I was trying to avoid it by doing things like fasting until dinner one day a week, and trying to get a minimum of 500 g of veggies a day, but the snacking is strong, and I'm maintaining or gaining right now. I will seriously just eat and eat and eat delicious things (sweet or savory, doesn't matter) past the point of discomfort if I don't have to be accountable to myself by writing it all down. I'm honestly not sure how to get past this.
This sounds worrying...are there reasons why you might be bingeing that maybe could be worked out with counseling? I don't mean to intrude and feel free not to respond, but phrases like "past the point of discomfort" are red flags.
I'm not sure it's something that needs counseling. Maybe? I've never thought about that before. I've always just thought of it as a really bad habit.
I tell myself I snack when I'm doing other things - watching TV, reading, making lunches for the kids, cleaning the kitchen. It's MOSTLY proximity, an apparent desire to chew things (? I've been snacking on carrot sticks, and it's almost as satisfying, as long as I start with them), and being "distracted" by whatever else I'm doing. When I'm retrospectively realizing that I more than occasionally snack to the point of discomfort, though, I guess there are a lot of other times, like when I've eaten 3/4 of a bag of M&Ms and thought "I'm getting really sick of these, but there are only 20 left, I may as well eat them all...", or "I've already eaten four cookies, what's two more?", which are not great.
Fasting doesn’t always work as well for premenopausal women as for postmenopausal women or men. It can disrupt our hormone cycles and induce physiological stress. You may find it much easier to avoid bingeing and more comfortable to track calories and split the total daily amount into 3 or 4 meals spread out over 10 or 12 hours.
You may be right about fasting. So far once a week until dinner hasn't been bad, but that might be due to a huge caloric excess the rest of the week that's just sitting in reserve in my digestive system, ha. I don't think it will be nearly as comfortable or easy if I'm eating a normal amount of calories on a day-to-day basis, especially with breastfeeding/pumping.
I've started planning and tracking meals, which is like the thousandth time I've done this in my life, but whatever, at least I know how. Barring crazy things happening, I'm done having kids, so I don't have the excuse of "I'm just going to be pregnant next year anyway" to wave away the desire to be in better shape. We'll see. I don't want to have to track forever, I want to be able to eat a normal, necessary amount of delicious food without eating an entire pint of ice cream instead of just a bowl.
