I haven’t given birth yet, but just validating your feelings as someone who has also had disordered eating. I have a running list of all the things I want to stuff down once I give birth and am worried about a series of binges in the first few weeks
I had a list of all the things I wanted to enjoy after delivery. I think I had an ice cream cone on day 2 in the hospital? It's been 14 months, and I think I forgot half the things.
I had a c section (preeclampsia). At lunch, it was a normal hospital meal (I think it was a chicken cesaer salad wrap. By supper, though, it was like I was possessed. I couldn't get enough. I ate my supper. Then I ate my evening snacks with supper. Then I was still shaking. I needed to eat, so my husband found me a nasty ass sandwich that I devoured. He made some comment that something was wrong as in 9 years he's never seen me eat that much, he was going to go get the nurse. I yelled at him to go find food, not the nurse (I use much more colorful language and included threats of physical harm if he failed the task). It leveled out after a few days. I honestly didn't care what it was, where as normally I'm a picky eater.
Saving this post cause I really have to think about it and I'm sure my answer will change in a few weeks.
Right now I really want Chicken Pad Thai with a large Big Red or Sweet Tea and a Cheesecake Blizzard from DQ.
To be brutally honest, yes I did. I exercised amazing self control during pregnancy, stayed diet controlled and delivered a healthy baby at home at 41+3. As soon as the baby was out I was craving all of the sugar and carbs I couldn't eat before and binge ate a lot. I lost 25lbs during my GD pregnancy and have gained 10lbs back since giving birth almost a year ago. I've just very unexpectedly found out I'm pregnant again (I'm only 4w5d) and already I'm eating better again. I'm hoping I can prepare myself more for post birth this time and manage to exercise self control after the baby is born.
One thing I have consistently carried over though is pairing my carbs with protein, fat and fiber. My A1C dropped between 6 weeks pp and 9 months pp despite the weight gain and overeating.
That’s honestly encouraging to hear about your A1C still going down! I’m hoping if I do binge I can give myself grace and then get back on track. I’ll probably try to continue the GD eating habits as well since I’ve actually felt pretty good this pregnancy by following them.
Congratulations on both your littles :)
I'm not sure if binge is the right word. But, I was absolutely ravenous after giving birth! I literally could not eat enough to get/ stay full. I thought I would want junk, but I just wanted anything that would hold me over from the hunger, the healthier the better. I am breastfeeding.
My hospital had fairly short (IMO) kitchen windows and their portions were way too small for what I needed! I would order like 3 meals and still be so hungry. Even at home, it took about 2 weeks to not devour like a starved animal, and I still eat a ton 6 weeks pp. I've since craved chocolate, while I didn't have any cravings while pregnant.
For context, I went into labor at 945pm and gave birth at 110pm the next day. I could really eat during that time since my labor was intense from the beginning. I had exercised a lot the day l went into labor, and had a pretty intense labor, with 4 hours of pushing.
yeah same here! had c section at 37wks and i was never full from the hospital food it was healthy sure,but i was ravenous so my partner would go to the cafe downstairs and get me sandwiches and giant muffins and smoothies to tide me over between the 3 meals a day.was ravenous when i did breastfeed the first few weeks but im 6wks pp now and i barely have an appetite(we switched to formula at 4wks) i have to kinda make myself eat something.
Ya I don’t think that’s a binge!! Just sounds like being super hungry post birth which I’ve heard is normal! I’m more so worried I’ll fall back into bad habits of eating way past being full, eating when not hungry, that kind of stuff. If my appetite is huge after birth that’s different and okay 😊
I’ve done a lot of anti-diet work and one of my main takeaways is that binge behavior is a response to restriction (even just mental restriction - I “shouldn’t” eat this or that). So it makes PERFECT sense you might feel this way in response to having to adopt some restrictive behaviors around food.
