@Aleyadaisey Congrats on your continuous effort! I hope that storm did not bother you too much. @Jana1988 Re overeating: Yes, it will get easier. Iāll just share my experience about bingeing and overeating here.
I decided I needed help with my eating patterns when time and time again I felt I lost control of my decision when to eat, what to eat, and when to stop eating. I felt sick in every possible way, mentally and physically and I would keep stuffing myself and coming back to it although I felt like I was doing that against my best wishes for myself. That is my definition of bingeing. This complete loss of control.
I realised very early on that sugar was my number one binge trigger. Sugar for me is a substance I cannot control. I might be able to do it a few times but after a while I will descend into the dark pits of bingeing including multiple day long benders. The way people describe their addiction to alcohol or other addictive substances, that is my experience with sugar. I cannot moderate that stuff. I tried it so many times. It doesnāt work.
So my first step was to break my addiction to sugar. With that - and it was brutal - my bingeing episodes reduced drastically. After about a month I relized I had a smillar reaction to UltraProcessedFoods. They donāt trigger me as badly as sugar, but they will always, always leave me wanting for more. I can eat a whole package of crisps and although my bodily signals will tell me I had enough, I will still somehow feel deprived and āneedingā more.
I really hated this constant tug of war between my real mind and this crazy craving monster so I decided to stop eating UItraProcessedFoods for a while. After I got through the withdrawl and the cravings, I was in such peace, and my bigeing episodes stopped.
Overeating was a different beast. I needed to be binge free, and free of those constant cravings for my triggering substances to properly see the differences between being truly hungry and overeating.
Nowerdays I will overeat ocasionally, especially when my hormones are bothering me quite a bit. But I am ok with that and it does not control my life.
I donāt think about food and eating all the time any more. I am not afraid of food or my eating behaviours. It took my a while to get there, but it is possible.
Day 1501 : No binge today. Thank you everyone for your support and congratulating, we made it through the worst of it, we still had power and water, so Iām pretty happy about that. And we got a lot of pretty snow, I can show some pics.
Had to reset today I bought challah from my favorite local bakery because it was half off. I was bored and nervous today and ate 3 giant pieces of it. My partner and I agreed that we cannot keep bread in the house. He eats everything on tortillas and I donāt usually go for a sandwich type thing. lesson learned!!
Thank you for sharing, it gives me hope! We might have to have a sugar discussion at the house. We like to keep little hard candies or mints to satisfy the sweet tooth. I think it works pretty well, but itās probably making the addiction stronger.
I try to not keep those processed foods in the house, I know they are specifically made to be addicting because they are full of sugar fat salt. But I succumb to the cravings when Iām on the road.
I would love to not have to think about food all day every day. There are so many better things to put my mind to!
The most important part mentally for me was to realise that there are kinds of foods that will make me crave. Always. Identifying those and eliminating from my diet was the most important step to find peace.
These days I do not consider UltraProcessedFoods as food. These are engineered products, and they have only one design goal: To disable your satiety signals and make you feel hungry, moody and craving for more. Honestly, I donāt need that in my life.
They donāt even taste good, itās just the addiction that told me how great they tasted. Real food is so much better.
To top off. After avoiding what you know will make you overeat and crave and obsess - going so far as to not buy that shit ever cos itās not fucking food! - next rung on the ladder for me is: making sure I am not hungry. Aka eat like a horse. Eat what you need. Calculate your baseline requirements and meet them w whole foods. Bam, you donāt even get to craving.
When Iām on the road: I have food w me. I know where my next meal is coming from, always. And mostly also what itāll be, more or less. Once itās a habit, it gets a lot easier.
That said. W your bread thing. Recently I really wanted to eat a bag of crisps. So I bought one and ate it. Special treat. Really enjoyed it and never thought about feeling bad about it. Happens idk, twice a year? Maybe a couple. You can have treats. But thatās what they are, treats, not food.
