How I got rid of compulsive binge eating and came to a healthy diet

Background

It all started when I was 21 years old. Before that, I had succeeded in almost everything in my life. I got solid A's and was one of the best in my sport. Now I longed to move on and challenge myself more difficult. On the same day, I founded a company and started studying at the university (in Sweden it is common to wait a year or two before entering the university).

After a few months, it was already clear that I had taken on too much. Attempts develop your business and at the same time studying led to the fact that I worked until 22 or 23 hours almost every evening. Night was the only time I could devote to myself. I missed rest so much that soon I began to sit up until one o'clock, then until two in the morning, then even longer. Over time, I discovered the intoxicating sense of relief that the combination of sweet and fat provides. So I started eating at night.

And don't just eat. I think only those who also suffered from compulsive overeating will truly understand me. The amount of ice cream, cookies, and anything else that came to hand was overwhelming.

It helped to forget for a while about my worries, gave a respite and immersed me in the present moment.

The worse my daily life got, the more I became addicted to this feeling. After some time, I began to refuse invitations and meetings with friends, just to stay at home and get your "dose". It took me over two years to admit that this behavior was abnormal.

Once I was on the phone with a close friend. We planned to meet in the evening. When I hung up, I realized that I had lied to him just to stay home and eat. At that moment I hit the bottom. Then I swore to myself that I would be healthy again.

Today I have practically gotten rid of binge eating disorder. My body looks great. And I can finally focus on the important things that improve my existence, and not vice versa. Through reading, experimenting with myself, trial and error, I was able to improve my life - and you can too! I wrote this article so that your process will go faster and not as painful as mine.

How to get rid of overeating

Step 1. Admit that you have a problem

Unsurprisingly, this is the starting point for programs to get rid of dependencies. If you don't acknowledge the problem, you won't solve it.

If you are reading this text, then, most likely, you have already realized the difficulties. If not, don't judge yourself too harshly. Just know: until you are ready, it will not work. change life for the better.

Recognizing the problem was my first big break. But it really started when I started telling other people about it. You don't have to tell everyone. I started with my closest friends and then told my family, and the latter was more difficult for me. It all depends on your relationship. It's best to share first with those you feel most comfortable with. But keep in mind that this conversation will always be a little unpleasant. It's even good: discomfort means you are working on yourself.

Later, I began to talk about overeating even to people I just met. This is necessary in order to separate yourself from the problem and look at it more objectively.

Overeating is not part of your identity. This is a problem that you can solve.

Conclusions:

1. Admit that you have a problem. Don't judge yourself. You can even put it down on paper describing everything is as truthful as possible.
2. Make an appointment with close friends. Warn in advance that you want to talk about your problem and that it is important to you.
3. Start telling other people. Do this to the extent that you feel comfortable.

If you have no one to share with, or you feel that your eating habits are already harmful to your health, see a therapist. Don't be shy about it.

Step 2. Identify the needs behind overeating

In my experience, there are two main factors that lead to binge eating disorder. The first is unmet physiological needs (more on them in the next step), the second is unmet emotional needs.

When I first started to overeat, I felt that I did not have enough time for communication. Also, I couldn't handle volume of tasksthat appeared due to study and business. There was too much stress in my life.

Overeating became an opportunity to escape from the severity of the lifestyle that I led.

I had high standards, and I suffered from not living up to them. This affected my relationships with people. I was ashamed. I became more and more distant from the world, and this led to an even greater feeling loneliness. Of course, I felt that something was wrong. The diary entries helped me. I recorded my thoughts and emotions, and also reflected on why I think and feel that way.

The difficulty is that the negative consequences of overeating (metabolic disorders, excess weight, health problems) appear only after a long time, and positive (calming, pleasant taste of food, release of dopamine) are felt immediately.

In the end, journaling and meditating helped to roughly understand what I was missing and what I want from life. This set the direction and ultimately led to the creation of my business today. I also turned to a psychotherapist. This allowed me to see the situation more clearly and begin to make up for what I was trying to compensate. overeating.

You need to identify and deal with your own emotional needs.

As behavioral scientist Jason Hreha says, habits are simply reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment. Therefore, you need to replace the benefits of overeating with something else that is no less valuable.

Conclusions:

1. Write down your emotions associated with overeating. Record whatever comes to mind. Ask yourself: what led to this? What do I usually feel right before binge eating? Is there something to help control this behavior?
2. Start working with a psychotherapist. This will help you understand the psychological causes of overeating. Discussing the situation with another person will reinforce the first step (acknowledging the problem).
3. Create an emergency plan. Knowing what triggers overeating can help reduce your risk of another attack and lessen the negative consequences if one does happen. Here are the points in my plan:

• Do not keep food that I abuse during my attacks at home. For me, these are sugary fatty foods, you may have something else.
• Eat healthy foods. Feeling hungry is the last thing you need in such a situation.
• During an attack, listen to your hunger. Watch the sensations closely. The sooner you notice the discomfort of overeating, the sooner you stop. This is an important step to train your body to recognize when you are full.
• Focus on long-term goals and the consequences of overeating. Stop before picking up a tidbit. Consider: How will what you eat affect you in the short and long term?