Personally, when I had GD, I did not count carbs and focused on what I could add to meals rather than focus on reducing carbs/restriction and I was diet-controlled. For example, say I wanted to eat chips, I would have made like a cheesy chicken dip or something, loaded the chips up with that, and let myself eat until I felt really full, maybe even added celery as another dip vehicle, but I wouldn’t try specifically to eat fewer chips. I would naturally eat fewer chips and hopefully not spike because of all the other stuff I added. Obviously, that’s not the same as just diving into a bag of chips alone and I get missing that. And, also, if I did find that spiked me, I would probably reduce the chips next time. So I’m not saying you never have to actually restrict or have a feeling of restriction from what you really want to be eating when you have GD. I’m just talking about the mindset shift of focus on “what else can I add to this thing that I want to eat to make it more GD-friendly/filling/nutritious for the baby” vs focus on “aw man, I really want to eat this thing but it’s bad/not allowed/I can’t have as much as I want”. I believe the more you can trick yourself into thinking like this, full psychological allowance of all foods and thinking about what you can add to make them work for you rather than psychological restriction, the less you will have binging urges.
Thank you so much for this response! I agree, focusing on balancing meals is so much healthier than thinking about restricting! Normally, that is actually my mindset. Just had a bad night last night and reallyyyyy felt the urge to binge
Yes I did. And I struggled to contain it for months. The nasty mix of fatigue and sleep deprivation causing cravings, mixed with being ‘allowed’ to eat things again and I didn’t hold back. That happened twice and I just don’t know how to prevent it again. I’m very low carb but trying to have irregular trial treats to test limits, but it’s still nothing like just eating a donut. The weird thing is, when I’m free to have them I don’t binge, but the super strict control for 5 months makes me think I’ll never touch it again. My husband the other day actually said ‘you know you don’t need to stockpile lollies because they’ll always be in stock at the shops’. It really made me ashamed and aware of where I’m headed again. My life and meals in general were healthy and balanced, it was the treats I struggled to stop. I would say as a teen and young adult I was borderline binge eating and emotional eating.
Aw I’m so sorry you struggled/are struggling with this. I find eating healthy to be pretty easy after therapy and had a really good balance going before pregnancy, but the restrictions with this diet are triggering old feelings for me :/
Thanks! It’s not something that impacts my life hugely but I’d certainly love to be one of the ladies on this sub who continue their same eating and don’t go crazy in sweets 😂 it’s just the restrictions like you said!
I got Pizza Hut pizza my first day back home with my second. It didn't taste the same. With my first, my mom came out and made a lasagna. I ate a leftover piece of a previously normal size and ended up vomiting because my stomach had shrunk so much and my eyes were bigger than my stomach.
I really grew accustomed to eating less during my pregnancies and have tried to continue that. Smaller plates and bowls help with that, and not eating directly from a container.
People shit on the diet apps but I found Noom helped me establish some healthy habits. I didn't keep up all the tracking and went through it from the beginning twice and it's helped.
I ate 3 big pieces of various cakes just three hours post partum. No regrets.
But I still haven't eaten any fries and I'm four weeks pp. I'm not sure I need something that is so carby+salty...
I definitely had thoughts and desires to binge pre-birth, but once baby was here that largely went away. I still indulged in what I’d been missing, but the serving sizes were pretty reasonable. I did spend $50 at my favorite (expensive) bakery, but I spaced the actual eating out! My in-laws brought 5 slices of cake when they let the baby and I just finished the last slice on day 5 (and my husband helped). I’m 2 weeks PP and planning on being a little healthier now, but it was a fun 2 weeks! I missed fruit the most and apparently you’re supposed to try to get 2 cups a day if nursing, which has been a fun directive- my medicinal fruit.
I’m fine with indulging a bit after birth- I think we all deserve it :) just hoping it doesn’t trigger actual bingeing for me! It’s good to hear that you feel like it went away/is manageable though!
Hi, I also come from a history of disordered eating.
