Pomooky125 said:
Hi Gemsaic - I've read your thread - you have done so well. I'm interested in the binging thing. I know you're an ex-binger - how did you manage that? Food totally controls me at the moment. It's all I think of and I pass a lot of time stuffing it down my face!
I cannot get out of the cycle and have tried all sorts. I know it comes down to me in the end. No matter what I look like in the mirror, how tired and unfit I feel or how much my jeans fight against me, I still have to binge. Just thought you might have some tips.
There's some very inspiring threads on here - Rainbow Rose etc. but I cannot get my head around eating healthily. Pls. don't say I'm not so fat - the ticker is out of date and I used to be an 8 before my binging became almost daily.
I have got a bike but don't see it very often! I just think what's the point? You are very determined and here's to your continued weight loss
Pomooky XX
Hi Pomooky
Thank you for visiting.
Firstly I have to say I'm not medically qualified so anything in my diary only pertains to me and my experiences and outlook on life...I'm no expert!
However I can certainly let you know how I tackled the binging :0) It took a long time to come to terms with and still is difficult to stay on track sometimes but I very very rarely binge eat now and when I do, it feels very uncomfortable.
The first thing I did was write everything down...I know it's laborious but it works...what and how much I ate, how I felt before and after I ate it and I did this for a couple of weeks. I was brutally honest with myself. If I wasn't all I was cheating was me! No one else cared :0) I usually ended up feeling bloated, sick, lethargic and very angry with myself...no way to live! In fact I hated myself for being so weak.
I then looked at what I was eating. I decided to go on a whole food diet....so anything I put in my mouth had to have some nutritional content. I even went as far as doing a food nutrition course with Open university but nowadays there is so much info on the web you wouldn't have to go that far! I got interested in recipes and started cooking everything from scratch. If I ate something sweet it had to be made by me, like carrot cake or have lots of fruit and nuts in. I did not worry about calories or how much I was eating. I was still bingeing but it was on a better quality of food!
Then I started reading Paul McKenna i can make you thin and what he said made sense to me. I don't know if you have tried his hypnosis and programme but this helped me enormously with the bingeing and helped me recognise why I binge ate...potted history follows...
I started binging when I was on ( what I then thought) was a very strict diet at home. My mum put me on a weight loss diet when I was eight as my ballet teacher told her I would never be a dancer as I was too plump. ( I'm 5foot 2 and have an hourglass figure... So even when I was 7 stone at 16 I was not the right shape to be a ballerina!) any who, that's when the secret binge eating started...as I wasn't allowed crisps and chocolate like my friends had in their lunches...I had dry crackers and cheese and fruit! Yuck! if I wanted anything to eat or drink at home I had to ask first. I would spend any money I had on sweets and eat them alone in my room and hide the evidence. Whilst I was dancing and I swam for Dorset ladies team as well the extra cals never showed but then I left home and stopped a lot of the activity.....the inevitable happened and it had by then become a habit to eat when I was unhappy/ sad/lonely/ bored/ frustrated/ out of control...you get the picture!
Through my late teens and early twenties I put on pounds, then stones and by the time I had my son at 27 I was 17+ stone, very unfit and still bingeing, only now I could eat all the rubbish I wanted. Fruit and veg were Minimal. After I had my son my life became a disaster area. My parents became unwell, my son was diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder and my husband left me...I put on another 5 stone in 18 months!!
I think you are wise to tackle it now...and it's a separate issue to dieting or weight management. You need to know why you do it and forgive yourself for it. Take responsibility from now on for what you eat and remember you are human. We all have bad days/ times in our lives. Food was my crutch..like alcohol or cigarettes are to others. It still is to a degree but I've learned to forgive myself, find things that make me happy and fulfilled and combat the extra calories ( hiking and cycling) and I'm now trying to undo some of the damage that I've done to my body and treat it a little more respectfully.
The other thing I do to get rid of the cravings for sugar and fat is come off all manufactured sugar and caffeine items for 3 - 7 days .... This is hard to start with and the first time I did this was hell! BUT it gets easier, and when my body is free from the sugar...it doesn't crave it anymore! For example... My hubby offered to buy me some chocolate yesterday so I walked to the shop , looked at it all and said no!! And as Rose says this was genuinely that I just didn't want it......if someone had told me this 10 years ago I would have laughed at them and said no way will I ever be like that!
Turned into a bit of a novel so sorry about that but if only a small piece helps then I am happy for you. Take care of yourself and pop back when you have time..
X
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