Food is addictive especially when we use it for comfort and numbing ourselves emotionally. We can instantly turn to food during emotional upsets and get the instant gratification, the feeling of fullness we need in order to numb out old feelings resurfacing or stress we have just been experiencing. The problem is, we often feel extremely guilty afterwards and vow never to cave to food again.

Promising ourselves in the midst of guilt about our overeating and bingeing never works. You can’t just decide to stop and then never will again, especially when your decision is made during guilt.

Bingeing serves an important purpose to you and that is to make you feel better. When you are on the brink of the next binge, your promise to yourself never to binge again would have been forgotten and if it is still in the back of your mind, you will be doing everything to talk yourself into eating. We can rationalize anything when we want to.

This is why the all or nothing attitude to bingeing fails to work. It is too much to ask of ourselves to let go abruptly something we have been using as an emotional crutch for such a long time. It also lends its hand to making us feeling even more guilty when we can’t stay committed.

If you take the approach of more self awareness and observation, making note of when you binge and how you feel before and after you can gain a better understanding of your eating patterns and also can embrace and reflect on them properly.

It is too much to ask of yourself to change overnight. Bingeing and overeating has become a part and parcel of how you work and how you cope with the daily stresses and strains, so it is important to become aware of exactly what you do and to allow yourself time to overcome it. If you slip up and binge – learn from it and accept it as an experience. It’s not the end of the world, overcoming emotional issues especially surrounding food takes time.

Make sure you also acknowledge the small successes with your eating habits. These are just as important as the final destination, the final you you want to be, because without them you cannot reach that end.

Ending your binges and overcoming overeating isn’t easy. By learning to love yourself and having self awareness, you can overcome it. You won’t overcome it by continuously promising yourself not to do it again in the midst of guilt (but I am sure you already know this!).

Take it one step at a time. Learn from the binges that do occur through self awareness and embrace progress not perfection.

For Help To Overcome Binge Eating & Cravings: CLICK HERE

 

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Filed under: Cognitive Psychology • Emotional Eating • Food & Addiction • Psychology

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