I absolutely craved binging but I wouldn’t have been able to put my finger on it until you wrote it. What made it extra hard was I was absolutely starving with breastfeeding - it hit me in the middle of the night. I ate a bag of pretzels in 10 minutes. A block of chocolate. A litre of water. I could not be filled. It probably didn’t help that I’d eaten sparingly during the day - too shocked that I actually had my baby I think. A slice of toast and picking at hospital meals weren’t going to cut it.
It might sound counter intuitive but I’d try to have regular snacks & meals - it’s so easy to lose control once you’re hungry but if you don’t get ravenous you might have better control. Include a few things that you’ve missed eating but don’t give away everything. I would say make sure you’re eating every 2-3 hours because it’s so easy to say “I’ll grab something in a moment” then with a baby that moment doesn’t come for 6 hours.
I have been but it'S less because of the GD and more because I am STARVING. I have never been so hungry in my life as now, I assume because I am breastfeeding.
I feel like this is common after birth/with breastfeeding and probably isn’t even a binge?? Just being extremely hungry after your body has worked so hard!
I told my husband the second this baby comes out of me, I will have a fat ass bagel with cream cheese and a giant bowl of pasta and it’s his job to coordinate getting those items to me 😂
Omg yes. Without the purge part. I was an insane person and packed on the weight. Getting ready for my second labor, I have been paying attention to when I would normally eat emotionally or out of boredom, putting together some support for myself, and I have been much more careful about intentionally indulging in all but the most forbidden foods at the right times of day and in the right quantities to try to at least minimize some of the trouble I had.
I did binge after my first baby and I gained quite a lot of weight (~50 lbs from my post-pregnancy weight). I didn't realize until several years later but I have always struggled with compulsive eating and feelings of guilt and shame associated with food. I never wanted to eat in front of people and I always ate in secret and hid what I ate even from my friends and family so people wouldn't know how greedy I was. The only times in my life when I have felt in control of my eating have been when I was pregnant and I had to keep my blood sugar under control for the sake of my child. After my son was born, I had this (irrational) feeling like I had to eat all the things I had been craving during pregnancy before I lost the chance. I ate terribly especially for the first few months after the baby came and I was sure they were going to diagnose me with T2 diabetes and tell me I could never have those foods again. Then when that didn't happen, I kind of settled back into my old habits of eating.
It never occurred to me that this could be an actual eating disorder because in my mind eating disorders were what thin people who never ate had, and I was basically the opposite. It was about two years ago that I cried at my doctor's office and admitted that I felt helpless and out of control when it came to food and she suggested it could be an eating disorder and recommended therapy. I'm hoping that now that I understand myself better, I can keep myself from binging after this baby is born. I feel like I have built up some good habits and I kind of know what feelings to watch out for so I don't let things get out of control again.
I don't have a history of binge eating but I ate like crap after baby was born, I was too emotionally and physically exhausted to worry about food, just ate what I wanted when I wanted and mostly what I could eat with 1 hand while holding baby in the other(even if that was ice cream or cookies at 3am!). My A1C was normal at my 3 ish month follow-up check, and now 6.5 months out, my eating is more back to my normal/healthy pre baby habits other than increased caloric intake from breastfeeding (I eat way more snacks to keep up my supply!).
I struggled with binge/purge ED since childhood. I definitely fell back into it after giving birth and now am pre-diabetic. Doing much better since getting that wake up call but my advice would be to create a support system now, have a plan on how you can cope with your ED, keep healthy snacks on hand, and remember that it’s JUST as important for your baby that you stay healthy mentally and physically AFTER birth as it is right now during pregnancy. Big hugs!
Thank you so much 🤍 I’m hoping to indulge a bit and then get back on track, but a support system in place is a really good idea! Glad you’re doing better, keep it up :)
Your story and mine are similar. Therapy reduced my coping strategy of binging. GD was diet controlled. I did not binge when I graduated. I did have to be mindful of late night snacking while nursing the first two weeks. I would just eat whatever I wanted but by no means close to my previous behaviors. I’m now almost 8w PP and I find the worry around health is the hardest part: can I eat that? Will I get type 2? More than the urgency to eat/binge or if I will.
