Can’t stop binge eating!

I hear you...oh do I hear you...🤗 I have struggled with it literally as long as I can remember ..I have been up and down in weight...I have struggled with quarantine as well. I am just coming off a 3 day binge...I have been "clean" almost a week now...there are a lot of factors... I have developed TONS of coping techniques...the trick is actually USING them when the urges are strong...it is very individual...feel free to add me as a friend..ask me anything you want I will help with whatever I can...

For me, it's a bit like there's a switch. It's very easy to flip the switch into binge mode, but it's much harder to flip it back. You need to find a moment of mental clarity where you can see that your actions are damaging and that you don't want to continue them. And I know that sounds easy, but really truly believing in both those statements at the same time takes a huge amount of resolve.

You also have to remember that part of the reason why you're eating everything in sight is because you used to do that. No matter what it is, we have a tendency to relapse into learned behaviours we know, because humans are creatures of habit. Once a habit has formed, you have to actively work to unlearn that habit. That's the difficult bit. You want to do what's familiar, but you're not that person anymore. You, today, are a person who does not want to binge eat and who is not going to binge eat. You're not ashamed of that past you, but that past you is a different person. They will always be part of your story, but they can be part of a chapter you've finished.

It's not really discipline as much as it is forcing yourself to do something until you create a new habit.

My old habit was ordering takeaway from my favourite pizza joint and eating all of it. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to unlearn that behaviour, so I just don't order from there any more. It's OK to have triggers and to decide to just avoid them.

My old behaviour was eating half a box of cereal for breakfast. My new behaviour is to weigh out a 30g portion with 100ml of milk, to put that in a tiny bowl, to eat it slowly and to be content. Honestly, it's taken a lot of retraining to get me to recognise that as a normal human portion rather than half the box.

It might help to reframe what you're going through. You're not dieting. You're relearning how to eat food properly. That's not easy, and it's OK to struggle and to have bad days and not quite get it all right immediately. People who have to re-learn to walk go through intensive rehab because re-learning how to do something is difficult and it's frustrating. Treat yourself with some kindness here.

If you slip up, that's OK, stop and regroup. Be proud of yourself for recognising you've done something you didn't want to do, and for stopping yourself from spiralling. Positive self-reinforcement is better than beating yourself with a stick. The more times you regroup and persevere with healthy behaviour, the closer you are to forming a habit of eating healthily. It just takes time.

You can do this, you really can. It's not going to be easy, you may not get it right all the time, but you'll get it right enough of the time, and you'll continue to make improvements. Shake it off, start again and most importantly, always keep trying.