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mouse87
New Member
| Joined: | 20 Sep 2008 |
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| Posts: | 3 |
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Posted: 20 Sep 2008 09:58 pm |
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as a teen i had a mild eating disorder. at my lightest i was about 6 stone. having recovered for the most part, though still prone to extreem diets and over exercise i have recently gone to uni. I have now put on quite a bit of weight, which really really bothers me. i now have a very unheathly yo-yo attitute to food where i diet for a few months loosing lots of weight, and then binge for the next few, piling back on the pounds.
i constantly think about food, and i find it hard to get things done becasue it dominates my life so much. i am also a very secretive eater. when i am in 'binging mode; i eat very little in front of others, but in secret binge on masses of chocolate crisps pasta burgers etc. however when i am in diet mode i try to hide the fact i am dieting.
what can i do??
does anyone know what this is?
does anyone have a similar problem.
thanks.
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Past Member
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Posted: 20 Sep 2008 10:43 pm |
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I'm no expert, and hopefully others will chime in. My cycle is much longer than yours. I am very good at dieting, and will get to my goal, and even keep it off for a year or two. Then I slowly get into bad habits again, and put it all back on and then some.
What I think tends to help many of us:
Get support. A therapist, a group, a friend or more. Accountability always helps me. Try to find someone to be honest with. Hiding your eating is a danger sign. Try to be honest with yourself, and with a trusted person. YOU are not bad for eating these things. You just have a problem. Admitting it will not make you a bad person, and might help. If you're not in counseling, it might help you get to whatever issues are behind the eating. Eating disorders are usually, I think, a symptom of something.
I wish I knew more ... I'm brand new here too. 
Hugs to you and best of luck!!!
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gracek
New Member
| Joined: | 4 Oct 2008 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 10 Oct 2008 08:07 am |
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I think the main thing is to regain control of what you eat and how much of it. You can start by writing down what you eat and then once a week go through it to see what you can cut back and gradually become aware of what you eat before and not after.
The main thing is not to hate food, but to be able to control it.
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kelzb
New Member
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Posted: 12 Oct 2008 02:26 am |
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HEY,
Cant say that i really have any advice for you but i can totally relate to your situation... I have cycles of binging/overeating then not eating at all, etc etc. I constantly think about what i am going to eat next (or not eat) and also hide my habbits from people!! I have found that i have actually ended up putting on weight over the last little while rather than loose it (despite exercising a lot) and its freaking me out!!
i have tried planning meals a few days in advance and writing a food diary, etc - it has helped friends loose weight but i cant say its helped me as of yet - by body/stomach takes over my brain  ... so yeah i am still trying to find a way to have a 'normal' healthy relationship with food, wish it was easier! (although to be fair some of the time i dont care about being healthy i just wanna be thin  )
Anyway im sure this has been of absolutely no help but just know you are not the only one out there!!
xx
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OnceUpon-A-ThinGirl
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 12 Oct 2008 11:18 am |
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| I understand where your coming from. I too had a very similar situation. After I recovered (mostly) from my eating disorder I thought about food a lot, this is also when I started to binge. It spiraled out of control for me, and continued to get worse and worse. My saving grace was re-learning everything about food and my relationship about food. I stopped dieting altogether. Yes I wanted to lose weight, but stopping the binge cycle was more important. First I learned to eat how you're supposed to eat, and then after a very long time, years, I tried to lose weight again. I've successfully lost weight, but I still have to be very careful because I still want to binge and sometimes I slip back into old habits. I wish you luck, and I hope you're able to get over the binging.
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gracek
New Member
| Joined: | 4 Oct 2008 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: 12 Oct 2008 07:26 pm |
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Hi,
I think that without getting over the emotional part of eating, no physical plan will ever work. It's just the way it is. You need to solve the problem from the inside out not the other way around
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CrimsonAnimus
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 13 Oct 2008 10:29 pm |
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I have a problem with this, too.
Eating junk is still one of my greatest comforts. I'm working on that.
I have found that keeping my mind occupied helps. I try to do activities that challenge the mind for an extended period to keep me out of the kitchen. Keeping occupied physically hasn't really helped me much, apart from the appetite curb which lasts about as long as I work out for.
I know that I still have a void, and I have to find something to fill it, as do you, if we ever want to break this cycle. Life affords many comforts - try to find one more important than food. Good luck to us all. 
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TheThinOne
New Member
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Posted: 23 Oct 2008 01:53 pm |
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"what can i do??
does anyone know what this is?
does anyone have a similar problem.
thanks."
