Fitness26: The Binge – How to Avoid Binge Eating!

Don’t let the binge undo all your hard work that you have put in with exercising and eating healthy, and leave you feeling guilty! Here are a few tips to avoid binging, enjoying a little of what you love and live a balance lifestyle without the guilt.

PORTION CONTROL
Always try and portion out your food. This may include buying single servings rather than family size servings, e.g. Chips and ice cream are offered in individual serving sizes too so if you know you normally binge rather buy the small individual tub.
EAT SLOWER
It takes about 20 minutes for your body to acknowledge that you have eaten and feel full, so try and eat slowly so that you recognise when you are full rather than fitting in too much by eating fast and then feeling sick and overstuffed.

FIGHT CRAVINGS
Are you hungry, thirsty or actually craving something? Start by drinking a glass of water and if that doesn’t work, choose a healthy snack. If you are still craving something even though you are no longer hungry, then try and just have something small to indulge on and satisfy that craving. By staying satisfied and hydrated you are less likely to have many cravings.

BORED EATING
Many of you eat out of boredom, if so, find something to do to keep yourself busy. Whether it’s making a phone call, going for a walk, doing some yoga or working out, taking a long bath, making a healthy meal or doing a job that needs to be around the house. Distraction and refocusing often helps.
DON’T DIET
Following these fad, overly restrictive diets and skipping meals will only lead to more craving, unhealthy obsessions on what you cannot eat, hunger, a slower metabolism and uneven blood sugar levels. Follow a healthy and balanced way of eating and make it your permanent lifestyle. Nourish yourself in a way that allows foods you binge on in moderation to not have that much of an effect on you. This will help minimize cravings and blood sugar spikes from indulging.

SWEETS & TREATS IN MODERATION
Allow yourself a little of what you enjoy and crave in moderation so that you don’t obsess over what you cannot have. You can have your favourite treat every now and then but in small portions that you can enjoy guilt free rather than binging, feeling uncomfortable and guilty!
CHANGE YOUR MINDSET
Instead of focusing on what you can’t have or what you limitations are, focus on the wide variety of healthy foods you are having and that you can have. Experiment with new foods and recipes to keep your nutrition diverse, fun, exciting and tasty!


REAL FOOD
Stock your kitchen and fridge with real, whole and fresh food that you enjoy and would like to try.
MAKE EATING A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE
Focus on how eating is benefiting your health, body, mind and energy levels. Have a sense of accomplishment for being kind to your body rather than feeling guilty and sluggish from binging.

LONG TERM GOALS
Stop focusing on fat and weight loss and focus on long term goals, creating lasting healthy eating habits and routines. The fat and weight loss will naturally come with a long term, balanced, healthy lifestyle.

KEEP UNHEALTHY FOODS OUT
These are things that you crave. If you cannot practice portion control, why torment yourself by keeping these things near you? Rather don’t have them in the house or make sure you have small individual portions so that you can keep track of what you have.
PAY ATTENTION
When eating, turn off all distractions such as the tv and your phone and pay attention to what you are eating, the flavours and how full you are.
GET SUPPORT
If you live with other people, tell them what you are struggling with and ask them for their support. Ask them to keep things that will make you binge out of sight or out of your reach. Maybe get the people around you to also follow a healthy lifestyle; it important to surround yourself with people who have the same lifestyle goals; this will make life much easier.

LISTEN
Pay attention to your emotions and what’s happening in your life, maybe there is something triggering your binging? If so, find out what it is and try find ways to resolve it rather than turning to food to fill the void or having an emotional connection to food. Do things that will relax and make you feel better about yourself, like a massage, a long bath; a great workout is a good for relieving stress!, rather than binging which will just end up making you feel worse.


BE PATIENT & KIND TO YOURSELF
We are creatures of habit and it might take a while to break the habit of binging. Try implementing as many of these tips as you find useful… Figure out what caused you to binge and then try and eliminate the trigger or find an alternative way to deal with it. Only you are in control of what goes in your mouth, so change your mindset and take control.
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