but no longer posts… Until Today.
What to do about Binge Eating….
Eating when it feels like you are not fully making the decisions can feel out of control.
I am not disagreeing with you that it feels bad. And it’s easy to want to try to “control” the eating to
fix it. But as you may have experienced, we can’t change the behavior through the methods that
got us there, which is restriction.
But I want to mention something first before we jump into the “what do we do then”?
Because of many internalized structures (diet culture, coming from either emotionally represses or chaotic backgrounds, toxic religious, family, school, social or medical experiences) we have been shamed about being “too much”
Which gets translated to food, to which we say to ourselves, ” I eat too much” and ” I am too much” again.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why we see feeling like we eat “too much” as a shameful thing.
You are not wrong or weak. Eating because of backed up calorie deficits is normal and eating to soothe something is a survival response, not a lacking in willpower……
So when people ask for tips how to stop binge eating and want distractions from triggers, I say, yes we
will talk about all that.
First, we need to look at a couple things because if we just get good at distracting ourselves, we
don’t actually get as free as possible from getting triggered.
If a person wants to stop binging, it is critical that you, no matter what your weight is,
to work towards not restricting. And not just physically restricting food, but mentally restricting.
Mental restriction looks like, ” Okay I had dessert last night so I can’t have any the rest of the week”
or ” I have a wedding to go to and I need to lose weight”.
As funny as it sounds, we do listen to ourselves, and it feels bad/sad/scary to tell ourselves we are going
to be with-held from, especially because of our body size. Even if you don’t feel the emotion of it, it is painful.
Next, behind ending the restriction, is begin to learn attuned eating. Attuned eating helps you get more in touch with not just your physical but emotional hungers and how to discern which is which.
If you don’t yet have my free physical hunger and fullness guide, please
make sure you sign up to get it at the bottom of the page.
As do all of that, we gotta learn to hate our bodies less and put weight loss on the back-burner.
As long as we have our sights on, ” I will learn attuned eating after I lose weight” or “I am hoping attuned eating will help me lose weight” we get set up for a split in our focus and attention, and it is easy to get lured in to the next diet when we get emotionally uncomfortable.
The next things to be considering are Radical Self Care.
In my video below I spoke about how I layed on the floor because that is all I could do to tolerate the feelings that came up after a binge. I recommend that a lot actually.
But I also want you to start to make a list of your resources, and if you list is low, let’s start building that list up.
That might include:
Non diet professionals (somatic intuitive eating RD, trauma informed therapist and not fat biased medical professionals; if you need help finding them let me know!)
Art, music, prayer, journaling, nature, healthy people, pets, volunteer work, busy work or movement that isn’t compulsive…
Body positive media (podcasts, books, instagram, groups, etc) let me know if you want more ideas!
Finally, every human on this planet would heal so many wounds in them by taking a look and healing their Weight Biases.
Remember, these are made-up man made constructs!!
Yes, they are real in that they impact us, but they are not some objective measure of truth!
One of my favorite books on this, at least to heal the body image piece of it is When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies. Certainly not the only one, but my favorite to run my classes by!
So I hope this post was helpful today and gets you making your “plan” for one step at a time, having a roadmap to the how of healing binge eating.
Again here is a summary:
Here are my “tips” for helping to heal binge eating:
- Stop restricting/dieting (physical and mental)
- Learn Attuned Eating / have some very gentle structure til you get there
- Accept our bodies/put weight loss on the back burner
- Radical self care
- The right treatment providers — if any provider hints that food or weight restriction is part of helping you; RUN!
- Movement that is empowering if someone wishes
- Heal weight biases
- Fill your life with body positive resources: for some awesome podcasts, www.tracybrownrd.com/as-seen-on
I hope this post gives you a place to start or expand from. Making peace in a fat phobic world is tough but do not every give up!
If you want to get a few free tips individually now schedule at http://bit.ly/tracybclaritycall
Many blessings,
Tracy
Don’t forget to check out my video about how I laid on the floor to actually learn to first tolerate my emotions after a binge!
What to do about Binge Eating….Eating when it feels like you are not fully making the decisions can feel out of control.I am not disagreeing with you that it feels bad. And it's easy to want to try to "control" the eating to fix it. But as you may have experienced, we can't change the behavior through the methods that got us there, which is restriction. But I want to mention something first before we jump into the "what do we do then"?Because of many internalized structures (diet culture, coming from either emotionally represses or chaotic backgrounds, toxic religious, family, school, social or medical experiences) we have been shamed about being "too much"Which gets translated to food, to which we say to ourselves, " I eat too much" and " I am too much" again.With that in mind, it's easy to see why we see feeling like we eat "too much" as a shameful thing.You are not wrong or weak. Eating because of backed up calorie deficits is normal and eating to soothe something is a survival response, not a lacking in willpower……So when people ask for tips how to stop binge eating and want distractions from triggers, I say, yes wewill talk about all that.First, we need to look at a couple things because if we just get good at distracting ourselves, wedon't actually get as free as possible from getting triggered.To read the rest, head over to http://www.tracybrownrd.com/blog/tips-for-healing-binge-eating
Posted by Tracy Brown, RD on Wednesday, March 14, 2018
