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I'm embarrassed to admit it, but for years I struggled with binge eating.

edible cookie dough in a food processor

When others were around me, I would eat healthy, normal-looking meals, but when I was by myself I would gorge on junk food until I felt ill. Information technology was a heavy secret to keep, affecting not but my weight and overall health, but likewise my social life and relationships. (Some nights I would rather stay home and secretly consume than hang out with my family unit or friends.)

Today I want to share some of the steps I took to finally stop binge eating, in the hopes that information technology might help someone else out in that location who might be struggling, too.

Disclaimer: If you are feeling suicidal, severely depressed, or in need of medical attention, please see a licensed health care provider. This website is non intended to exist a substitute for medical advice.

What Causes Binge Eating?

I don't believe there is a but one answer as to what causes people get-go binge eating, but it seems that one common cause is having a restricted diet at some point in your life.

This could have happened when you were a child, if well-meaning parents attempted to limit your food intake to help prevent childhood obesity, or it might have happened later in life, when you attempted to diet to lose weight. (In my instance, it was the latter.)

before and after of Megan Gilmore, Detoxinista

Not surprisingly, depression can also play a office in binge eating. My suffering hitting its peak when I was working from home in Los Angeles, as I felt very isolated and didn't have a lot of human being interaction each day. I also had a nutritionally poor diet, which probably contributed to those feelings of depression, and that left me feeling malnourished. This combination led to more serious bouts of binge eating like you'll encounter below.

What is Considered Binge Eating?

Binge eating is defined as the consumption of a big quantity of food in a short period of time. In many cases, the person rampage eating feels out of control and eats WAY past their comfort level. For a person suffering from Binge Eating Disorder, there is no purging after the binge (which is what makes it different from Bulimia.)

I would imagine that well-nigh everyone has experienced some level emotional eating, or comfort eating, at some signal in his or her life, but information technology'southward the eating far past your comfort level or feeling out of control that sets binge eating apart from simply "splurging."

flourless vegan chocolate cake

A rampage can vary from person to person, as it'south kind of up to self-interpretation. For some, they may tend to binge eat at night, after a stressful day at work or afterwards a day of a low-calorie dieting. For others, it possibly a total day of binge eating, particularly on days leading up to starting a strict diet. 1 thing that well-nigh binges have in mutual is that the eating is washed in secret, every bit the person is ashamed of his or her actions.

Here'southward an instance of what a full day of surreptitious binge eating looked like for me:

  • Morning time: I'd go to McDonald'south and order an Extra Value Meal (which included a breakfast biscuit and hash browns), then realize that I could fifty-fifty be more indulgent and order a second meal. I'd lodge two cinnamon rolls, besides, considering why not. I took my massive amount of food home and devoured it all in about xv-xx minutes. After that I would experience slightly guilty, but however excited to eat more than food.
  • Afternoon: I'd society a large, deep-dish pizza. While I was waiting for it to be delivered, I'd eat cookies and potato chips, and anything else that might might be off-limits to me in the near future.
  • Early on Evening: This was often my final adventure to consume something before someone else could get habitation and interrupt my undercover eating, so I'd walk to the convenience store across the street and buy a pint of ice cream, or a rex size candy bar, or both. I'd consume as much as I could, and then I'd become rid of ALL of the prove, taking out the trash and so that no one would see my empty food wrappers.
  • Evening: I'd brand myself a light salad or healthy dinner to eat in front end of my family, and act as if my tummy wasn't killing me, even though I felt miserable. I'd go to bed feeling guilty, depressed, and ashamed, with a resolution to eat "perfectly" the next day.

A rampage day like this would usually occur anytime that I was planning to effort a super-strict nutrition, similar a juice fast, an all-raw diet, a candida cleanse, or a low-carb protocol (I tried it all!). The more strict my diet, the more desperate the rampage would be.

Likewise, my binges rarely were contained to just one solar day. Usually I would binge-consume similar that one to 3 times a week. If I slipped-up during a dieting mean solar day, the residuum of that day would turn into a rampage because the way I saw information technology, I had already "blown it" for the 24-hour interval and I might likewise kickoff fresh tomorrow.

