You’re welcome. Mine is pretty much the same as yours actually! I never did the laxitive thing- I was a diet pill user, but the binge/starve cycles and even used excess drinking (drunkorexia if you will) as a means of ignoring the starving feeling. Feel free to message me if you want and we can talk. Sounds like we suffer from very similiar issues.
Hi, I agree with @Turtlefan in that restrictive diet plans seem to end in binging and overdoing it eventually. I’ve encountered this with sugar/sweets and while being on a general calorie deficit. It makes me so hungry and frustrated I’ll end up undoing it with overeating. What did help me though is counting calories and planning what I eat. I don’t always manage it to a T, but generally have an idea of how much protein, fat and carbohydrates I want to consume in a day/meal and it helps to work towards that. I use an app for it, my macros, but there are many out there. To lose weight you just put it into a mild deficit and then stick to the numbers.
Intuitive eating sounds amazing, but I know I’m not there at all yet, to stick to a very good diet without a plan. I’m going through too much emotionally, this would be too much to take on for me.
Another thing though I have really learned is that there are why’s and reasons, motivations and logic to my disturbed eating, it serves sth just like the alcohol served sth. I feel it’s my task to accept that and try to understand and gradually grow so that I can live without it, the same way I did with the alcohol. It might not be such a clean path for me and binging does occur sometimes, but some people have relapses in their alcohol recovery too, so. I take it as a learning process that will take its time. Just wanted to put that out there, that purely managing it with rules is not effective with me.
Have a great and healthy day you all!
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After years of dieting and eating disorders along with substance abuse I’m trying to get into intuitive eating too. It’s not as easy as it sounds though and I still feel bad eating to much or something that I shouldn’t. However I think it might be a bit easier for me because the “only during weekends” tradition is strong where I live. But somedays I do to eat things like Gummy Bears for lunch, other days I’m fine with bananas. I’ve got the tastebuds of a kid so the sweeter the better. Stop, drop and feel is what I’m aiming for. But it takes time to get there. Wouldn’t say that I’m addicted to sugar because I don’t eat much more now than I did before, but I do try to be more mindful about it. Also the first two days off drinking was terrible I ate all the snacks I could find.
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I keep resetting daily for sugar. But, I’m not binging. Keeping it positive.
Absolutely!!! I find that I have to eat something sweet ever had day, especially candy. My weakness is sour patch kids and mentos, but I do try to be healthy about it and have a bowl of strawberries every night. I am adamant about walking on my treadmill every morning to keep the weight creep at bay. I would much rather have the sugar though instead of alchohol because at least I wake up knowing what I did the previous day. 
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Intuitive eating does get easier with time. It is so difficult to get out of the ED mindset, especially at first. But I do love being free from the “good food/bad food” dichotomy. Still working on listening to my body and the nutrition it actually needs. But I love that I don’t obsess about my weight anymore. Through IE, my self esteem became much higher. Thinking about being a “sugar addict” though doesn’t really align with intuitive eating. . Oops. 
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That’s what I find the most difficult the good food/bad food. I know that for example Gummibears won’t do me any good, but I just can’t avoid them sometimes, and I feel really bad afterwards. Again I need the sweetness, also the calorie counting,I can’t help it I still do it mentally. But I just started the intuitive eating thing so maybe it’ll go away.
It will. With IE you’ll learn that its OK to have the gummy bears and you’ll stop feeling guilty if you eat them. Once you realize you can have them any time you want, you’ll stop wanting them so much. It sounds crazy, but it works.
An example from my own experience: I used to binge ice cream. I would go through a gallon in just a few days. After several months of intuitive eating, I had a quart of ice cream in my freezer for 2 months that I only ate out of ocassionally. I also had a small cupboard of various treats, and rather than eat through it within a few days, I would constantly forget it was even in there.
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Gosh. I feel so very sick right now. Mostly physically, but a little mentally and emotionally too. Anxiousness, heart palpitations, a headache, nausea, bloating… and just so much general discomfort and REGRET. The decisions I’ve made today around food choices are the cause of all of this sickness! I have eaten so much junk food that I literally feel like I need to throw up right now. I am VERY aware in this moment of how this food has made me feel and why it is NOT good for me! I gorged on salty fatty carbs for dinner and then finished it off with an extra large bag of Mars chocolate pods, which I ate the whole lot to myself. I feel disgusting and disappointed, but worst is actually the unease and shakiness, feeling like I need to be sick. And can’t sleep.
