Confession time: carb binge

 Just wanted to publicly air this: I had an ambien-induced carb binge last night after coming home from support group. WHILE I'm looking at the positive (pre-op vs post-op), that my binge is actually a serving size of each "offending item", I had no need to eat oatmeal cookies, tortilla chips & sugar free chocolates at 10p last night. I can pretty much chalk it up to emotional eating. Past 2 weeks have been rough - grandpa died, husband having UC flare that landed him in the ER last weekend, power outages, difficult clients, NUT is moving, etc. What scares me is that it was semi-unconscious eating; there was little to no decision making in this binge. Sometimes scared can be a good place - motivating one to change.
So, time to suck it up, start a new day - - and at least this motivates the tenor of my appointment today with my sleep dr: get me off of the Ambien!

Ok I'm fessing up too. Lol. Worked all day then two meetings 6:30 and 8:30 got home at ten thirty and never really had dinner... At 5:30 I threw protein powder into a decaf ice coffee (that was dinner) which should have done it. Right? Nope I had a power bar at 8 and then when I came home I has a big bowl of popcorn w tons of butter salt flavoring (salt fix for me) and it gets worse I had a no sugar added chic coated ice cream bar. What was that binge? I just wanted to eat. I wasn't hungry!!!!! I was soothing with food and that's what scares me! I've worked hard in my head but that all went right out the window! How do we stop that from happening again?

Yes move on and learn from it but really? This wasn't good to do to myself! Why can't we get brain surgery lol cause its the head that screws w us! Thanks for your honest and giving me the opportunity to spill my guts!

 I did that yesterday, too. I downed some frosting on a whim. I knew it had more to do with not eating on time, so it spiraled into a sugar binge. I haven't had surgery yet, and realized that it didn't make anything better. I actually felt worse--not with guilt, but just blah. That hasn't happened in a long time, so I need to make sure I have something protein-rich on hand in those emergencies. Ugh...

Between the sugar binge and the soy milk not agreeing with me, I was awful yesterday. Sheesh!

 Been there, done that.  No one is 100% perfect.  Let it go & move on.  

Almost 7 months out and I have been struggling with the emotional eating.  I am working hard on it and it is  much better than before surgery.

I have learned that if I don't need to eat it, it should not be in my house.  I am too, too tempted.
After everyone goes to be and I am not sleepy enough to go to sleep but tired (and bored), I think about those things and they seem to start calling my name.  i am not tempted to eat sugar (I am afraid of dumping) but I want carbs (which make me want more carbs) and sugar free pudding, sf fudgesicles etc, etc.

Oh and by the way, if watermelon is in the house, I can not resist it - and not just a little bit of it.

It's understandable that you feel bad about eating these foods, but there might be another way to think of this. I'm reading a great book called"Focus on the Good Stuff: The Power of Appreciation" by Mike Robbins. I'm not done with it yet but the main point of the book is that we as humans tend to focus so much on goals and when we aren't that great at meeting our goals every day that we become super critical of ourselves and others. It robs us of the joy of daily living and makes us forget we're here to enjoy the journey. Instead of focusing on this one time that you didn't eat as well as you could have, another way to possibly look at is to recall all the days and times you've eaten well. And look at the things you have experienced lately and made it throught! It really is amazing. You can and should appreciate yourself for being so strong and coming as far as you have. it's not an excuse to eat more carbs or anyting like that, but think about it for a minute what an amazing job you've done so far and how hard it's been to get where you are! You're dong great.

My turn to come clean... my carb binge was about two weeks ago when my hubby lost his job. He's never been unemployed in 30 years, and I am starting school in 2 months. Two cookies, a brownie, 10 peanut M&Ms, tortilla chips. I noticed what I was doing and allowed myself to do it. Oh, and yes - I ended up dumping BAAAAAAD!

The good thing was that I got right back on the "wagon" the next day (because the binge was in the evening).

One thing that this helped me to realize is that we can have an OCCASIONAL episode where we don't eat what we know we should and not have it affect the scale. This is still a point of fear with me because, like all of us, I have failed so many times in the keeping-the-weight-off arena.

I forgave myself and moved forward. This is a victory for me because it would have plunged the "old me" into a binging spiral that could have lasted weeks.

I try to look at the length of my journey in these moments. Bad days happen. But the beauty of a bad day is in redemption.

I hope your stress lowers soon. And hugs. Believe me I've been there!

 I had a real nasty effect from ambien. As your post stated, ambien can cause amnesia. It was bedtime and I took my usual dose of ambien. Sometime after that, I must have woken up and didn't remember I had taken the medicine. Over the next 4-5 hours, I consumed 20 ambien, 12 Xanex and some amatriptaline. All this happened without me remembering. My 14 yo daughter said I was walking around and wasn't making sense. She called my mom, who took me to the er. I was admitted to the hospital. I have no memory of taking the meds, the drive, the er or my first day in the hospital. Day 2, I was remembering some things, but when asked a question, like what town are you in, who are the people in my room, I could not think of the correct answer, I could actually hear the answer in my head, but the only thing I could convey, is "I don't know". I couldn't make my mouth say the correct answer. The doctors said for the first 12 hours, they weren't sure I was going to live. It was majorly stupid of me to take ambien, since I had had 2 episodes in the past 5 years of sleep walking/eating. It never occurred to me that by taking the ambien could cause me to od. Please be careful.

Huggs and Kisses to you all but......stand aside girls.....that was amateur hour.....Wanna know what I downed today???  BTW...absolutely no dumping!!!

I started the day out alright:
B Protein shake and vitamins
S 1/2 Quest Bar
Lunch Chix Salad
S other 1/2 quest bar and a couple almonds
S Protein water with crystal light

Ok....and the the grand prize
Dinner: one piece of french bread with butter, 1/3 of a chicken club sandwich with chix breast, mayo, ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato.  Small handful of shoestring fries. And 6 PIECES OF SEES CHOCOLATE CANDIES.  Those suckers have like 60 calories a piece. I'm going to have look the carbs up! Small pouch???  Not me!  I was full after I left the restaurant but clearly not sick cuz I walked all over the mall no problems and didn't even need the bathroom.

There's still chocolate in the bag.  I could easily down the rest without the least amount of sickness but I am satisfied.  I did the RNY so I would get sick and dump. No such luck. Hell, I could have had the sleeve but was told that RNY produces dumpers.  Just my luck!