binging

[christie313]

I worked a double (16 hr shift) 4 days ago. Last week I was scheduled 3 days off. Due to call offs and people quitting, I had no days off. This is not unusual, it often comes with the territory, and I'm never terribly surprised when someone calls off and I'm stuck here for another shift. But for some reason, this last one got me. I was so upset. I ordered pizza before I even left work. Then I stopped on the way home and bought donuts. I have been double fisting high carb junk food into my mouth ever since. I have gained 6 pounds in the past 4 days. I am bloated, gassy, cranky, and depressed. I know I need to get back on track. I want to. I'm disgusted and I feel disgusting. But something in the back of my head is saying "this is never going to work, you'll always be this way" and I don't know how to shut it up. Please give me some advice on putting this behind me, moving on, and learning how to deal. I hate to whine and gripe, I just don't know what else to do, and this has got to stop. Thanks for listening.

[bambinaUK]

Oh boy can I empathise with you.... old habits die hard don't they.

First stop thinking of it as binge eating, lets put another label on it and call it emotional eating. Being upset is what set you off wasnt it!!

To get back on track make sure you have lots of legal snacks in the house and dont limit yourself to how much you can eat of these for the time being.

You might not be 'terribly surprised' about your working situation but its having a detrimental effect on you, so you need to deal with this situation.
You have to choose whether to put up with being a 'doormat' or start being very vocal and offiically complain. If your working life is damaging the rest of your life then maybe its time to move on to another job (if possible)

You can only take so much crap in life before something pushes you over the edge and food has always been my emotional crutch.

[I-Can-Do-It]

listen I know just what you are saying. So many times I have been on a diet doing good then something comes up and i get all stressed out and then I turn to food for comfort and relief. Afterwards I end up hating myself. i also would think that Im never going to lose weight ,that this just isnt working--actually i still take spells where i do that. but you know if you think about it a person has to do something because if they keep eating all the junk food that they are just going to keep getting bigger and bigger and making theirself miserabler with each pound they gain. You are so down on yourself because of this that you cant see the progress you have made. I use to emotional eat all the time because of my depression and I have learnt from experience that when I get down on my self for eating that nothing helps me out of that state of mind until I get back to dieting which gets all that junk out of my body which inturn unclouds my mind and makes me feel better. So dont worry about what you have did just get back on your diet and you will start feeling better. Also when I get thinking that it just wont work i read the success stories on here and look at all the before and after pics. Those are great for motivation! i will be praying for you. :hug

[Peterlock]

Hi Christy, :wave

The difficulty of being an addict is that we're constantly challenged, constantly tempted and constantly tested.

It's no different from a recovering alcoholic or drug addict falling off the wagon, going on a binge only to wake up in a haze of misery disgusted with the self inflicted damage they imposed on themselves. How do I know? because I've been there.

And although I may not understand exactly how you feel, I do know this, life is going to throw you a lot of curves, a lot of heart break and disappointment...if you look for excuses to binge or drink or take whatever your drug of choice is, they're not hard to find and in fact they're always pretty much within arms reach.

About the other day? Forgive yourself -- period.

The addict that's whispering in you ear "Oh I can't do this, not Mme. just cant do this" is a liar..he wants you fat and miserable. But if you search your heart you know...and you know for a fact that you want a healthy long life in a shame free body. That said get back with the program, just pick yourself back up and carry on.

Failure doesn't reside in falling down, it resides in not getting back up.

Peter ha

[2big4mysize]

yep you know it was stress and anger and you turned to your old comfy foods. find new ones like exercie of tkins legal foods containing thew chem you want

cholcolate can be made legal

pizza can be legal too if you had just eatten the toping and tossed the crust. to help you witht he pzza issues ask them not to cut it you will feel ridiculous trying to stuff a 12 inch pizza in your mouth so you will have to just eat the toppings and then when you have stasfied your hunger toss the rest in the trash pizza eatten Atkins style happy day for you! or you can run home and make an Atkins induction legal pizza and havce the crust too.

Happy low carbing.

[christie313]

Thank you so much to all of you. I finally just got back on the bandwagon today. I am up 8 pounds. Admitting that makes me sick. But I am glad to be back on track and trying. I know that these times will come, stress is an inevitable part of life. I just wish I knew how to deal without slowly killing myself. I am just at a loss. I think I'm going to try the journal thing. Journal everything. What I eat, how I feel, what happened during the day, etc. Work is a major part of this. But it's not an option to change that situation right now. I just need to learn to process these feelings and situations instead of stuffing them down inside and piling food on top to make sure they never escape. Thanks for your replies though. You all really helped me to see the big picture and get my butt in gear. Thank you!!!

[Desertthorn]

Christie, your doing fine. Lots of us fall off the wagon for tons of reasons, but whats important is that you jumped back on and learned something about yourself and next time you will be better prepared. Like 2big suggested exercise the frustation away, or instead of buying a bag of donuts, go shopping for a new purse.
WE CAN DO THIS.

[2big4mysize]

oh you will be surprized about how you can make changes even in your work enviorment to handle stress better. if a person stressee you and sends you buinging eat before you meet with that person so your blood sugars will be stable and the ketosis controls already working hard to numbyour appetie.

If you get stressed out because of deadlines then take steps to be ready for those deadlines and have Atkins acceptable foods you can and do like as a part of your program ready in a cooler so you can eat when you need food and not when your schedule allows it.

Those are just a few but first you need to identify when it happens and what foods you are using.

You can do this!

[Momma Yamo]

hello! :wave

Well, even tho I just had a donut tonight, I actually Let Myself have just One. I could have eaten the whole bag easily before, but now I'm learning to like myself even if I have a "cheat"

The other thing I do when I feel the urge to binge is to drink about 4 glasses of water, one after another, until I'm too full to think about wanting food. Sometimes, when I'm feeling really bad, I'll take a vitamin with the water to kind of remind myself that I'm taking care of myself.

It's been really hard not to binge, because I could eat a whole bag of BBQ chips in a sitting, bowls of ice cream and 1/2 box of chocolates. No wonder I became diabetic, huh?

I have to agree that stress has always been a factor in my emotional eating and I've learned that as stress was cut out of my life, whether I wanted it cut out or not, it happened and I have more control of myself.

I'm also learning to try new things, which is really hard for me being the old age of 46, and set in my ways, but I knew I had to get out of my rut and off my butt if I wanted to enjoy the rest (or other half) of my life.

Hope this helps, bless you and take care. I'm rooting for you! :joy

[Momma Yamo]

I keep saying I'm 46, bu I won't be til April 3rd! I'm still 45! Oh well and anyhoo...