B.E.D Recovery Review 4

My second review session in Step two of the 'Overcoming Binge-Eating' self-help program.

Step 2 is about establishing a regular eating pattern. I cannot trust my instincts and huger signals as they have become too distorted, so I need to create routine that I can trust. 3 planned meals a day plus 2 or three planned snacks.

1. Have I been monitoring?

No. I tracked one day fairly fully, but then got progressively worse and didn't track at all yesterday.

2.Can I improve my monitoring?

Definitely. By doing it! I need to find ways to do it without feeling self conscious when outside of my home. I also need to NOT LET little blips throw me off track.

3. Are any patterns in my eating becoming obvious?

I'm suspecting that counting points in itself isn;t triggering for me, but when I've run out of, or am close to the end of my weekly points I am much more likely to panic, be anxious, binge and give up tracking. I need to take a break from counting points for a little bit. I'm still going to focus on eating healthy, but let my eating be entirely dictated by the timings of meals, rather than also limiting the points. It is more important right now to get my mind healthy than get thin, no matter what my gremlins say.

4. Am I weighing myself once a week?

I didn't weigh myself at my GF's house over the last couple of days as she doesn't have any scales, but once I was back home I started weighing again. This added to the fact that I found myself counting backwards from my current weight to my goal weight and imagining myself shrinking to calm anxiety about non-food related issues is setting off some major alarm bells. I've also noticed that the goal weight in my head keeps shrinking. When I started losing weight I thought 9st 6-7ish, then I started thinking 9st would be better. The other night the thought '8st 10lb would be just perfect' came into my head. I'm a bit frightened.

5. Each day am I planning regular meals and snacks?

This has slipped the last few days, largely because I was away from home and not actually in full control of when I would have meals. 

6. Am I trying to restrict my eating to the day's meals and snacks?

There have been some bingey moments, and it seems I don't take drinking alcohol into account...

7.Am I skipping any of the meals and snacks?

Trying not to, although the situation sometimes has meant I've had to shuffle things around.

8.Are the gaps between my meals and snacks no longer than three to four hours?

Yes. 

9.Am I eating between my meals and snacks?

I have done a few times. I need to stop this.

10. Am I getting back on track when things go wrong?

No. I've been spiralling downwards for a few days. Time to get back on track!

11.Am I adjusting the timing of my meals and snacks to accomodate special situations?

Sort of. But a I haven;t been setting very realistic timings anyway this has been a bit iffy. Note to self - I am not getting up at 8am, so there's no way I'm going to be eating breakfast then. REALISTIC schedules will be more helpful.

12. Am I following the advice regarding self-induced vomiting and the misuse of laxatives and diuretics?

Yes. Haven't done it.

Summary
Week Two
Step Two (monitoring + Regular Eating)
Binges: 6
Use of Vomiting/ Laxatives/ Diuretics: 0
Good Days (this week, days where I monitored consistently and accurately and did my best to stick to my planned schedule of eating, regardless of whether I binged): 5
Weight: 12st 11.5lbs (-2lbs)
Unusual circumstances, events which may effect eating habits: Spent the weekend at my GF's house, work meeting w/ cakes biscuits, babysitting.

I need to continue with step 2, and will attempt to follow this step without the addition of counting weight watchers points for a week.