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Overcoming Eating Disorders
Binge Eating
by
Stephen Lau
by
Stephen Lau
Compulsive eating or binge eating disorder is uncontrollable eating, often accompanied by frustration, guilt and shame, setting the groundwork for depression and other behavioral disorders. It is a psychological disorder using food to cope with disturbed emotions.
The vicious binge eating cycle
The compulsive eating cycle may begin subtly and imperceptibly with using food to deal with emotional problems or stress. This psychological problem may lead to other psychological problems, such as weight gain.
To resolve the weight problem, the alternatives may be dieting or purging. The former is often the precursor of binge eating (a component of different eating disorders), while the latter may result in bulimia.
Why is that?
Dieting, ironically enough, is often the first stage of binge eating. Dieting creates deprivation, which makes an individual feel deprived of the enjoyment of eating. Individuals with less self-control may succumb to the desire of wanting food during a diet.
Failure in dieting (or worse with repeated failures in one fad diet after another) engenders frustration and self-deprecation, leading to depression (For more information, visit my website Rethink Your Depression.), which often causes an individual to turn to "comfort food."
Or, an individual may resort to resolving weight problem through purging (using fingers or laxatives to induce vomiting after binge eating), precipitating the development of bulimia.
The individual, beset by the fear of being unable to stop eating voluntarily, may turn to binge eating again, and thus creating the endless vicious cycle of compulsive eating, followed by guilt, shame, and helplessness, leading to more binge eating episodes.
These cyclical problems of abnormal eating feed on themselves.
The binge eating profile
Compulsive eating individuals may have the following traits:
The vicious binge eating cycle
The compulsive eating cycle may begin subtly and imperceptibly with using food to deal with emotional problems or stress. This psychological problem may lead to other psychological problems, such as weight gain.
To resolve the weight problem, the alternatives may be dieting or purging. The former is often the precursor of binge eating (a component of different eating disorders), while the latter may result in bulimia.
Why is that?
Dieting, ironically enough, is often the first stage of binge eating. Dieting creates deprivation, which makes an individual feel deprived of the enjoyment of eating. Individuals with less self-control may succumb to the desire of wanting food during a diet.
Failure in dieting (or worse with repeated failures in one fad diet after another) engenders frustration and self-deprecation, leading to depression (For more information, visit my website Rethink Your Depression.), which often causes an individual to turn to "comfort food."
Or, an individual may resort to resolving weight problem through purging (using fingers or laxatives to induce vomiting after binge eating), precipitating the development of bulimia.
The individual, beset by the fear of being unable to stop eating voluntarily, may turn to binge eating again, and thus creating the endless vicious cycle of compulsive eating, followed by guilt, shame, and helplessness, leading to more binge eating episodes.
These cyclical problems of abnormal eating feed on themselves.
