Happy New Year!
If you’re anything like I used to be, you’ve probably made some kind of new year resolution about your binge eating.
I did it every year. “This will be the year I stop binge eating!”
It sounds good.
Now what are you going to start doing?
What can you do to help you achieve your big goal?
Working on some smaller, doable goals will help you along the way and I’m sharing three of my favorites with you.
1. Find and Do Activities for Relaxation and Entertainment
Sometimes we find ourselves using eating as an activity to relax or to be entertained. But there are so many other options that aren’t going to sabotage you and cause you to feel bad about yourself.
If binge eating wasn’t an option, what would you do with your time? If your first thought is, “I don’t know,” it’s time to do some self searching. There are things you’ve done throughout your life that you’ve enjoyed doing. Look back into your childhood. Look at what you did in your teens and early twenties. Think about what you’ve always wanted to try.
2. Feel Feelings
This is such an important one! Having feelings you don’t like is part of life. Accept it. If you want to live an amazing life and be the best you that you can be, it’s time to start feeling instead of running. If you eat every time you feel something you don’t like, you’re missing out on part of the human experience. You’re missing out on growing and becoming a stronger person.
Most people would think the answer here is to do one of the activities you came up with above, but I think a better way to practice feeling is through mediation. (And maybe mediation was on your list!) In this case, all it involves doing is pausing to focus on how you feel.
When you feel that urge to get up an eat, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus on what it feels like to want to jump up and shove food in your face. Sit with this feeling and allow it to be there. Embrace it, let it stay as long as it would like, and watch it dissipate out of your body.
3. Connect in Real Life
Do you think food is your friend?
If you do, I have news for you. It’s not. What kind of friend makes you feel terrible after you’ve spent time with them?
I’d say food is more like your toxic ex-boyfriend who you keep going back to and keep regretting going back to.
So food isn’t your friend. Go spend time with real people.
I know I used to binge when I felt lonely. There weird thing was that I wasn’t lacking friends to spend time with. What I was lacking was putting in the effort to make plans with them. Instead of contacting them, I’d just drive down the street to pick up food and eat it alone at home. It always sounded like it would be just as fun, but by the end I’d always know that if I had hung out with a friend it would have been so much more fulfilling and enjoyable.
Connect in real life, or on the phone even. Scrolling through Facebook or Instagram doesn’t count. That’s not connecting, that’s watching and we all know it can also be a source of FOMO. Don’t miss out because you’ve chosen to eat and scroll, get out there! You have amazing friends and family to be around. Or if you don’t, make one of your activities above be something that will get you around people with similar interests.
Your time is your time and you get to spend it how you want to. This year, make an effort to spend less time binge eating and more time doing the things listed above. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
