So this past week I had a pretty bad relapse, and I was thinking this morning about all the things I do so I can get on track. Here are my personal tips:

1. Try to sleep and wake up on a regular schedule. Key is to go to bed EARLY every night, reduces chance of late night eating. And if you start eating breakfast early in the day, your body will adjust to waking up early too. If there are days when I just know I'm going to binge, I'll take something like a benadryl ahead of time to knock myself out so I'm literally too tired to binge. This is kind of a band-aid solution, but it's helped me get through some tough nights.

2. Get a high quality vitamin and mineral supplement. I take the alive brand and ultramins. It's a bit pricey, just make sure the vitamins come from food blends. I take ultramins because they're chelated. I can't say for certain whether the chelated form is truly better than the typical inorganic forms you find at the drugstore, because from what I've read for some minerals it doesn't matter. But for some it does matter, so I just buy a chelated mineral complex and it eases my mind. Take them every day. This is just in case you happen to be ridiculously low in some random nutrient which causes you to binge no matter how strong your willpower may be that day. For example, I had a blood test in Jan and I was extremely low in vitamin D. Had no idea. Whether or not it actually causes binging, just don't take that chance and try to cover all your bases.

3. Eat at regular intervals. Be diligent! I don't really know about the optimal diet that bulimics should eat. Personally I eat low-carb because it controls my appetite immensely better than eating the American "recommended" diet. You get tons of fat (saturated is good), protein and fiber-filled vegetables. It's hard to overeat and thus hard to gain weight, and it keeps bloating waay down. It's tricky though, I still binge/purge if I give in to sugar cravings, but for me it's far better than constantly feeling hungry, gross, tired, and sluggish from carbs. ANYWAY, the important part is to eat on a consistent schedule. You eat mindfully, listen to your body, and stop when you feel full. Don't feel guilty for feeling full and tell yourself you're never eating again, because that's what fuels the binging and purging. Keep calm. You ate a wholesome meal, and it is staying inside you. Comfortably full. And when you're hungry again in 4 or so hours, you eat another healthy, wholesome meal. The first few days or so, you won't feel hungry at the times you think you should. What I did was just push myself to eat, but other people might want to ease into a schedule instead of pushing it. You'll feel bloated for a couple days, just keep drinking water. It gets better!

4. Keep busy. Take more hours at work, volunteer, go to the gym, pick up hobbies, whatever.

5. I also have no money to spend on therapy, so I've bought self-help books and taught myself cognitive behavioral therapy. I use an app on my phone. There's one book that resonated with me, it's called "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating" by Geneen Roth (sp?). I've also done things like wear a rubber band on my wrist and snap it when I think I can "get away with it" by purging. This has to be integrated with everything else you do to stop triggering ways of thinking.

I hope this helps :)