Real Girls Radio - EP 32: How to stop binge eating for good - break free from the restrict and binge cycle and find balance with food and your body

Episode Date: February 16, 2023

Today's podcast is a solo episode where I (Emma) get personal and very vulnerable about my own experience with binge eating and how I completely recovered from this and found balance with my eating. I delve into everything from:what binge eating actually isshocking statistics on the eating disorderthe vicious restrict & binge cyclemy own experience with binge eatingI answer YOUR questions on the topicProvide tangible tips and strategies to help you truly break free from binge eatingAnd talk through how you can lose weight in a healthy + sustainable way *if fat loss is your goal*Also, I have been working hard on an ebook "Binge To Balance" which is a 37 page book about binge eating and how to stop for good. It also has lots of Empower "fakeaway" style recipes too which you can download FOR FREE here: https://empoweronlinecoaching.com/binge-to-balance/ I know not everyone can afford online coaching and I would hate for financial reasons to be the barrier between you remaining stuck in this cycle and finding balance and happiness. Please let me know if you download it and if it helps you! <3If you would like to work with me, let me know your goals on my website http://www.empoweronlinecoaching.com/Follow Emma on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmafituk_/?hl=enFollow Milly on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millyg_fit/?hl=enThanks to all of you who listen, support, share, rate and review the podcast. WE LOVE YOU <3Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/e-1-the-unheard-truth-of-millys-journey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Love this podcast? Support this show through the Acast Supporter feature. It's up to you how much you give and there's no regular commitment. Just hit the link in the show description to support now. Hello and welcome to Brogals Radio. I'm Millie. And I'm Emma and we are both very normal bro girls just like you, here to talk about all things health, fitness and navigating your way through this crazy life. We're your new besties, we want you to feel part of our

weekly chats and we're excited to invite you in to our exclusive girl gang. Grab some snacks and chillax whilst we chat. Woo! Yeah, okay think we got it I think we got it. Hello guys and welcome back to the podcast. So I'm actually doing a solo episode today because Millie is in Thailand and I've actually set up a microphone at my own house and I'm just hoping it records okay because I'm not the best at setting up technology and know my luck I will record like an hour episode and it won't even save so pray for me um and hopefully no one knocks on my door because that will just throw me off completely um but anyway today's episode is gonna be all about binge eating which I feel like is a topic we have needed to cover in more detail for a while because I know a lot of you girls listening struggle with binge eating I know a lot of clients

who come to me who start working with me have been trapped in that common restrict and binge cycle I know a lot of girls struggle with this in silence and they feel too ashamed to speak out about it or reach out for help um and it is a very taboo subject even though it really shouldn't be because so many girls struggle with this so we're gonna do a whole episode on binge eating and hopefully if you suffer with this yourself or if you have ever kind of like struggled with this in the past or even if you you know occasionally binge eat hopefully some of the things that I talk the past or even if you you know occasionally bingey hopefully some of the things that I talk about in this episode will help you um so yeah but before I

delve into that I'm gonna start with my flop and fly and I feel like I have a lot to catch you up on because I haven't been on the podcast for a while because Millie and I did a bulk recording a few weeks ago and then it was my birthday and I went to Amsterdam and then Millie and Liv did an episode so I feel like I've not done a episode for like three weeks so I'll start with my flop which is quite literally a flop because I flopped my phone into the river. I was basically going for a walk on my own along the river, getting my steps in and it was really, really cold and the river was like iced over. And I don't know why I did this, but I picked up a rock and I threw it at the river to see like how iced over the water was. I don't know why I needed to know that but anyway

