Dear HDH:

As one who experienced not too long ago severe binge eating and otherwise a lifetime of disordered eating, and preoccupation with my weight, my advice is: do not get into the restrictive diets- these are the TRIGGERS to binge. The more you deny yourself, the more you want it. There have been studies about it: restrictive diets, denying yourself “bad foods” only increase overeating and binge eating those foods.

Instead: … with extreme gentleness and patience with yourself (I call it “excruciating patience”), limit the quantities gradually. Don’t scare yourself with severe restrictions of quantity. And all through the day, attend to yourself, as if you were a good, loving parent of the child part of you…all through the day and night, all your waking hours, ask yourself: how am I feeling? How can I make it better?

Keeping yourself CALM is most important in weight loss, i found out. Calm…

Please post again, we can keep this thread ongoing, if you’d like.

anita

I’ve found that concentrating on the health aspects of eating help me. And reminding myself that no food is off limits. I also practice mindful eating…I try to notice when I’m actually hungry and eat what I’m actually hungry for. Then I take the time to notice and truly enjoy every bite of food. I’ve found that I like many more foods than I previously thought and I tend to wait for better foods rather than eat junk that’s in front of me. I also learned a lot by keeping a journal. Not just of food but of my moods and physicaland emotional feelings. I found that certain foods trigger migraines or depressive episodes, for example, and it makes it much easier to avoid them if I know I’ll also be avoiding the physical or emotional side effects.

I’d recommend researching mindful eating and reading “French women don’t get fat” for starters.