Mentally, I call up reasoning with myself that I would have a better "earlier" picture to compare to later when I lost weight after my nutrition, since I'd be so bloated from binge-eating. (What I a not bad excuse to consume with reckless carelessness!) The only problem was… it was really hard to stop binge-eating, and it was even harder to stick to a strict diet for very long.

On a side note, days similar this 1 would also wreak havoc on my budget. I was too aback to continue these "bad" foods in my fridge, and so I would buy them and discard the evidence, which is a huge waste product across the board. You would recollect that beingness on an insanely-tight budget would accept stopped me at the time, but it didn't.

Binge eating, in general, doesn't brand logical sense, which is why it'southward so hard to explain it to others who haven't experienced information technology.

date sweetened peanut butter cookie

Stuck In A Bicycle of Yo-Yo Dieting

I suffered through this cycle for years because I was e'er convinced that if I could simply find the perfect diet, or accomplish a sure goal weight or clothing size, that my issues would go away. I wouldn't terminate dieting, and therefore I couldn't cease rampage eating, either.

I also felt like I was "getting away with it" considering I never gained THAT much weight, despite my crazy eating habits. I definitely did gain weight, and my clothing size did fluctuate often, but I would always follow a super-strict nutrition for two to four weeks and lose the weight again. (Though, this did become harder to maintain overtime. Your body won't always respond every bit well to the aforementioned diet over and again.)

Then the cycle would start all over again. I was stuck in a bike of yo-yo dieting.

mango strawberry smoothie

How I Finally Stopped Binge Eating

I'd love to say in that location was a "magic cure" that fabricated things click, but information technology didn't happen overnight. For me, the change was more gradual.

Past taking the steps below, my binge eating sessions became shorter and less severe, and happened far less frequently. Somewhen, they started to just resemble the dietary "splurges" that normal people have. (Similar having a couple cookies later family dinner, or going out for ice cream with friends.) Now, I consume like a healthy, normal person with a few splurges hither and there.

The following things helped me get there:

  • I stopped dieting. This was a non-negotiable step for me. I had to cease restricting my food choices, because restriction led me to binge-eating. Every. Single. Time. No more calorie counting or thinking about macronutrients for me. In fact, I needed to make sure I was eating enough of nourishing food so that my trunk didn't experience restricted at all. When you eat enough, your cravings actually do diminish naturally. (This is besides why I urge people to bask plenty of fresh fruit— when I consume fruit, I have almost no carbohydrate cravings.)
  • I stopped labeling foods as "skillful" or "bad." This 1 is tricky, because I truly do believe that some foods are amend and more nutritious than others. I absolutely think we should primarily focus on eating existent, whole foods every bit much as possible, and I do think that processed foods should be minimized. Nonetheless, for the sake of my mental health, I don't feel guilty about moments when I wanted to consume french fries, pizza, or a existent donut. Information technology really is okay to swallow these things every at present and then, and when I don't experience guilty about it, I go right back to eating salads, smoothies, and good for you dinners– usually appreciating how skillful they make me feel even more. I try to practice this mentality with my kids, besides, and so they don't grow up with bug around nutrient.
  • I dropped all of my dietary labels. Forth the aforementioned lines, I likewise decided to end calling myself a vegetarian, because it was not doing me any favors from a mental health perspective. I needed to exist immune to eat whatever food I wanted, including meat. For the well-nigh office, I still don't similar to eat meat– merely every now and so I want to be able to take a cheeseburger, or slice of pepperoni pizza, or a basin of chicken soup, without feeling guilty about information technology. (Had I go a vegetarian for potent ethical reasons, i don't call up this would take been as much of an upshot, but I became a vegetarian primarily because I wasn't that addicted of meat.)
  • I started practicing daily cocky care. Have you heard the phrase, "fake it until you make it?" Fifty-fifty if y'all're non totally happy with how your trunk looks or feels, yous take to get-go interim similar you LOVE it. With enough practice, you will! To get started, I fabricated a listing of things that make me feel good– like dry skin brushing, sitting in a sauna, going for a walk outdoors, or even taking a nap– and then I tried to practice one or more of those things on a daily ground. I've found that the more I accept care of myself, the more I want to keep it up. It'southward momentum building! (As an added bonus, taking a walk outside makes me feel better than eating a whole sleeve of cookies.)
  • I only eat food that I truly honey. I recollect it's actually of import to offset noticing how foods make y'all feel and what yous actually dear the gustation of. When I stopped dieting, I let myself eat anything and everything– including fast food and junk nutrient. And you know what I realized? Most of that junk food appealed to me because I had made information technology "forbidden." When you tell yourself you tin't accept something, you make that very thing So MUCH More than tempting. When I stopped making sure foods forbidden, I had the opportunity to judge those foods based on their actual taste and texture. Not surprisingly, nearly of the packaged junk nutrient and fast nutrient options became totally unappealing to me, only because the recipes I make at home really do taste better– so now I cull homemade food most of the time, because I adopt it. (Not because I experience like I have to.)