I threw a rock at the river and as I did my phone fell out of my pocket and bounced along the river path into the river and it was just gone I did go up to a man on a boat and asked him if I could use his net to kind of fish for my phone but I didn't have any luck so that was my flop um luckily I had my iCloud backed up so I didn't lose too much but it was so irritating because all of my passwords to get into like Instagram and my banking and all of that had to have verification codes that went to that phone number and it was just a nightmare to sort that out but anyway I've had lots of flies um so I went to Amsterdam for my birthday which was so much fun uh we went for four days and a lot of you have asked for um recommendations that you'd DM me on Instagram so I thought I would

give you a few of my like top rated places that I went to in case any of you guys are going to Amsterdam. So we went to the most amazing sandwich place called Chun Cafe. It's like a TikTok viral place. And we did have to queue a really long time, but it was so worth the wait. Like the best sandwich I've ever had in my life. We also went to Moco Museum which was really cool a restaurant called Secret Garden which had the best food and also a pancake place called Moak Moak or Moak Pancakes so if you're gonna go on a trip to Amsterdam I highly recommend checking out those places um and another fly obviously it was my birthday and that was fun um I have also started painting again which I honestly find so therapeutic

like I I used to paint a lot but I hadn't got my art stuff out for like two years and the other night I was just like you know what I'm feeling a bit anxious and I know that used to really really help me um and I do I do enjoy art as well so I got my paintbrushes out and some acrylics I got canvas and I just started painting and I actually quite like what I made so I'm definitely gonna start painting more um and another fly is that I have got myself a new coach so I have kind of been like coaching myself or not really coaching myself just more like making my own training plans and like making my own meal plans and stuff I haven't really had any accountability for a while um and going into the new year I just kind of wanted a bit more accountability and someone else to just do my plans for me so I am actually going to be working with

coach Mark Carroll which I'm sure lots of you guys have heard of um I have been following him for literally years like I have learned so much from him I used to do his programs when I was like a beginner and I honestly cannot wait to start working with him so that starts next week um so yeah very excited about that um so yeah that's my flop and my fly um and so let's get into the podcast so yeah as said, today's podcast episode is going to be all about binge eating. It is something that I'm very passionate about and experiencing both with like my own journey and working with clients to help them overcome the restrict and binge cycle. I do want to preface this by saying I don't have any specialist eating disorder qualifications

but I can however speak about this topic with a lot of experience and it is something I feel so so strongly about and passionate about as I know how much it consumed me and my life and how I previously thought it was something I could never recover from and I thought it was going to be with me for the rest of my life so having having broken free from that and like having helped lots of girls do the same I'm very passionate about helping other people break free from this and it really isn't as hard as you think um so we'll start with kind of talking about what binge eating is. So essentially binge eating is a uncontrollable repeated episode of overeating where you might feel distressed and anxious during that episode and you almost like can't stop yourself it's like an out-of-body experience and you might actually feel some sort

of relief or like dopamine hit during the actual binge eating episode but it is often followed by feelings of guilt shame and depression and I also wanted to talk about the difference between binge eating and just over indulgence or overeating because they definitely are not the same thing um so obviously sometimes we're gonna have weekends where we might overeat and we might have more food than we normally would you know at special occasions going out for dinner Christmas stuff like that where you just eat a lot more food than you normally would that is not binge eating also if you have like the odd day where you know you might be on your period you might be having lots of cravings you might have had a stressful day at work and you get home and you get out a tub of benjos out the freezer and you eat that like that isn't necessarily binge

eating if you have like the odd day here and there where you eat a little bit more calories that's not really a binge eating disorder binge eating is more of an out of body uncontrollable repeated episode of overindulgence where you almost like can't stop yourself and you you do feel consumed and controlled and trapped by it so I just wanted to distinguish the difference between those um and I guess before we go more into the episode because I do have some questions from you guys that I'm going to answer. I wanted to highlight the importance of this topic by sharing some statistics on binge eating which really really shocked me. So one in 50 people experience binge eating disorder. Binge eating disorder

