binge vent

[kariev]

today my binge took over and won. i'm so stressed over the physical therapy board exams that i just ate to comfort myself. Now i'm super stuffed and even more unmotivated to study more. i'm not really pissed off that i did b/c in some weird way i knew i was going to binge b/c the urge has been growing. i actually started to workout to distract myself and then stopped, went right into the kitchen and inhaled 2,000cals worth of food. I should have just went out for a cheat meal last night but instead i chose this. How i long to be one of those people that don't have an emotional connection with food. I feel that i have lost how to sense my true hunger and fullness and i don't know how to get back to it. I also fear hunger for some reason. i'm very tired and think i may just take a nap, not workout today, and relax. Sometimes i think exercise is contributing to my binges. I have a hard time matching my diet to my exercise regimen and sometimes i feel that i'm not eating enough to support my exercise which results in binging. i keep pushing my body to the max and often feel runned down, hungry, and exhausted. But in the same breathe i'm scared to take my intensity down a notch b/c all i keep reading is "push harder". Well thats my vent. I guess my last thing to post is what i ate b/c i like getting everything off my chest.
2 cinnamin raison english muffins with PB
2 large bowls of honey nut cheerios in light vanilla soy milk
1 large bowl of fiber one cereal in soy milk
1 choc chip cookie
3 gnu bars with PB spread on top

So as i look at this i'm seeing a lot of carbs so is this my body trying to tell me i'm not eating enough carbs? I can honestly say that i'm not super stuffed and this binge is smaller than previous ones.

 

[Tess_ATL]

I am sorry you are going through this. It can be very tough to battle emotional/addictive eating. My heart goes out to you. I do know this is a common problem and there are support groups for this kind of thing. If you are using it as a way to comfort yourself, there may be bigger issues at hand. Have you considered OA? http://www.oa.org/

Big hugs!!

 

[orphylea]

I'm sorry, I've been there. I know stress contributes to my urge to eat, too. Make sure you are eating enough- sounds like you already thought of that. I will say that adding more fat to my daily calories (peanut butter, flax oil, almonds) has actually helped more than I can say. You may give that a shot. Be good to yourself today and like you said, take a break. Eat light healthy meals the rest of the day and just put it behind you.

 

[intensityjunkie]

well maybe since your w/o so much you needed it? Hey I did much worse yesterday. a friend took us out to olive garden and instead of getting the grilled salmon as planned I got and ate a whole plate of the seafood alfredo. a bit of salad and peach iced tea too. I think that blows away your little "binge". but I never eat like that so I allow it sometimes. it was gooood. I sometimes have a little binge on cereal or something I feel I didn't need due to stress etc but you just gotta let it go and move on or else you maybe more stressed and binge again. I realized finally if I don't let it go I dwell on it too much and start to do worse. besides it looks like it was healthy stuff and your body may have wanted it anyway.

 

[intensityjunkie]

looks like it was mostly carbs too? maybe you should've eaten a protein snack and your cravings would have stopped. that sometimes works with me. if I keep eating carbs I just keep eating.

 

[Ffte]

{{{{kariev}}}}

The first thing you need to do is forgive yourself for the binge. Beating yourself up over it will cause you more stress and that's the last thing you need.

The good news of course is you didn't eat a bunch of junk food high in saturated fat and empty calories. Yes you had a fair amount of carbs, but they were mostly high fiber carbs.

That being said:

I think you need to find out what really caused the binge:

You know you were stressed, but were you also very hungry?

If it was pure stress, maybe you can try some relaxing yoga to distract you. Obviously the more intense workout didn't work, so try something different next time.

If it was also real hunger and stress with a specific craving, Do you know what you were really craving? Is it possible you were trying to replace what you really wanted with healthy choices and none of them satisfied that craving? If you think that's the case maybe you can eat one item that's healthy to try and fill your appetite a little and then eat just a little bit of what you really want. That may keep you from eating as many net calories. Sometimes all you need is a small treat of what you really want.

