Overcoming Binge Eating

Hi everyone!

Welcome to this week's edition of your End Binge Eating Newsletter

I want to tell you a story about someone that is currently enrolled in my eCourse.  Throughout the past few weeks, we have really gotten to be good friends.  She has noticed so many changes in her life over the past three weeks and I’m really proud of the hard work that she is doing.

The other day she informed me that she had a rough day at work and was left in a room alone with cookies.  She has not binged in three weeks and she felt extremely vulnerable in this situation.  She had one cookie and then another, but then something inside her made her realize that the cookie wasn’t going to make her feel better.  The cookie wasn’t what she needed.  What she needed was to live in her moment of having a bad day and to experience those feelings, and for her that meant crying.  A fellow coworker entered the room and hugged her.  Then she started crying to her coworker. 

For someone that used to binge up to three times per day, this is such huge progress.  She made herself aware of her situation instead of eating to try to help her.  She knew that the cookie was not going to replace her bad day or even make it better.  The best thing about this whole situation was that she didn’t beat herself up for eating two cookies – She realized that she had made progress and she felt awesome. 

I wanted to share this story with you for a few reasons.  First is because I want you to remember this story when you are in a situation where you want to binge.  Make yourself aware and ask yourself is bingeing is really going to make the problem go away.  Ask yourself if that food is what you really need.  As long as you are honest with yourself, the answer will always be “no”.  The second thing I want you to do is to really think about why you want to binge.  What is the bigger picture?  Do you need to cry?  Do you need to talk to someone?  Figure that important aspect out and do what you need to do to help you.  Finally, whether you eat two cookies or not, don’t beat yourself up over it.  Remind yourself that two cookies are not going to do a lot of damage to you.  It’s only two cookies.  Even if you made just a tiny bit of progress – pat yourself on your back and be proud.

About a week later, this same person was going to a party.  Her plan was to make a salad, but someone asked if she would make her famous cookies instead.  She emailed me while making the cookies and said that they looked like play dough.  She didn’t have any desire to eat these cookies.  The next day she told me that she had one cookie.  Just one!  Again, she noticed that this was great progress and she was so proud of herself.  I am so proud of her!

If you have a story that you would like me to include in a newsletter, simply click here to contact me.

A suggestion that I have for you to avoid a binge is to print out all of the newsletters that I’ve sent out.  Also print out any information that you have found helpful in regards to binge eating.  Get a binder and decorate it with pretty colors and anything that makes you feel good.  You can put quotes on the cover.  You can put pictures on the cover; just decorate it in a way that you will enjoy.  Fill it with all of the information that you’ve printed out.  This way you can pull out the binder when you need to read some motivation and/or suggestions to get through a binge.  It will also help you to get your mind off of your current binge.  An added bonus: You’ll be organized!

I would create a section in your binder where you will be able to write down all of the reasons that you can think of as to why you are not going to binge.  Of course make sure to do this when you aren’t thinking of a binge.  The point of this is so that you have something to read when you feel like bingeing.  It will remind you of what you really need instead of food.  Besides just having these ideas in your binder, you may find it helpful to put the list on the refrigerator or on the pantry door just to remind you that when you reach for food you are really hungry and not trying to fill some other void.

Here’s a list of some reasons that helped me and others:

1. I promised myself that I wouldn’t.
   
   
2. I wanted to feel good about myself during my vacation.
   
   
3. I don’t really want the food.  I want to talk, to relieve stress, to talk to a
   friend, to find companionship, etc.
   
   
4. I’m worth more than bingeing.
   
   
5. I’m not even hungry right now and I will just feel sick if I eat anymore food.
   
   
6. I feel good about myself and if I give in to my binge, I will be disappointed
   and everything good that I thought about myself will disappear.
   
   
7. I’m just bored, so I will go for a walk instead.
   
8. Bingeing won’t make my problem go away.  It will only make me feel worse.
   
   
9. I have more respect for myself.
   
   
10. I don’t want to binge because I just worked out and burned so many calories.

Start taking care of yourself for your emotional wellbeing.  If you know that you use food to heal emotional reasons, make a list in another section of your binder that will give you suggestions to do instead of bingeing.  By having other means to take care of your emotional self instead of eating food, you’ll be able to identify the times that make you want to binge.  Try doing things that will help with how you are feeling in that moment, without turning to food (because that will only make you feel worse after the initial few minutes of eating). 

Some activities that were on the top of my list while I was bingeing included:

1.  Taking my dog for a walk

2.  Taking a nice hot bubble bath with candles

3.  Watching a favorite movie that I knew would make me feel better

4.  Going to the park and swinging on the swings

5.  Going to the bookstore and drowning myself in good books or magazines

6.  Take care of my appearance: tweeze out extra eyebrows (or get a wax), file
      and  paint nails (or get a manicure), throw away old makeup and make a list
      of what I needed to buy

7.  Listen to a good song and sing at the top of my lungs

8.  Play Texas Hold ‘Em online to keep my hands busy

9.  Writing in my journal about my day and my feelings

10. Cleaning out my wallet and organizing any receipts that were loose

11. Reading past journal entries of times when I was successful in overcoming a binge

12. Dancing with the Dance Dance Revolution game

I believe in you!