What to do after a binge…

What to do after a binge?

It’s most likely the weekend and you’re sat with a tummy so full it feels like you’re gonna pop. You’ve been so good all week and you’re mad at yourself for ruining your diet again. You start planning the next diet that will start on Monday (of course) and calling yourself all kinds of names and basically being a class A bitch to yourself… sound familiar?

STOP…!

First of all, do one thing for me (and more importantly, for yourself) just stop for a hot minute and ask yourself this; “Would I talk to my best friend or someone I love the way I am talking to myself right now?” I am hoping the answer is “of course not!” If you answered yes then, in my opinion, I think you need to rethink how you treat your friends…

Why would you treat yourself any differently to that of someone you love? Read that again… Why would you treat yourself any differently to that of someone you love? Your inner bully may be coming up with all sorts of nasty comments back to my question but let me ask you this… “How far has talking to yourself like this gotten you?”

Are you still stuck in the restriction binge cycle and you feel like your on a merry go round that’s not quite so merry but you just can’t seem to get off?  I feel ya beautiful! ???? But…what good is talking to yourself like a piece of shit going to do?

None.

Nada.

Zilch.

So stop missy! ✋

You can either choose to be angry that you binged and promise to do better tomorrow (but that doesn’t get you anywhere, which is probably why your reading this blog).

OR to you can realise that binges are OK.

Like, really…

That’s because…

Each time you overeat you can learn something. Each binge is an opportunity to learn more about what triggered it.

Asking yourself “Hmm.. I wonder why that happened?” is much more useful than telling yourself: “Shit, I screwed up again. I’m a failure”.

Were you tried?

Were you bored?

Do you feel deprived of something in your life food and otherwise?

Were you home alone watching TV?

Even if, like I used to, you can’t think of a reason why you binged apart from the fact that it has become a bad habit and now you don’t think you can stop. Well, you can stop. If I can stop then so can you… trust me! You just need support and guidance. I am an expert in helping you to break free from binge eating.

But I’ve got a beat myself up because I’ve just practically force-fed myself and that’s not ‘good’…

Let me tell you this beautiful… Your body is not angry with you! Symptoms like bloating, pain, tiredness are not anger. Your body is simply tugging at your T-Shirt, asking you (pleading with you) to be gentle and kind with her. More than anything, your body needs you to swap anger and guilt for kindness and forgiveness.

And another thing that may sound crazy is that you cannot learn to stop bingeing without bingeing.

Here’s the thing…If you’re trying to stop bingeing, you won’t automatically stop bingeing one day. Unfortunately, It doesn’t work like that. What actually happens is that with time and the right approach, the overeating starts to happen less often and/or the binges become less severe when they do happen. With the right approach and over time, you go from bingeing every day to a few times a week and eventually, only once in a while… until eventually, one day you realise you don’t binge anymore.

If you keep trying to stop overeating but you haven’t noticed a reduction on your bingeing intensity or frequency, then you’re probably trying the wrong approach or need more support.

So that’s all well and good but what shall I do after a binge?

So next time you binge, remind yourself:

I’m not going to put 10kg on overnight, (even though I totally get that it feels like it)

Your body naturally wants to keep your weight stable. It’s got built-in processes to prevent your weight from changing. So your binge won’t ruin anything immediately. I get that you may be binging every day and so that you may have/are putting on weight which you don’t want but its never as bad as you think it is.

The sooner you can go back to eating and moving your body normally, the better. This means it’s time to drop the guilt, avoid restricting the next day/week and just get on with your life. Be kind to yourself and become your own private detective… ask yourself the word WHY like all the time;

“I binged again… Why did I binge… Because I’ve been dieting all week and feel deprived…”

You could stop there and take action on your behaviours and mindset for the upcoming week and not start another diet. Instead, start to implement healthy habits into your life which will last a lifetime, not just days/weeks/months until you ‘fall off the wagon’ again. 

OR you could dig even deeper and ask yourself;

 “Why have I been dieting… Because I need to lose weight to feel more attractive… Why do I need to feel more attractive… Because I don’t feel worthy of love or attention unless I’m at a certain size…”

You see, this goes a lot deeper than just the food and the behaviour and from that answer, the person (which was me by the way) needs to work on their relationship with themselves and improving their self-worth from the inside (which I have and its a bloody brilliant feeling!). In my experience, there is always a reason why we do what we do. During private coaching, I help you to get to the bottom of these issues and beliefs and change them so you can move on with your life and achieve your goals. It all starts with the mind and your reasons why you do things.

REMIND YOURSELF:

“It’s OK. Overeating is part of the process”. Because it really is part of this important process. Repeating this mantra after a binge will act as a circuit breaker for your negative thoughts. Then simply ask yourself:

“What can I learn from this over-eating?, Why did it happen?”

From there, then you can start to implement more strategies to reduce binge eating.

Remember: You cannot learn to stop bingeing without bingeing. It’s OK to binge. Be gentle with yourself and your body.

What should I do after overeating?

  • Resist the temptation to restrict.
  • Go for a gentle work after you have binged and listen to an audiobook/podcast or watch a funny comedy on TV.
  • Get back to ‘normal’ eating and exercising as soon as you can.
  • Don’t eat by the clock (ie. because it’s lunchtime).
  • Wait to feel hungry to eat. Not starving… but comfortably hungry.
  • Don’t under-eat or over-exercise to counteract the ‘blow out’ because this will probably lead to more overeating.
  • Drop the food guilt and remind yourself that it’s OK.
  • Get on with living your best life!

Want to dig deep and have your own private coach to guide, support and educate you to a healthy you? Arrange a free consult call with me and we’ll have a chat.

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