Had a Binge Last Night...

Jamesie

Full Member
I'd been working nights all weekend and had it up to my neck with annoying customers, so when I'd finished my shift at stupid o'clock Monday morning, I decided to eat 9 packs of Monster Munch (It sounds silly just writing it!).

I've been sticking to plan since (keeping within my allotted syns), but I have an annoying niggling feeling in the back of my mind that makes me feel like I want to do it again.
 
I didn't know what Monster Munch is, but looked it up and apparently it is some kind of crisp thing.

Question - did you have these nine packs in the house already?
Or - did you go and buy them after your shift?

The reason I ask is that these are two entirely different situations which could be dealt with separately to try to ensure it didn't happen again.

If you already had them in the house, then don't buy them in future. Or only buy one pack. If they aren't there you can't eat them.

But if at the end of your shift, you specifically went and bought them, then that's a different thing.

Either way, you could perhaps consider it as a "shopping problem", rather than an "eating problem". Personally I always find it easier to be firm with myself when I am shopping - it is no use saying that I will buy something and make it last, because I know I won't. I will buy it and eat it all at once! Multipacks may make economic sense (although not always) but they aren't very helpful when they are calling to you from the kitchen cupboard!!
 
Jamesie, I have also had days like that when I have binged, just draw a line under it and start again the next day. I am an "all or nothing" person, so if I open a packet of say, biscuits, I have to finish them, im rubbish at just having one or two! Therefore better I avoid them all together, i would say get to know ur trigger foods that's likely to start a binge, and try not to buy them in :)
 
I work night shifts, so I know how easy it is to just grab anything when you are tired and fed up after being up all night.
I take lots of fruit and yogurt into work. Sometimes some leftover dinner, if it's a quiche or a pasta or rice dish, and eat through the night. I make a big lunch box of cantaloupe, honeydew melon and chopped pineapple, a punnet of grapes and a couple of nectaines.
Sometimes I can't finish it, and sometimes after I've finished work, I'm so hungry I could eat a scabby horsed donkey, (in that case,I have a cooked breakfast)
but it does keep me from bingeing, which is very easy to do when you are tired and not thinking very logically! xx
 
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I do this! Just draw a line under it and carry on. We are all negotiating different pressure systems all the time- tiredness, unhappiness, annoyance, loneliness... When you can identify your triggers you can manage them better. I binged the other day (89 syns!) but am back on plan now. The storm has passed.

9 packs of monster munch is still fewer syns than a dominos and ice cream!

Is the thing that makes you feel like doing it again linked to an emotion? Are you actually annoyed or sad? X x
 
I do this! Just draw a line under it and carry on. We are all negotiating different pressure systems all the time- tiredness, unhappiness, annoyance, loneliness... When you can identify your triggers you can manage them better. I binged the other day (89 syns!) but am back on plan now. The storm has passed.

9 packs of monster munch is still fewer syns than a dominos and ice cream!

Is the thing that makes you feel like doing it again linked to an emotion? Are you actually annoyed or sad? X x

I think it's because my body isn't used to not being constantly fed anymore; I'd eat stuff, even if I wasn't hungry. It's like when I was sat watching TV last night and even though I was eating healthy stuff throughout, my stomach was rebelling because I wasn't putting any crisps inside it!

I don't want to go back to the way I was - AT ALL. I remember, one time, I ate a 48 pack box of crisps in one night - to me, now, that is never going to happen again. But when I do things like this, my brain clicks and thinks that I should (I have bipolar disorder, so this might be a big factor in that).

