I Stopped Compulsive Overeating and You Can Too
Written by Nadine Ann on September 30th, 2009
How I accomplished my goal: I became Certified in Nutrition, finished my Holistic Health Practitioner degree, and became a Specialist in Eating Disorders. I healed my compulsive overeating disorder from the treatment program I wrote and published.
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.
Second thing is to understand what is happening to you and your brain when you binge eating. There is an internal war going on within you and understanding what is happening to you is important. I’m sure you feel the tug of war with one side of you saying Stop binge eating right now! and the other half is saying I want to eat everything in sight because I am so stressed out. Keep a journal so you can write down your thoughts.
The third process we go through is finding the main cause of compulsive overeating. You are overeating to cover a problem or to reduce the day to day stress that is hard to handle. Binging can then become habit forming and can continue even after you have dissolved some of your stress. But there is still some deep seated reason you are not facing that makes you feel not good enough. Getting to the bottom of the issue can help you move on.
The fourth step we talk about is the types of binges that a person can have. There is no one set binge. In fact there are a few of them. You may begin to binge to hide a problem and then the binge turns into an Opportunity Binge where you simply binge because you are alone and have found it a great opportunity to do so. Again, one side of you thinks it is still a good idea to binge so it will find ways to do so.
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.
Seventh recommendation is to continually focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Let me explain that a bit more. Every thought you have creates more thoughts in your mind and they tend to attract like thoughts. You want to make sure the language you are using is always positive in focus. If I were to say I don’t want to be a compulsive overeater anymore your brain is hearing the word compulsive overeater. I am stating what I don’t want to happen. Instead if I said I want to eat healthy meals and feel happy then I am focusing on what I really do want. I know this may seem so basic but it may be the most powerful thing you can do.
And lastly I want to assure you that compulsive overeating can be fully cured. You have the power within you to make the changes your brain and body need to make together in order to make life lasting achievements.
You can do anything!
Tags: compulsive overeating help, compulsive overeating treatment, Eating Disorders, family, Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, mental health, overeating, self help
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