affects three times the number of people diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia combined which is so shocking um one statistic that i found that was really upsetting is that one in three people with binge eating disorder actually consider taking their life um and studies have shown that the biggest barrier to people seeking help is this immense amount of shame disgust embarrassment and just feeling too embarrassed to open up about it so I do really feel like we have to remove the stigma around it and understand that this is a huge mental health issue that needs to be spoken about and almost normalized so that people feel more comfortable reaching out for help um so i will give you guys a little bit of a backstory to me and my own journey with binge eating um

which i have been recovered from for like three years now and when i tell you when i was in the actual depths of my binge eating disorder, I genuinely thought I was not ever going to be able to break free from it. I thought it was going to be with me forever. I thought I was always going to be fearful and scared of food. I never ever thought I would be in a place where I could actually eat all foods without, you know, having negative connotations towards that good and bad foods and, you know, be able to go out and eat with friends and family and not feel guilty about it and to actually just be in a place where I don't, like I'm in control of the food I eat and the

food doesn't control me. So my binge eating disorder started when I was at uni and this is when I was really really restricting myself I was doing extreme diets I was not eating anywhere near enough to fuel myself I was doing way too much cardio way too much exercise and you know I sustained that for a pretty long time but inevitably it got to the point where mentally physically emotionally I could not go to that extreme for any longer and then it would just result in binge eating and I remember the first ever episode of binge eating I had was when I was in uni halls and it was two in the morning and because I never bought like quote-unquote foods. I would only buy like unprocessed clean food and I wouldn't dare touch like even a piece of chocolate

because I didn't have anything like that in my cupboards. I literally got up at two or three in the morning and raided my uni hallmates cupboards and ate their food at like two or three in the morning. And when I tell you it was like an out of control thing, like I could not stop myself. And I went back into my room at like two or three in the morning and when I tell you it was like an out of control thing like I could not stop myself and I went back into my room and I was just like what have I done like what just happened and then the next day I got up so early so I barely had any sleep I got up so

early and I went to the gym and I did like over an hour on the Stairmaster. And this like guilt and shame that I felt stayed with me for like a week. And the restriction that I went into following that binge episode was like 10 times worse than what I was doing before. And that is how the cycle started. And then, you know, I would continue doing this like hardcore extreme dieting. Bingeing started off being like maybe once every two weeks but then it did become like a twice weekly thing um and it would be it would be like so random as well like the foods I would eat it would normally be like sweets and

chocolate and like sugary things that I'd be restricting myself but sometimes it would just be the most odd food combinations and things I wouldn't even like normally enjoy or want to eat it was just like an out of body like I said uncontrollable experience um and I used to feel really ashamed and embarrassed to talk about it but I'm talking about it now because I hope that me sharing my journey and being honest about it it will hopefully resonate with some of you and you'll feel not as alone maybe or you'll feel more inclined to reach out and tell somebody else and know that like there is hope and that you absolutely can break free from this um but yeah this stayed with me for a good couple of years and I didn't tell anybody I didn't tell anyone um my ex-boyfriend at the time I don't think he had binge eating disorder but he was very he had a very like bro meal plan where he'd just kind of eat like chicken and broccoli and then like Saturday

was like cheat day and I think that influenced me a lot and I would often like binge eat with him and just we would like go out for a meal and have like a pizza and ice cream which is like totally fine but then we'd get home and just like I would eat and he would eat until we just felt physically sick and like when I think back on it I just it doesn't make sense to me now because it's just not nice to feel that uncomfortably full and to eat to the point where you literally feel sick like it doesn't make sense to me now but that is what I did and also another time I remember um I was like right at the end of like some extreme diet that I did and I did like again like an hour on the stem or something stupid like that I don't even know how I managed to how I used to manage to do that

but I left the gym and I was so hungry mentally starving and physically starving I went to Ben's cookies and bought like one of those boxes of cookies and I ate the whole thing on my own in my house alone like in the middle of the day um and that is something I also wanted to talk about as well I feel like when people binge eat when you have binge eating disorder you often do it in private alone when you're not with other people it quite often looks like you'll be restricting yourself and eating like super low calorie and clean in front of other people and then it gets to that point where you're on your own and you just cannot control yourself so you end up doing it alone in private which can almost like exacerbate

