to ask how to stop bingeing

[WaterandSandy]

Just eaten half a Victoria sponge, family bag of maltesers and family bag of peanut M&Ms and that’s by lunchtime. It’s like this every day.
Dont say WLI but any other suggestions would be welcome

You are starting to doubt your strength. Don’t give in to it. You can totally do this. You don’t need to binge a loads of sweet junk. You can sustain this. You have proven all week that you can do this!

Keep taking 1 day at a time. If you crave a sweet treat then maybe have some Greek yoghurt with some super ripe fruit or a tiny drizzle of honey. The protein in the Greek yoghurt should satiate you.

I know it’s tough, and boring, but remember how proud of yourself you felt after your first day.

Excuse me?

Thanks for the reassurance but surely if it’s tough and boring then it isn’t sustainable long term? I’m not planning on going back to bingeing but maybe having prearranged treats occasionally but normal portion sizes of those.

Maybe find stuff you like that won’t trigger a binge?
one of my favourites is Greek yoghurt with lemon curd and a crushed meringue and raspberries
or yoghurt mixed with peanut butter and apple slices
I’ve swapped from milk chocolate to dark as well

But you are having the odd sweet thing aren’t you? I thought you were having normal meals with no restrictions? So the odd can of Coke, or fruit?

It’s only tough and boring at the beginning. Hopefully, once you have spent more time with your therapist working through what makes you binge and your unhappiness, once you have got past the habit of bingeing to try and make yourself feel better, it will become gradually less tough and boring.

Why don’t you give yourself a target? Say, if you make it to 1 month with no binges, you can have a slice of cake in a coffee shop? (Don’t buy anything like that to eat at home). Then maybe by the time you get to the month point, you won’t want to anymore?

Sorry if my suggestions are useless, I dont have experience of bingeing, but I do have experience of giving up other harmful behaviours.

I’m having Diet Coke and I’m not intending to restrict fruit but haven’t actually had very much yet because it didn’t feature much in my binge diet.

Your suggestions have been really helpful. I was thinking of setting the target of 3 weeks before I have a treat (if I still want one) as that will be after my next appointment with my psychiatrist.

Sorry for posting again but the other thing I’ve found helpful is none food treats. Bath bomb, new book, shower gel, lipstick, nice tea etc

Don't have the stuff in the house. Only thing that works for me.
If others must have them, they buy and store them out of your way.

Thanks for those suggestions, I’ll give them a try if I reintroduce some sweet treats in a couple of weeks.

I’m just too greedy for those to work for me ☹️

Call Beat x

Me too- if I’m in a shop will buy two little Fredos (chocolate) for after dinner. I don’t stock up on them!

You might find it easier to have a single portion of food out so get it from a cafe or coffee shop rather than buying and getting tempted at the supermsrket
its hard

Good idea. I’m more likely to saviour it in a cafe too rather than scoffing it down mindlessly

Savor not saviour. What an idiot!

Im another who reaches for greek yoghurt and frozen fruit to feel like Im having a treat.

I dont have a natural sweet tooth, I dont do sweets , puddings, ice cream etc , but biscuits and chocolate, white bread and butter - all bets are off

What I have noticed the longer I keep off the refined sugar, the more I crave and want spicy or very heavily flavoured food - Im at the stage of chilli flakes on scrambled eggs and hot sauce on everything

My tea tonight will sound disgusting to most, but I just love the flavours, dark rye bread, grated beetroot, rocket, cottage cheese, pickled pink onions, mackerel in spicy tomato sauce, with flaked chilli and black pepper

So much sour, sweet and hot on a plate , DH is eating chocolate beside me and Im not interested

Thanks. Just added some natural yoghurt and frozen raspberries to my grocery delivery order.
I lost 1.5kg in my first week, which is encouraging particularly as it has been a very stressful time relationship-wise so I would usually have been bingeing heavily to cope.

What I do is I allow myself one planned treat a week, usually I go to a cafe on a Friday afternoon and have what I fancy with a coffee. Often when I get there I don't want to have the biggest thing there and I choose a more reasonable option, but still something tasty. But if I want the big piece of cake, I have it, eat it slowly and enjoy it. I find if I have that to look forward to, it's easier to eat healthily.

I also allow normal life to happen. If I'm at someone's house and they offer me dessert, I'll have some and enjoy it. I find feeling deprived is my route back into binging, so if 'being good' would leave me feeling like I'm missing out, I have the nice thing. That's not a binge.

Why not say WLI? That’s exactly how they work. They stop binging!

because you shouldn’t take them with a history of eating disorders

I don’t get this, OP has said she will just go back to restricting her food intake. How is that preferable over WLI? Surely she’d be better on WLI and being monitored/therapy rather than leaving it up to “willpower”

I don’t have any answers OP but I’m sorry you’re dealing with this, it’s a horrible cycle

Thanks. I understand what you are saying but I seem to be doing OK at the moment by just avoiding sweet junk completely. It’s day nine today and I feel like the cravings are a lot less already. If I did go on WLI I would probably starve myself to death so not a good idea with my history of ED.

This sounds lovely and I think it could be a good option for me in the long term too. Just want to get a few weeks of no sweet treats under my belt first and see how I feel then.

@WaterandSandy , another wee "treat" that I might have mid afternoon is another weird combo. Cottage cheese on Peters Yard sourdough crackers with the tiniest dribble of hot honey. The crackers are huge and they come prepacked in 5's - which is enough. I snap them in half, dollop on the cottage cheese and just a wee drip of the honey. The cottage cheese I buy is from Lidl, it's as cheap as chips and is as creamy, even creamier then any high end ones - Dairly - its amazing stuff - and I hated cottage cheese. So for me it's crunch, cream, sweet and hot. I find it helps when I want "nibbles"

Thanks @suki1964, that sounds yummy