To everyone that struggles with overeating

[Scoffer]

I wondered if you'd share some of your strategies with me?

I've noticed that as long as I can stay out of the kitchen and keep busy I'm not so bad. However, I have three children who need feeding and a husband who works shifts, so I seem to spend a lot of time preparing food! Does anyone have any questions they ask themselves when they're tempted to eat?

I also wondered about some kind of diary or log to check when I'm tempted to stuff face, what I'm doing, how I'm feeling, WHY I want to eat.

Does anyone do this? Does it help?

Hi
I joined food focus which logs everything and is very fiddly and time consuming
I usually seem to be less controlled when PM which usually no amount of questioning myself will deter me. Like u, i need to stay away from kitchen and keep busy, worse times being in eve when watching telly.

I am a bit of a compulsive eater.
i don't think I even know what hunger feels like as I am rarely not eating!
I mostly stuff on chocolate and crisps but can quite happily just eat plain bread.
I don't know why I do it. I've done it for years, but since having children, it's causing me to now gain weight.
I want to cut down, but don't really know how.
Staying busy works sometimes, but times now where I am just watching some telly, what then?

Not having any junk in the house is the only way forward for me, but I am the same as you kids and husband wise so do tend to dip into bits of meals. I do find that writing what I eat down helps as I tend to think "oh if I eat that it has to go in the book!" and it puts me off a bit. I don't really examine it in an emotional/rational type way though, more "crikey I ate a lot today!"

Hi Scoffer -its a good idea to try and keep a diary to figure out your triggers for mindless eating. Stress? Boredom? Emotional eating (sad/happy/angry)? And then figure out a good way to deal with them instead. Distraction is a great technique - paint your nails so you cant eat anything till your nails are dried. Or have a drink (large glass of water or herbal tea) to see if its thirst rather than hunger. And dont buy multipacks of food if you do open them and eat them all in one go - just buy one pack of crisps, one biscuit pack etc - if temptations not there you wont give in to it.

Saw this thread and thought of me .

I'd put myself into this category and it is certainly since being married/ having kids. Simply because I do spend so much time in the kitchen.

I haven't cracked it, so am on here so I can watch for some good replies (thanks dinkystinky).

Here's some things I may try if I am able:

• cook several meals in one go, cuts down on cooking time/ time in kitchen = more time for kids/ doing other stuff in house
• apparently sniffing vanilla helps with sweet cravings
• restricting cakes/ biscuits to ones I make myself (will then be rare treats )
• Don't eat after 6.30pm
• Eat dried fruit if craving sweet stuff
• Get enough sleep! (Easier said than done)

I don't personally struggle with eating in front of TV, just lots of sweet cravings as I'm really tired a lot.

I do eat a lot more junk when I have junk in the house. So have tried to cut down on the biscuits I buy. And also get the kids to eat more healthily at the same time (though they are all v slim - probably because I hoover up their leftovers).

www.carbfree.wordpress.com i lost 4st low carbing, classic overeater - didn't eat breakfast and could go til 3pm without eating, then i'd go the shop from work and buy 3 bags crisp - maybe a whole packet of crackers - cos i thought crackers was the healthier option the whole packet!

then id go home make tea - snack ons omething while i made it

eeat it

then i'd go shop for some 'goodies' usually crisps - not one packet of course - i mean a pkt is more economical, its cheaper right? yeah yeah thats what i told myself

so its through low carbing that i realised the effect SUGAR has on your body and it is in everything from baked beans to bread - its in almost everything. Sugar is addictive, it sounds like some califonia health freaky liberal hippy twat nonsense doesn't it! yeah i thought so too, but i shit you not, it is - and you know it is when you have very little of it for 3 days - your body is screaming at you to just get some sugar.

so anyway - there are lots of different diets and eating plans and strategies. this worked for me - but i had towork at it and i had to commit.

six pack of crisp more economical that should read

oh and thats my blog i linked to

So glad to find this thread, as recently I have been really struggling.
The problem with me is that when I get full up (even on healthy foods, or doing ww or sworld) I want to eat even more.
Thanks custardo, about to check out your blog! I think I have a sugar addiction, it's horrible, but wanting to eat chocolate or bread all the time isn't really good.

another low carber here who agrees sugar addiction is probably the main culprit.

