keep - stop - start
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KEEP
Giving yourself a fighting chance.
You know the basics right? As a minimum, every day we should all be eating 2-3 cups of vegetables (3-4 for men), exercising for 30-60 mins, getting 20 mins of sunshine, staying hydrated, limiting alcohol, limiting sedentary time, and minimizing stress exposure.
And these are the minimums. Not for optimal, feel amazing, living-my-best-life-health. These are just for maintaining baseline, disease prevention, and less likely-to-die-early health.
Even in the midst of a battle with compulsive or binge eating, and even if you’re not ready to tackle recovery, nailing these basics is completely possible and more helpful than you might initially believe.
Why? Because they give you a fighting chance.
The consequences of not following these guidelines, are often a huge contributor to how HARD it is to achieve habit change, and WHY you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place.
Not following these basic health guidelines mean:
- More frequent triggers
- Stronger triggers
- More cravings
- Stronger cravings
- More hunger
- Less energy
- More anxiety and low moods
- Less ability to modulate stress and regulate emotions
- Less mental clarity
- More brain fog
The list could go on, but in the spirit of a short and sweet tip, take our word for it – these “basics” are not-so-basic after all.
What makes these “basics” so important?
Without going down the human biology rabbit hole and listing off every known benefit of adequate nutrition, exercise, sunlight, and minimization of stress, let’s introduce you to one of the REALLY big factors – serotonin.
Serotonin is a hormone and neurotransmitter mostly produced in your gut, and it plays a central role in regulating many of the body’s essential functions, including sleep, appetite, mood, anxiety, aggression, and overall sense of well-being.
The symptoms of low serotonin include sweet cravings, low mood, low energy, poor emotional regulation, negative thoughts, anxiety, irritability, low libido, poor concentration, aggression…and so much more.
And guess what causes low levels of serotonin?
You guess it! Amongst a few other things, low serotonin is caused by:
- Lack of adequate nutrition
- Poor digestion
- Lack of adequate exercise
- Lack of adequate sunlight
- Prolonged stress
So, give yourself a fighting chance to overcome these behaviors and help make the change process EASIER.
By following these baseline health guidelines, you’ll give yourself the best chance to keep triggers at a more manageable level and improve your chances of total recovery.
If you are keen to learn more about the impact of serotonin – check out our article Why Low Serotonin could be Fuelling Your Cravings and Mood Swings.
STOP
Self-sabotage. Get out of your own way.
Self-sabotage is a challenging and often invisible force that can significantly impact recovery from binge and compulsive eating. It involves behaviors and thought patterns that undermine your efforts, leading to cycles of guilt, frustration, and relapse.
Recognizing self-sabotage is crucial for addressing it. Here are some signs to look for:
Procrastination: Continually delaying or avoiding meal planning or healthy eating practices, even when you know they are essential for your recovery.
Negative Self-Talk: Engaging in persistent internal dialogue that criticizes or demeans your efforts to recover, such as telling yourself you’ll never succeed, or consciously playing into narratives that you know trigger you.
Self-Isolation: Withdrawing from supportive friends and family, especially when you need help maintaining recovery.
Perfectionism: Setting unattainable standards for your eating habits and waiting for everything to be perfect before making changes. This can prevent you from making gradual progress.
Avoiding Feedback: Minimizing your own self-assessment, or feeling defensive or dismissive of constructive feedback, can hinder your ability to grow and improve.
Ruminating on Regret: Dwelling on past eating episodes or feeling like you’re always making the wrong choices, which can perpetuate a cycle of guilt and self-sabotage.
How to Halt Self-Sabotaging in its tracks to get you back on track
Breaking free from self-sabotage requires intentional effort and practice. Here are some strategies to help you overcome these patterns:
Meditation and Mindfulness: Increasing your awareness of your thoughts and behaviors can help you catch yourself before slipping into self-sabotaging habits. Mindfulness allows you to recognize triggers and patterns that lead to binge or compulsive eating and can help to improve your conscious decision-making in critical moments.
Challenge Negative Self-Talk: Transform your inner critic into a supportive voice. Replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations that encourage and empower you. Positive self-talk will help reduce internal triggering and can reinforce your commitment to recovery.
Set Achievable Goals: Break down your recovery goals into smaller, manageable steps. Achieving these smaller goals can build your confidence, make the process feel more attainable, and give you more space to adjust to your new, improved level of food relationship.
Reflect on Your Goals and Values: Daily review of your reasons for your recovery and the values that drive you. Breaking down larger goals into smaller milestones helps maintain focus and motivation.
Practice Self-Compassion: Treat yourself with kindness and understanding. Recognize that setbacks are part of the process and use them as learning opportunities rather than reasons to criticize yourself.
Seek Professional Help: If self-sabotage is deeply rooted or tied to past trauma, consider working with a therapist or counselor. Professional guidance can offer insights and coping strategies tailored to your unique needs.
Self-sabotage is a complex and challenging aspect of binge and compulsive eating, but understanding its manifestations and underlying causes is the first step towards overcoming it. By developing self-awareness, setting realistic goals, practicing self-compassion, and seeking professional support, you can break free from the cycle of self-destructive behaviors.
START
Playing the long game.
We get it. Weight loss, or at least, weight management is at the forefront of most people’s minds and goals.
It can be a hard reality to accept: knowing that recovery from binge or compulsive eating involves taking your eyes off the calorie and macro tracking, away from the food rules, and into the scary realm of unrestricted eating.
I don’t trust my body to tell me what to eat and when to stop!
I can’t possibly put mayonnaise on my salad!
I could never incorporate my binge foods during the day!
I’ll get fat if I don’t watch what I eat.
You might even be at the place where you KNOW that these rules and restrictions are causing the out-of-control food habits, but you just aren’t ready to give up trying just one more time to finally stick to something and lose weight.
But to get to where you want to be, you have to play the long game.
Not just for the result you want NOW, but for there to be any chance of you KEEPING the result long term.
The long game is getting that weight loss you want and being able to sustain it long-term, no matter what life throws at you.
So does that mean you can’t ever TRY to lose weight?
Absolutely not.
In most cases, weight loss happens a lot sooner than people expected it to during the recovery process.
Once true recovery has been achieved, you can gently approach weight loss by tinkering with your portion sizes, all the while being very mindful to not tip yourself into a triggering level of hunger or dissatisfaction, or retraining all your past triggers through aggressive weight loss tactics.
Slow and steady wins the race!