without actually eating!!

Although I'd like to just overcome my binging completely at least this is a little healthier...and maybe it's just one step closer!!

I hope this helps someone...be back in January! (for real this time, unless I make some miraculous discovery that I just must share)

When I was in the Eating Disorder Hospital, they called this 'binging on beverages' and we were to refrain from it. At mealtimes, they'd only allow us one 8oz glass of soda, no more.

But you sound aware of the fact that binging on beverages won't solve your problems; it will merely make the result of your coping skills not be weight gain.

Fruit2o is good for that. Tastes like real fruit and is calorie free!

I use to emotionally eat when I was bored, depressed or high anxiety. When I got into one of those emotional states I used self-talk, television, games, and talking with my family and friends instead of eating to deal with it.

hey, thaks for the great idea. I binge so much too and on unhealthy things too. I guess liquids are better than solids. However, I have to say, Laurie, you're already really skinny.

thanks,this post was really interesting for me because of recently,i think i seem to be suffering from this.even when i am not hungry,i feel i just need to eat and then i cant get it out of my brain and then when i eat i cant stop....the next morning i feel terrible and say ill stop but then the next night.laurie,where abouts are you living in london? i live in surrey so 30 mins outside of london

thanks for all the responses guys, lots of good ideas

333, I know, I'm not trying to lose weight at all, just not gain haha

emily, I'm right in central London.  I'm studying at UCL for the term so I'm living in the Bloomsbury area.....

oh right yeah i know it,my dad went to UCL

yayaya! i think i'm getting better too, well no more binges. its been 5 days! what i do is, DON'T COUNT CALORIES! strange huh? but it's workin and i'm losing weight too =)

Jules, I did a lot of things to stop the cycle. For me, it went like this:

I started binging when I was 12 or 13.

I started gaining weight from it when I was 14 (adolescence...)

I started purging after binging when I was 15-16 (panic...)

I stopped the purging when I was about 20; I checked myself into a hospital, and was heavily monitered. But we all knew one thing about the purging: it happened only because of the binging, as a paniced response. But the binging remained, so the issues were still there.

Finally, later that year, I stopped binging. FINALLY! A BIG part of it was the fact that I learned to stop thinking in black and white; 'bad' meals used to set me off on binges because in my head, I 'ruined' what I was trying to do. Once I was able to accept a 'failed' meal and move on with my day normally, I found it easier to not binge.

I don't want to leave too much on here because I don't want to hijack the thread, but if you have any other questions about it, just visit in my journal (or maybe I'll visit yours later hehe)

You know, 95, I've decided to stop counting calories for the time being also.  Before, when I did, all I thought about was food.  It became an obsession for me.  Food food food...didn't help my binging in the least.  Now, I'm trying to be reasonable and do some rational guessing.  However, the problem now is that I had been starving myself for about two months and once I started eating regularly I packed on the pounds I had lost.  Now, I'm all freaked out about the weight gain, but hopefully in time and at a decent pace it will come back off.

I still binge...last night kinda being one of them...but it's not as bad or as overboard as it used to be.  I've gone almost three weeks without a serious binge.

I wish you all the best.

cuetee

you know what cuetee, sometimes you've got to be willing to gain weight initially to be able to stop the binging.

I started eating regularly, and gained about five pounds. Since I was eating regularly, I didn't lose weight. I wasn't exercising and I was eating around 1800 calories a day, which wasn't too much but definitely wasn't too little. I called it, 'eating in the gray area'. You would not BELEIVE the emotions that came up because of that! I felt like a failure because for the first time in YEARS I wasn't even TRYING to diet, and yet I wasn't binging either! I wasn't used to it! If I wasn't going to aim for 1200 calories, I wanted to go all out! Instead I just made myself eat like I would if I were 'normal'....

A lot of anger came up. It was hard to deal with, at first. I actually went to a psychologist to try and deal with it healthily, because it was too much anger and I didn't know what to do with it. But my insurance wouldn't cover it, so I had to find other ways. My faince was a big help.

Once you get accustomed to not binging, THEN you can start trying to cut down your calories bit by bit (not too low, though, or I promise you the binging will come back .... I PROMISE). But first you have to get used to eating in a 'gray area.' It takes a lot of self acceptance and forces you to deal with a lot of uncomfortable emotions.

And trust me, you won't gain that much from just eating 'normal.' you'll probly be the only one to notice your weight gain.

Thanks for the advice shakti and sharing your experience.  I'm going to have to learn to accept the weight gain and get back to a healthy eating lifestyle first.

Reading about what you went through really helps.  I can't believe how screwed up my eating habits have been.

Thanks so much for your insight.

Some really insightful stuff here. I also binge eat and have found I tend to do so at night. I believe that this is a rather strange habit I have picked up from my dad, who is terribly regimented with his dieting but has on occasion been caught raiding the fridge (and by raiding, I mean leaving it entirely void of any item of food) in the middle of the night.

I have found that the only thing that helps me is to do what united2gether does, and schedule more calories for the evening. Although I am frequently told that a good breakfast will 'cure' my evening stuffing, sadly despite my best oatmeal laden intentions in the morning, I am always ravenous come 6pm. Now, if I don't eat breakfast, eat a light lunch and then have more in the evening I feel satisfied and don't overeat. I think that with food (as with anything else) the one size fits all recommendation of breakfast, lunch and dinner with a few well placed snacks in between doesn't work for everyone.

I'm just sad it took me so long to discover that this worked for me! I would also binge on liquids, or after a night-time binge would exercise to exertion the following morning because of guilt. I still have to be very careful with what I keep in my cupbaords (a huge binge trigger for me is cereal, no joke, I crave that stuff more than chocolate), and make sure I don't buy packets of items that need to be 'eaten up', or else I hear my dad's waste not, want not propaganda about starving children in Ethopia (you can tell I was a child of the 80s) ringing loud and clear in my head, and of course then it becomes a moral necessity to finish that bag of goodies.