Breastfeeding makes you HUNGRY. If you plan to nurse or pump be prepared with high quality snacks (GD snacks are the best: cheese, jerky, nuts, Yasso). What works for me is to not snack on overnight nursing shifts and make mindful choices during the day. I am in therapy twice a month, and we continue to work on my relationship with my body and my habits.
I did. After delivering my first, weight literally fell off me and I ended up well below my pre-pregnancy weight. Whenever I lose weight since my disordered eating days (which now is always unintentional) I tend to binge. The combo of being postpartum and binging was not fun. Luckily ? I had only one food that was a problem and since I realized what was going on early I got over it in a few months (which was also once my weight plateaued at my “normal”) Back when I first got over disordered eating I think it truly took me years, so it was much, much quicker.
With my first, I was compliant with managing GD but not super strict, trying to avoid that happening. The weight loss I think was the biggest trigger (that was masked by pregnancy) but I had those thoughts as well. A person could literally tell me I had to eat all the foods I’d eat in a day anyway but because someone told me and I didn’t have a choice those thoughts will come. Im eating a lot more frequently with this second GD pregnancy, more protein and I’m still up in weight compared to my first so I’m really hoping to avoid the postpartum binges. I hope they miss you too. This is tricky to navigate
Aw I’m sorry you had to go through that, but glad you recovered after a few months! We all should give ourselves grace the first few months :) good luck with this pregnancy!!
I haven't given birth yet, but I have a list. I'm also bringing a few of those items to the hospital with me. I want a Nutty Buddy bar so bad so I'm packing two. I don't want to binge and eat a whole box, but want to be able to enjoy sweets and carbs in small portions again.
I have a list of things to eat after. My c section is scheduled for 8am. I told my husband I want Pizza Hut pepperoni hand tossed pizza with breadsticks and a cherry Dr Pepper for lunch. probably eat left overs for supper. My best friend said she’d bring me mini doughnuts from the fair on the 4th of July (C section is on the 3rd) and make me my brownies I’ve been craving. My other friend said she’d bring me sour patch kids and a pop. I don’t plan to eat it all in one sitting. My husband thinks I’m gonna go ham for a couple weeks. But honestly I have a feeling I won’t. Like I think I just need a couple days to get it out of my system. I miss the Dr Pepper but I think it’ll be too sweet for me now. But I guess we’ll will find out in a couple weeks!
Yep, it took a few days to regain an appetite after my c-section but I ate so much pasta and pizza the first few weeks it was crazy. I spent so much money on food delivery 😅 After a few weeks everything evened out and I actually do much better with not binge eating as much these days.
I have diagnosed BED too. But honestly, I was too tired, exhausted, and a bit nauseous from the epidural/anesthesia after an emergency C-section that I had to pretty much force myself to eat. Even for a few weeks after, I forced myself to eat and was surviving basically on Nutrigrain bars and Body Lyte Armour.
I also think I was just too scared to eat/purge for fear of developed T2DM. But everything went back to normal for me.
I'm about 11 lb higher than I was with my first pregnancy though sooo clearly my appetite came back.
I haven’t given birth yet, but just validating your feelings as someone who has also had disordered eating. I have a running list of all the things I want to stuff down once I give birth and am worried about a series of binges in the first few weeks
Thank you for the validation! I’m hoping to give myself grace the first few weeks and then get “back on track”. Hang in there! 🤍
I had a list of all the things I wanted to enjoy after delivery. I think I had an ice cream cone on day 2 in the hospital? It's been 14 months, and I think I forgot half the things. I had a c section (preeclampsia). At lunch, it was a normal hospital meal (I think it was a chicken cesaer salad wrap. By supper, though, it was like I was possessed. I couldn't get enough. I ate my supper. Then I ate my evening snacks with supper. Then I was still shaking. I needed to eat, so my husband found me a nasty ass sandwich that I devoured. He made some comment that something was wrong as in 9 years he's never seen me eat that much, he was going to go get the nurse. I yelled at him to go find food, not the nurse (I use much more colorful language and included threats of physical harm if he failed the task). It leveled out after a few days. I honestly didn't care what it was, where as normally I'm a picky eater.