The binge eating profile
Compulsive eating individuals may have the following traits:
| · | low self-esteem |
| · | poor or unrealistic self-image |
| · | self-denial |
| · | pursuit of perfection |
| · | fear of growing up |
| · | futile self-reassertion from a dominating person or possessive parent(s) |
The dos
| · | Do make a daily commitment to focus on changing your lifestyle. Make an agreement with yourself that you will spend some time each day to think about how to adopt healthy living and change your eating habit to eat healthy again. |
| · | Do detach yourself emotionally from food. Yes, eating may temporarily detach you from your emotions, just like watching TV may take your mind off your stress or problems. However, binge eating cannot solve your emotional problems -- they only exacerbate them further down the road. |
| · | Do eat only a set number of times each day. It is just like making fewer shopping trips to the supermarket will save you money; eat fewer times -- just close your mouth! You need to have a business-like approach to eating -- disciplined eating plays a role in overcoming binge eating. |
| · | Do set regular mealtimes: breakfast, lunch, and dinner -- with 4-5 hours in between. Never-ending mealtime is a recipe for binge eating and overweight problems. |
| · | Do make your food choices based on your nutritional needs. Understand that the purpose of eating is to give your body nutrients, and neither to make you “feel better” about yourself nor to alleviate your guilt. Remember, every food item you choose gives you either good health or poor health. |
| · | Do avoid reading cookbooks or watching cooking shows. They increase your appetite for food more than they increase your culinary skills. |
| · | Do keep yourself busy to take your mind off food. Knitting and gardening often do wonders, if you find exercise too strenuous. |
| · | Do remember that binge eating hurts not only yourself, but also your loved ones too. Compulsive eating hurts love relationships. |
| · | Do realize that no one can lose weight for you. Take full responsibility for your actions and choices. The food is there, but it doesn’t mean you have to eat it. |
| · | Do follow the suggested portions outlined on a food package. They are there for a valid reason -- to make sure you will not overeat. Don’t nurture the feeling that no one has the right to tell you how much to eat. |
| · | Do remember that saying “NO” is an essential part of healing and recovery. Enjoying what you eat is different from eating everything you enjoy. Think about that! Learn how to change gradually your eating experience, as well as your eating habits. |
| · | Do hold up your head and be confident, irrespective of your size and shape. Low self-esteem is often the culprit in binge eating. Just stand tall, push your body back, and hold your head high! |
The don'ts
| · | Don’t plan your weight loss, and don’t set any target. Why not? Be realistic because the road ahead may be long and bumpy, and any disappointment and frustration will lead to more episodes of binge eating. |
| · | Don’t be over ambitious or zealous. Taking a Herculean task is sabotage that feeds your self-denial. Take small but deliberate steps. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and you need to take that first step to recovery and ultimate good health. |
| · | Don’t pay attention to the contradictory messages of the media, or the cultural focus on thinness and perfect body shape. |
| · | Don’t be misled by food myths, such as food satisfies (giving a bottle to a crying baby; or rewarding a child with a candy). In the adult world, using food to satisfy your emotional feelings may be a shortcut to eating disorders. |
| · | Don’t substitute “high fat” with “low fat” or “high sugar” with “low sugar. Simply eat less of what you crave. Learn how to overcome food cravings. |
| · | Don’t be allured by food advertisers, who often use human characteristics to make you become emotionally attached to their products (such as McDonalds and Kentucky Chicken).through a human relationship with food. All commercials aim at creating the craving for food, which is the source of binge eating. |
| · | Don’t strive to live up to the media’s unrealistic standards of body shape that is out of reach for the general public. |
| · | Don’t search for a perfect diet: there is and there will never be one. In fact, imperfection is only human. Your search is only procrastination for taking positive action. You are simply searching something outside of yourself, instead of tackling the problems within yourself. Avoid all fad diets, such as Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watcher, and many others, which lighten only your wallet but not your weight. |
| · | Don’t waste your time finding out the weight loss of another. To tell the truth, there is no secret: you simply eat less. Instead, use the time to exercise or prepare a healthy. |
End Binge Eating Once And For All details a step-by-step plan to overcome compulsive eating or binge eating disorder. This inspiring book shows you not only how to achieve a positive body image but also how to become a much stronger person emotionally. The information improves yourself and every aspect of your life positively. In addition, you can continue to eat most of the foods that you normally binge on. It is not a diet, but a way to end food addiction permanently!
Copyright©2008 by Stephen Lau
Return from Binge Eating to Home Page.
Copyright©2008 by Stephen Lau
Return from Binge Eating to Home Page.
Healing emotions before healing the body
The pain from binge eating like no other pain: it is emotionally and mentally devastaing. This is also one of the reasons why some women would not want to marry due to the fear of passing their emotionally devastating genes to their offspring.
However deep the pain may be, emotional hurt can never be healed with food, and healing the body begins with healing the mind first.
Why is that?
Your eating patterns are a reflection of your life patterns. That is, given that eating is one of the most repeated patterns of life, any unhappiness in life is naturally expressed through eating.
