Breaking Up With Binge Eating

Stressful times can knock us on our butts. Upheaval and life drama have the power to derail our health and fitness habits and leave us taking not-so-good care of our bodies. In this episode we cover 3 keys to getting through the stressful phase, as well as the recovery phase which follows. 

Intuitive Eating is one approach to food that helps people find an alternative to binge eating and dieting. But sometimes, the message to eat whatever your intuition tells you to only ends up in weight gain. That's not what anyone is after. Some recovery groups have spread the notion that a person should ALWAYS eat something if they want it, immediately, because anything else is restriction, the hallmark of dieting.  And if you restrict, they say, you'll keep bingeing. But I say otherwise. In this episode you'll learn why it's actually harmful to recommend that a person eat EVERYTHING they want the moment they want it. I'll discuss how it gets in the way of reaching a healthy bodyweight, and bars someone from feeling capable and empowered to make food decisions. We can do better, so much better. 

Do you care about the size and shape of your body? Of course you do! Do you care too much about the size and shape of your body? Well now, that's a harder question. In this episode we'll look at what researchers call "overconcern with weight and shape" and how we address it with our clients. The goal isn't to totally stop caring about your shape or size. But if appearance and weight concerns currently dominate your day-to-day existence, listen up! Some totally non-painful adjustments can mean having more money, time and brainpower to enjoy a full, more meaningful life -- and leave you closer to the people you care about. 

We teach our clients to use a 3-D process to get past urges to binge. Delay, Distract, and Decide. But if you currently have a hard time trusting yourself, it doesn't feel super-meaningful to "decide that you aren't going to give in". Clearly, we need to build up trust in ourselves to make this or any other promise and feel solid in our commitment. In this episode you'll learn what builds trust, what destroys trust, and what you can do this week to strengthen your self trust - no matter how low it has fallen in the past. Your story is not over. 

Most of us know what it's like to be let down by our bodies. We compare them to other bodies in terms of how they look, how well they perform at sports or at the gym, or how they hold up against health problems. And often, we shake our heads in disappointment at how this clump of cells we call home is doing. "Can't you just be BETTER, body? Sheesh!"Being harshly critical is a default setting for many of us, but is it actually doing us any favours? In this episode we'll look at taking a more compassionate approach to how you relate to your body. 

Is the cure for binge to discover and fill your emotional voids? Nope! In this episode, Georgie takes a look at what this term even means, and provides some more useful specifics on how positive and negative emotions relate to binge eating recovery differently for different people. 

What we believe we look like can be highly distorted from what other people see. Similarly, the importance we place on attractiveness can grow like a weed in our minds - unless we correct it from time to time. In this episode we'll cover how you can see yourself realistically, and have a healthy view of your appearance's true importance.  

Stopping eating when we feel satisfied is simple, in theory. But if you've tried it, you know that in real life it can be anything but simple! In this episode Georgie covers how to develop the skill through 6 steps. Whether you have no idea what satisfied feels like, or if you sense the feeling struggle with obeying it, you'll find answers in this episode. Learn more about Breaking Up With Binge Eating at NutritionLoft.com. 

To keep binges at bay, it's best -- at least initially -- to eat frequently enough and avoid getting hungry. But as you probably guessed, that can prevent weight loss if you kept it up forever. What's a person to do if they want to eventually be able to lose weight? In this episode, we walk you though the steps we use with our clients to move away from binge eating and towards a healthy lifetime weight, getting to know and relate to hunger in new, positive, healthy ways. 

Most people who join our coaching program don't just want to recover from binge eating or emotional eating, they also want to lose weight! But as many people have discovered, trying to choose weight loss behaviours often triggers binge eating. This raises the question, "how will I ever lose weight in the future if right now I need to eat so often (and without any form of limits) to avoid binge eating?" The answer: Right now you may need frequent meals and snacks and absolutely zero limitations to stay binge-free, but it won't always be that way.  If you build up your skills through practice, in the future you will be able to handle more challenges and stay binge free, including things that might overwhelm you today. In this episode we share a progression of emotional skills. These are the type of things that our clients learn BEFORE they move anywhere near a calorie deficit. When you have these skills built up, you are more able to resist binge eating in the future, and are in a better place to take small steps towards losing weight.So if you want to lose weight in the future, take the time to master this progression, step by step. Keep your current focus not bingeing, and building up your emotional power, and you'll be ready for the weight-management progressions coming up in the next few episodes!