Breaking my Binge Eating Habit

Growing up, I had a pattern of eating the smallest meals, but stuffing myself with the strangest concoctions when I was alone. This pattern carried with me from the beginning of middle school, throughout high school, and half way through college. Unfortunately, with binge eating came obsessive thoughts, wasted time, and a dent in my well-being. Funnily enough, when I started to focus on my well-being, I stopped binge eating. It’s almost as if there is a connection between self-care and self-control. When I focus on taking better care of myself, I have enough control to stop eating when I’m full and eat again when I am hungry. It sounds simple enough, but at first it was a foreign concept. 

Here’s what helped me along the way:

1. I stopped restricting
   1. Skipping meals and eating light is definitive way to create an uncontrollable hunger later on. Instead of eating mostly “light” foods, I eat foods that I know make me full. This way I don’t feel as tempted to eat spoonfuls of peanut butter late at night. 
2. I allow myself to eat foods that are unhealthy
   1.  Before I eat anything that I consider to be unhealthy, I mentally allow myself to eat it. This allowance helps curb the 5 guilt brownies that would have followed if I chastised myself pre or mid brownie.
3. I do not buy foods that I know will start a binge
   1. To save myself the mental anguish of ignoring the nutterbutters that I store in my cupboard, I don’t by them in the first place. I save money this way, too.
4. I find other healthy ways to manage stress
   1. Sometimes after a particularly stressful day or week, I notice that I eat an absurd amount of carbs to lift my mood. While the immediate effects numb the stress that is college, the long-term habit is unhealthy, and difficult to break. Instead, I go for a walk, take a warm shower, or look at pictures of dogs. 
5. I think about what macronutrient I might be missing.
   1. I believe that cravings can be signal from your body that it is missing something it needs. For an example, I eat fruit if I am craving candy or beans and an avocado if I am craving something fatty. 

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https://elysesantilli.com/best-quotes-on-self-love/