Saying that about Domino's, I'm actually put off by the amount of syns that just one slice of pepperoni pizza is - good one, right? :-D
 
I work night shifts, so I know how easy it is to just grab anything when you are tired and fed up after being up all night.
I take lots of fruit and yogurt into work. Sometimes some leftover dinner, if it's a quiche or a pasta or rice dish, and eat through the night. I make a big lunch box of cantaloupe, honeydew melon and chopped pineapple, a punnet of grapes and a couple of nectaines.
Sometimes I can't finish it, and sometimes after I've finished work, I'm so hungry I could eat a scabby horsed donkey, (in that case,I have a cooked breakfast)
but it does keep me from bingeing, which is very easy to do when you are tired and not thinking very logically! xx

Sounds like a good idea! I've been taking food in to work, but it's not very much (usually just a pear/banana, a sandwich and some cheese). Maybe I binge when I get home because I'm not eating enough throughout the day...
 
I think it's because my body isn't used to not being constantly fed anymore; I'd eat stuff, even if I wasn't hungry. It's like when I was sat watching TV last night and even though I was eating healthy stuff throughout, my stomach was rebelling because I wasn't putting any crisps inside it!

I don't want to go back to the way I was - AT ALL. I remember, one time, I ate a 48 pack box of crisps in one night - to me, now, that is never going to happen again. But when I do things like this, my brain clicks and thinks that I should (I have bipolar disorder, so this might be a big factor in that).

Saying that about Domino's, I'm actually put off by the amount of syns that just one slice of pepperoni pizza is - good one, right? :-D

Yes I understand completely. The ways around this are twofold attack: stuff yourself stupid with free food (when I first started I was having huge free fryups in the morning, massive jacket potatoes for lunch and big pasta dinners followed by fruit and ff yoghurt- I spent so much money on food but rationalised it by telling myself that I was buying health and happiness). When you are actually full to the bim it is physically impossible to eat too much on top of it. Brain says yes, tummy says no.

The other thing is to trick the binge brain. If you look at my diary header you will see that I state that I will write down everything I eat but only give the amounts of syns. I can eat six oranges an a whole pineapple without batting an eyelid! I ate nine muller light yoghurts in about an hour once - I lost 5lb that week!

I also have chocolate cravings and if you get the Cadbury's Highlights you can have three hot chocolates (about an hour's worth of tasting sweet things) for about the same syns as a Freddo (gone in 60 seconds).

Honestly, the best thing to do is to keep eating. Make use of the free and superfree. And don't worry about the Monster Munch. They are part of your journey towards changing your eating habits for life!

xxx
 
Don't beat yourself up too much - I still have occasional binges, sometimes entirely without cause - it's just a really hard bad habit to break. I can come up with a million strategies to prevent them but reality is that sometimes I just cave, and always feel absolutely dreadful afterwards, but do you know what the beauty of SW is? You can just draw a line under it and start again the next morning. One binge does not necessarily a whole bad week make :) xx
 
Yes I understand completely. The ways around this are twofold attack: stuff yourself stupid with free food (when I first started I was having huge free fryups in the morning, massive jacket potatoes for lunch and big pasta dinners followed by fruit and ff yoghurt- I spent so much money on food but rationalised it by telling myself that I was buying health and happiness). When you are actually full to the bim it is physically impossible to eat too much on top of it. Brain says yes, tummy says no.

The other thing is to trick the binge brain. If you look at my diary header you will see that I state that I will write down everything I eat but only give the amounts of syns. I can eat six oranges an a whole pineapple without batting an eyelid! I ate nine muller light yoghurts in about an hour once - I lost 5lb that week!

I also have chocolate cravings and if you get the Cadbury's Highlights you can have three hot chocolates (about an hour's worth of tasting sweet things) for about the same syns as a Freddo (gone in 60 seconds).

Honestly, the best thing to do is to keep eating. Make use of the free and superfree. And don't worry about the Monster Munch. They are part of your journey towards changing your eating habits for life!

xxx

Yeah, I think I just need to pile in the good stuff! Ordered my food shop this week for Thursday and have not gone overboard with the 'treats' - I think having too much in the house is probably one of the main reasons why I can give in so easily (it needs to go, so devour it all now!).

