Situation - verge of a binge:

• You are on the verge of a binge.
• You are deciding what and how much you will eat.
• You promise yourself you will stop at reasonable limits (although you rarely succeed in keeping this promise.)

Remember the power of the pause to move beyond your binge urge.

Exercise:

1.   Pause.

2.   Write a description of your last hour, the immediate hour you lived just before now.

Include:

• What happened.
• What you did.
• What you said.
• What you thought.
• What you felt.

You may have experienced or remembered something hurtful or frightening to you. This can be true even if what happened in the hour seems, on the surface, to be simple and ordinary. Or you may have experienced something challenging but believe you handled it well.

Remember, you now know that there is something you don't know. So something innocuous, like hanging up the phone, or misplacing your shoes, or looking at a coffee cup on a shelf might actually trigger a painful feeling in you that you would prefer not to feel.

Think of how you might soothe or comfort yourself. You may need understanding you can't give yourself. You might find that understanding and holding in a book, painting or piece of music. You might listen to an educational or inspirational cd. You might call a friend.

You might continue to journal. Write what you are thinking and feeling now. Read it out loud. Read it out loud a second time in front of a mirror.

Throughout this process time is passing.  The urge to binge can rise up like a powerful wave, but it will crest and roll on to the beach. The urge will pass too.  You are finding that you can ride it out and be in calm waters again.

Have you ever found a way to ride out the urge to binge without acting out? How did that happen? What did you learn? How might you find a way to do that again?