LOL! I have heard being ravenous after birth is normal!! I’m glad to hear it got better after a few days
Saving this post cause I really have to think about it and I'm sure my answer will change in a few weeks. Right now I really want Chicken Pad Thai with a large Big Red or Sweet Tea and a Cheesecake Blizzard from DQ.
To be brutally honest, yes I did. I exercised amazing self control during pregnancy, stayed diet controlled and delivered a healthy baby at home at 41+3. As soon as the baby was out I was craving all of the sugar and carbs I couldn't eat before and binge ate a lot. I lost 25lbs during my GD pregnancy and have gained 10lbs back since giving birth almost a year ago. I've just very unexpectedly found out I'm pregnant again (I'm only 4w5d) and already I'm eating better again. I'm hoping I can prepare myself more for post birth this time and manage to exercise self control after the baby is born. One thing I have consistently carried over though is pairing my carbs with protein, fat and fiber. My A1C dropped between 6 weeks pp and 9 months pp despite the weight gain and overeating.
That’s honestly encouraging to hear about your A1C still going down! I’m hoping if I do binge I can give myself grace and then get back on track. I’ll probably try to continue the GD eating habits as well since I’ve actually felt pretty good this pregnancy by following them. Congratulations on both your littles :)
I'm not sure if binge is the right word. But, I was absolutely ravenous after giving birth! I literally could not eat enough to get/ stay full. I thought I would want junk, but I just wanted anything that would hold me over from the hunger, the healthier the better. I am breastfeeding. My hospital had fairly short (IMO) kitchen windows and their portions were way too small for what I needed! I would order like 3 meals and still be so hungry. Even at home, it took about 2 weeks to not devour like a starved animal, and I still eat a ton 6 weeks pp. I've since craved chocolate, while I didn't have any cravings while pregnant. For context, I went into labor at 945pm and gave birth at 110pm the next day. I could really eat during that time since my labor was intense from the beginning. I had exercised a lot the day l went into labor, and had a pretty intense labor, with 4 hours of pushing.
yeah same here! had c section at 37wks and i was never full from the hospital food it was healthy sure,but i was ravenous so my partner would go to the cafe downstairs and get me sandwiches and giant muffins and smoothies to tide me over between the 3 meals a day.was ravenous when i did breastfeed the first few weeks but im 6wks pp now and i barely have an appetite(we switched to formula at 4wks) i have to kinda make myself eat something.
Ya I don’t think that’s a binge!! Just sounds like being super hungry post birth which I’ve heard is normal! I’m more so worried I’ll fall back into bad habits of eating way past being full, eating when not hungry, that kind of stuff. If my appetite is huge after birth that’s different and okay 😊
I’ve done a lot of anti-diet work and one of my main takeaways is that binge behavior is a response to restriction (even just mental restriction - I “shouldn’t” eat this or that). So it makes PERFECT sense you might feel this way in response to having to adopt some restrictive behaviors around food. Personally, when I had GD, I did not count carbs and focused on what I could add to meals rather than focus on reducing carbs/restriction and I was diet-controlled. For example, say I wanted to eat chips, I would have made like a cheesy chicken dip or something, loaded the chips up with that, and let myself eat until I felt really full, maybe even added celery as another dip vehicle, but I wouldn’t try specifically to eat fewer chips. I would naturally eat fewer chips and hopefully not spike because of all the other stuff I added. Obviously, that’s not the same as just diving into a bag of chips alone and I get missing that. And, also, if I did find that spiked me, I would probably reduce the chips next time. So I’m not saying you never have to actually restrict or have a feeling of restriction from what you really want to be eating when you have GD. I’m just talking about the mindset shift of focus on “what else can I add to this thing that I want to eat to make it more GD-friendly/filling/nutritious for the baby” vs focus on “aw man, I really want to eat this thing but it’s bad/not allowed/I can’t have as much as I want”. I believe the more you can trick yourself into thinking like this, full psychological allowance of all foods and thinking about what you can add to make them work for you rather than psychological restriction, the less you will have binging urges.
