Mentality

End Binge Eating Newsletter

Hi everyone!

I want to briefly talk again about having an all or nothing mentality.  I was just reading a blog that someone wrote about her day.  She says that since she binged that day, she might as well as “reallllllly blow it” for the rest of the day.  She wrote that she already felt doomed and might as well give in.  I felt so sad for this woman, and realized that even though I’ve talked about this before, it would probably be a good idea for this topic to resurface.

I’m sure that y’all have had days like this – I know I used to.  I would feel that my whole day was blown because I had a “good” breakfast and a “good” lunch, but then I had a horrible meal for dinner.  My thought process was that I should just continue to eat since I already messed up for that day.  I justified this attitude with telling myself “I’ll just start over tomorrow and eat really healthy.”  How many times have you told yourself that?  If I could give you one important tip about that - it would be to stop procrastinating and telling yourself that you’ll eat better the next day, or Monday.  What’s wrong with the present day?

While I was feeling really bad for the blog woman, I started thinking about my past life.  It reminded me of my attitude with binge eating and with other things in my life.  For example (and this I’m not proud of), when I was in college my best friend and I would go out to have the most fantastic meals.  Since we couldn’t afford the types of places we liked, we thought that we would just write hot checks and have a great meal (yes, restaurants in Lubbock, TX accepted checks).  Instead of just going over a few dollars more than we had in our accounts, we would splurge and order bottles of wine, appetizers, desserts – Just totally live it up.  I knew that it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I just had the mentality that if I was going to spend more than I had, I should at least make it worth it.

Finally, I got on track with my spending, but that mentality carried over to bingeing.  I could eat really healthy for the first part of the day, but as soon as I had a piece of candy or bread (when I tried the whole low carb thing); it wasn’t enough to stop there.  No, I had to make my “cheat” worth it, so one piece of bread would turn into a full out binge.  My thought was “Why not – I’ve already messed up by eating bread.  I’m going to make it so worth it!”

As you know, we cannot live our lives with these limits.  We have to find the healthy balance between eating a piece of candy and having a full-out binge.  I know that it might seem extremely far-fetched at this time in your life, but you can get to that happy-medium. 

The next time you are tempted to throw the whole day out the window because you feel like you blew it – try these ideas:

1. Consider joining our new virtual Binge Eating Disorder Support community at http://www.bingeeatingdisorderhelp.com.  I can’t tell you how many people have posted how much going to our forum has helped them to not binge.  We offer a sense of belonging and support – everyone in there knows where you have been before.  They understand what you are going through and it makes me so happy that everyone in the forum genuinely wants to help others.  There are some great tips and words of wisdom for everyone.  Try it out and see what you think!

2. Write in your journal and really think about why you are about to binge.  Ask yourself questions and get to the root of the real emotion that you are up against.  Ask yourself if you are really hungry or if you are just bingeing because you feel like the day has been blown.

3. Call a friend or family member and talk to them about what is going on with you.

4. Pamper yourself.  Whiten your teeth, paint your nails, take a bubble bath – It’s impossible to binge if you have strips on your teeth, if your nails are wet, or if you are in the bathtub.

Just remember that we all have our own setbacks and we are all in charge of the choices we make.  Your day is only blown if you decide that it is.  I’ve been where you are now and I know what it is like to want to give up.  I’ve had some obstacles where I gave in to binge eating.  I have also beaten many obstacles that I was up against simply by choosing to be in control.  Don’t let food make your choices and be in control of you.  Remind yourself that you are a strong person that is fully capable of controlling your urge to binge.  Tell yourself that you can beat this. 

It’s all about your attitude.  Your attitude is what will make or break you in absolutely everything you want to do in your life.  It is not different with binge eating.  Whenever I get an email from someone that has been working really hard, but they have one slip – I tell them that it is no big deal.  Seriously.  It’s most important to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back on track with your goal.

Most importantly, praise yourself for being in control and not bingeing.  Even time that you crush that desire to binge, you are moving yourself one step closer to a better YOU.  You are gaining a more productive, happier, and healthier life.  There is a better life right around the corner for you – Just make sure that you realize that and reach for it. 

I have to laugh back at the days when I wondered if I was addicted to certain foods.  Those were hard days to overcome and it just makes my life so much better now to know that there is something that I am even more addicted to and that is happiness.  It’s feeling good about myself and knowing that I’m healthy.  It’s losing weight.  It’s developing a healthy relationship with food.  It’s not struggling anymore.  It’s loving myself.  It’s having a stable weight.  It’s just all of the wonderful things that come my way because I beat binge eating disorder.  I stopped thinking so extreme and I won…  And you can too!

I believe in you!

Are you ready to finally put an end to Binge Eating?  Are you ready to finally take control, renew your self-esteem, and feel good about yourself?  Are you ready to truly begin a new life that doesn't revolve around food any more?  Click Here to order my ebook, "End Binge Eating" today and finally take control!