It can be difficult at first to identify why you’re feeling the urge to binge, but hopefully with these few tips you’ll be able to build some awareness around why you binge and what you can do in the moment.
Treating every binge like a problem to be solved can create unhelpful belief patterns. It’s important for you to turn away from any judgmental narratives (“Ugh, what is wrong with me? I’m so disgusting!”) and cultivate curiosity instead (“I wonder if there was a need that wasn’t met?”). Curiosity allows you to be able to build awareness around common patterns associated with the urge to binge.
Being brave enough to witness your judgment without judgment is liberating! You will feel an incredible sense of freedom. – Gabby Bernstein
Let’s chat about four things you can do when you feel the urge to binge:
Bring awareness to the trigger
What happened before the urge occurred? And I’m not only talking about the few minutes leading up to it, but what happened earlier today? This morning? This past weekend? This month? Have any big life changes happened recently (like a new job, move, or family event)? See if there is anything significant that sticks out to you and makes you question if it’s related. Even if you’re not quite sure if it’s related, anything could be related. Over time you may find a pattern in what is happening before the urge to binge occurs.
Set a 5 to 20 minute timer — not to resist but rather to persist!
Setting a timer can create a tactical tool to create space to connect to what is really going on. In the heat of the moment, it is incredibly common to feel very disconnected from your body (that “blackout” feeling). In order to bring the emotional turmoil associated with your urge down, just step away for a period of time to give yourself the opportunity to calm down. Use a coping tool, sit in your emotions, and allow the urge to rise and fall. This is not to resist the urge but rather give your body a moment to just be, to persist through the urge. You’d be surprised how taking a moment to just “be” and feel your feelings can be so healing.
*Bonus tip*! Use an emotion wheel to help you determine what emotions are coming to the surface for you.
If you can sit with your pain, listen to your pain and respect your pain – in time you will move through your pain. – Bryant McGill
Check in with your hunger.
Think back to when your last meal was. Was it more than two to four hours ago? Did you feel satisfied, physically and mentally? Were you restricting your food, even though you wanted more? Did you feel like you had to justify your food choices with compensation (like eating “better” or exercising to “burn it off”)? These are all questions that can help you identify if the urge to binge may truly be coming from a place of hunger. Try to step away from negotiating with yourself and using logic to justify any of your behaviors. This is a moment where I would encourage you to really tune into your gut and trust what it’s telling you. Hunger does not have to have a justification. Odds are if you’re thinking about food, you are just hungry. Your body may have given you subtle signs of hunger and because those cues were not recognized, it says “Hey, feed me now!” and the urge to binge arises.
Create permission to eat, even permission to “make mistakes” and binge.
If at the end of the urge to binge, you are still thinking about that last sleeve of Oreos sitting in the back of your pantry, go for it. The last thing you want to do is create more feelings of restriction that continue to fuel the restrict/binge cycle. Cultivate some self-compassion and approach the situation like you were sitting next to a friend. Tune in to the moment and observe your senses as you are eating it. And just know that there are no mistakes, you are doing the best you can and that’s okay. You can eat all foods and trust your body, it may just take a little time and love to get where you feel more comfortable doing so.
We put enormous effort into hiding our vulnerability, but it’s our vulnerability that truly heals. When we feel safe enough to expose our shadows, that’s when we become free. – Gabby Bernstein
The hardest part of binge recovery are the uncertainties. Even when following these four tips you may find yourself feeling just as lost as when you started. That’s okay. There is great healing in just sitting in the urge. You may not know how to describe it, why it’s happening, or what to do about it, but that’s okay. Just connecting to your body’s sensations as the urge rises is a step toward being conscious that binge-eating does not like to survive in.
Emotional pain cannot kill you, but running from it can. Allow. Embrace. Let yourself feel. Let yourself heal. – Vironika Tugaleva
Review and Edited by Kaitlyn Allen MS, MEd, MS, RD.
