Coming Back from an Emotional Eating Binge – 3 Key Tips from a Nutrition Coach
Lifestyle
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Oct 23, 2020
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7 MIN READ
Image source: Unsplash
I sighed and lifted my fingers from the keyboard to my temples, massaging them as the cursor flashed on the white screen, blinking a solitary testimony to the challenge I faced in transitioning what my story’s characters did from my head into words. Struggling with narrative is part of a writer’s job. I had been down this road before.
Still staring at the screen, I reached across my desk, shoving my hand into a bag of chips while also searching for another cookie to feed my face and frustration. The empty plastic crinkled. I turned and groaned at the mass of strewn junk food packaging cluttering the small space of black vinyl. I rubbed the crumbs on my pajama pants, a ball of guilt swelling in my full gut. I had eaten a mound of stuff packed with empty-calories in a bout of emotional eating. I had been down this road, too.
I am an emotional eater. When stressed, I often hit the kitchen. When frazzled, I will crave sugar, salt and fat. I may spend a day or more eating all the wrong stuff, despite knowing that what I’m consuming is not healthy or not even being hungry. I will also often feel hungry while my stomach is full.
Falling off the healthy eating/exercise wagon is pretty common. We can all overdo it for a number of reasons and may require professional assistance to recognize why we consume piles of grub, what to do after stuffing ourselves and ways to prevent another gorge fest.
I spoke with certified Nutrition and Fitness Coach Danielle LoDuca about binge eating and regrouping after going overboard with food. LoDuca works with women who desire to reclaim their health and feel like themselves again. She guides her clients to unlock their inner strength, find clarity and overcome obstacles that have kept them stuck in unhealthy relationships with food and their bodies. She is passionate about empowering her clients to prioritize their own well being and to make decisions that support their goals, so they can feel better, move better, and enjoy life.
Stuffing Our Guts
There are layers to eating binges. The origins of and ways in which people overeat can involve a myriad of psychological and emotional factors. “Binge eating is eating an unusually large amount of food while feeling out of control,” explains Danielle. “It is not the same as overeating.”
“Some binge eating may not meet the strict criteria for Binge Eating Disorder, which is when someone experiences repeated episodes of binging. [This] can include eating faster than normal, feeling uncomfortably full, eating large amounts when not hungry. After a binge, people usually feel very guilty and regretful. They often put themselves down or engage in compensatory behaviors like purging, fasting or taking laxatives,” says Danielle. “If a nutrition coach suspects binge eating disorder or any other eating disorder, they must refer their client to a physician for diagnosis.
“Emotional eaters can also be triggered to binge during times of stress and grief, as they seek temporary relief from their distress,” she adds.
Like many people, I have struggled for decades with my ability to pack in the calories whenever I am stressed or angry. If I get into a fight with my spouse or feel anxious about the state of my house, I immediately search for the wrong things to eat. It can last one day or months and is so subtle that I often don’t know that it is happening. Hence, the junk food wrappers all over my desk.
Danielle points out other reasons why people may eat in large quantities.
“There can be numerous catalysts to binge eating, and the reasons can be complicated. [For example,] exposure to ideal body images through various forms of media often leads to poor body image and low self-esteem.
“The psychological effects of the messaging women are bombarded with regularly regarding body image leave many feeling [like] they must look a certain way or have a particular body type to be worthy and valuable. The desperation to have a certain body type leads people to deprive themselves or attempt severely restrictive diets.
“Extreme diets that restrict the types of food eaten or severely restrict calories, can lead to the opposite extreme, which is binging and uncontrolled eating.” Danielle says.
Nutrition and Fitness Coach Danielle LoDuca
Oh, yeah. Been there, done that. I have tried a lot of fad diets, each one ending in a eating bender like an addict getting a fix after being straight for a period of time. But, Danielle cautions against using the term “addiction” in relationship to food.
“I do not like the term food addiction. I feel it can be dangerous. In reality, we need to be addicted to food. It is our life source and what keeps our bodies running and healthy,” she says. “Food is what powers our bodies, minds and immune systems. It's what fuels our endeavors and helps us accomplish amazing things. We associate the word addiction with harmful substances like drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
“Part of healing a person's attitude towards food and eating is helping them see food as their ally and a necessary and beneficial part of life that they can embrace,” Danielle says. “We need to remove the idea that it is wrong to eat, wrong to love food. Instead, we can improve the relationship we have with food and transform it into an empowering relationship.
Mending Our Relationships with Food
My tendency to emotionally eat makes my relationship with food complex. Sometimes I am successful in recognizing that the reason I want to go pick up a cheesecake or stop by my favorite halal chicken spot is because I am using food to cope with my emotions. Other times I fall into bad habits, reliving a vicious cycle that disrupts any nutrition goals I set from myself. I feel like I am back to square one with my eating, but Danielle urges that people shift away from feelings of failure and focus on healing and moving forward.
“The feelings of regret and self-degradation that result from binging are more harmful to a person's eating plan than the extra calories they may have consumed,” says Danielle. “I would encourage someone who has binged to forgive themselves, and we would work to discover the deeper reasons they are bringing. It is more important to deal with the underlying causes and to heal their relationship with their bodies and with food than to focus on the symptom, which is binge eating.
“I must emphasize that if I observed more severe symptoms of binge eating disorder, I would have to refer the client to a medical doctor.”
Climbing out of The Abyss
Whatever the reason, there are ways to climb out of the deep hole a person may have dug themselves into by filling their belly. Danielle offers three formative tips to regrouping from an eating binge*.
1. Forgive and be kind to yourself. You are not “bad,” and there is nothing wrong with you.
2. Make two lists. Write down your feelings about your body in one list and about food in the other. You may see that you have many negative feelings about your own body and about food. Acknowledge that and imagine if you were to say those things to another woman, how would you make her feel?
Now, write down what you love about your body. That might be hard, so here are some prompts: What does your body do for you? Does it take you places you enjoy? Do you use it to give and receive love from the ones you care about? It is your only interface with the magnificent world we live in – how can you give gratitude to your body?
Next, write down good things about food. Here are some prompts: Do you know food makes up every cell of you? Food gives you the energy to talk, and think, and hug. Food gives you strength, helps you fight off infection;, it enables you to see, and hear, and speak. A mind shift in these two areas is a fundamental step to overcoming the bad feelings that both trigger and occur after binging.
3. Create a flexible eating plan for yourself. If you have binged before, know that you may be averse to extreme diets and restrictive eating plans. You'll need a more flexible approach to eating healthy. Start small by including one more healthy food into your diet, something you enjoy. Love pasta? Try mixing in some whole grain pasta into the white pasta you love. You just increased the nutrition content in your meal, thereby making it healthier. Like strawberries? Have some with some fresh whipped cream instead of that piece of cake. That's a huge win.
Small, sustainable steps are best. You want to be able to make changes that you can maintain. That means you have to feel good about the change. If you feel like all you can eat is cardboard, you will not be able to sustain that change. It's ok to go slow. Look at binging as a sign. It means something isn't working, but it doesn't mean you have to give up. If you really need help, talk to your family and friends and recruit their support.
“Sometimes these changes can be really difficult to do on your own,” says Danielle. “In those cases, know that health and nutrition coaches are out there and can support you on your journey to excellent health.”
*Note: Anyone experiencing symptoms of Binge Eating Disorder should consult a physician or mental health professional.
For more information on Binge Eating Disorder and other eating disorders, visit the National Eating Disorder Association’s website at https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org.
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