Therefore, what you eat affects more than your weight and health: it reinforces all the negative patterns in your life. To illustrate:
The pain from binge eating like no other pain: it is emotionally and mentally devastaing. This is also one of the reasons why some women would not want to marry due to the fear of passing their emotionally devastating genes to their offspring.
However deep the pain may be, emotional hurt can never be healed with food, and healing the body begins with healing the mind first.
Why is that?
Your eating patterns are a reflection of your life patterns. That is, given that eating is one of the most repeated patterns of life, any unhappiness in life is naturally expressed through eating.
Therefore, what you eat affects more than your weight and health: it reinforces all the negative patterns in your life. To illustrate:
| · | If you do not make time to prepare a healthy meal,you probably will not make time to clean the house. |
| · | If you cannot resist the temptation of drinking a can of soda, you probably cannot resist the temptation of buying someting you do not need with the money you do not have byusing an over-charged credot card. In other words, you may have a financial problem. |
In short, the degree of success in your life is reflected in the success you have in handling your issues with food -- in particular, binge eating.
Therefore, healing the body from binge eating begins with healingthe mind from toxic thoughts.
You eat because you are unhappy. Your unhappiness may be duye to an unpleasant experience or an event.
First and foremost, stop playing the blame game -- blamming another individual or yourself. The reasons are simple enough:
Therefore, healing the body from binge eating begins with healingthe mind from toxic thoughts.
You eat because you are unhappy. Your unhappiness may be duye to an unpleasant experience or an event.
First and foremost, stop playing the blame game -- blamming another individual or yourself. The reasons are simple enough:
Do not be held captive by your emotional bonds.
But how to break away from them? You need intellect and understanding of how to break them.
A positive affirmation is a verbal technique to reinforce positive belief or thinking. Affirmations are positive statements with the following characteristics:
But how to break away from them? You need intellect and understanding of how to break them.
A positive affirmation is a verbal technique to reinforce positive belief or thinking. Affirmations are positive statements with the following characteristics:
| · | It makes you dependent on another individual. |
| · | It incapacitates you from creating happiness in your own life. |
| · | It subconsciously forms a repeated pattern in your life, which is often repeated in your eating pattern. |
Visualization is visual affirmation with positive images to facilitate the perception of possibility.
Meditation is focusing or paying attention for identification of mixed or confused emotions.
Meditation is focusing or paying attention for identification of mixed or confused emotions.
| · | statements in the present tense about who and what you would like to become in the future (e.g. “I am not a failure in life.” and “I am thin.”) |
| · | repetitions to facilitate your receptiveness to the projected truth |
| · | non-requirement for you to believe in its veracity (i.e. repetitions in spite of skepticism) |
Meditation is only a process, not a goal; therefore, there are no "wrong" ways to meditate.
It calls for practice, which improves with more practice. It always has a point of focus.
For more information on how to practice meditation, go to my website: Meditation Techniques.)
Exercise changes old negative patterns in life, which otherwise would be repeated in eating patterns. Never use exercise to "punish" yourself for overeating (may lead to the development of bulimia); instead, use it to remove yourself from being stuck in old unhealthy life patterns.
Detaching food from emotions
Food as love
Food associated with love is evident in various eating disorders. Feeling unloved often craves food to substitute the absence or deprivation of love.
To stop binge eating, overcome the association of food with love with the following affirmations:
· "I eat to nourish my body.”
· "I love to nourish life.”
· "Eating does not make me more or less loved.”
Food as approval
You are loved for who you are, not what you do. Human life is valued because you have value for just being who you are. As long as you believe that the work you do is fulfilling to you, you do not need to seek approval of others.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as seeking approval with the following affirmations:
· "Who I am is good enough.”
· "I have value because I am what I am.”
Food as punishment or reward
Do not use food to "punish" or "reward" yourself. Remorse or satisfaction is a mental, not a physical, state.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as punishment or reward with the following affirmations:
· "I am lovable, and a good person.”
· "I am forgiving.”
