Inner work to replace food as coping strategy

[timestressed]

I am going to start my Mounjaro injections tomorrow. I subscribed to Nutracheck and started calculating my portion sizes for nutriens and calories. That is easier now I've done it for a couple of weeks.
From what I read I suffer from BED (binge eating disorder).
I'd like to hear if you could share any strategies you've used to rewire your habits around food, the food noise which is seating at the back of my head.
I am also interested in learning which strand, or type, of therapies available in Britain may help with working in that area of mental problems. For me it is a mental problem, I feel I am stuck in one place, not progressing or getting any understanding of where I am doing something wrong, and where to make any changes. Did you use CzbT or some other type of therapy?
I'd like to work on the mental aspect of what "makes" me to overeat from now on before in some, not too distant future, I will get off the jabs. I am taking them for help with regulating T2 diabetes but also hoping to drop some weight alongside too.

I don’t suffer from BED, but I’ve read good things on here about how Mounjaro can massively help with this.

I’ve found the starting Mounjaro has been a really good time to set new habits, and make them stick. I changed my diet, partly because I was worried about side effects of eating overly rich food, but also found it easier to focus on increasing my protein, fibre and water intake. This spread the focus off calorie counting, but also made it easier to stay in deficit as I was full on protein.

I also started a new exercise regime at the same time. I found Mounjaro disrupted my sleep patterns for the better, so I woke up earlier and went to bed earlier - this meant I could exercise first thing in the morning, and going to bed earlier meant I was less likely to late-night snack. I’ve focussed on a mix of cardio, strength and yoga - so I do something different each day and don’t overuse/overtrain my body. Seeing progress with strength or stamina has helped me set gentle achievable goals - and focus on something other than food.

All of this made me feel better, and I also think MJ has taken the edge off day to day anxiety too.
But there would still be times of high stress where I would be looking for comfort and release - pre-MJ I would have turned to food, alcohol or even cigarettes. But the appetite suppression from MJ really put me off these things. I also realised that social connection can really help fill the void - reaching out to a friend instead of a chocolate bar. Also, walking, meditation, and cleaning (mindless chores) have helped too. I made a list of things I wanted to ‘tidy’ each weekend, got rid of so many clothes on Vinted, this has been my therapy!

Thank you @DGonMJ . I broke my arm and am not back to full strength and fitness, in fact I delayed my first dose for that reason, because even more active day with walking still impacts my hand - it gets swollen. But the rest of what you are saying is very helpful. A lot of my emotional eating is linked to anxieties, even though I am on surface very measured and relaxed person.

I found ultra-processed people - the book, a really helpful and thought provoking read. Thinking about why foods appeal and don’t satiate.

I’ve been on mj 11 months and lost 5st, binging really isn’t an option on it. So now, when I have feelings I have to process them and confront them.

I also think more about the function of food, why do I want it? How do I feel right now? What am I actually craving? Am I bored, lonely, upset, stressed… whatever and work out how to process and fill that hole. Connection, entertainment, mindfulness, exercise, whatever.

don’t expect changes overnight, long term consistency, fixing your relationship with food and making changes for life will be what help in the long run.

there are some long running threads on here, join the July starters and find community, that really helps.

Oh and if anxiety is the issue, CBT might. E really helpful. Thinking about your anxious expectations, how you are feeling both physically and emotionally and what your behaviour is. Think about what is keeping the anxiety cycle going, is it thinking traps, avoidance, bad previous experiences, low self-esteem and think about how to address it.

I suffer from BED & haven’t binged once since starting 11 months ago. It’s like a flip of a light switch. I just have to sit with my emotions now & am still learning to cope.
It is very likely that the BED will come back if I stop MJ. I am just going to have to be very careful how I deal with it.
I still have about 4 stone to lose & I am likely to take MJ for a while after I hit my goal so I just need to use this time to deep think & develop coping strategies.

I'm wondering whether to try hypnotherapy to assist with my addiction to UPFs and give me strength to carry on post WLI

Yesterday I got this book and am slowly reading through it.
I Can't Stop Eating: How To Break Free From The Cycle Of Bingeing
by Sarah Dosanjh

There's also a full audio version on it read by the author on YT.
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I saw a nutritional therapist last year and did six months with her, focussing on my mindset and BED. I lost weight with her and really sorted my head out, which was a must for me before starting MJ, which has allowed me to lose more of the weight.

highly recommend doing the same.

@Bananaramramcould you PM me details of your therapist?

Done!

Hi, Sandra Roycroft Davies started Slimpod, I use all her videos and listen to the Slimpods daily. She talks about how to reset your mind regarding food noises. I am hoping that this with the jabs will help me. She has wrote a book and did a channel 4 programme with the NHS, with doctors and nurses using her 3 month programme. My daughter used her programme to help her lose weight without the jabs and it worked so I gave it a go. It really is very educational.

I think you need to figure out why food is your coping strategy, what feelings it’s protecting you from, what function it plays in your self-regulation — my therapist says it can be useful to say ‘What would I be doing now if I weren’t eating?’

I had therapy a few years before I took MJ to help me deal with abuse in my past. When I took MJ I realised that a great deal of my eating was tied up with emotional suppression. I used food to push down anger, stress, distress, hurt, sadness - so all the negative emotions. I also used food to support me if I was tired. I realised this because I was repulsed by food when I took MJ, even on the lowest dose. So all of a sudden I was filled with all these negative emotions that I couldn't supress with food. I had to find other ways of dealing with them.

So I went back to all the work I had done with my therapist and allowed myself to feel the feelings, rather than shove them all down. They passed much quicker than I thought they would and I also found that exercise helped massively too. So my feet and habits would take me to the kitchen to put the bread in the toaster, slather it with butter and jam, but of course on MJ that was impossible to even contemplate, so my feet would take me to the kitchen and instead of making lots of buttery toast I would do some squats, or running on the spot or Pilates exercises. In the 6 months I took MJ, I was able to reset my habits. I've been off MJ for nearly 6 months now and managed to stick to the new habits and not go back to the old ones.

I hope that is of some help @timestressed . Fingers crossed you can work out what triggers your binging.

@Kbr22 Thanks for your recommendation. I can see that Sandra Roycroft-Davis has new book The Weight's Over which came out in march this year, I am going to listen to it on Audible.

@Bananaramram thanks for your message! I am now following your therapist on Insta and will read through her posts.

@Smike such obvious question and I never asked it of myself!
What would I be doing now if I weren’t eating?
I need to start journaling my answers because it somehow "sounds" different when thoughts are articulates and put on paper.

@MargoLivebetter despite saying in my initial post that I was to inject few days ago I am yet to start. I am very impulsive person but after reading more I feel I am right to do all that prep work I started. I am curious what emotions will be left in me once the layer of artificial hunger goes away. I broke my arm in April and just only this week began gentle yoga. So far only did physio aimed at improving mobility of my hand. I will up exercises to get back where I was before Easter. Resetting habits take months, I hope I will stick with it.