How do I never binge eat again?

[Mada_]

Does anyone actually have a concrete answer to this?

Is anyone on here at least 2 year sober from junk food? 

[SgtPepper]

are you eating throughout the day?

Add Whole Foods into your life.

Keep a Food journal, become intimate with yourself.

[Striving for more]

Watch "Awareness alone is curative" (act.org) 

(Also watch leos healthy food video)

Remove all cues & triggers :

• Don't live next to a store with sweeties
• Don't have candy in your house ect..

Don't guilt yourself if you relapse, just apply awareness. 

Avoid perfectionism :  80% of the time is better than most people. 

Honestly developing awareness is probably the ultimate strategy. It's the difference between logical "knowing" vs true knowing (this is how you really learn & change, when you become aware of what's really going on). 

P.S : I'm not completely free from it but my diet is significantly better than it used to be most of the time & it's gradually getting better & more consistent, awareness is a difficult, counter-intuitive skill & it will take time. 

It might be a gradual grind to change your diet so stay patient & count the small wins. 

You could even swap chocolate for dark chocolate > go 50 > 60%, > 70%, then 80% (quite healthy now) & eventually you could switch to raw dark chocolate.  

Edited March 23, 2022 by Striving for more

[Osaid]

intermittent fasting

lowering carb intake

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Osaid

[PepperBlossoms]

It's all about the grocery store shopping.  Fill up your cart with fruits, vegetables, meats, whole grains, beans, rice, pastas, potatoes, yogurt, eggs, etc.

Do not buy any junk food and you won't have any junk food to eat.  

Binge on vegetables and fruit and it won't feel so bad.

[hyruga]

The answer is actually very simple. It will gross you out.

Simply urinate on all bags of potato chips that you are going to eat. You will never look at potato chips the same way again.

*

[Average Investor]

I think there is a psychological issue to address for this type of eating. Deep conditioning from society and inner conflict.  However, one big issue is that processed foods do not provide much nutrition, so your body will actually allow you to eat more and more to try to get enough nutrition. So it can be a bit of both. That and social conditioning. 

With the type of food I eat now it would be impossible for me to binge eat. My dinner is massive and it takes me about an hour to eat it. I could not physically eat a whole lot more than that. High volume foods and nutrient dense foods are pretty hard to get carried away with. It isn't like a feel guilty or bad from eating that. I feel great. In part the eating time is to help chew the meal well to get the most nutrition as well. It is still massive though lol.

Now if I was eating some taco bell I could probably do thousands of calories had it been 4 years ago or so. I don't think I could physically tolerate even a small item from there now though. 

I had really massively cleaned up my diet over 4 years. I think a lot of it is making distinctions on what really cleaning up your diet looks like. At the start it was getting quite good for sure. Now it's extremely clean. It is very rare that I see people eat like me. 

I have only had a couple grams of added sugar in many years. I likely won't have anymore unless it is on accident. I eat only organic foods. I usually eat vegan or vegetarian. I sometimes eat some eggs. I eat all whole foods. I have done a quite extensive elimination diet as well. My foods are quite optimized for me. I have spent a lot of time finding foods that I enjoy and are really healthy for me. 

The magic key here is that your taste buds will actually develop to like eating healthy stuff. The problem is that your brain has been tricked by all of the bullshit that society feeds you. Hight fat, sugar, and salt are what your brain and body crave. These items use to be very rare, so our instinct is to eat up all of them if they show up. If I were eating a lot of processed foods and I was going to try to make the change now. I think that I would try to do some fasting to speed that up. I have seen some pretty impressive results by doing some fasting and how healthy foods tastes. I would also start by introducing the best tasting health foods that I like. Making smoothies was massive for me transitioning. Removing one bad item and replacing it with something good that I like. It takes time to slowly do this. It isn't sustainable to just drop everything you are doing immediately. 

On a personal level there is some inner work to do. There might be some emotional or mental hurdles to overcome.  You have to make yourself into the kind of person that does not eat garbage food. It helps once you feel the benefits of really cleaning up your diet. Building a healthy life style is going to take a good amount of work. 

It can help to visualize what your life and health will look like if you really take care of your health. 

[Leo Gura]

I used to binge eat. At some point the pain of it became so great I just stopped doing it.

Just make a decision to never eat junk food again in your life. You cannot really over-eat clean healthy food. So it's just a matter of not allowing yourself to desire or buy junk processed foods. Make a rule for yourself that you only buy whole unprocessed foods like meat, veggies, fruits, nuts, eggs, etc.

[Hardkill]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

I used to binge eat. At some point the pain of it became so great I just stopped doing it.

