Welcome friends to my own little piece of the blogosphere known as 'Carol's Corner'. Spent the last two days not leaving my bedroom but tomorrow venturing out for some me time in Syracuse. Going to have a complete skincare and makeup done at Bare Minerals in Destiny USA, featuring their new skincare products. They are going to pamper me from start to finish , so leaving with no makeup on at all. Should be interesting. I use tons of their products already and know that I want at least one of the new skincare products which hopefully hubby will spring for, for Valentine's Day. Then taking in a movie while hubby reads or snoozes or whatever, and then dinner somewhere after that. Too bad it's going to be one of our coldest days so far this winter, but really need to get out of the house. Neri Barretta captained this pic with ,”Hell On Wheels!” Love that and it made me laugh, which I sure need these days. Oh and note my blinged out basket on my roll-about scooter. Found a way to do something that can be taken apart.

Watch and accessories were all grey and silvertoned.

The three piece jewelry set was made by me and this cute ring was a purchase made during my dream vacation in Hawaii in 2010. Boy does time fly!

So this issue of Carol's Corner will be guest blogged by Tiffany Cornish Dujinski with the topic of discussion being ” Binge Eating and Emotional Triggers.” Here's Tiffany! Well that's not her in the picture. LOL!!!

 

 

I'm not the only binge eater in the world. I know I'm not because I have at least two friends who confess to the same. And if I personally know a couple of binge eaters, there are bound to be more out there. It's a problem I've had for awhile I guess, but I've finally recognized it, named it, and I'm now looking for ways to combat it. Most recently, I've begun to recognize my triggers and plan for them. It's been hugely helpful to me, and I want to share just a few triggers and ways that I've overcome them. Strategies that have been key are to ELIMINATE the trigger, PLAN FOR the trigger, and to STAY BUSY.

First of all, not having junk food accessible is probably the best plan. However I live in a house with a husband and four hungry little boys, all of whom love their treats very, very much. I make many of those treats for them: Apple cake, banana bread, chocolate cake, pudding, cookies…you name it. I like to bake, and I'm good at it ( I think), and baking is one of the many ways I love my family. Not having junk food and sweets in the house is just not an option for me.

I have noticed that I mostly do fine resisting during the day, but at night when the kids are in bed and nobody's there to beg for a bite, I really can go crazy.

 

 

If I go into the kitchen after the kids are in bed, I have to VERY consciously PLAN before I go in there to not eat the goodies. This works relatively well most of the time. Today,though, there were a dozen donuts on the counter. I cannot resist donuts. I just can't. So I ELIMINATED the trigger by saving out just enough for the hubs and kids to have one after dinner and promptly froze the rest. Frozen donuts are no fun, so I'm not tempted at all. I'll thaw them later, one at a time , for hubs and kids. Come to think of it, I guess I really didn't eleminate the trigger altogether, but I did make it decidedly less available.

One emotional binge eating trigger for me is frustration, and particularly frustration with my kids. And with four boys under the age of 6, there is a fair amount of frustration, let me tell ya. Ha! When I want to duck away for a few minutes ( I KNOW I'm not the only mama who does that), I like to retreat to my candy stash in the spare room and gobble candy as fast as I can unwrap it. Now that I've recognized the trigger, I can PLAN for it. For the last week or so, when I feel frustrated, I go run a load of laundry ( there's always plenty of that) and watch the water fill the machine. There's something soothing about the sound of the water, and in the time it takes the machine to fill, I usually calm down enough to rejoin them.

New to me lately is my husband working occassional nights. This is a HUGE trigger for me. Lonely, up too late, watching TV, with no one at all there to see me eating…I once ate an ENTIRE BAG of miniature KitKat bars( the big old trick-or-treater bag) in ONE sitting. It's bad,people. SO bad! The only way I can get around this is to STAY BUSY. So last night when he worked overnight, I planned myself a TON of housework AND a 3 mile workout. It was 11 by the time I was through with all that, which left me only an hour or so to have to resist temptation before I couldn't stay awake anymore. It was PERFECT. Tonight I was having a harder time, so I invited a friend to come over and watch TV with me. Fortunately, she was available, and we had a nice time together “munching on water” as she said. Haha! I wasn't tired enough for bed when she left, so I did some Pilates, and now I'm blogging for Carol. ( and I Carol say, Aren I the lucky one?) Back to Tiffany- I'll go to bed soon, and I've only eaten a banana since dinner. Not too bad right? Tomorrow night he's working again, but I've already planned to deep clean my kitchen and study the Sunday School lesson I'm teaching on Sunday, paint my toenails, and do a three or four mile workout. That should keep me busy enough.

One side benefit of the STAY BUSY tactic is that, not only do you skip feeling bad for binge eating, you feel GREAT about having been productive. Instead of shame for eating disgusting amounts of junk food, I can feel proud of myself for getting housework or laundry or personal care done. It's a great feeling.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas if this is something you're struggling with. And maybe YOU can give ME some ideas! What are your triggers? How do you overcome them?

Tiffany found this little gem on You Tube. And she captions it” If only it were this easy “. Hopefully this will work I've never done a video clip yet so we shall see. If anything it will make you laugh.

https://youtu.be/Ow0lr63y4Mw

 

 

Tiffany thanks again for being my guest blogger tonight. I look forward to having you as often as you would like. It is always a pleasure.

Don't forget to leave feedback in your groups so I can pass any comments on to Tiffany and also feel free to post any of your thoughts on the subject. We are all here to help each other . Remember that saying , ” It takes a village?” Well we have a big one out here in cyberspace, so let's help each other on this journey that we are all a part of. Till next time, God Bless.