This is it. I CAN NOT do this anymore. My body is suffering in so much pain and discomfort right now, crying out for me to stop putting it through this. I don’t want to feel like this and I don’t want the regret. I have reset my timer and I am going to STOP this craziness. I am going to muster some self discipline and self-respect and start treating myself, and especially my body, with love. I want to feel good, not just physically but also proud of myself and my choices. No more excuses. I will remember this awful sick feeling I have right now. And when I start to forget I am going to come back here and re-read this thread as much as is required to stop me from making any further poor food choices. I am going to apply some of my sober tools to this food addiction, such as playing the tape all the way through and taking just one day at a time. I’m looking forward to being the healthy happier version of me.
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Sorry for late response, how r u doing now? A big binge can make u feel bad for a while (tmi but I get terribly constipated).
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lately i’ve had a problem with cravings. most of my sugar comes from honey. i do put raw cane sugar in my oats every morning. i need to stop!
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Hi @Misokatsu, thank you for checking in on me. At the moment, I’m okay, the past 2days have been really difficult, as the cravings have been intense in those moments where I’d usually be bingeing on sugary treats, but I’ve persevered. Its so hard because sugary treats are everywhere and so widely accepted. I still can’t believe how sick I actually was the other night, it scared me. My body’s reaction to the food I put in it was full on! I don’t want to experience that again, but I am going to have to learn some sort of balance and/or moderation with this, because, I feel, this food addiction is not so straight forward … or at least it doesn’t feel that way. But I will keep trying my best, as I want to be happy and eating healthy certainly helps with that.
How are you doing?
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Urgh, the past few days I have gained weight, despite eating normally. It is making me want to restrict even though I am trying to get out of the binge-restrict-binge hamster wheel. But it is making me panicky and stressed.
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Its so hard isn’t it. I am right there, on that hamster wheel, too 
To be honest, I don’t know how to get off. Thank you for putting it like that actually. you’ve just shed some light/awareness on what it is I’m actually doing, I’m totally binge-restrict-bingeing! I wasn’t really aware but thats totally it. Food addiction is SO hard as you can’t just go total abstinence, there’s got to be some sort of moderation applied, however, as we’ve learnt with addiction, moderation is near impossible just by the very nature of addiction. I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling panicky and stressed. Keep coming here, we’re all here to support each other 
I was reading last night about Self-compassion and not being a harsh critical judge of yourself for we are all human, we all make mistakes, no one is perfect and as long as we’re here and trying that is a GOOD thing and we need to acknowledge that and offer ourselves some words of praise and encouragement, for life is hard and EVEN harder so when suffering addiction and disorder. Perhaps write out some things you’re really pleased with and thankful for about yourself 
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I never had a sweet tooth til now. My new OBSESSION… Vanilla Ice Cream, drizzled with a liberal amount of honey, topped with fresh blueberries and raspberries. OMG. 
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I cannot deal with this addiction. It is too much. It has such a hold on me. I don’t know what to do, because I keep failing. Despite my deep want and need to stop eating sugary, processed crappy foods, I just can’t seem to do it, make it stick. I can’t even keep count of the the number of excuses, reasons or justifications I make. I even do it subconsciously. I get myself in to a shitty situation, where I’m hungry and unprepared, that gives me the excuse to just eat whatever… and then I binge massively on so much untill I am physically sick. It’s like I cannot get a hold of that voice in my head during craving. But straight after giving in, that voice in my head flips on me and I start the berated, critical self-talk, the voice that tells me I’m weak, and addicted, and not good enough; that I have no discipline or self respect… That I am stupid and need to just accept the fact that I have no will power. The number of times I’ve reset this is embarrassing. Its crazy that I can learn so much about addiction and can go over a year now without alcohol or cigarettes, but I cannot stop eating fucking sugar. No matter how much I read “how to”. I understand what needs to be done, but I can’t seem to do it I wish it was restricted from me in some way that I couldn’t get it even if I want it. . 
Sick of being on this hamster wheel
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No probs, hope you find it useful. He’s written another book called Why We Get Fat which is also great 
Sugar is like cocaine. Its powerful. For certain people moderation is almost impossible. I believe sugar detox helps. Just stop consuming it and your body will get more and more used to function without it. Cravings will subside and you wont even want it anymore.
Too bad that its not a drug and its everywhere, so relapse is very easy to happen.
But then it wont kill you
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