Binge Eating

SPECIAL REPORT:

The 6 Best Ways to Avoid A Binge

Many overweight women are binge eaters. Whether they experience small, controlled binges or massive food sessions, the underlying condition is the same. Binge eating is a way to stuff emotions that they don’t want to deal with anymore. Those emotions can run the range from anger to depression, from boredom to rage, from frustration to outrage, from powerlessness to hopelessness and more. In the long run, the food is always a temporary fix and the emotions bubble back up to the surface in an hour, a day, a week, or more. Overcoming binge eating is one of the most difficult hurdles you will face. Here are six ways to help avoid a binge before it begins:


1) Don’t hold back your emotions. Learn to let out your feelings, in a controlled constructive way. Write down what is upsetting you in a journal or day planner. Pick at least one possible solution for each problem that is contributing to your bingeing. Then, in the next month, make a conscious effort to do at least one thing a week towards achieving that solution. Being proactive about the problems that cause you to binge can help you develop better eating habits in the future.


2) Record your binges, the feelings you have while eating, and what food was consumed. Use those notes as a way to examine your triggers, both emotional and physical, and use that information to help prevent future binges. Try to eliminate or limit specific foods that tend to send you into a binge. Is there a specific person or event that continues to cause you to binge? A difficult relative or an ongoing problem at work? If you start to see the same situations or people turning up in your journal, you can start to identify patterns that have to be addressed. Don’t become overwhelmed, prioritize what is affecting you and address them one by one.

3) If you are really craving something, eat it! No matter how fattening you think it is. Sometimes just doing this is enough to head off a major binge session. Part of the reason diets tend to fail is because we spend so much time denying ourselves the things we are really want. And the more we deny, the more we crave until we work our way up to a full-fledged binge. So indulge your cravings. Have a small portion of what you’re in the mood for and see if that alone can head off the impulse to overeat. There is nothing you cannot have with the 8 Rules, so have a little and see if that is enough to calm your urge.


4) Make a conscience effort to find other mental or creative activities to fill you time and take your mind off eating. Develop a hobby and commit yourself to it. A lot of bingeing takes place for no other reason than sheer boredom or loneliness. Find activities to fill that time. Volunteer your time to your favorite charity, join a club that fits your interests. If you prefer more solitary activities, start writing a novel or learn a musical instrument. There are literally thousands of ways you can engage your mind and fill your time. Eating should not be a favorite pastime. Don’t wait, figure out what is.


5) Get Physical. Take a walk around the block, water the yard, go outside and weed the flowerbeds, go to the mall and window shop, clean out your closet. This list is endless. Doing almost anything physical will give your body a chance to get past the urge to binge and will contribute to your fitness level at the same time. In fact, anytime you can add activities to your normal routine, you are taking one step closer to reaching your healthy, natural weight. Physical activity is one of the most important parts of the 8 Rules program, partake in it and you will see much better results.


6) Stop Dieting For Good. This is probably the most important point of the entire 8 Rules program. Stop Dieting For Good. Dieting causes bingeing. Diets don’t work. The sheer body of research on the subject could fill a thousand pages. Here’s what you need to know right now: the requirements of most diets run directly in contrast to what your body needs and wants. When you diet, you deny your body. The more you deny it, the more it craves. The more it craves, the more it wants high sugar and high fat foods to make up for what it is being denied. Eventually, even with all the best intentions in the world, it is almost impossible not to succumb to a binge eating episode. Your body simply demands it. And the truth is that most of the diets on the market don’t address this medically recognized condition. So just forget the diets. There is a better way.