Post by Genevieve on May 18, 2014 19:59:40 GMT -5
I wanted to share my own "success story." Sorry if it is overlong but you can skip to the end if you want, haha!
I have been binge eating for over ten years now and in hindsight, it was because I first tried to start "dieting" when I was in early high school. I was under pressure to fit into dancing costumes (I did jazz ballet and they always chose the skimpiest, midriff costumes when I had always had a bit of puppy fat there) and I also felt bullied by my family for being chubby. Anyway, that was just what caused the dieting. I remember in year 8 often being really tired during classes because I was hungry. Probably that is what led to my brain going into survival instinct mode! It didn't want to be hungry all the time anymore.
Anyway, a few years ago I discovered the book "If not dieting, then what?" by Rick Kausman which opened my eyes in a lot of ways as to why dieting is useless and you shouldn't restrict yourself or feel guilty for enjoying foods. So that helped in many, many ways. Yet I still found myself going back to old habits after a while. Then I discovered the Paleo diet (or should I say way of life!), which led me to losing 15kg and curing my GERD. But then I found myself going back to old habits AGAIN, binge eating when I had no reason to - I was perfectly happy in my job, relationship and proud of losing so much weight in a healthy way. I thought that maybe I was addicted to sugar so I quit sugar for 3 weeks at the start of this year. It did cut back on a lot of binge eating but it couldn't be maintained forever and once the 3 weeks were up I went right back to eating sugar! Probably even more so.
Then I decided to try the AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) to try to discover what exactly I am intolerant to as I was still having a few niggling health problems as well as high thyroid antibody levels. That was for a month and it was pretty tough, and I still found ways to cheat and binge on grey area foods like mug cakes sweetened with honey and using carob instead of cocoa. At the end of that month, I messed up the reintroductions because my brain pretty much just rebelled against all the restrictions and after that it had all been downhill until a week ago. I was bingeing about 5 days out of the week, stopping at the shops to buy binge foods and then going home and eating them by myself, and not knowing why the heck I couldn't go back to when I had just started paleo and wasn't binge eating. In hindsight I think those restrictive periods of no sugar and the AIP led to my old survival instincts coming back full force and I had no idea how to control them. (However, to some people it is really important that they follow the AIP as they are very sick and need to get better. But for me my old binge eating habits just meant it was too hard for me, at least at that time.)
I even tried the "Overcoming Binge Eating: Second Edition" book which had a whole step by step program. But, that ultimately did not work for me. While I was doing that, I thought that having a binge was sort of a good thing because it would allow me to identify what feelings or triggers were behind it. I had a whole list of triggers and there were so many! I even identified at the time that I would just binge for no reason when I was perfectly happy, as well. So I knew something wasn't right. I had my list of "alternate activities" I could do like go for a walk, give myself a manicure, write in my diary...I never ended up doing any of those things when I had an urge to binge! And now I understand why.
A week ago I was feeling so hopeless but I stumbled upon someone else's success story with this method, and I straight away bought the ebook of "Brain Over Binge" and I haven't had a binge in the week since. I have definitely had urges, but they no longer have the power over me that I used to give them. It was all about a different way of looking at things and of understanding how the brain works, essentially! Who knew that just a small change of view could help me so much. Now when I get an urge, I picture myself on the shore just looking out at the wave of my urge, just letting it crash by itself. I don't engage in any sneaky thoughts I have because as soon as you try to reason with the lower brain, you're in for a losing battle. To be honest, I physically said "Shutup!" out loud to myself the other day, when the urges were particularly bothersome. I have to say, that helped, haha.
Now what I am thinking about the most is differentiating between binge eating and non-hungry eating. I want my diet to be healthy in the main, but I think a bit of non-hungry eating and indulging here and there is perfectly fine. Anyway, thank you so much Kathryn. You have changed my life.
I blog about my health journey on fitchocolatelover.blogspot.com
I have been binge eating for over ten years now and in hindsight, it was because I first tried to start "dieting" when I was in early high school. I was under pressure to fit into dancing costumes (I did jazz ballet and they always chose the skimpiest, midriff costumes when I had always had a bit of puppy fat there) and I also felt bullied by my family for being chubby. Anyway, that was just what caused the dieting. I remember in year 8 often being really tired during classes because I was hungry. Probably that is what led to my brain going into survival instinct mode! It didn't want to be hungry all the time anymore.
Anyway, a few years ago I discovered the book "If not dieting, then what?" by Rick Kausman which opened my eyes in a lot of ways as to why dieting is useless and you shouldn't restrict yourself or feel guilty for enjoying foods. So that helped in many, many ways. Yet I still found myself going back to old habits after a while. Then I discovered the Paleo diet (or should I say way of life!), which led me to losing 15kg and curing my GERD. But then I found myself going back to old habits AGAIN, binge eating when I had no reason to - I was perfectly happy in my job, relationship and proud of losing so much weight in a healthy way. I thought that maybe I was addicted to sugar so I quit sugar for 3 weeks at the start of this year. It did cut back on a lot of binge eating but it couldn't be maintained forever and once the 3 weeks were up I went right back to eating sugar! Probably even more so.
Then I decided to try the AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) to try to discover what exactly I am intolerant to as I was still having a few niggling health problems as well as high thyroid antibody levels. That was for a month and it was pretty tough, and I still found ways to cheat and binge on grey area foods like mug cakes sweetened with honey and using carob instead of cocoa. At the end of that month, I messed up the reintroductions because my brain pretty much just rebelled against all the restrictions and after that it had all been downhill until a week ago. I was bingeing about 5 days out of the week, stopping at the shops to buy binge foods and then going home and eating them by myself, and not knowing why the heck I couldn't go back to when I had just started paleo and wasn't binge eating. In hindsight I think those restrictive periods of no sugar and the AIP led to my old survival instincts coming back full force and I had no idea how to control them. (However, to some people it is really important that they follow the AIP as they are very sick and need to get better. But for me my old binge eating habits just meant it was too hard for me, at least at that time.)
I even tried the "Overcoming Binge Eating: Second Edition" book which had a whole step by step program. But, that ultimately did not work for me. While I was doing that, I thought that having a binge was sort of a good thing because it would allow me to identify what feelings or triggers were behind it. I had a whole list of triggers and there were so many! I even identified at the time that I would just binge for no reason when I was perfectly happy, as well. So I knew something wasn't right. I had my list of "alternate activities" I could do like go for a walk, give myself a manicure, write in my diary...I never ended up doing any of those things when I had an urge to binge! And now I understand why.
A week ago I was feeling so hopeless but I stumbled upon someone else's success story with this method, and I straight away bought the ebook of "Brain Over Binge" and I haven't had a binge in the week since. I have definitely had urges, but they no longer have the power over me that I used to give them. It was all about a different way of looking at things and of understanding how the brain works, essentially! Who knew that just a small change of view could help me so much. Now when I get an urge, I picture myself on the shore just looking out at the wave of my urge, just letting it crash by itself. I don't engage in any sneaky thoughts I have because as soon as you try to reason with the lower brain, you're in for a losing battle. To be honest, I physically said "Shutup!" out loud to myself the other day, when the urges were particularly bothersome. I have to say, that helped, haha.
Now what I am thinking about the most is differentiating between binge eating and non-hungry eating. I want my diet to be healthy in the main, but I think a bit of non-hungry eating and indulging here and there is perfectly fine. Anyway, thank you so much Kathryn. You have changed my life.
I blog about my health journey on fitchocolatelover.blogspot.com
