Have you figured out if you have trigger foods that you avoid on your fast days but indulge in on your food days?

I know I have mine: starchy veggies, nuts, grains, dairy, sugar. I know some of those things like whole grains and nuts are supposed to be “healthy” but when I eat them I start having the obsessive sort of hunger that I don’t have on my fast days. I can deal with the simple I-haven’t-eaten-therefore-I’m-hungry feelings but the obsessive I-can’t-consentrate-anyway-so-I-might-as-well-make-some-toast-and-butter-it-so-I-can-get-on-with-my-life hunger takes over my life and makes a food-seeking drone out of me.

But the good news is: 1) two fast days (I do mine back-to-back resulting in about 66 hours of fast) reset my metabolism and zap the obsessive hunger and, 2) when I avoid my trigger foods on my food days I only have the simple sort of hunger.

I know Dr. Mosley said he can stick in a few indulgence foods but just because he can doesn’t mean that works of all of us. And I find that if I am going to do something that’s problematical for me, saving it for the last meal before I begin fasting neutralizes the after effect. …sort of.

Hi EndTheCycle, Great username!
I have been a binge eater since I was a teenager. I thought it must be emotional and psychological. I had to deal with a pretty messed up childhood. I changed my diet, became a lot more active, and did a lot of overcoming of my background.
I noticed that when I binge ate I didn’t really taste what I was eating, or feel that I had eaten it, when I was finished. So I tried to be really mindful about what I wanted and what I was tasting.
I was well ahead of the modern focus on mindfulness! 😉

I became so fit and healthy, and binges were fewer and milder.

When I became ill, and had to be very sedentary, my weight crept up and sweet things also crept into my diet more. The constant craving has been like the binge eating: just as overwhelming and intolerable.

I am now interested in the physical science of how sugar effects our cravings through the hormone balance of leptin and ghrelin, and of how our gut flora can be made of bacteria that are hungry for sugar and send desperate messages to our brains.

Cutting out sugar, and doing 5:2 help wonderfully, but I still need to be mindful, and especially mindful when, for whatever reason, my brain isn’t sending me those lovely messages that say ‘you have had just enough, and don’t need to eat anything for several hours’.

Then I have to accept that I am going to feel hungry and unsatisfied, and use the same techniques that I use on fast days, like: ‘it’s ok Cinque, you can have a meal in three hours’ or ‘its ok Cinque, the hunger wave will come and go’ or ‘it’s time to distract yourself Cinque, lets go and do something’.

It is really hard when our natural healthy systems aren’t working as they should, but many people (including me) find that with 5:2 they do get easier. I read research earlier this year which indicated that if we can get to a normal weight and eating pattern and keep to it for a year, our systems stop sabotaging us. Looking forward to that!

You aren’t alone! And all power to you finding a way through this terrible situation! Best wishes

I’ve had some similar experiences on the bingeing. Before I began 5:2 I spent a week coming off sugar and starch, for me especially toast and potatoes. And cake. I found if I ate no white starch related foods at all, including so called healthy grains my bingeing was reduced massively. But I had to eat large quantities of green and coloured vegetables with plenty of butter on, meat without removing the fat, eggs in twoes, as in an omelette or scrambled. Whenever I have any starchy foods or sugar or alcohol I can’t keep to 500 on my next fast day. Very dark chocolate (85% cocoa) helps, as I am able to eat one small square. And oranges or nectarines eaten with the pith still there seem to help the want for sweet things, or mixing them with plain unsweetened yoghurt Large salads including avocado. Mostly this is successful, with many lapses, and I’m gaining much more control in the way Cinque describes. And if I give way to starch I try to use oat or other savoury biscuits or very solid bread so as not to wake the sugar fiend. It’s not easy, but just keep on pegging on! Good luck.

Hi,

I’ve not had to cut many items out of my diet as I didn’t eat much in the way of processed foods or packaged snacks, but I have drastically reduced the amount of sugar and bread I eat. If you cut things out completely they become the subject of your cravings so in my opinion it is easier to allow myself a small portion and they become less interesting and necessary.
I plan my menu for the week and try to stick to it. I do stray from it and there are times when I have too much but it is a work in progress and I know that habits developed over many years take a while to break.

Be kind to yourself and don’t allow guilt to override everything because if you are really serious about this WOL you’ll succeed even if it is two steps forward and one step back.

In my case, two weeks no sugar to take a control over my body. What really helps is to start eat every morning 5 dates and banana. Get at least 50 grams of fat every day. For fast day i would eat 100 grams of almond and thats it. Make it really simple. Simple diet, simple lifestyle. If you can, only eat at home. Drink only green tea and espresso.

I too have a history of binge eating and also do very much know the phenomenon of restriction becoming fuel for desire. I remember once making a commitment to cut out all sugars, refined carbs, etc. and succeeding with that for 3 months and feeling and looking great only to find myself at a ‘bring a plate’ gathering where there was nothing much I could eat while everyone mingled as they nibbled on carefully home made delicacies full of refined carbs and sugars. I was what I call ‘impeccably’ starving was I walked out the door to leave. Needless to say I was compelled to buy a gourmet ice cream sandwich on the way home and though I tried to return to that way of ‘clean’ eating, was never able to sustain.

What did really help me though, down the track was to buddy up with a friend who was also motivated to quit all forms of sugar for 6 months. We made a pact and kept it and I’m saying that after that sugar never meant the same to me again and in fact when I did try something with sugar, I didn’t even like it and didn’t eat any for 15 years because when I’d look at what was offer with sugar, I no longer regarded it as food! Speed ahead past that and I partnered with someone who loves sugary foods and that influence has affected me to the point of having eaten it again over the past decade, though I’ve recently given it up and it has been easy this time around. I know this pact I made wasn’t a be all and end all. I still ate refined carbs, though it was a step in a healthier direction.

My journey through the labyrinth of bingeing has been lifelong and has encompassed me looking into all aspects of my life; spiritually, emotionally, physically (nutritionally, physiologically – exercise), since I can be hungry on all those levels and any or more than one of those hungers have been triggers for a binge episode.

That’s my journey, though I met someone recently who said that her binge pattern evaporated in an instant after she read the book ‘Fat is a Feminist Issue.’ She is a woman who really got what BS it is that she shouldn’t be able to sit and eat a carton of ice cream if she really wants that! She got that she shouldn’t be shamed into feeling bad about it, she said she’s yet to meet a male who would be. Once she ‘got’ the message in that book, she just ate what she wanted whenever she wanted and slimmed down to the size she is now, which is healthy. She said that when all the charge around food evaporated she no longer felt compelled to binge.

I trust you’ll find your way through, End!