How I Stopped Compulsive Overeating: I became a Certified Nutritionist, Holistic Health Practitioner and Specialist in Eating Disorders. I wrote and published a 400 plus page treatment program for compulsive overeating based on everything I had learned.
How YOU can do it: Having become an expert in my field, the first thing I recommend to my clients is to stop criticizing yourself. That does absolutely no good and it only makes you feel worse about yourself. You dont need to feel badly about yourself because you really are a good and decent person. Compulsive overeating is NOT who you are. Its what you are doing but it is not who you are. Its the same thing with your body. If you are overweight that just means your body is carrying more pounds than it needs to be healthy. You are not the fat. You are a person.
The second thing you can do is learn and understand what your brain is thinking and doing when you binge. Compulsive overeaters know they are overeating but they can’t figure out why or how to stop. You probably know the internal your body and brain have when you binge. You have one part of you saying it’s okay to binge and the other side is reaming you out for it. You can start a journal to keep track of these feelings.
Third is to find the root cause of your compulsive overeating. Do you know why you overeat? What is happening to you when you overeat? Can you picture in your mind what is happening to you and what you are feeling when the binge happens? You need to look for the deep seated reasons as to why you feel the need to binge.
Fourth, as we talk about compulsive overeating, we need to learn about the different types of binges there are. Sometimes an overeater may start out binging because they are sad or lonely and the binges become habit forming. Soon that person may find others reasons to binge such as boredom or that there was an opportunity to binge.
The fifth step is to reduce your daily stress. Stress is probably the number one contributor to compulsive overeating. People are stressed out so they turn for comfort. When they don’t get it from people they look to food because there are plenty of “comfort foods” out there. By learning relaxation or meditation, getting organized, and using assertive techniques to handle difficult situations you can greatly reduce stress and your need for outside comfort factors.
Sixth is to begin setting small goals that you can accomplish in small chunks. These will be so small that you may laugh at how easy they are to complete but once you finish the first tiny goal in that chunk you can add another tiny goal to it and give yourself another chunk to complete it. For example, lets say you want to drink 8 glasses of water a day. You don’t want to start out drinking 8 glasses of water the next day when all along you’ve been drinking 1/2 glass a day. You will meet with resistance from your own body and brain. Instead start small and break it down. “I will drink 1 glass of water a day”. Do this for 4 days as your first chunk. After you complete that goal, make your next goal to be I will drink 2 glasses of water a day”. And do that for another 4 days. Reward yourself at the end of each 4 day chunk so that you can show your brain and body how proud you are.
The seventh action we take is to use the Law of Attraction and focus on attracting positive “like” thoughts to what you truly want. When you think about what it is that you want in your life you are sending out a frequency of brain waves that can resonate with other similar frequencies. So it’s important to say things like, “I am healthy and happy in my relationships” or “I am thrilled that I eat healthy and exercise”. When you concentrate on negative things that you don’t want to happen you are still thinking about them and sending that message out there. By saying “I don’t want to binge eating anymore”, you’ll attract more binge eating. So focus on what you want and state it that way.
And finally, I hope to convey to you that you have the power to stop compulsive overeating. With the right tools and the right attitude and a desire to move forward, you can absolutely make the changes you need to get that done.
You can do and be anything you want!
