Binge eating: diary of a stay-at-home daughter.
Disclaimer: This is a personal experience and not medical advice.
Hello from the other side. How are you? Seriously, take a minute and notice how you feel. Breathe in and out. I hope you are okay if not, it gets better with time or money. I just realized it’s been a while since I binged. Hihi… clap for me.
I turned to food for a while to help me deal with underlying emotions. Until the weight came and my self-esteem dipped. My self-esteem was not affected by the weight. But by my inability to stop eating
I am so emotional right now. If it seems like I’m going back and forth bear with me, a girl is proud! Here are some of the ways I stopped binge eating.
- Eat, make sure you are not hungry.
- Learn how to cook.
- Process your emotions
- Pray
- Keep only healthy food at home
- Forgive me
- Binge
Eat!
Ensure you are full. I noticed when I went for long hours without eating. I was more likely to make unhealthy choices and overeat. The first thing you read when you want to get fit and healthy is to watch your diet. My preferred diet was intermitted fasting, you only eat from 12 pm-8 pm. Let me tell you, Maina! This resulted in me overeating. I would not have eaten that much if I had listened to my body. I hope by now you have realized that some diets don’t work. The only thing you achieve is messing with your hormones. I did try having only black sugarless coffee. I ended up with a ruined stomach lining.
Baby giving your body the required nutrients in the portions your body requires: yes, you may need more portions to lose weight is way more effective than starving yourself. Your body does not use the fat in your body when you go for long without eating.
Mapishi time! (let’s get cooking)
By learning how to cook, I regulated the amount of salt I put in the food and the preservatives used. Yes, this explains why you can’t have enough salty food. I’m a lover of good food. Any mishap with my food, I’d compensate. So, I’d end up with two plates when my body needed one. There is something so soothing about making your meals. Especially with some nice music in the background. This brings me to my next point.
Forget the gangster in you
By processing my emotions, you know not eating my stress in grams I automatically stopped binge eating. When you set a nice playlist and start cooking by the time you seat down, you’d have identified what’s up and are ready to work on it. Sometimes cooking is therapy enough. First, download the feeling wheel, and identify what emotion you are feeling. Don’t just say you feeling sad is it sadness or disappointment? Label that emotion. Then seat with that emotion. Ha-ha, got you! Most people binge eat because they don’t have healthy ways to let those emotions float. Of course, get a safe space and let that emotion come to life. I love doing this by journaling, dancing or singing. Eventually whatever I am feeling will come to life and if I need to laugh I do it. if it’s tears, we cry. If you struggle with expressing sad “negative emotions” watch a sad movie & cry. There is no such thing as negative emotions all emotions are just emotions and having these emotions is normal and healthy. Feel them it doesn’t make you a bad person. Imagine my shock when I learnt I also binge eat when happy. Did you grow up in a family that rewarded you with your favourite food?
Everything at its own time
Set time to eat. Be mindful when eating. Mindfully eating helps you notice when you are full. Helps you notice whether you like the food or not. Since I started mindful eating, I realized I leave some food on my plate. Ensure you eat your food with positive energy or good people. If mashed potatoes are your favourite meal and you have them with a bunch of angry people you will most likely not enjoy them.
Prayer
I wrote prayer because you need to understand yourself. If you are religious, you do trust that your financial prayers will be heard and answered. Binge eating can also be solved through prayer. Binge eating can be shameful especially when you share your struggle with that snap-out-of-it squad, just stop eating, as if it’s a switch, Philomena! Baby, if it has you on choke hold pray about it. Now my spiritual babies, manifest a binge eating free you, visualize you making healthy decisions, affirm yourself, and do a quantum jump.
Out of sight out of mind
If you see that bottle of soda you will want to drink it all, did someone say self-control? It’s okay if you currently don’t have self-control. you get rid of your distractions; you get rid of the behaviour. With this unfollow everyone who makes you binge eat. If your goal is to lose weight you could start by replacing it with fruits or nuts.
Forgive Thyself
Uhm. In this world of sin, you will fall, you will rise. You need to be your own best friend. Talk to you like you would to someone you love. If a friend fell off a diet you would most likely use kind and soft words. Do the same for you. Be kind to yourself. Talk to yourself like you would to your friend. The truth is you will fail. It took you 4 years to be a successful binge eater, baby it will take more than a second to reverse it. Fall and rise do it till you cement healthy eating habits. Also, if you relapse after 3 years forgive yourself. Accord yourself the grace. Learn what triggered you then work on it. You cannot shame yourself into change, you have to love yourself enough to change.
Dawa ya Moto ni Moto (fire on fire)
Eat binge eat! If you binge eat because you didn’t have that thing growing up you have to kill that lack mindset. Lack of mindset is killed by abundance, plenty. For me, I used to binge on pizza a lot. To stop I started buying pizza on Tuesdays or Thursdays so I’d get 2 pizzas. Guess what size? Large! Two large pizzas with juice or soda. Any small money I could get enjoyment(pizza) I slowly stopped craving pizza. Today I just buy when I’m sharing. If you overeat because you didn’t have growing up, I am sorry, and I need you to eat. Let your mind register abundance.
Babes, eating disorders are hard to discuss and cannot be exhausted in a single blog. By all means, get help if you overeat or under-eat. If you struggle with body dysmorphia, depression, and anxiety. These mental health disorders trigger eating disorders. Get help. Take it a day at a time.
Of course, I have resources
1: If you trying to understand how to eat and what to eat. Mitchelle Adagala is a fitness coach who takes particular attention to educating people on how bodies work. I love her contentment as she just doesn’t tell you to go workout ama eat this but explains why you should it that. She is also a phenomenal coach. Check out her page and learn.
2: To understand why you use food to soothe yourself.
3: self-love
1 Comment
i love this 🤭