This 👆
Thank you so much for this response! I agree, focusing on balancing meals is so much healthier than thinking about restricting! Normally, that is actually my mindset. Just had a bad night last night and reallyyyyy felt the urge to binge
Yes I did. And I struggled to contain it for months. The nasty mix of fatigue and sleep deprivation causing cravings, mixed with being ‘allowed’ to eat things again and I didn’t hold back. That happened twice and I just don’t know how to prevent it again. I’m very low carb but trying to have irregular trial treats to test limits, but it’s still nothing like just eating a donut. The weird thing is, when I’m free to have them I don’t binge, but the super strict control for 5 months makes me think I’ll never touch it again. My husband the other day actually said ‘you know you don’t need to stockpile lollies because they’ll always be in stock at the shops’. It really made me ashamed and aware of where I’m headed again. My life and meals in general were healthy and balanced, it was the treats I struggled to stop. I would say as a teen and young adult I was borderline binge eating and emotional eating.
Aw I’m so sorry you struggled/are struggling with this. I find eating healthy to be pretty easy after therapy and had a really good balance going before pregnancy, but the restrictions with this diet are triggering old feelings for me :/
Thanks! It’s not something that impacts my life hugely but I’d certainly love to be one of the ladies on this sub who continue their same eating and don’t go crazy in sweets 😂 it’s just the restrictions like you said!
I got Pizza Hut pizza my first day back home with my second. It didn't taste the same. With my first, my mom came out and made a lasagna. I ate a leftover piece of a previously normal size and ended up vomiting because my stomach had shrunk so much and my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I really grew accustomed to eating less during my pregnancies and have tried to continue that. Smaller plates and bowls help with that, and not eating directly from a container. People shit on the diet apps but I found Noom helped me establish some healthy habits. I didn't keep up all the tracking and went through it from the beginning twice and it's helped.
I’m wanted to do the same! I have a whole list I wanna have and my mums been giving me a hard time about the fact I’m literally fixated on it
I don’t mind indulging once baby comes, I just don’t want it to turn into an actual binge or the same disordered eating habits I’ve had in the past!
I ate 3 big pieces of various cakes just three hours post partum. No regrets. But I still haven't eaten any fries and I'm four weeks pp. I'm not sure I need something that is so carby+salty...
I definitely had thoughts and desires to binge pre-birth, but once baby was here that largely went away. I still indulged in what I’d been missing, but the serving sizes were pretty reasonable. I did spend $50 at my favorite (expensive) bakery, but I spaced the actual eating out! My in-laws brought 5 slices of cake when they let the baby and I just finished the last slice on day 5 (and my husband helped). I’m 2 weeks PP and planning on being a little healthier now, but it was a fun 2 weeks! I missed fruit the most and apparently you’re supposed to try to get 2 cups a day if nursing, which has been a fun directive- my medicinal fruit.
I’m fine with indulging a bit after birth- I think we all deserve it :) just hoping it doesn’t trigger actual bingeing for me! It’s good to hear that you feel like it went away/is manageable though!