the feelings of like guilt and shame and you know that depressing mood that you have afterwards because you were completely alone and you feel like you can't tell anyone and no one will understand but um I yeah like I said I struggled with this for like two years and the first person I told was my mum and she didn't really understand it because she was so used to me at the time being like super clean and not like touching anything quote-unquote bad like a cookie or whatever so she almost like couldn't wrap her head around it she was like I don't understand how you can be so like healthy and like eat so clean but then you binge eat on these things like it didn't make sense to her and it like it doesn't make sense really but um I feel like reaching out to my mum and opening up is kind of like a problem shared

is a problem halved. And that is kind of what kicks out of me to actually start my recovery journey and, you know, start working my relationship with food and get into a place where I can eat and be fully in control of my food and not fear food and not feel the need to like ovary or binge eat on foods anymore um so I'm going to for those of you who don't understand the binge eating cycle I'm just gonna talk through like what it looks like just so it gives some of you guys a closer kind of idea of what the restrict and binge cycle actually looks like um so obviously you'll have a binge and different things can trigger this it can be anything from like stress to extreme hunger over restricting

um the desire to like numb yourself emotionally and you will have that out of control binge eating episode and then it kind of goes to the next phase of the cycle which I call emotional backlash and this is the kind of feelings of shame and guilt self-loathing um like your emotions are super high you feel really fragile you're depressed you feel like disgusted at yourself um so you then have this determination to do better and never do that again so you try to be perfect and you try to you know go back on a meal plan and like do everything as perfect as you can to avoid, you know, overeating. Um, and then this is where the restriction normally kicks in again. So as part of the, as part of this determination to never

binge again, you restrict it instead. Um, and psychologically you think this is going to balance out the massive binge that you had, um, and to kind of like bring you back to a sense of control that you lost during the binge. But then this leads to, inevitably it leads to another binge eating episode. So you can see how that cycle just kind of becomes like a never ending loop that is really hard to break. Okay, so now I'm going to go through a Q&A. I actually did a Q&A on my Instagram stories the other day and I had so many questions and like people just asking for help and advice and guidance that that is actually what pushed me to record a whole podcast on this episode. So I'm going to go through some of your questions and answer them. So one of you said that it feels habitual to binge eat every

night and I cannot stop please help me so sometimes when you feel like you have got into the habit of binge eating one of the best things you can do is actually try to replace that bad habit with something else um so one thing that I did back when I struggled with binge eating because my binges normally happened in the evening or late at night is I created myself a really really strict bedtime routine and that included having a high protein snack before I went to bed um journaling I would wind down I would turn off technology so my emotions weren't heightened or I wasn't overstimulated and I stuck to this bedtime routine like my life depended on it and this wasn't the only reason or the only factor that helped me overcome binge

eating but I think it definitely definitely helped. If you kind of don't have any set bedtime and you're just kind of like you know chilling in the evening like maybe in the kitchen and don't really have like a set time that you're getting ready for bed or going to sleep you're going to be far more likely to you know go into the kitchen cupboards and then normally once you start eating that's when it's hard to stop so yeah i would say try to create yourself a bedtime routine and also create a routine that you actually look forward to you know so maybe you want to have a bath have a bubble bath and listen to a podcast light a candle read a favorite book something like that and also making sure that you're having like a high protein snack before you actually do go to bed so that you're not going to be hungry um

another thing which I did just kind of touch on when I was talking about how I told my mum um is to tell someone if you feel like it's such an ingrained habit and you cannot break free from it sometimes the best thing you can do especially if you live with other people is to just be open and honest with them and tell them what you're going through and tell them that you might need a little bit of help or support and you know then when you you have that urge to binge and you feel like you're you know at risk of raiding the cupboards and gonna over consume a load of food at least then you know that there's someone there who understands and who you've told that you can go to when you're in that moment and they can maybe talk through it with you and help you and I think that is a key again it's key