Just make a decision to never eat junk food again in your life. You cannot really over-eat clean healthy food. So it's just a matter of not allowing yourself to desire or buy junk processed foods. Make a rule for yourself that you only buy whole unprocessed foods like meat, veggies, fruits, nuts, eggs, etc.

So, then why are still too many older obese people out there who haven't yet suffered enough from the pain of overeating, but instead keep eating excessive amounts of bad food?

[Alex_R]

-Increasing your consciousness, be more conscious about how your body feels after binge eating.

-Focus on a higher goal than just stop binge eating, like reach 10% bodyfat or train for a marathon.

-Keep things simple and easy, just make simple rules to follow like ban food delivery apps from your phone and dont buy junk food anymore.

 

-Also try doing Fast, if you just eat one or two meals a day the chance of binge eating on that meals are reduced and you will need less willpower.

 

 

The key to eat more clean and stop junk food eating is to shift the focus on the meal value from "delicious food" to "healthy nutrient food" there is a video when Leo explain this while making a salad, you may check it.

Edited March 27, 2022 by Alex_R

[Seeker_of_truth]

Apart from the very good suggestions given by others, I would like to suggest one thing to try the next time you want to binge eat...

I don't binge eat but I do have a number of other similar addictions. What I've found recently is that I engage in these to distract myself from some pain or unease. When I get the urge to engage in some compulsive behavior, I stop and feel into my body. I would always find some unpleasantness / unease in the body. I would then be with the unease, almost like hugging and loving it. I accept the unease and let it stay. After a while either the unease magically disappears or it isn't that bothering any more. Then there is no more compulsion / pull to engage in the behavior that was initially hard to resist. It doesn't seem to work always because sometimes I make up some rationalizations to not be with the pain - like the pain is too much, or its ok to distract myself from it etc. But still I think is one good tool in the toolbox.

See if you are also binge eating to distract yourself from some pain...

[Leo Gura]

On 3/26/2022 at 0:35 PM, Hardkill said:

So, then why are still too many older obese people out there who haven't yet suffered enough from the pain of overeating, but instead keep eating excessive amounts of bad food?

Because you have to want to grow and change.

[Hardkill]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Because you have to want to grow and change.

You're saying that obese people who don't work on losing a lot of weight are actually fine with being obese?

What kind of pain exactly needs to happen for these individuals for them to truly want to fix their problem?

Edited March 28, 2022 by Hardkill

[BuddhistLover]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Because you have to want to grow and change.

@Leo Gura This quote is going on my wall, "You have to want to grow and change." Just because the driving force in life is what you want and value, because if you think about it. If you don't want anything or value anything? Would you still exist? 

[Average Investor]

@Hardkill Sometimes cancer, heat disease, or something serious. Usually by then it is a bit too late though. I have watched this happen with the people around me. 

Most people are so sucked into the matrix of modern American eating that even attempting to make some improvements is futile. That and there is psychological aspects that have to be handled as well. If they try to make a change most likely the people around them will get them eating garbage again. 

Edited March 28, 2022 by Average Investor

[Asayake]

Do you workout? I find it helps me eat healthier because recovering from the workouts increases the food requirements needed to recover properly which motivates me to eat less crap. It even makes my body crave healthy foods automatically. I eat broccoli, bell peppers or some other green along with my dinner everyday now and it makes a big difference for my recovery speed and my energy levels.  When I was doing worse at my workouts because I ate like crap it sucked the joy out of working out and since I am working out regularly it's not difficult to reject junk foods anymore, it's not even on my mind. 

Give yourself more reasons for eating healthy. I would struggle to eat healthy if I was docile. Now you might already be working out regularly and in that case I guess my tip here doesn't help you much but if you're not working out and you think that could be a good idea for you, start hitting the gym 2-3 times per week and if you're like me you'll start craving healthier foods in a couple of weeks. If that doesn't sound like something you'd be willing to try maybe regular Hatha Yoga would do the same for you. I used to eat candy, chocolate bars and other junk daily for a while. I got away with it because I had a skinny fat physique so people could not really tell that my body fat percentage really was quite high unless I was naked. But I always had to face the fact that I was making myself look more and more unhealthy every time I looked in the mirror.

Not until about 3-4 weeks into working out did I start craving nutritious foods and stop craving candy etc. I did not even try to quit eating candy etc. Every time I tried doing that forcefully it drained my mental energy for the rest of the day and a couple of days later I would be back on the stuff again, a voice would popup in my head that I could eat a chocolate bar and drink some soda and most of the time I would be able to resist it but when that voice pops up multiple times a day it becomes hard to resist every time. But after a few weeks of working out 3 times per week and putting my full effort into the workouts, the transition from junk to healthy foods just happened naturally. The first weeks when I was working out and still eating like crap I would just be SOOO sluggish in my mind the day after the workouts, like I was hungover. I was barely able to function. I guess finally the body decided I needed a change so it adjusted and changed my brain chemistry for me in the process to accommodate the increased nutrition requirements. As a result I was left with higher baseline energy levels and more cravings for foods, but healthy foods.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Asayake

[Bobby_2021]

On 27/3/2022 at 1:05 AM, Hardkill said:

So, then why are still too many older obese people out there who haven't yet suffered enough from the pain of overeating, but instead keep eating excessive amounts of bad food?

