In response to the number of hits I’ve had lately asking “How do I stop Binging?” or “How to beat Bulimia” I thought it was time for another vaguely useful post. We’ve already discussed “Why Purging is pointless” and the consequences of purging in “Purgers Remorse”. However, it’s all well and good being told that your behaviour is pointless and destructive, but that’s little help when you are ill. You need a battle plan, so here are some of my favourite tips, gleaned from therapy, and 13 years of being ED’s glove puppet. Let’s shove a stick in the wheels of your binge-purge cycle:
1. Consider medication, although not practical for everyone, SSRI antidepressants more than halved my binging behaviour. There seems to be a lot of reluctance out there to try taking psychiatric medication, an element of shame attached to “admitting” that you might need a helping hand in the mood department. I wonder if this shame is greater than the feeling of shame surrounding the binge purge habit? AD’s aren’t for everyone, but are truly worth consideration. Remember how much of your eating is due to mood, if you can lift your mood, perhaps you’ll find it easier to implement changes in your eating habits. There may be other reasons too.
2. Don’t deny yourself a food group, it puts you wide open to binging. Nothing is a “bad” food. Just watch the size and frequency of your meals and snacks. This means stop dieting! Think healthy, healthy eating, and variety. The quickest road to binging is denying yourself a food group, or restrict too much of your calorie intake. This is also one of the best ways to gain weight. Fad diets and such can have drastic short term results, but people tend to put the weight straight back on afterward, and a bit more as well.
3. Eat regularly. 3 meals, 2/3 snacks. Never let yourself get hungry. I struggled to do this to start with, and loathed the idea of eating every couple of hours, especially if I wasn’t hungry, but it does work. ED’s screw up your hunger response system, and your feelings of anxiety regarding food, or depression surrounding control, can often be misconstrued as hunger, or loss of appetite. Stick to regular eating and you reduce the changes of binging greatly. If you’ve eaten you can be more confident that your urge to binge isn’t physical hunger, then all you have to fight, are the emotional eating responses. Not being hungry gives you a great foundation to work on these. This also means anything you throw up must be replaced by another food item. If you spew your snack, then it doesn’t count.
4. Stick to eating regularly, but no eating between allotted times. Always know when and what you are having for your next meal. Plan, organise and get in a rhythm. Don’t be tempted to snack on lower calorie items, or low fat products, these will probably leave you feeling less sated and not fulfil the purpose of subduing hunger. This will not make you fat, it will prevent you consuming as many calories as you would in a binge.
5. Try to reduce your intake of foods with a high liquid content, or high salt content. Especially if feeling full is a trigger for you. Salt bloats you out, making you feel fuller, and more likely to want to purge. It might be worth having a clear out of your cupboards too. Whilst you aren’t trying to restrict or diet, perhaps having large quantities of junk food around, or large amounts of binge food, might not be the most sensible idea in the beginning.
6. If you binge, or eat something you feel you shouldn’t, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just get back on the horse asap, and pick up where you left off. So if you have too much chocolate, treat it as just that, oops oh well, don’t write off the whole day by binging.
7. Have a battle plan. What are you going to do if the urge to purge strikes? Make a list of alternative activities, ones that you enjoy and are not likely to stress you out. Feel like binging? distraction, distraction, distraction. Get up, walk out if you can. Phone a friend. It sounds like nonsense, but sometimes this really works. Try it, what have you got to lose?
8. Sometimes boredom is anxiety in disguise, that feeling of not being able to settle on something to do. Try to relax and do something nice for yourself which doesn’t involve food. When was the last time you did something just for you, and not for your ED, friends, family, or coworkers? You deserve to relax and take care of yourself, this doesn’t have to be through food. Do something for yourself and don’t feel guilty for it. You are allowed to be kind to yourself.
9. Admit that sometimes life is just going to get you. If binge eating is your sketchy area, then this is where you are probably going to end up from time to time. Everyone has some maladaptive coping mechanisms, don’t beat yourself up for it, you deserve better.
10. Try to recognise times when you have that binge feeling and stay in the moment. Write down what it is you are feeling. Try and take a step back and just experience what you are feeling. Eventually it will pass. This is really difficult but I promise it gets easier with time. Sometimes it does help to keep a food/mood journal. When you want to binge, or purge take note of the situation and look for potential triggers.
11. Stop body checking! The more you look, the more you will find flaws, the more you will be self critical and this leads to more ED behaviours. Step away from the mirror!
12. Be wary of alcohol. Sometimes this leads to binging, whether that is from a drop in mood, impulse control, or just the raging drunken munchies.
13. Remember you are a wonderful person, and you don’t deserve to put yourself through this. It’s an illness not a flaw.
If anyone has any other tips, feel free to join in.
