How do you NOT purge after a binge?

I just ate 2 huge peices of bread & a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter following 2 cups of sugary cereal (a trigger! Should've known better!). Jesus christ! I know it's my own fault for not eating breakfast or lunch. I know what I did wrong, but now my head is pounding & I feel doomed.

 What the heck to people do when they binge but don't purge? Do you just feel bad about yourself & deal with the weight? The evil part of me wants to run to the bathroom, pinch fat in the mirror and weigh myself on the scale! What can I do instead?

Well seeing as you didn't eat breakfast or lunch, just look at it as making up for breakfast and lunch.

You move on and forgive yourself. When trying to recover from an ED, don't try to go back and fix your mistakes. Instead, learn from them and move on. Hopefully you have learned that skipping meals can in turn make you eat more than you intended to. So just eat normally with regular sized portions.

What do you want to do? Try taking a walk, reading a book, calling a friend, riding your bike, listening to music - whatever floats your boat.

Yeah, pathetic I didn't think of that one.

You come on Calorie-Count and complain about it, of course.

Yes!  ;oD

I have done years and years of binging and throwing up. I stopped doing that about 6 years ago by telling myself: NO, and walking the other way. Tell yourself NO when you want to do negative stuff and do something else. Muttlover gave some good ideas. Activity is the only way out of wanting to throw up.

I must confess that I'm still not out of the woods and that I have my good years and not so good years. I'm afraid that I just started a bad year, but I haven't gone back to throwing up because I tell myself that I don't want to go back there. It is not a good place to be.

Another thing what I do now is recognizing that I binge for a reason. I now take my journal and write down what the reason was. Not just one sentence but I write until I am really done writing about the reason. Yeah, that can take some time sometimes  but it works for me.

Oh and last but not at all least: get help to recover from it to really learn why and how you do it and how to stop it.

Hope this works for you as well. Good luck

I've eaten way more in one sitting before... to the point where I feel I NEED to vomit.... the food is barely staying down cause I ate THAT much.

but I still can't do it.

I hate the feeling... and I hate the taste.

So convince yourself that it sucks haha :P

I don't binge for any reason but it's there & it's tasty. I don't binge on the "normal things" I keep in the house, I don't even keep sugar in the house. I only binge on evil trigger foods like the cherrios, fresh bread & peanutbutter that appeared after my mother in law babysat, or the chocolate cream pie my brother in law brought over from an Italian bakery last night. I can't have this **** in the house! If it's around I'll eat it so I don't buy it, it appears here via unintentional sabbatogers!

Also, it seems like if I give myself a little it sets off my brain into obsession mode. For instance I allowed myself (calorically) a small peice of aforementioned cream pie last night... then I DREAMED about gorging on it, woke up first thing this morning & downed two more peices before I could muster a NO & threw it in the trash. CC 1070 calories! I can't eat anything for the rest of the day!

Out of **** control! Feh!

 

CC 1070 calories! I can't eat anything for the rest of the day!

This is what I mean by forgiving yourself. That pie is full of sugar with no protein or fiber to keep you full - you'll be hungry again in no time. Starving yourself today will only bring on another binge, which will cause you to restrict again, and binge - you get the pattern. It's a vicious cycle, and it's hard to break.

But if you forgive yourself and treat your body the way it deserves to be treated by feeding it enough and not starving it, your body won't rebel and binge the way it does.

When a family member leaves triggering food with you, first have a small snack so that you're not tempted to binge on the dangerous food. When your stomach is satisfied with a snack, then dispose of the triggering food. Throw it in the trash, and pour bleach or soap on it if you must. If you eat regularly throughout the day and don't restrict, I have faith that you can overcome this. All the luck to you, hun.

Actually CC estimates 27 grams of protein (must be all that delicious CREAM, EGGS & BUTTER?) & my nutritional score is a B+! (What a crock!) Anyway, I've been able to sustain myself on a load of water, diet coke & gum so I haven't been hungry yet today. I'm allowing myself a protein bar for dinner to keep my 1200 target & then tomorrow is a new day. I'm can NOT gain from this slip up. So what if today isn't the healthiest day in my week, I didn't puke to compensate for it. This as an improvement!

 & starving = binging is simply not true for me. I feed myself very well most of the time (like yesterday!). SUGAR/PASTRIES/BREADS = binging! Get them away from me!

you sound like me! our names are the same andy everything haha (only spelt different) I still do my binges sometimes but not everyday more like once a week, its a way of maintaing I guess Im good all week then the weekend comes. so through the week I lose a couple pounds and I binge one night on the weekend and gain it back only im not at my goal yet.

YES CEREAL STARTS IT ALL! and peanut butter is amazing stuff.....when you have the urge to binge (mines usually at night while watching tv) boil some water and have some hot chocolate ( I have low call stuff 3 tbsp is 45 cals!) and because its hot you have to drink it slowly, and it tastes soooooo good plus it fills you up, usually after that my urge is gone! good luck!

Fortunately for me, I am completely unable to make myself throw up. It's been several years since I had to due to sickness, and whenever it does happen, I REALLY REALLY HATE IT!!!