They do suffer an their body sends them hints. But they constantly run away from truth. They do not acknowledge it to themselves.

[Matt23]

Saying you'll never binge eat again might not be feasible.  It might.  It might not.  Dunno.

I used to binge eat hard on junk food.  

What worked for me was basically first switching the types of foods I was binge eating on.  So I allowed myself to eat as much as I wanted, only that it couldn't be like sugars, wheats, dairies, and crap food.  So I'd binge on dried and undried fruits, rice, peanut butter, veggies, and stuff like that.  

Then I started working more on my emotional and psychological side and I think over the years I just don't have the urrge as much (either from developing enough awareness and discipline, or from shedding emotional weight, or both).  

The pain was great as well.

For me I notice that whenever I binge eat it's mostly due to some underlying emotion I don't want to experience. 

Another thing I tried was, whenever I had a craving to binge eat, I'd just stop and assume that there was an emotion or feeling I was running from that was driving the binge eating urge.  I'd then try to just feel the feeling as best as I could for a few minutes.  (I'd suggest making a fixed amount of time, could be like seconds, a minute, a few minutes, or more depending what you think is feasible for you).  Then I'd allow myself to eat the food.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Matt23

[Spiral Wizard]

On 22/03/2022 at 4:58 PM, Mada_ said:

Does anyone actually have a concrete answer to this?

Is anyone on here at least 2 year sober from junk food? 

Check out the book “Brain over Binge”

One of the core teachings is that  This solution is not anything fancy like healing your shadows, traumas, etc. or even becoming enlightened.  It’s simply about realizing  that the urge or desire to binge comes from your reptilian brain which physically cannot control your actions it can only  convince your conscious/human part of the brain that it’s voice is your well. It lures you in. 

The solution: simply disidentify from the voice and watch it go crazy trying to rationalize insane behavior.  You have the power to not act  on the urges. By not giving these thoughts power over you, overtime you will re-program your reptilian brain and the urges with fade away. 

In the book the author explains how do you program your brain to bench in the first place, which can be really useful to understand.

another thing I wanted to mention is a concept I learned from the meditation book A million toughts. It explains how the mechanics of thought work. Basically all desire and emotion are a result of clinging to and identifying with thought. This means when you drop the thought instantly any desire or urge to binge will not arise. This is obviously easier said than done but meditating daily for 45 minutes or more will do wonders if you do it correctly. For that U recommend the mind illuminated. 

Hope this helps! 

On 25/03/2022 at 7:50 PM, Osaid said:

intermittent fasting

lowering carb intake

 

Generally speaking, good advice but be careful. Any restriction and lead to a backlash and more eating disorders. This was the cause of my issues. 

On 27/03/2022 at 0:59 AM, Alex_R said:

Also try doing Fast, if you just eat one or two meals a day the chance of binge eating on that meals are reduced and you will need less willpower.

Same, applies to this. 
 

[lizz_luna]

I had a period where it was VERY bad, I used to binge all the time. It eventually became really toxic and started to impact my health. It took me about 2 years of constant work to clear it out. I no longer desire to buy any junk food at all. I still eat a little every once in a while with the purpose to fully cut them out, right now I feel in balance. This is what I did.

1. Acknowledging that I was having a serious problem with food, and talk it with people, be honest. Look at all the shame this brings into your life, ways you use food as a control mechanism, your relationship with food, etc.

2. Do not buy any junk food at the supermarket. Bring your healthy self and commit to build a nice relationship with food, look for healthy (yummy) recipes and desserts that you can do yourself and that do not have 30+ ingredients that you cant even pronounce. 

3. Do your research and be very aware how junk food is poisoning your body. Do your research on how eating healthy impacts your overall wellbeing. This helps your why, if you have a strong knowledge of why you should and why you should not, you can build a better foundation.

4. Self control. Start with learning about self control, not only when you eat but in life in general. Stop eating when you are full, allow yourself to eat junk food at first but set a limit on when this is enough and you should stop.

Overall these helped me a lot, remember is a process and like all habits, because you have to first unlearn and then re-learn, will take some time, just be patient and keep holding the vision of stop eating shit and you eventually will, keep trying over and over!