to overcoming this problem is opening up being honest with someone that you trust. And it is literally like a problem shared is a problem halved. So another question that I got is I don't restrict foods, but I'm still binge eating and I feel like I'm mentally starving. So this is more than likely due to emotional or stress binge eating. So the root cause of your binging is most likely to be stress or it could even be like boredom and eating foods gives you that instant dopamine hit which is why you're reinforcing to keep doing it because it does give you that instant gratification so the best way to overcome this if you're binge eating but not actually under eating or restricting yourself is to find the root cause and then figure out an alternative way to cope

with these emotions so finding stress management strategies um i thought i found for me and for a lot of clients doing something active and i don't necessarily mean exercise but doing something to kind of like occupy your mind your hands or something like painting your nails going for a walk doing some artwork journaling just doing something to like stimulate your body and your brain um but stress management is a big one if you are tending to binge eat when you're super stressed you just need to find better stress coping mechanisms um again I can give you some tips for journaling at the end of the podcast but journaling is a lifesaver and you don't need to over complicate journaling it doesn't need to be

like this you know strict method of journaling that you see people doing on like tiktok you can literally just get a book brain dump how you're feeling write down your emotions in the moment and sometimes doing that can just help you become more in touch and more in tune with yourself um also meditation um walking meditation mindfulness reading exercise going to the gym. It's just much better to use those methods to deal with stress than it is to use food. Okay so another question was how do you stop right in the moment when you are about to binge? Okay so leading on from the last question this is where I think journaling and getting yourself a journal

is so crucial. So I recommend getting yourself a pocket journal, just like a little book, and literally promising yourself that you're going to write in that journal every time you get an urge to binge and every time after you binge. I want you to write down how you're feeling before, write down how you feel after, and I want you to reflect back on this so that you realise that the act of binge eating, although it might give you that temporary, you know, mood boost, it often always ends up with you feeling down about yourself, ashamed, guilty, wanting to restrict. So by writing down those feelings and then reflecting back on it, it can reinforce to you how binge eating actually isn't helping you in any way. And also writing

down how you're feeling and writing down how binge eating is going to make you feel is often going to make you realize how illogical it is and how silly it is to actually binge eat because it will just make you realize when you write it down on paper that it isn't going to do anything for you and if anything it's going to make you feel worse so in this journal I want you to also on the front page write down a list of all the things you can think of that make you feel happy that make you feel good um you know anything from going on a walk or calling a friend or watching your favorite film or artwork or reading or I don't know listening to a podcast like literally anything anything you get joy from anything you enjoy doing write all of these things down on the first page of the journal

and then every time you get the urge to binge I want you to open up this book and pick something from that list that you're going to do instead of binge eating we want to replace that habit with something more positive and the more you can do that the more likely you are going to be to break that cycle okay so someone asked how did you change your mindset I've been in the all or nothing restrict and binge eating cycle for 14 years okay so I think if you have been trapped in this for 14 years I would definitely recommend reaching out for some external help whether that is a therapist an online coach someone specialized in binge eating disorder someone else there who is going to hold your hand and guide you and coach you and help you

get through this but I think probably the biggest thing that you can do if you want to start making a change straight away is by removing the all or nothing mentality which is often where a lot of binge eating disorders stem from so for me i broke free from it because i stopped thinking that anything less than perfect equaled failure um like i i came to the realization that there is no perfect and actually striving for that perfection and that squeaky clean diet is so unrealistic and so unsustainable that it's literally going to be just setting you up for repeated failure so although it was hard at the beginning to change my mindset from like this only clean foods and I'm not eating anything process to more of a if it fits your macros flexible dieting approach I slowly started incorporating more of