If I had an ED, it would HAVE to be anorexia because throwing up is so awful, such pure torture, and so repulsive. Ugh, just thinking of the taste of the bile - BLECH.

 

So that's how I don't purge. Can't even stand the thought of it.

Maybe one way people who can purge could help prevent it, is to imagine that each time they do it, the stomach acid is eating away all the enamel on their teeth (and it really does.)

 

Karli Ann! I just had some diet hot chocolate & it is TOTALLY **** DELICIOUS! I especially like the undisolved bits at the bottom of my cup... mmmmm *drool* Thank you so much! Finally a satisfying dessert for under 50 calories! 50 calories is not worth any sweat (or puke!)! Sweet sweet!
Udokier I often wish I were anorexic too  

Carley Ann!

After a binge I do not purge because:

 1. Puking is disgusting. I hate it.

2. The feeling of having screwed myself generally disappears because it was a one time thing that won't really affect me in the near future unless I keep on doing it.

3. That same feeling helps me avoid any temptation later on.

i dont know what to do either,

i just ate about a box of cheerios, and a pint of milk, and i feel so sick its unbelievable,

i refuse to purge because i dont want to go down that route, but how do you get rid of that awful painful 'too full' feeling, not to mention the enevitable guilt...

how do you cope with it ... without eating more?

I'm afraid I don't know how to NOT purge after bingeing. I wish I could go back to the days where I wouldn' care what I ate and obsessively count calories. I was so much happier then. I guess you should forgive yourself, and learn from your mistake? I should take my own advice!

Karliann- I agree with you, I always have 'options' belgian hot chocolate when I feel that horrible binge urge- it niggles and won't go away, so I make the hot choc. It fills me up, and takes about 20mins to drink which means the urge has gone by the time I finish the drink! and i LOVE the big lumps of undissoved choc, i purposefully don't stir it too well so i get the lumps :-) Also, drinking hot choc helps stop me purge, as it is AWFUL to purge hot drinks. (Purging anything is awful, but with drinks it's really bad.)

im sorry your having such a hard time right now.  i used to be a binger/purger.  i would eat ice cream, and then some dried fruit, jello..whatever was there.  luckily it was never "easy" for me to purge...my face would get all puffy, my eyes would get all red and teary, a few times blood vessels in my eyes would burst and get all red!  i had a few scares if chest pains and that landed me in the emergency room a few times.  on the great side, nothing was wrong, but then i realized all the harm i was doing to my body by purging.  it was at that moment, i realized that i wouldnt go down that road again.  it wasnt worth the risk to me.  that has maybe been the biggest accomplishment for me in fighting me ed.  now days, i still do have bad days and binge and eat more than i should have at night.  the thought of purging crosses my mind for a second, look at the bathroom and just turn right around and walk away.  yes, i still have those terrible thoughts of what i just did, how ashamed i am for eating so much..but yes, you just have to deal with it, try and use it as a learning experience, and start fresh. 

as for the full feeling..thats also something that i had to learn to accept with my behavior.  there isnt much you can do..just lay down and let nature take its course.  if i feel up to it, i sometimes go on a walk..or just start watching tv and try to get my mind off of things.  sorry if i wasnt any help but thats just my experience.  good luck.. and stay strong!  you can over come this!

doug76- your post is so helpful ( i don't know who it's aimed at, but it's made me feel better). It is also difficult for me to purge. I seem to have no gag reflex which makes it so much more harder for me, which is a good deterrent I guess. I also get bloodshot eyes, swollen neck etc. I have collapsed a few times from purging which was so bloody scary, I was alone in my Uni room on the floor unable to call for help. I had to wait till the pain had gone, then just picked myself up, dealt with it and kept it all a secret from everyone. Sometimes I stop in the bathroom and say 'no,' and it usually works. I can walk away.

I hate feeling full, but you're right, nature needs to take its course and digest the food. I am messing my body up so much, I really want to stop it. I used to keep diaries when I was younger- I started purging shortly after I stopped bothering keeping one. I'm tempted to take up writing in a diary again to regain some control over my life, as I think it is the lack of control that caused this whole mess in the first place. I really admire you for recovering, you're such a strong person. I wish you good health.

I've never been a binger/purger, so I can't relate to that, but I have been in the binge/starve myself cycle, and the way I broke it was to force myself to have a sense of perspective about it.

I remind myself that this binge is not the worst thing I've ever done; I don't need to punish myself or "make up" for it; it will be OK. My last binge was several months ago, and I can't for the life of me tell you what I ate. I know that entire box of soft-bake cookies I ate when I was 16 didn't stay on my ass: They're gone. Can you remember what you ate on March 23? Unless you're keeping a journal, probably not. That one day doesn't matter. The pattern of eating over many days is what matters. 

rorosie,

im glad i was able to help you in some small way.  to me, the purging was just not worth what it was doing to my body.  how scared you must have been when you collapsed!  i guess in the whole scheme of my ed, stopping myself from purging is just one tiny step to recovery..but there is still so far for me to go.  but thank you for the encouraging words!  we all can do it..just keep trekkin'!