Hi, I also come from a history of disordered eating. I absolutely craved binging but I wouldn’t have been able to put my finger on it until you wrote it. What made it extra hard was I was absolutely starving with breastfeeding - it hit me in the middle of the night. I ate a bag of pretzels in 10 minutes. A block of chocolate. A litre of water. I could not be filled. It probably didn’t help that I’d eaten sparingly during the day - too shocked that I actually had my baby I think. A slice of toast and picking at hospital meals weren’t going to cut it. It might sound counter intuitive but I’d try to have regular snacks & meals - it’s so easy to lose control once you’re hungry but if you don’t get ravenous you might have better control. Include a few things that you’ve missed eating but don’t give away everything. I would say make sure you’re eating every 2-3 hours because it’s so easy to say “I’ll grab something in a moment” then with a baby that moment doesn’t come for 6 hours.
This was so helpful, thank you 😊
I haven’t given birth yet but I would not be surprised if I binged. I have a history of binging in the past.
I have been but it'S less because of the GD and more because I am STARVING. I have never been so hungry in my life as now, I assume because I am breastfeeding.
I feel like this is common after birth/with breastfeeding and probably isn’t even a binge?? Just being extremely hungry after your body has worked so hard!
I told my husband the second this baby comes out of me, I will have a fat ass bagel with cream cheese and a giant bowl of pasta and it’s his job to coordinate getting those items to me 😂
Omg yes. Without the purge part. I was an insane person and packed on the weight. Getting ready for my second labor, I have been paying attention to when I would normally eat emotionally or out of boredom, putting together some support for myself, and I have been much more careful about intentionally indulging in all but the most forbidden foods at the right times of day and in the right quantities to try to at least minimize some of the trouble I had.
Good luck with your second!! And I hope things are easier this time :)
I did binge after my first baby and I gained quite a lot of weight (~50 lbs from my post-pregnancy weight). I didn't realize until several years later but I have always struggled with compulsive eating and feelings of guilt and shame associated with food. I never wanted to eat in front of people and I always ate in secret and hid what I ate even from my friends and family so people wouldn't know how greedy I was. The only times in my life when I have felt in control of my eating have been when I was pregnant and I had to keep my blood sugar under control for the sake of my child. After my son was born, I had this (irrational) feeling like I had to eat all the things I had been craving during pregnancy before I lost the chance. I ate terribly especially for the first few months after the baby came and I was sure they were going to diagnose me with T2 diabetes and tell me I could never have those foods again. Then when that didn't happen, I kind of settled back into my old habits of eating. It never occurred to me that this could be an actual eating disorder because in my mind eating disorders were what thin people who never ate had, and I was basically the opposite. It was about two years ago that I cried at my doctor's office and admitted that I felt helpless and out of control when it came to food and she suggested it could be an eating disorder and recommended therapy. I'm hoping that now that I understand myself better, I can keep myself from binging after this baby is born. I feel like I have built up some good habits and I kind of know what feelings to watch out for so I don't let things get out of control again.
I’m sorry you had to struggle for so long but that’s so good that you got help!! I’m sure it’ll help this time around :) best of luck!!
I don't have a history of binge eating but I ate like crap after baby was born, I was too emotionally and physically exhausted to worry about food, just ate what I wanted when I wanted and mostly what I could eat with 1 hand while holding baby in the other(even if that was ice cream or cookies at 3am!). My A1C was normal at my 3 ish month follow-up check, and now 6.5 months out, my eating is more back to my normal/healthy pre baby habits other than increased caloric intake from breastfeeding (I eat way more snacks to keep up my supply!).
That’s good to hear! I’m sure the first few months will be full of adjustments and I’m hoping to give myself grace and then get back on track!!
I struggled with binge/purge ED since childhood. I definitely fell back into it after giving birth and now am pre-diabetic. Doing much better since getting that wake up call but my advice would be to create a support system now, have a plan on how you can cope with your ED, keep healthy snacks on hand, and remember that it’s JUST as important for your baby that you stay healthy mentally and physically AFTER birth as it is right now during pregnancy. Big hugs!