Hello, my name is Shalisha. I am so glad I found this forum! I didn't think a forum existed for c/o!! I like the fact that I can identify with every post! It let's me know I'm not weird or crazy.
Yes, I know what it is.:) It's called compulsive overeating and obsessive compulsive behavior. Ugghhh...
What helped me was to keep talking about it at meetings over and over and over and being HONEST about my secretive binges and yo-yo dieting. I have not binged in 10 years or eaten compulsively in 10 years. I had to give up sugar and carbs completely in order for the physical cravings to leave me. Once I withdrew from those, I had some clarity about my feelings.
Yikes again! Feelings!?? That's the "F" word. I'm a food addict and as an addict, I never wanted to feel my feelings! But I've learned over the past 10 years that feelings are great! They are not good or bad, they are there to give me information.
My feelings let me know when I'm hurt and need to take good care of myself; my feelings let me know if I'm sad and need nurturing; my feelings let me know if I'm afraid and need to protect myself; my feelings let me know that I'm angry and that whatever that's making me angry is showing me what I don't want in my life.
I've run away from my feelings my whole life. Once I got into recovery though and stopped bingeing, I started obsessing over something else. The good news is I have a "daily reprieve contingent upon spiritual maintenance."
Hope that helps.
Love
Shalisha
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Straylight
New Member
| Joined: | 25 Sep 2008 |
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| Posts: | 867 |
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Posted: 28 Oct 2008 08:50 pm |
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I think there is definitely a psychological component to yo-yo dieting, but I also think there is a huge just basic biological component to it too. When you "diet"
and by "diet" i mean vastly restrict your calories and become a total nazi about food, never treating yourself to anything, you basically just cause your body to starve and you don't get enough nutrition and then you get the urge to stuff everything in the world in your mouth. Eventually this urge to stuff your face wins out and you go from one extreme to the other, gorging and eating everything and then you put on a bunch of weight because not ONLY did you gorge and consume a bunch of calories, but you put all those calories into a body that now has a lowered metabolism from eating so FEW calories over such a long period of time, so you end up REALLY screwing yourself.
This is inevitable, and it's a cycle that never ends. What is really unfortunate is that usually what happens is you get heavier and heavier with each binge that you go on, so eventually you wind up bigger than you've ever been and then you are totally miserable!
So, I think what you really need to do is get a handle on how the body actually works when it comes to food, metabolism, cravings, fat storage, etc. Once you have this knoweldge, you can apply it and come up with a plan that is NOT extreme that will be effective.
I would highly recommend reading the tutorials on this site, but the basic rule of a good diet
and by diet I mean
the way you eat, NOT a massive restriction of calories
--the basic rule of a good diet is that is must be sustainable over time or else it is destined to fail. It has to be something that is not too harsh on your body OR your mind. It has to be something that you can actually live, day in and day out, not something you can only maintain for a couple of months.
In general, I would say that you want to eat a good variety of healthy and tasty foods. There is no reason to think that you can't enjoy a good meal or that everything has to be tofu and bean sprouts, that you can never splurge and enjoy a burger and fries, etc.
I can tell you that the more processed junk you eat, the more you will want to eat it. It's a vicious cycle. If you cut down a lot on junk, you will surprisingly notice that you want it less. But cutting down on junk does NOT mean starving yourself! This will drive you crazy. It means you find healthy AND delicious food.
I have a sweet tooth, and I have come up with all kinds of little treats for myself that are healthy--peanut butter and honey is really good. Cottage cheese and honey is really good. Strawberries with dark chocolate is good! Almonds and honey is good. Nectarines are great! And as for the salty, snack-y stuff, I go to Trader Joe's and I look for beet chips, yam chips, things like that. I also love me some cheese--I could eat it all day.
I have been following a healthy diet for a little over a month now, I have lost about 7 pounds and I feel great! I don't obsess about food, I have learned to enjoy all sorts of food, and I am also satisfied with tastse of things instead of needing a whole huge plateful of something.
I think that once you cut out processed foods with all their chemicals, your body naturally finds its own balance and you find, surprisingly, that healthy eating is EASY and REALLY SATISFYING. !!!!!
take that from a chick who used to eat fast food and candy EVERY DAY.
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dascki
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 1 Nov 2008 01:33 pm |
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| I go crazy on food when I get home from school. I guess I just force myself to go up to my room and get involved with something. I make sure I don't take any extra money to school, just what I need for a reasonable lunch.
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