Yes I still have certain impulses / urges to eat things I should not but that is now due to habbit rather than addiction. I can now look at the tempting sweets, kids leftovers etc and have the ability to really examine why i want it and assess what i want more: a quick hit of food or weight loss.

in my experience, while the addiction is still raging you may have the argument in your head about whether to eat / not eat something but ultimately the addiction will win :(

we have a low carbers thread come in we don't bite becuaes we;re watching our carbs

I did the low carb diet and I've never felt sooooo ill in all my life. My body was screaming with withdrawals. It seems to be on a par with how u imagine a stereotypical junkie coming off heroin would be. I was sweating, puking and worse of all was headaches, real bad dibilitating ones. So that really put me off. I was using atkins guidelines, no caffeine and no carbs.

i think atkins recommends 20g carbs in induction - not no carbs.

but i wouldn't and didn't give up coffee - i'd rather eat my own arse i do take it black now though

I drank decaff tea with sweetner and cream at the time, only lasted bout a wk, I was so so ill. Not sure why, other ppl dont seem to have suffered quite as badly. But they do say its a physical addiction. I ate a few carb things like veggies and salad. But i'd just start to feel a lil better then when i ate i'd feel actually worse.
I have cut down on bread n pasta etc. I love bread I could eat half a loaf at a time, so not buying it so no temptation.

Never heard of sugar addiction. Heard of food ones. This is all new to me. Never struggled with weight till now really, and I am 37. Just ate what I wanted when I wanted. Will have to google sugar addiction.

Sugar addiction is more like a physical addiction than habitual one. Like i said, in line with a drug addiction.

FWIW, as someone who has struggled with one type of disordered eating or another for years I would say that doing things like "Low carb" etc aren't healthy, either for your body or your mind and shouldn't really be attempted in trying to get a handle on compulsive eating, IME :)

A healthy balanced diet is one where 60% or calories come from carbs e.g. wholegrain pasta, potatos, wholegrain bread etc. Cutting out a whole food group is NOT healthy and will not do you any good in the long run.

OP Keeping a diary is a great idea, it may help you pinpoint what triggers your compulsive eating. Questions to ask yourself might be, Do I really NEED this? Am I hungry? Am I sad? Am I bored? Am I worried? Am I tired (I over eat when I'm knackered)? How will I feel after I eat this (guilty, disgusted with myself, satisfied, too full etc)? Can I wait half an hour to see if this is just a craving?

I saw a dietician who helped me make a loose plan for the sorts of things I could eat in a day and eating smallish amounts at specific times helps. So for example I might have bowl of cereal at 7am, yoghurt and fruit at 10am, beans on toast and fruit/veg at 12.30, toast and dried fruit and nuts at 3pm, lasagne and veg at 6pm and a couple of ryvita and cheese at 8pm.
Seems like a lot but it keeps me from getting too hungry and then over eating, and helps keep me calm if I feel like I REALLY want to eat something I can say OK, I can't right now but in one hour it's time for my snack so I can wait till then. It takes a while to get used to and I still slip every now and then but it's really helping.

I would really recommend against faddy diets or diets that cut out specific foods/food groups as these can lead to bingeing or serious physical illness.

HTH x

PS I also keep a sort of food log. I don't weigh or measure food or write exactly what I've eaten as I find this can lead to restriction. I just write down the times and then a tick next to it if I've stuck to my plan. If I've over eaten I write why, was I bored, did I leave too long between meals so I got too hungry etc

That's really helpful, thanks nurse sunshine. I am definitely an over-tired over-eater. I also get a lot of tummyaches and seem to eat more when I have tummy aches/ lots of bloating. It starts to feel odd if my tummy is a bit empty. I know tiredness/ depression/ pain make me eat. Managing that is harder, so it's really helpful what you say about the healthy snacks, so you know it's coming up when you're tempted to reach for a biscuit or choc.

Qu to flojo. Don't you need some sugar so is impossible to completely cut out, as you would if you were giving up alcohol or drugs - total avoidance being the only way. Is it poss to just cut down without triggering the cravings?

Hey everyone,

Hi merry, I guess it is, I'm never cutting it out again! Cutting down would probably help body adjust better. But i've always been a bit of a binger, can go days with hardly any food and days where i cant stop eating. Trouble is these days the latter one outweighs entirely!

I used to have 2 pmt wks where i ate like a pig and the other 2 wks where i ate nothing and that kept me slim and averaged out.
This past yr i seem to be struggling with hormones/depressive type outbursts and eating alot which makes me feel more down. I'm usually a size 10 but in 12 months have put loads on, so very fed up, vicious circle.