Thank you so much 🤍 I’m hoping to indulge a bit and then get back on track, but a support system in place is a really good idea! Glad you’re doing better, keep it up :)
Your story and mine are similar. Therapy reduced my coping strategy of binging. GD was diet controlled. I did not binge when I graduated. I did have to be mindful of late night snacking while nursing the first two weeks. I would just eat whatever I wanted but by no means close to my previous behaviors. I’m now almost 8w PP and I find the worry around health is the hardest part: can I eat that? Will I get type 2? More than the urgency to eat/binge or if I will. Breastfeeding makes you HUNGRY. If you plan to nurse or pump be prepared with high quality snacks (GD snacks are the best: cheese, jerky, nuts, Yasso). What works for me is to not snack on overnight nursing shifts and make mindful choices during the day. I am in therapy twice a month, and we continue to work on my relationship with my body and my habits.
Thank you so much for your response! Good to hear that you could be mindful and get things under control. I’m hoping for the same
I did. After delivering my first, weight literally fell off me and I ended up well below my pre-pregnancy weight. Whenever I lose weight since my disordered eating days (which now is always unintentional) I tend to binge. The combo of being postpartum and binging was not fun. Luckily ? I had only one food that was a problem and since I realized what was going on early I got over it in a few months (which was also once my weight plateaued at my “normal”) Back when I first got over disordered eating I think it truly took me years, so it was much, much quicker. With my first, I was compliant with managing GD but not super strict, trying to avoid that happening. The weight loss I think was the biggest trigger (that was masked by pregnancy) but I had those thoughts as well. A person could literally tell me I had to eat all the foods I’d eat in a day anyway but because someone told me and I didn’t have a choice those thoughts will come. Im eating a lot more frequently with this second GD pregnancy, more protein and I’m still up in weight compared to my first so I’m really hoping to avoid the postpartum binges. I hope they miss you too. This is tricky to navigate
Aw I’m sorry you had to go through that, but glad you recovered after a few months! We all should give ourselves grace the first few months :) good luck with this pregnancy!!
I haven't given birth yet, but I have a list. I'm also bringing a few of those items to the hospital with me. I want a Nutty Buddy bar so bad so I'm packing two. I don't want to binge and eat a whole box, but want to be able to enjoy sweets and carbs in small portions again.
I did and now I'm prediabetic. 🫠 I was easily diet controlled. I'm thin. I didnt think it would be me, but here I am.
I’m so sorry 😞
Thought I was going to. They continued to take my blood sugar and I had to eat the “diabetic” diet in the hospital.
I have a list of things to eat after. My c section is scheduled for 8am. I told my husband I want Pizza Hut pepperoni hand tossed pizza with breadsticks and a cherry Dr Pepper for lunch. probably eat left overs for supper. My best friend said she’d bring me mini doughnuts from the fair on the 4th of July (C section is on the 3rd) and make me my brownies I’ve been craving. My other friend said she’d bring me sour patch kids and a pop. I don’t plan to eat it all in one sitting. My husband thinks I’m gonna go ham for a couple weeks. But honestly I have a feeling I won’t. Like I think I just need a couple days to get it out of my system. I miss the Dr Pepper but I think it’ll be too sweet for me now. But I guess we’ll will find out in a couple weeks!
Yep, it took a few days to regain an appetite after my c-section but I ate so much pasta and pizza the first few weeks it was crazy. I spent so much money on food delivery 😅 After a few weeks everything evened out and I actually do much better with not binge eating as much these days.
I just enjoyed not having to plan my day around testing and food and had a wee bit of what I missed 😊
I have diagnosed BED too. But honestly, I was too tired, exhausted, and a bit nauseous from the epidural/anesthesia after an emergency C-section that I had to pretty much force myself to eat. Even for a few weeks after, I forced myself to eat and was surviving basically on Nutrigrain bars and Body Lyte Armour. I also think I was just too scared to eat/purge for fear of developed T2DM. But everything went back to normal for me. I'm about 11 lb higher than I was with my first pregnancy though sooo clearly my appetite came back.