Frenzy

Hey Doc.

I’ll do just fine with my eating plan, I don’t cheat all the time, I eat healthy, all is well, I may miss a meal here or there, or hit my cals but not macros.

But when I decide to treat myself once in a while, I go into this frenzy and cannot stop eating. No joke.

If I buy for example a Chicken Sandwich with fries from Chick Fil A , my desire to eat suddenly grows and eat a second meal with fries.

Recently there was a few girl scout cookies at my Mother’s house and she offered me one. After I ate one, I went into a frenzy and ate like Cookie Monster. There was only 3, but had there been more, I would have kept on eating.

This behavior is ruining my aesthetic goals. I always thought I was special Snowflake because of xyz, but I just don’t have self control.

This occurs either while I am leaning out (which I don’t go on bro cuts) and while slowly adding calories.

How do I not go into a frenzy and not eat until I feel bad about myself?

Thanks!

I call this mindless eating and there’s a complex relationship between psychosocial inputs and food-seeking behavior.

That being said, I would advise you to avoid the “cheat” meals for a period of time while aesthetic goals are your self-reported priority.

I would then recommend gradual exposure to the trigger -junk food in this case- and see if you can only have a bite of the chicken sandwich and just continue on with your day- perhaps engaging in other behaviors like scheduled physical activity or an event where there’s no food available.

You’ll have to work on retraining yourself to NOT always binge everytime you eat junk food, but I think some of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy too. You may also consider the environmental inputs here, i.e. where these binges happen most often, around whom, etc.

I have similar issues. Pickles have been my savior.

A bite and walk away? That… sounds like a tall order to fill. But I’ll have to give it a try. I’ll probably be a bit more conscious since I am going in with a logical agenda.

Could there be a Nutritional Deficiency that could be a big factor into this?

I think it’s important to realize that you don’t always have to binge and graded exposure is the method I’m suggesting.

It is extremely unlikely that a nutritional deficiency is the cause.