these fun foods into my day-to-day diet like not just on a Saturday cheat day I stopped thinking of cheat days as cheat days I would you know if I wanted to have a pizza on a Tuesday night then I would allow myself to but it did take a while to get to that stage so I would just incorporate you know some chocolate here and there or if I had a cookie I would really really try to enjoy that cookie and eat it without feeling the need to over consume the whole packet um and it was doing this slowly but surely really really did change my mindset and made me realize that I can eat these foods and by doing that it stopped me feeling so restricted and over time I genuinely just stopped getting the urges to binge and in the past if I'd if I knew there was a cupboard at home full of sweets and cookies and chocolate like I know I wouldn't be able to trust myself and I know I would be raiding that and probably at some point going to be like likely

to binge eat it but I got to the point where I felt so comfortable and in control around these foods like I could have a whole cupboard full of it and it wouldn't phase me so I think definitely incorporating more fun foods and foods that are deemed by the dieting industry as bad eat them and enjoy them and allow yourself to eat them on random days without being a special occasion um but one thing I did want to touch on actually I was listening to a podcast the other day and it was quite a big podcast with um some experts on it and this podcast has a really big following and there were a few podcasts I listened to and they had some experts on talking about um different diets and the health industry and all of that

and one of one of these experts was kind of talking about how white carbs are bad for you and that sugar makes you fat and kind of just trying to demonize certain food groups and I guess from my perspective these experts talking about that they're failing to acknowledge the emotional repercussions of labeling foods as good or bad and how in turn this can actually lead to more detrimental health outcomes. So I want you to believe me when I say not to take anything too literally or seriously. When you hear experts demonise certain foods or promote specific extreme diets. Like a lot of the time they're looking at a very small sample size. They're doing work within labs.

They have so much control over these studies they're looking at animal studies and drawing conclusions to support their own research so yeah of course there might be some validity to what they're saying but it's not really applicable to the general population of people who are just simply trying to live healthier make better choices like feel good in their body and have a balanced life where they can enjoy food um so yeah my my biggest tip to avoiding this all-enough mentality is to not over complicate your diet and not overthink the food you're eating strive to eat a healthy balanced diet with lots of nutrients and fruits and veggies and high quality proteins and good carbs healthy fats all of that but also if you want to have some cookies or ice cream

even if it's the non-macro friendly stuff like let yourself have that and enjoy it it's not a big deal it's not gonna change how you look it's not gonna do anything bad it's not going to kill you like some experts say well um i think the most important thing is just being able to bounce back to that healthy balanced flexible way of eating and if you do have a big indulgent meal and you eat one too many chocolates just being able to bounce straight back in the next morning have a having a healthy nutrient dense breakfast okay another question is how do you deal with the binge hangover okay I relate to this so I actually I think on Monday this week I posted a reel about this like what to do after a binge eating episode um I know like after binge eating especially if you had a lot of like sugary foods, it can make you

feel really like puffy and bloated and lethargic and tired and gross. And feeling like that can often make you want to go to the gym and do a load of cardio and restrict yourself and not eat anything. But the best thing you can do is just get back on track to a healthy diet. Do not skip any meals as we've already covered this will just exacerbate the binge and restrict cycle be kind to yourself don't feel guilty put on some baggy clothes don't body check stop looking in the mirror um the the bloated feeling bloated looking a bit fluffier the scale weight being up is only temporary and it's going to go away in a few days it's water retention if you eat more carbs more sugar your body is going

to retain more water which is going to show up on scale so don't weigh yourself um move your body in a way that makes you feel good but don't try to do it to burn off calories or to compensate from for the extra food you ate um So go on a walk, get outside, get some movement in, do some weight training, go try to smash some pbs but don't try and like I said don't try and burn off all the extra calories you ate. Definitely drink more water, you want to stay hydrated to help with digestion and again just don't restrict yourself go back to normal the binge hangover will last a couple of days and if you're eating lots of veggies having some good balanced meals in drinking more water moving your body you'll be it'll be like it never happened in a few days