Seek Professional Counseling : I was besides embarrassed (and broke) to seek professional person aid at the fourth dimension, merely I still wish I would have seen a counselor for assist. I'd recommend anyone who is struggling with binge eating, or some other eating disorder, to seek help as shortly as possible. I call back it would have saved me a lot of time and struggle to have a professional guide me through the recovery procedure, since really none of my friends or family unit could chronicle to what I was going through.

Every bit an alternative, I did read a lot of books. I tin't say that one book in item gave me an "a-ha moment," but I do recall that as a whole, they helped gradually modify my mindset. Here are a few of the books I found helpful.

  • Brain Over Binge
  • The Power of Habit
  • The Diet Cure
  • How to Have Your Cake & Your Skinny Jeans, Besides

Tin you end binge eating AND lose weight?

I call up the scariest role of this whole process was the fact that I had to stop dieting in guild to stop rampage eating. It's scary to stop dieting, because I think everyone assumes that they might gain weight when they let themselves eat whatever they want. (And often the desire to lose weight is what starts this cycle in the first identify.)

The truth is, you might proceeds a couple of pounds when you kickoff allow yourself to consume any you lot want… though, that wasn't the case for me.

Because I truly permit myself consume whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, I was likewise able to stop eating those items when I was no longer enjoying them. Forbidden foods lose their entreatment when you truly allow yourself to have them anytime.

vegan pumpkin donuts

For case, when I was dieting and binge eating, I could have eaten a whole sleeve or two of cookies in one day considering I knew I wouldn't be "allowed" to eat them the next day. I ate more I needed or even wanted to, merely considering they were going to be forbidden to me soon.

When I gave myself permission to eat those cookies whenever I wanted, I would only eat 2 or 3 cookies at a fourth dimension and then I'd save the rest for the next time I wanted them. Somewhen the box could sit in my pantry for a whole month or more. I became 1 of those people who "forgot" that the cookies were even there. (Which certainly never happened to me before!)

Become Rid of the "All or Aught" Mentality

Something that I preach hither on the web log, as well equally in my cookbooks, is that you have to get rid of the "all or zippo" mentality if you want to take a healthy human relationship with food. At the top of my binge eating, I was either on a diet or I wasn't– then when I wasn't dieting, I was rampage eating. There was no eye footing.

Now, I attempt to bide past the popular 80/xx approach, where I eat salubrious fourscore% of the time, but I nevertheless splurge xx% of the time with no guilt whatsoever. Despite my lack of dieting, my body naturally lost the excess weight I was carrying– simply because I wasn't binge eating anymore! I had to trust the process, and trust that my body would naturally start craving what it really needed when I simply followed my hunger signals. I eat when I'm hungry, and when I start to feel full, I end. I can e'er go dorsum for more food if I need it, and then there's no urge to stuff my face all at one time.

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While it's super-embarrassing to share my personal struggles here in such a public space (Hi, Mom! Hello, coworkers!), I hope that my feel will help at least one other person who is out there struggling, too.

If you take any questions, please feel gratis to ask them in the comments below and I'll do my best to reply them.

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