Lola x
In response to the number of hits I’ve had lately asking “How do I stop Binging?” or “How to beat Bulimia” I thought it was time for another vaguely useful post. We’ve already discussed “Why Purging is pointless” and the consequences of purging in “Purgers Remorse”. However, it’s all well and good being told that your behaviour is pointless and destructive, but that’s little help when you are ill. You need a battle plan, so here are some of my favourite tips, gleaned from therapy, and 13 years of being ED’s glove puppet. Let’s shove a stick in the wheels of your binge-purge cycle:
1. Consider medication, although not practical for everyone, SSRI antidepressants more than halved my binging behaviour. There seems to be a lot of reluctance out there to try taking psychiatric medication, an element of shame attached to “admitting” that you might need a helping hand in the mood department. I wonder if this shame is greater than the feeling of shame surrounding the binge purge habit? AD’s aren’t for everyone, but are truly worth consideration. Remember how much of your eating is due to mood, if you can lift your mood, perhaps you’ll find it easier to implement changes in your eating habits. There may be other reasons too.
2. Don’t deny yourself a food group, it puts you wide open to binging. Nothing is a “bad” food. Just watch the size and frequency of your meals and snacks. This means stop dieting! Think healthy, healthy eating, and variety. The quickest road to binging is denying yourself a food group, or restrict too much of your calorie intake. This is also one of the best ways to gain weight. Fad diets and such can have drastic short term results, but people tend to put the weight straight back on afterward, and a bit more as well.
3. Eat regularly. 3 meals, 2/3 snacks. Never let yourself get hungry. I struggled to do this to start with, and loathed the idea of eating every couple of hours, especially if I wasn’t hungry, but it does work. ED’s screw up your hunger response system, and your feelings of anxiety regarding food, or depression surrounding control, can often be misconstrued as hunger, or loss of appetite. Stick to regular eating and you reduce the changes of binging greatly. If you’ve eaten you can be more confident that your urge to binge isn’t physical hunger, then all you have to fight, are the emotional eating responses. Not being hungry gives you a great foundation to work on these. This also means anything you throw up must be replaced by another food item. If you spew your snack, then it doesn’t count.
4. Stick to eating regularly, but no eating between allotted times. Always know when and what you are having for your next meal. Plan, organise and get in a rhythm. Don’t be tempted to snack on lower calorie items, or low fat products, these will probably leave you feeling less sated and not fulfil the purpose of subduing hunger. This will not make you fat, it will prevent you consuming as many calories as you would in a binge.
5. Try to reduce your intake of foods with a high liquid content, or high salt content. Especially if feeling full is a trigger for you. Salt bloats you out, making you feel fuller, and more likely to want to purge. It might be worth having a clear out of your cupboards too. Whilst you aren’t trying to restrict or diet, perhaps having large quantities of junk food around, or large amounts of binge food, might not be the most sensible idea in the beginning.
6. If you binge, or eat something you feel you shouldn’t, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just get back on the horse asap, and pick up where you left off. So if you have too much chocolate, treat it as just that, oops oh well, don’t write off the whole day by binging.
7. Have a battle plan. What are you going to do if the urge to purge strikes? Make a list of alternative activities, ones that you enjoy and are not likely to stress you out. Feel like binging? distraction, distraction, distraction. Get up, walk out if you can. Phone a friend. It sounds like nonsense, but sometimes this really works. Try it, what have you got to lose?
8. Sometimes boredom is anxiety in disguise, that feeling of not being able to settle on something to do. Try to relax and do something nice for yourself which doesn’t involve food. When was the last time you did something just for you, and not for your ED, friends, family, or coworkers? You deserve to relax and take care of yourself, this doesn’t have to be through food. Do something for yourself and don’t feel guilty for it. You are allowed to be kind to yourself.
9. Admit that sometimes life is just going to get you. If binge eating is your sketchy area, then this is where you are probably going to end up from time to time. Everyone has some maladaptive coping mechanisms, don’t beat yourself up for it, you deserve better.
10. Try to recognise times when you have that binge feeling and stay in the moment. Write down what it is you are feeling. Try and take a step back and just experience what you are feeling. Eventually it will pass. This is really difficult but I promise it gets easier with time. Sometimes it does help to keep a food/mood journal. When you want to binge, or purge take note of the situation and look for potential triggers.
11. Stop body checking! The more you look, the more you will find flaws, the more you will be self critical and this leads to more ED behaviours. Step away from the mirror!
12. Be wary of alcohol. Sometimes this leads to binging, whether that is from a drop in mood, impulse control, or just the raging drunken munchies.
13. Remember you are a wonderful person, and you don’t deserve to put yourself through this. It’s an illness not a flaw.
If anyone has any other tips, feel free to join in.
Lola x