Stop Binge Eating - Stop Overeating

Do you engage in overeating? Overeating is eating too much.  We all do it to some degree, however it can lead to overeating disorder which is just another name for binge eating disorder.

So how do you know when overeating is normal and when overeating is an eating disorder?  Well it’s simply if you occasionally overeat every once in a great while then you are probably just normal.

However I’m guessing if you are reading this article and are curios how to overcome overeating then it might be a serious issue for you.  Maybe you have realized that overeating has always sabotaged your weight loss efforts.

Overcoming overeating will probably help you maintain a healthy weight.  It will help you lose weight and keep it off for life.

Dieting is one of the most common causes of overeating.  When you diet you often deprive yourself from junk foods and fast foods.

I bet you can probably keep this up for a few days, however one day you crash and end up eating too much of those junk foods.   That day your cravings probably just got out of control and you couldn’t help it.

Dieting often leads to binge eating or eating too much foods is small periods of time.  This is your body’s natural response to depriving it from certain junk foods and fast foods.  It’s a physical and a psychological response.

The first step to overcoming binge eating or to overcome overeating is to ditch your diet.  Yes stop dieting.  It doesn’t work.  Rather try to slowly and gradually build healthier eating habits.

Your overeating might also be a form of emotional eating.  Emotional eating is when you eat foods to comfort yourself.  It’s common at the end of a stressful day.

Overcoming emotional eating is no different than overcoming overeating.  Here are tips to stop emotional eating if you think it might be an issue for you.

Compulsive eating is simply eating too much.  Compulsive eating disorder is a phrase often used to describe binge eating disorder or overeating.

Compulsive overeating, or eating too much is often a form of food addiction.  Just like an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol or and smoker is addicted to cigarettes, you can develop a food addiction.

Food addicts often can’t stop eating.  They often eat beyond satisfying their physical hunger.  I myself am a recovering food addict.

So how do you stop compulsive eating?  Well first you have to learn more about the nature of food addiction to answer that question.

One often develops an addiction to cope with the difficulty of everyday life.  You see it in the movies when a drug addict is having a hectic day and finally gets a hold of more drugs.  After consuming or injecting the drugs all of a sudden their emotions are numb and they can relax and go on with their day.

This is same for a food addict or a compulsive eater.  Compulsive eating is often a form of emotional eating.  Food addicts usually consume all kinds of junk foods and fast food to comfort themselves especially when dealing with tough emotions, or at the end of a stressful day.

Now that you understand the payoffs of compulsive overeating, you can probably guess the first step of compulsive overeating treatment.

It’s dealing with your emotions.  Often we keep our emotions bottled up inside us.  This creates a lot of stress.  This stress builds up and leads to stress eating which is just a form emotional eating or food addiction.

Take some time today and make a list of all the events/circumstances/people that stress you in your life.  And start brainstorming action steps on how you are going to deal with them.

If you have a stressful job you might decide to speak to your boss tomorrow at work about making changes.  If that doesn’t work, you might need to start looking for a new job.

Managing your emotions is the first step to stop compulsive eating.  Help and support can be found at the overeating forum.

Ever start eating a certain food and can’t stop eating it?  You might be engaging in binge eating or emotional eating.

Binge eating is characterized by eating too much in a short period of time.  That is defined as a binge eating episode.  Every start eating a junk food and can’t stop?

You are probably wondering how to stop eating junk foods or how to stop eating fast food.  This is a common issue and it’s why a lot of people are overweight.

Food itself isn’t a problem.  Actually we all need to consume food for it’s nutritional value.  So you can’t stop eating food in general.  Otherwise you might become anorexic, or even develop binge eating disorder.

The first step to stop eating too much is to become aware of why you eat in the first place.  Do you eat only when you are hungry?  Or do you eat to comfort yourself?

Whenever you eating to comfort yourself you are simply engaging in emotional eating.  Now we all engage in emotional eating to some degree so it’s not an eating disorder.

However emotional eating often leads to developing eating disorders such as binge eating disorder.

Instead of engaging in emotional eating, try to pause and question what’s behind your emotions of stress, fear or disappointment that make you run to food for comfort.

You might need to start making some changes in your life to eliminate that stress or fear or disappointment.

Here are more tips to stop eating too much or to stop binge eating.

Cravings for junk foods and fast food are often a big
problem for someone who’s trying to lose a few pounds.

You have probably have tried to stop eating junk foods
and found it very difficult.

Usually you decide to start a diet and get your weight
under control.  And you can keep it up for a few days,
maybe even a week or two.  But then one of those days,
you come across a very tempting junk food, and you
just can’t resist.

You Tell yourself that you will only have a little.
However once you start eating you can’t stop, and you end
up having a binge eating episode, or consume a whole
feast of junk foods.

I know you have probably tried to control your junk food
cravings using much of the popular advice that doesn’t work.

Maybe you just tried avoiding exposure to junk foods.
Maybe you stopped buying it.

You probably still found that you can’t stop eating junk foods.
Here is why…

What will happen the next time you are at a social
dinner or lunch, and everyone is consuming the junk food
you have been avoiding?  Well if you have been depriving
yourself, your cravings will be out of control.

While at the event you might eat a sensible amount just
because you are ashamed to overeat in public,
after wards you will probably have an overeating episode.

Besides if you had such strong discipline and self-control
then overeating junk foods probably wouldn’t be an issue for you in
the first place.  I know I don’t.  I’m not very disciplined
and when I try to rely mostly on my will power I often
disappoint myself.

So how do you get your cravings for junk food under
control?  How do you stop eating junk foods?

Tip 1 - Consume enough food, do not diet, do not try and
eat too little to lose weight, all of that simply doesn’t
work.