If you're concerned about not eating enough, try increasing your calorie intake by 100 or 200 calories each day. I know I was able to start losing after increasing my calorie intake by a little bit. Eating more often also helps me from sitting down and eating too much at once.

 

[aveggiegirl]

Kariev, you are not alone. I could have written your post because I am an emotional eater too. The more stressed out I get the more that goes into my mouth. Just try to do better starting right now. Jess did give you some good advice about eating something with protein. That works for me sometimes...but other times I just WANT those carbs. Let me know if you ever find a good way to deal with your "stress binges".

Good Luck with your boards!!!

 

[kariev]

thanks you guys. i always feel so much better after coming here and confiding in you wonderful ladies. I actually just worked out. I had lots of energy from the carbs so i did 1/2 of M1W1 chest, shoulders, and biceps and then did a 35 min run. Even though I was full it felt good to sweat. I'm going to take a nice shower, drink lots of fluid and then study some today. I think i'm having some blood sugar problems (hypglycemia) I ate about a 400 cals breakfast which usually holds me for 5 hrs but today i started to get hungry, light headed, and shakey after about 3 hrs and instead of noticing it and eating something healthy i binged. I keep falling off the mini meal bandwagon b/c sometimes i feel that having to think about food every 3hrs makes me want to binge more but i notice terrible mood swings and energy variances when i go longer than 4hrs with nothing. I would like a clean meal replacement shake to eat inbetween my main meals. Do you have any recommendations? I'm finding that i'm falling back on processed foods which don't satisfy me at all. My diet soda is increasins as well as my diet salad dressing, coffee, and splenda consumption. One things for sure, my colon will be clean after all that fiber i ate LOL! thanks again ladies

 

[yelly]

kariev,
Don't know if you've already read this article, but on the BFFM website, in the download section, is one of the best articles I've ever read on emotional eating. It's called the A.W.A.R.E. Formula: 5 Steps to End Emotional Eating. Tom has you do different exercises that get at the heart of why we binge. It's kind of hard to do, because you really have to dig deep on some of them. I actually was reading it yesterday, and I think if you read this and do the exercises it may really help you feel better.
Remember, you don't have to be perfect. Just pick yourself up and forgive yourself. It's ok.

dani

 

[Janis]

Karie

Because this is an on-going sticking spot for you, I think this might also be a good question for Tom.

Your binges are mild, I mean your choices seem pretty darn healthy. I agree with the other posters, that you probably needed the calories, and over all you might need adjustments to not only your daily calorie intake, but your macro's as well.

The urge building doesn't sound like cravings, it sounds like starvation....feed your muscles girl!

Again, I think you should write to Tom about it.

 

[lov2bfit]

I know exactly what you are going through. I've been there.... oh have I been there. I am an emotional eater too and typically once I take that "plunge" where I know I'm binging I eat just to be eating, not because I'm hungry. I do have to say though, I'm usually not as good as you are to go do a heavy workout to help compensate for the extra calories.
I believe there is some truth to the fact that maybe your body just needed the extra calories, especially if you've made a recent change to your diet and reduced your calorie intake.
It's not easy to find that balance between what keeps us satisfied and energized, but still helps us reach our goals. When I'm stressed I usually want to turn to food to comfort me. I wish I had some wonderful words of wisdom, but I struggle with it too. Just don't beat yourself up over it. As the others have said, just move forward. I wish you luck with everything.

Katie

 

[kariev]

Hi ladies! Just wanted to thank you all again for being soooo encouraging and supportive. Today is a new day and i'm ready to get back to healthy eating. I slept really good last night and i had the most amazing workout today which i think is due to the extra carbs. I really think that my body needed it. However I really need to start incorporating a weekly treat meal b/c i don't like these binges b/c i know its not healthy. I'm a little swollen today due to the extra carbs but nothing terrible. Its amazing to see how the body can look so much different with water retention but i know within 3 days my abs will be back. In any case, tomorrow is test day so i'm off to study. Thanks again!