um okay so i think i might there are so many questions here but I think I might answer just one more question um I've gained so much weight from binge eating so I want to diet to lose it but I know deep down this dieting mindset is only causing me to binge more. I just want to lose weight and feel good in my body again. Okay, girl, I feel you so much. And I know so many girls listening to this will be in the same exact place as you. But I'm here to tell you that you will feel good in your body again, you will feel confident in your body again. And you are not alone. and you are strong enough and capable enough to break free from this cycle so i'm gonna i'm gonna explain how continuing to restrict and diet will most likely make you gain more weight which will hopefully reinforce to you how pivotal it is for you to actually stop

dieting and stop restricting okay so this is just a little example so over the course of the week if you're eating 1200 calories a day and then having a blowout binge at the weekend of 4000 calories a day over the course of the week this actually averages out to about 14 000 calories total not to mention after a weekend of binging you're gonna have that binge hangover where you're feeling bloated guilty wanting to undo it the next week or you could do it the way that i suggest you do um for example increasing your calories 1700 calories per day throughout the week and then being a little bit more flexible at the weekends to allow for like maybe a meal out here or there and having maybe 2000 calories on Saturday and Sunday, the more sustainable approach averages out to 12,500 calories, which is less than the first

approach where you're only eating 1200 calories a day. And you're not going to have that binge hangover. You're going to feel a lot more energized day to day. You're not going to feel restricted. You're actually going to be able to enjoy some meals out without feeling controlled or fearful or worried that you're going to binge eat and you're going to be excited to smash the next week with your training and your nutrition instead of going into that week wanting to restrict and binge again so actually eating more every single day can oftentimes equal out to be less calories consumed during the week because it prevents you from actually binge eating so i would definitely recommend if you're trapped in this

binge restrict cycle to try experimenting by increasing your day-to-day calories doesn't have to be like by a crazy amount um for example if you're currently only eating like 1500 calories a day and you're binge eating every couple of days then try adding an extra one to two hundred calories on top of that and see how that goes um but yeah the worst thing you can do if you're in a binge and restrict cycle is continue to deprive yourself and under-eat and restrict okay so I I think I'm gonna leave the questions there because I have no idea how long I've been recording for and I don't want this podcast to be too long um so I'm gonna consolidate my top tips for binge eating so firstly know you are not trapped know that you absolutely can break

free from this um you might need a bit help but it is possible i've done it myself so many of my clients have overcome binge eating and got to a place where they are free with food and no longer feel controlled by food um again a problem shared is a problem half so tell someone it could be a professional a coach um an expert it could be your mom it could be your boyfriend it could be your girlfriend it could be your sister a friend whoever just tell someone who you feel like you can trust and who you can who you feel like you can open up to um identify the root cause and your triggers make sure you're eating enough and do not restrict food groups also make sure you're planning ahead you're prepping food or just at least knowing what you're going to eat do not go too long without eating because that is again often what

kind of exacerbates the binge and restrict cycle girls will go all day long without eating it will get to like late afternoon they'll get home and just binge eat um and it would have been much better for them to sustain that energy throughout the day not get to that point where they have the urge to overeat uh and actually just have a healthy breakfast lunch and dinner snacks balanced throughout the day. You're going to have a lot more energy, you're going to be happier, you're going to be more positive to be around. So definitely make sure you're eating at regular intervals throughout the day and not going too hungry. Stay hydrated, that can be another reason why people binge eat, they're just not drinking

enough water. Exercise, move your body, get those endorphins flowing but not too much because if you're over exercising that is just going to increase your ghrelin levels which is your hunger hormone which makes you hungry makes you want to eat more so the more exercise you're doing if you're binge eating the more likely you're going to be you are going to be to be so hungry to overeat so make sure you're not doing too much exercise make sure you're getting plenty of sleep good quality sleep we did a whole episode on why sleep is so important so go check that out if you haven't already listened but sleep deprivation will make you want to eat more it will increase your ghrelin levels it will decrease your leptin levels which is the hunger hormone that

