Here’s Why You’re Still Binge Eating

Meal plan? Check. Will power? Check. Massive midnight binge sessions? Check. Check. And double check. Why is it that every time you commit to making an effort to control your eating, you end up bingeing even harder?

Imagine this… the sun is peeking through your bedroom curtains. Birds are chirping. Somewhere in the distance small, furry woodland animals awake to do cute things. It’s a new day and you’re ready to start your fancy new diet. But like all completely unrealistic weight loss plans, by 3pm you find yourself elbow deep in cookie crumbs and wondering what went wrong? Why are you such a failure? What is wrong with you? Why can’t you say ‘no’ to a jelly donut?

1 Food Labels Suck

No, I’m not talking about nutritional food labels. I’m talking about the labels you put on food. The minute you decide that certain foods are “good” and other foods are “bad”, you begin measuring your personal self worth by what you ate. Example: How do you feel about yourself on the days you eat salad and green smoothies? Like a goddess? A dieting diva? Princess Leia? And how about on the days you eat fourteen donuts, two cherry danishes and a packet of half frozen crumpets? Are you feeling the Princess Leia vibe then, or is it more like Princess Fiona from Shrek? Drop the food labels. Food is just food. Eat what you want, when you want it, in amounts that feel good to you and to your body.

2 Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn

A failure is only a failure if you don’t learn the lesson, apply it and MOVE ON. You can’t really slip up, stuff up or screw up your diet because when you Ditch the Diet, you ditch the self hate, the judgement, the strict rules and by default, the binges. So you ate a cookie? So what? It doesn’t matter if you eat one, none or six packets, what matters is that you take the time to dig around and find out WHY you ate them to start with. With insight comes change. You can’t change any behaviour that you are not paying attention to.

3 Your Stuck In ‘Start/Stop Syndrome’

Every time you try to get your eating “perfect”, you set yourself up for a big dose of Start / Stop Syndrome. What do I mean? Think back to the last time you ate some chocolate, felt bad about it, decided you had messed up your meal plan and proceeded to go on a deranged Pizza Hut binge. Did you lose weight or gain it? Did you feel better about yourself or worse? Start / Stop Syndrome will leave you feeling miserable and gaining weight. Every single time. Moving on from your little midnight tryst
with the Pizza Hut box will leave you feeling deliciously satisfied and maybe even losing weight (who knows? Stranger things have happened)

Are you a victim of Start / Stop Syndrome and how do you handle it? Share the goodies in the comments below and then…

Share this with your bestie because it’s funner than finding chocolate under the seat of your couch.