How many diets have you tried?  Maybe you lost some weight
while on a diet but didn’t you gain it right back right
after you stopped dieting?

Diets don’t work.  Converting your bad eating habits to
healthy ones takes time, it’s a gradual process.  Dieting
for a month or two will never give you lasting weight loss.

Often dieting deprives you of your favorite foods, or
leaves you feeling hungry throughout the day.  Of course
as a result that hunger and deprivation builds up and
turns into an overeating episode followed by lots of
guilt and shame for ruining your diet.

Well go easy on yourself, a diet isn’t realistic,
it doesn’t work, so forgive yourself and move on.

Also remember that a diet will never help you stop eating junk foods
long term.

Instead make sure you are consuming enough food.  Make
sure you are enjoying a variety of foods.  Make sure you
aren’t physically hungry at the end of a meal.  Start
paying attention to your hunger levels.  If you are once
hungry between meals, have a small snack, it’s ok.

It’s much healthier than eating too little, letting your
hunger build and then have a binge eating episode.

This might be tough for you if you have always been
dieting.  But give it a try.  Also make sure your hunger
is physical and not emotional.  This isn’t an excuse to
engage in emotional eating.

Emotional eating is where you eat to deal with tough
emotions.  Eating a huge meal at the end of a stressful
day is a common example of Emotional Eating.

Tip 2 - Consume Your Favorite Junk Foods & Fast Foods
in Controlled Moderation

I know you are worried that if you start eating your
favorite junk food you wont be able to stop eating it.
Many popular overeating support groups advice you to
abstain from all junk foods and fast food claiming that
they have addictive elements to them.

Well I tried that.  I seriously tried abstaining from all
of my junk foods for a while, but it never worked for me.
I tried and failed at it several times.  And I’m guessing
if you can avoid junk foods all together then overeating
wouldn’t be a problem for you in the first place.

Not only that but the more I tried to abstain from junk
food, the more I craved it.  Of course the more cravings
the bigger of a binge eating episode I ended up having.
It just didn’t work.

I couldn’t stop eating junk foods simply by avoiding them all together.

What really works is consuming your favorite junk foods
in controlled moderation.

If you really feel like eating
fast food one night, then decide what you will order,
visit the restaurant and get just that.  A cheeseburger
every now and then won’t hurt you.  Rather it will help
you avoid future overeating or binge eating episodes.

If you have really been craving doughnuts, then get a
doughnut on your way to work one morning.  Remember
“controlled” moderation.  You shouldn’t order more
than one doughnut.

How do you know the right number of servings or amount of
junk food you should buy?  Well that’s up to you, you
need to decide before purchasing the food and stick
with your decision.

If you decide to only eat one doughnut then it’s a bad
idea to order a dozen. Don’t do it.

The more often you give yourself permission to have
those “forbidden foods” the less and less you will
crave them.  The less cravings you have for junk foods
the less often you will overeat or binge eat.

I hope these tips help you get your junk food cravings under control long-term.

Instead of trying to stop eating junk foods completely, these tips should help
have normal eating habits around junk foods, and be able to eat them in
moderation.

Are you sick of overeating? Your late night eating? Do
you want to jump on the path to recovery from binge eating disorder
yet you don’t know where to start?

In my initial recovery stages one technique that really
helped me is awareness journaling. Awareness journaling
is a a little different from regular journaling.

Awareness journaling is NOT simply recording your days
events or keeping a diary.  Awareness journaling is about
breaking down your thoughts and emotions in real time.

This really helped me with my recovery from Binge Eating
Disorder.

Awareness Journaling Tools:
—————————
A pocket sized pad and a pocket pen.  The pad and pen
need to be tiny enough for you to carry in your pocket
at all times wherever you go.

Awareness Journaling Rules:
—————————
- Don’t judge what you are writing
- Don’t think too much about what you are writing
- Write freely
- Write whether or not you feel like it
- Review your notes often

Awareness Journaling Techniques:
———————————

* Question Any Feeling or Thought of hunger or food

Example: “I’m hungry”, when you feel or think this, record
it down in your journal and question if you are physically
hungry or if you just want to eat for pleasure? record
the answers in your pad.

* Question Emotions and Come up with Action steps

Example: “I’m stressed out”, when you feel or think this,
record it down, and also
ask yourself what’s stressing me out? Is it something that
I can control? If so What are some action steps I can
take to deal with it?  If you can’t control it, then decide
to let it go and not worry about it anymore. Record all
of this down in your pad.

* Record past flash-backs in your pad. Record past events
situations that you randomly remember, especially if you
think they might be significant.

Example: I remember the one time I locked myself in my
school’s bathroom stall to overeat in private. After
coming out of the stall, a guy who was using the bathroom
informed me that there was a cafeteria down the hall. I
already knew this and felt very ashamed.  (this really
did happen to me).  After this incident I started
wondering if I have an Eating Disorder.

* Record any good ideas or techniques you learn & want
to try out.  This will help you stick to your Recovery
efforts.

* Record how you feel after eating a meal.  Whether it’s
healthy or was a binge, you need to record how you feel.
Example: “I ate a good sized meal, I feel satisfied, light
and energetic” or “I just binged on (list foods) and now
I feel stuffed, my stomach hurts, and I don’t feel like
doing anything else for the rest of the day.”

How Awareness Journaling helps your Recovery From Binge Eating Disorder
———————————————
Bingeing and overeating are usually mindless activities.
Becoming more away of your thoughts, emotions, and actions
will help you start controlling your eating habits.
It will help you gain power over food. When you review your
pad, you will learn more and more about yourself and
your eating habits.