Step 3. Stop dieting and start eating high nutrient density foods

So, another factor contributing to overeating is unmet physiological needs. Most people with binge eating disorder satBinge-eating disorder for some diet. As a result, they found themselves in a state where the body is constantly striving for calories.

I have been playing sports for a long time and experimenting with nutrition. My appearance and fitness have always been important to me. I've tried almost every known diet. By the time the problem of overeating became more acute, I had been a lacto-ovo-vegetarian for about a year.

For various reasons (mostly environmental, which later turned out to be completely wrong), nine months after that, I switched to a vegan diet. I tried to keep my diet low in carbohydrates. But due to the fact that the diet was plant-based, and due to frequent bouts of overeating, I still got a lot of this nutrient. So the organism lived for the most part on sugar, and put all the fat aside. In addition, I experimented with fasting: often I did not eat for 24 hours, and sometimes for 72. Fasting became for me a kind of repentance after bouts of overeating.

I was constantly thinking about the food and the delicious feeling of relief I got from eating something fatty and sweet. At the same time, I suffered from guilt and shame for my behavior and could not understand why I was doing this.

Now it no longer seems like a mystery to me. The typical binge cycle is influenced by physiological and evolutionary factors. Firstly, if you are on some kind of diet or just limit yourself, as I did, your body will not receive enough nutrients and will begin to require certain foods - much more than normal conditions.

Second, if you regularly starving or somehow you repent for the sins of overeating, the body will start to panic. Especially with a diet high in carbohydrates, from which blood sugar fluctuates greatly. And if you have binge eating disorder, your diet is very likely to be high in carbohydrates and fat.

To control fluctuations in blood sugar, the body will require more nutritious foods such as ice cream. And when you eat, he will begin to store fat, because he is used to relying on a regular intake of calories. Moreover, this process is not realized. You will notice an obsession with food and obsessive thoughts about unhealthy high-calorie foods, but you will not understand what is the matter.

This creates shame and guilt, and they only increase the need for food. When unmet emotional needs are also mixed in, the situation is completely out of control.

I will not teach you how to eat. I'll just tell you what happened to me when I tried to eat animal products for a month:

• I soon stopped dreaming about yogurt and similar unloading products in large quantities.
• I started to think less about food, and between meals I felt full.
• It became easier to control yourself and not give in to the desire to swallow everything that comes to hand.
• Depression, which I developed against the background of all this, soon became less difficult.

For the past two and a half years, I've been trying to figure out why this happened. Here are the conclusions I came to. Religious asideThe Global Influence of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Diet. the teachings and benefits of corporations, it is clear that food of animal origin has the highestReview: Nutrient density and nutritional value of meat products and non-meat foods high in protein Nutrient density (that is, it is high in nutrients but not high in calories) In addition, the nutrients it contains are importantMeat and mental health: a systematic review of meat abstention and depression, anxiety, and related phenomena for our mental health. It is essential to deal with the hurricane of emotions and negative thoughts that accompanies (and causes) compulsive overeating.

Whichever diet you choose, the fact remains: to get rid of overeating, you have to give the body what it needs.

You have every right give up meat for ethical reasons. Just remember that now is not the time to hold on to old beliefs and ideas about yourself. You need to be pragmatic and take care of the body, and you can find a way to defend your position later.

Conclusions:

1. Stop dieting and starving. I didn’t give up fasting for a long time, and it was very stupid. Once you have recovered and established a relationship with food, you can experiment as much as you like. But for now, forget about it.
2. Aim to eat three to four dense meals a day. Skip meals only if you feel completely full. Understand that this will eventually give you the body you want, but your current nutrition will not.
3. Eat foods that are high in protein and high in nutrient density. I advise you to build your diet on animal products. Hunger is your worst enemy, especially at the beginning of the journey, and such a diet will helpObesity: The Protein Leverage Hypothesis stay full for a long time.

What to do after a binge eating disorder

Let's be honest, you will have a seizure again someday. And there is nothing wrong with that. After this I lost my common sense for several days and began to think: "Well, since I'm already at the bottom, I can stay here a little longer."

Fight this thought with all your might. Get started today. Do not try to fix what has happened by fasting: it will only increase the desire to eat too much again.

After another attack, focus on one aspiration: to be better than yesterday.

Even if you succumbed to your weakness for the second day in a row. Try to inflict a little less on yourself harmthan before, and don't punish yourself for the breakdown.

Finally

Not so long ago, I didn't dare to believe that I would someday be completely free of compulsive overeating. Now I can finally say that I have a stable healthy relationship with food that will only get better in the future.

You, too, have come to this if you can sometimes indulge yourself with something tasty and at the same time not blame yourself. And not imagine how to eat it in kilograms until you feel bad.

Binge eating isn't worth losing even a minute of your time or a fraction of yours. potential. It won't take a day or two to free yourself, but you can do it if you don't give up.