makes you feel satiated and full you're going to be more likely to turn for sugary processed foods which oftentimes are the foods that people cannot control and cannot stop overeating journal do what i said earlier in the podcast with you know the first page writing down all the things that you enjoy that make you feel good and replacing the act of binge eating with one of these things and reflecting on your binge eating diary entries and writing down how you feel before and after a binge. Accountability, so important. Get yourself a coach or a professional to help you or again, like I said, family or friend another really important one is to stop the all-or-nothing approach start practicing flexible dieting and give yourself

permission to eat all foods there are no good or bad foods all foods fit in the context of a healthy balanced diet um and also just remember you are not alone this disorder affects so many people and that there's probably a lot of your friends and people you know who are also going through the same thing as you but are too ashamed or embarrassed to open up and speak out about it but yeah i want you to know that you're not alone and you're not weak and you should never feel ashamed or embarrassed or disgusted with yourself because like I said at the beginning of the episode with the statistics it's very common one in 50 people experience binge eating disorder so yeah you're definitely not alone um

and another thing that I wanted to mention just because I'm so passionate about this topic as I'm sure you can probably tell and over the last sort of like few months I have noticed a lot of clients who inquire to empower and people who reach out to start working with me have had these cycles of restricting and binging and they feel really trapped and it inspired me to actually make an ebook all about binge eating so that is if you see my stories if you've been watching my stories on instagram I've been talking about doing a secret project so that is what I've been working on for the last couple of months and by the time the podcast comes out which I think will be tomorrow my binge eating ebook should be out and it's actually completely free I wanted to give it out to you guys for free because I know

the financial cost of online coaching or seeking professional help can often be a barrier to people getting help and I just would hate for that to be the reason why someone continues to be trapped in that cycle and I would never want money to stop someone from being able to get the food freedom that they deserve so I've made a comprehensive ebook all about the science behind binge eating all of my tips my guidance my advice um in a lot more comprehensive detail than what I've gone into in this podcast episode all consolidated in an ebook um and there's also lots of really good recipes at the end of the ebook as well things like burgers and pizzas and pancakes to show you guys that you absolutely can eat these foods and you don't have to binge eat them um so yeah i've been working

really hard on that and it should be out tomorrow when the podcast comes out um on the 15th of february if you're listening to this on another day so i will put it in the link in my bio if you want to download it um but yeah I really really I really hope it helps some of you guys that was my intention with making this ebook um so please let me know if you download it please let me know if you have a read of it if you make any of the recipes and if you know someone who might be struggling with binge eating and if you feel like this might be a helpful resource to them then let them know about it um and I would appreciate any of your feedback um but yeah I really hope you guys enjoy that um so we will wrap up the podcast episode I've got a quote which I found on Pinterest this morning actually and I just really liked it okay so self-sabotage is knowing exactly what you need to do to improve but not doing it it's

procrastinating doing the very things that you know will make you happier it's waiting until things are 100% perfect until you do them but of course that never happens it's remaining in your comfort zone because of the fear of failure or uneasiness of change it's a mindset that you may be completely unaware of until you really think about it so I want you to think about this are you a prisoner of your own thoughts if you are take responsibility and acknowledge you put yourself in that prison but we all know that you have the power to free yourself and i just thought that was a very relevant quote because binge eating essentially is a act of self-sabotage and you know you have the power to break free from it if you apply all of the tips that I've spoke about in this podcast and you know there is always help and people out there who can guide you through it as

well um so I will finish the podcast there really really hoping that this recorded all okay um and that you can actually hear me because if not that was a complete waste of my time um but it is Valentine's Day and i've got nothing else to do so it's fine but yeah i hope you all had a lovely valentine's day or galentine's day whatever you did um and i'm not sure millie is gonna be back for next week um i'm not sure how long she's in thailand for but i'm gonna try get a guest on the podcast next week so i hope you all have a lovely week and we will catch up next week.

Bye.