93. Beat Your Binge Eating with Brid McNulty

On today’s episode of Balance With Sam, I’m joined by the amazing Brid McNulty. Brid is a food and body coach, and she also helps high achieving women heal their relationship with food and their body.

Brid grew up moving around a lot as a child but it was a move to Moscow in her teen years, taking her away from her friends and everything she’d known, when she started to feel alone. Turning to food for comfort, she started to double her dinner portions without realizing and gained 22 pounds in the last two years of high school. Like so many of us, Brid turned to dieting, quick fixes and extreme workouts to try and lose the weight but, as she experienced upheaval in her life, she spiralled even more in university She felt that urgent need to “fix” herself.

Top Takeaways

Mastering your mindset can make a world of difference. Be aware of what your mind and body are telling you and give yourself the space. It’s about creating an awareness of your critical thoughts and work towards letting go of them. They will always be there but you don’t need to subscribe to them. Remember, you don't have to control what you can trust. When you trust that your body will find a healthy weight and the food is going to balance itself out, it will.

Find the balance and make the choice. Once we become more aware of our emotions and in tune with what we are feeling when the urge to binge hits us, we can start to move towards making a choice. It’s okay that sometimes you might want to eat that whole pizza and that’s okay. It’s about knowing that certain foods will make you feel good and finding that balance.

Find body neutrality. You don’t necessarily have to love your body but if you can accept it and be neutral about it, the critical thoughts will quieten. Incentivize the shift for yourself. For example, Brid created a pot for herself and every time she brought herself back into neutral after a negative thought, she would put a dollar in the pot. Then, when she gets to a more positive place, she uses that money to pamper herself. Find the fun and reward yourself.

Above all, remember to go easy on yourself and work from a place of love.