Food as an emotion suppressor
Do not use food as a physical response to any unreasonable demand or a form of control.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as defiance or power struggle with the following affirmations:
· "I am powerful.”
· "I am a strong person.”
Food as pursuit of perfection
Look for excellence instead of perfection, which often brings about disappointment and frustration, a recipe for binge eating.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as pursuit of perfection with the following affirmations:
· "I am good and capable.”
· "I am improving.”
Food as relief of boredom
Boredom is a self-indulging state of mind due to self-centeredness. Too much preoccupation with feelings of the self may engender feelings of boredom.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as relief of boredom with the following affirmations:
· "I want to do something for others.”
· "I like to help others.”
(To get ideas about how to create opportunities for yourself out of your free time, go to my website: Healthy Living.)
Food as security
"Comfort food" gives you neither comfort nor security.
To stop binge eating, overcoming using food as security with the following affirmations:
· "I am safe and secure.”
· "I do not need food to give me comfort or security.”
Expressing emotions without food to stop binge eating
Learn to express your emotions, which are affecting your life negatively.
Learn to identify your emotions by paying attention to how you eat when you experience those emotions.
Learn how to feel your emotions by giving yourself the permission to be angry (acknowledging your imperfection).
Learn how to write about your emotions in a journal or diary.
Learn how to talk about your emotions by sharing them with your friends about how your feel.
It calls for practice, which improves with more practice. It always has a point of focus.
For more information on how to practice meditation, go to my website: Meditation Techniques.)
Exercise changes old negative patterns in life, which otherwise would be repeated in eating patterns. Never use exercise to "punish" yourself for overeating (may lead to the development of bulimia); instead, use it to remove yourself from being stuck in old unhealthy life patterns.
Detaching food from emotions
Food as love
Food associated with love is evident in various eating disorders. Feeling unloved often craves food to substitute the absence or deprivation of love.
To stop binge eating, overcome the association of food with love with the following affirmations:
· "I eat to nourish my body.”
· "I love to nourish life.”
· "Eating does not make me more or less loved.”
Food as approval
You are loved for who you are, not what you do. Human life is valued because you have value for just being who you are. As long as you believe that the work you do is fulfilling to you, you do not need to seek approval of others.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as seeking approval with the following affirmations:
· "Who I am is good enough.”
· "I have value because I am what I am.”
Food as punishment or reward
Do not use food to "punish" or "reward" yourself. Remorse or satisfaction is a mental, not a physical, state.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as punishment or reward with the following affirmations:
· "I am lovable, and a good person.”
· "I am forgiving.”
Food as an emotion suppressor
Do not use food as a physical response to any unreasonable demand or a form of control.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as defiance or power struggle with the following affirmations:
· "I am powerful.”
· "I am a strong person.”
Food as pursuit of perfection
Look for excellence instead of perfection, which often brings about disappointment and frustration, a recipe for binge eating.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as pursuit of perfection with the following affirmations:
· "I am good and capable.”
· "I am improving.”
Food as relief of boredom
Boredom is a self-indulging state of mind due to self-centeredness. Too much preoccupation with feelings of the self may engender feelings of boredom.
To stop binge eating, overcome using food as relief of boredom with the following affirmations:
· "I want to do something for others.”
· "I like to help others.”
(To get ideas about how to create opportunities for yourself out of your free time, go to my website: Healthy Living.)
Food as security
"Comfort food" gives you neither comfort nor security.
To stop binge eating, overcoming using food as security with the following affirmations:
· "I am safe and secure.”
· "I do not need food to give me comfort or security.”
Expressing emotions without food to stop binge eating
Learn to express your emotions, which are affecting your life negatively.
Learn to identify your emotions by paying attention to how you eat when you experience those emotions.
Learn how to feel your emotions by giving yourself the permission to be angry (acknowledging your imperfection).
Learn how to write about your emotions in a journal or diary.
Learn how to talk about your emotions by sharing them with your friends about how your feel.