I'm starting to feel a bit better about this week, particularly when at how well I've been doing on all the other days. I guess we'll just have to see what happens at my WI!

PS. 60 seconds to eat a Freddo? You're doing it wrong ;-)
 
Don't beat yourself up too much - I still have occasional binges, sometimes entirely without cause - it's just a really hard bad habit to break. I can come up with a million strategies to prevent them but reality is that sometimes I just cave, and always feel absolutely dreadful afterwards, but do you know what the beauty of SW is? You can just draw a line under it and start again the next morning. One binge does not necessarily a whole bad week make :) xx

Isn't it strange how sometimes one can feel like they're the only person doing what they do? Nice to know it happens to a lot of other people!
 
Don't beat yourself up too much - I still have occasional binges, sometimes entirely without cause - it's just a really hard bad habit to break. I can come up with a million strategies to prevent them but reality is that sometimes I just cave, and always feel absolutely dreadful afterwards, but do you know what the beauty of SW is? You can just draw a line under it and start again the next morning. One binge does not necessarily a whole bad week make :) xx

This is a great post and I agree wholeheartedly! X.
 
I sometimes have wars going on in my head lol about binges. Interestingly if I do binge its the times that the war in my head doesnt happen. Xx
 
I sometimes have wars going on in my head lol about binges. Interestingly if I do binge its the times that the war in my head doesnt happen. Xx


I would totally agree with this - when I binge i will rarely have given it more than ten seconds of conscious thought beforehand - it's driving past macdonals and suddenly I'm indicating, going to the drive thru and ordering an obscene amount of food. It's popping in to asda to waste twenty mins between appts, and coming out with a sandwich meal deal, and an extra choc bar, and a full fat milkshake. It's finding yourself home alone unplanned and eating the whole multipack of crisps.

When I do sit and agonise about a binge, all day at work, planning the macdonalds trip, the pub meal, the alcohol spree...by the time I get the opportunity to do it, the moment has passed, and I either don't want it, or feel so guilty that I back off!

This is all about conscious eating - at what point did you properly realise you were eating 9 bags of crisps...and I mean PROPERLY? Did you plan it as you drove home, did you work all night thinking about it and imagining eating them? Did you carefully choose what to eat, when and how, and in what quantities? Or did you get home, feel shattered, want food and immeidately plough through them?

I am starting to make myself follow some rules to help me eat more consciously...
1) only eat sitting down - no picking from the fridge, out of the pan etc- if you do, you have to walk to the table/sofa and sit down before you can eat - most of the time I cant be bothered, or it's fallen off my wooden spoon anyway!!
2) dont eat with my work computer switched on - I lock it and move along my desk slightly to eat lunch, as I found i could eat 4 cereal bars without thinking
3) no eating in the car - helps with the macdonalds things...this is how I actually gave up smoking - cut it off at the source and banned myself from smoking in all the places I usually smoked!
4) where possible, me and my partner have started eating all meals (even breakie!!) at the dining room table, no TV on, just radio/music. So we talk while we eat, which slows us down naturally.
5) I've stopped using my phone for facebook/minimins etc whilst eating, I try and leave it elsewhere, or turn it over so its not a distraction

:eek:)
 
RhiBro - that sounds a lot like the Paul McKenna book (I can make you thin) it is about how you eat rather than what you eat (although i still think you have to eat healthily to lose weight!!!) Like eating with no distractions, and taking time to appreciate your food more, its a great book and makes a lot of sense, i try and use the tips in there as well as slimming world.

When it comes to binges it is so hard, i am an emotional eater anyway but i tend to find any excuse to eat!! It is a lot better than it is, but i don't think it will ever go, its such an ingrained habit now, but this post helps so than you everyone :)
Jamesie - just draw a line under the binge, don't let it ruin your whole week, you're only human!!! Good luck :) xx
 
Just to let you all know: I lost 9lbs this week! I drew a line under my binge, stuck to the plan and everything was okay! Phew :-D
 
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