I also had to reset, I binged a bit on Tuesday. I worked from home and couldnāt stop snacking on some silly thing I bought at the shop the other day. As @acromouse says - UPF - I took only a little bit but kept coming back for it until it was all gone - I never felt fully satisfied. And I was thinking about you when eating it, Aga, because I realised how much truth is in what you wroteā¦
I know you mentioned it here many more times but it never really clicked with me. Now knowing it I should do something. I wish it was so easy to just stop eating it - also like you, I feel a bit addicted to it. The idea of not having chocolate or some of the UPF is a bit scary. I also know itās only a matter of a habit. And like @Faugxh says - the ability to replace it with normal food, with ENOUGH normal food - thatās where I usually struggle - not eating enough.
Iāve thought this many times and now you said this imma also say mine: in your case, why not have a counter for eating enough, instead of the binge counter? I have a feeling youāre actually struggling w restricting, not binging. Donāt mean to overstep.
(Adding that I do ofc believe you and donāt think youāre binges are not happening, just that they might be a direct consequence from not eating enough real foods.)
@Jana1988@Faugxh I agree that feeding oneself properly, actually eating enough, is a very important part of dealing with bingeing.
Edit: Not only eating enough in terms of amounts of food, but also eating enough of the stuff your body needs, like proteins, fats, and carbs. We are constantly bombarded how fats of carbs or whatnot are bad for us, but in reality our bodies, our cells do need all of them. Donāt listen to the fads, start listening to your body.
No, donāt see your observation as overstepping at all. Iām glad for any opinion! Plus, I think that youāre right here. Because of my active life I struggle to eat enough most of the time. I realised that in terms of exercise I was also over doing it so I backed down on it couple of months ago. I allow myself days when I do nothing. Before, Iād be doing something every day. So Iām already making progress at some areas of this āillnessā.
@acromouse I always wish that Iād have a nutritional specialist whoād live with me and make me food based on my own needs and d that for like 3 months - half year, for me to realise when and what I need. Iām too lazy to count calories and go really deep down the road but thatās why Iām not successful in this business I guess.
Itās so many factors to this! My head is spinning only thinking about it all. Itās the nutrients, amounts of food, but also habits, the wrong responses to different situations which I learnt over time. One doesnāt even know where to start in this complex of issues.
Even though I had to reset my counter a couple of days ago, at least Iām back on track immediately, unlike for many times before, when Iād struggle to come back for months and months.
Hope to see some god stretch in my numbers. Watering them like a plant, I want to see them grow!
@Jana1988 After I stopped eating sugar and UPFs I also was confused what to eat and how much to eat. I am just sharing what worked for me, it may or may not work for others.
There is the Nova Food classification system. It groups food according to the extent of industrial food processing applied. That helped what foods to focus on (Group 1 - Unprocessed or minimally processed foods) and what to avoid (the more processed a food, the more I would avoid it).
I tried counting calories and measuring food but it always led me to being hungry. For whatever reason this never worked for me. So I gave that up pretty early on.
In the beginning - just to get an estimate of proportions - I used this hand portion macro measuring system. After a while I realized that my body needed far more proteins and fats for me to feel satisfied. That needed a bit of experimentation and lots of listening to my body.
Nowerdays I know what I want and what I need. Sometimes it is going to be more of everything, sometimes more fats, sometimes more veggies.
Todayās question in my 5 year diary is: When did you not give up?
Itās a great question, makes me realise things.
My answer was, that I never gave up stop drinking alcohol; running, when I was injured and couldnāt run for a couple of years; my current job, even though some people in there were toxic towards me; living in the UK, despite really wanting to go back home multiple times; love, and I really believed that there was no man for meā¦
And now Iām not giving up this! Maybe I wasnāt successful for so long, since Iām here and much longer before, but I stick. I will fall and get up as many times as it needs to be done. And even if Iām destined not to ever succeed, I will be always trying. If Iād ever give up this, I can as well go and die, because my life would be terrible and I donāt want it.
Iām glad I have a willpower to stay around and not give up and I hope that I have my mind opened enough to succeed for lifetime. Who knows, maybe Iām living the success right now with nice 3 days in row
I hope that storm did not bother you too much.
Thank you everyone for your support and congratulating, we made it through the worst of it, we still had power and water, so Iām pretty happy about that. And we got a lot of pretty snow, I can show some pics. 
I bought challah from my favorite local bakery because it was half off. I was bored and nervous today and ate 3 giant pieces of it. My partner and I agreed that we cannot keep bread in the house. He eats everything on tortillas and I donāt usually go for a sandwich type thing. lesson learned!!
