Simple Overeating Solution: What To Do Right Now If You’ve Binged

Simple overeating solution #1: Know that you’re not alone

I’ve had a harder time with overeating and bingeing in the past few months with quarantine than I have in the past few years. I’ve used food to try to numb my anxiety and calm my fears and alleviate stress and deal with my routine being all screwed up. I have binged because I’ve been an emotional wreck at times. Other times, I can’t get any time to myself which I desperately need because I’m really introverted and being by myself sometimes is what keeps me sane.

I’ve overeaten because I have refused to accept the new normal and the ways things are. I’ve binged because of all this uncertainty which I’m completely not a fan of at all. I have gained ten pounds and had my jeans not button and have felt uncomfortable in my own body and been frustrated with myself because I know better but don’t do better. So if you’re struggling with food, I just want you to know that you are not alone.

Simple overeating solution #2: Know that there’s no doing weight loss perfectly

Even though I’ve kept the weight off for 8 years, sometimes it’s still a kind of knee-jerk reaction to reach for food when I’m really struggling with things in my life. I cut myself some slack though because I don’t expect to do my life perfectly. It’s unrealistic to think that you’re going to do weight loss perfectly or do any of the rest of your life perfectly either for that matter.

You start saving your own life by knowing that you’re going to make mistakes no matter what you do. You’re human, so it’s okay. I still screw up with food. The difference for me now is that I don’t let my mistakes derail me anymore. I recognize that I screwed up and take steps to address it so I don’t go spiraling out of control for days then weeks then months at a time.

That’s been a challenge lately because of quarantine and all this uncertainty that doesn’t really have an end in sight. I’ve had a few weeks where I overate almost every day. I had a few days in a row when I flat-out binged. I had a couple rocky months where I felt like throwing in the towel and just eating whatever whenever.

I just want you to know that all of that had to do with me trying to get food to fix something in my life. None of it—none of it—had to do with the food itself at all.

Simple overeating solution #3: Be careful of the meaning that you give to food

Here’s the thing, though. I think it’s unrealistic to believe that you’ll never overeat or binge again. Look, I spent over 30 years abusing food to try and solve my problems. I spent decades using food in a way it was never intended.

I binged my way up to 304 pounds at my heaviest because I gave food a meaning in my life that it never should’ve had. Food was my comfort. It was my friend when I needed a friend. It numbed me when I didn’t want to feel anything. It kept me company when I was lonely. It gave me courage when I was scared. It was the one thing that was always there and I felt like I could always count on. It was about the only thing I trusted. I was completely emotionally attached to food.

How I used to live

I used to tear through the refrigerator or the pantry, grabbing anything that was there whether I liked the taste of it or not. I’d gather lots of food and surround myself with it and then I’d binge eat entire containers of food in one sitting.

All of a half-gallon of ice cream and whole boxes of cookies and every last chip in the bag. I’d eat it fast, stuffing heaping spoonfuls or huge handfuls into my mouth, chewing quick and hardly tasting it at all, swallowing then eating more, because I was so desperate for food to fix whatever was wrong. I wouldn’t stop, even if my stomach hurt, until all the food surrounding me was gone. Afterward, I’d hide all the evidence by shoving those boxes or bags or wrappers in the bottom of the trash can. I’d rearrange the rest of the garbage on top so that nobody else would notice how much I’d eaten. I did that for decades.

Simple overeating solution #4: Realize that shame fuels binge eating

I was ashamed of what I was doing so I’d always sneak food and hide what I was doing. I was ashamed of myself too because I felt like I didn’t have any control over food. I felt like I didn’t have any choices because I hadn’t learned many other coping skills really and I didn’t know what else to do to deal with my life. I got trapped in this cycle of shame where I felt horrible, binged to try and fix my life, then felt shame for bingeing so I’d binge even more to try and numb myself, and on and on it went.

I just want you to know that you’re not alone in feeling shame either. I lived in shame for a long time because I wouldn’t talk about my struggles with food or how uncomfortable I felt in my body or how I hated how powerless I felt or how I hated myself. I always felt like nobody else was doing what I was doing or feeling the same way I was. I felt like I was the only one and there was something wrong with me. I isolated myself and got swamped by all that shame. That cycle of shame is what kept me trapped for a long time and fueled the binge eating.

Simple overeating solution #5: You must save your own life

The thing with cycles is that they continue on, around and around and around, until you break them. If you find yourself doing the same things that don’t serve you over and over in your life, then you’re trapped in a cycle. You can’t ever move forward going around in circles. You can’t ever grow into the person you want to be. You won’t ever reach your goals or purpose or passions. You won’t ever realize your full potential when you’re moving in circles and doing the same harmful things again and again.

You need to break the cycle so that you can move in a straight line toward what you most want to have or be or do or say in your life. You have to be the one to do something different so that the circle doesn’t continue. You have to be the one to save your own life. And you are absolutely capable of saving your own life, I know you are.

Simple overeating solution #6: It’s okay if you screw up

I tell you all that so that you’ll know it’s okay if you screw up. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s not a matter of if but of when. So:

1. Know that you’re in excellent company with the rest of us who screw up with food (and other stuff too).
2. Don’t let your mistakes derail you; just learn what you can and keep going.
3. Recognize that you’re making a mistake so that you can take steps to fix it instead of just abusing food.

Get off the diet-go-round. Get on with your life.^®

Stop wishing, start doing.
Create your own weight loss before and after success story.

My weight loss transformation & how it can help you stop overeating & bingeing

You absolutely can break the diet cycle. I got free. Your life can be that way too.

I made my own path because I needed to get myself out of the crazy-making behavior I was having around food. I needed:

• no more dieting.
• no more restrictive eating.
• no weighing and measuring food.
• no off-limit foods.
• no more judgment around food.
• no more trying to figure out healthy eating or just what healthy foods to eat.
• no more judging my self-worth based on the scale.
• no more you’re-not-doing-it-perfectly diet rules that were only fueling my constant thinking about and obsession with food.

I needed to stop: searching for weight loss tips, wondering how to lose belly fat fast or how to lose weight fast, worrying about how to eat healthy or finding healthy snacks for weight loss, coming up with yet another healthy eating plan, trying to have quick weight loss, or forcing myself onto yet another weight loss diet. What I needed instead was to find, out of all the weight loss programs out there, the best weight loss program for me. Turns out, the best way to lose weight was to find out what works for me and do that.

• I’ve lost 160+ pounds naturally by simply trusting myself and listening to my intuition (mindful eating and eating intuitively).
• I have maintained that weight loss for 9 years and counting by trusting myself and listening to my intuition (mindful eating and intuitive eating).
• I no longer have any eating disorders, including bulimia (bulimia nervosa) and binge eating disorder (compulsive overeating).
• I no longer have a fear of food.

Just imagine what you could be doing with your life if you’d just commit to having your own before and after weight loss success story. You could be: following your own dreams and reaching your own goals, cultivating your own passions, and making both your inner and outer worlds a more blissful and peaceful place.

I got that for my life. I want it for yours. I will teach you how.

Start Where You Are Weight Loss Coaching

Start Where You Are Weight Loss Books

Start Where You Are Weight Loss™ Online Course

Let today be the day you make peace with your body and with food.

For more information, check out the Start Where You Are Weight Loss^® page.