keep - stop - start

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KEEP

Keep going even when you feel like nothing's ‘happening’.

Imagine learning to play the guitar 🎸

Even if you put in MAXIMUM effort and did everything 'right', you would see very little benefit and progress in the first few weeks. You'd practice every day, your fingers would start to hurt and you still won't produce a beautiful sound.

It's a frustrating process!

But with consistent practice, over time, the effort you put in starts to feel easier as the new skill starts to feel more natural, and that's when the benefits really start to come to the surface.

Habitual behavior change is exactly the same.

It will feel like you are killing yourself with effort, and things may feel hard and frustrating and worse still, you may not feel ANY benefits of what you're doing.

But this isn't the time to give up!

🧠 Neural change is a process that takes time, repetition and patience.

Meditation, gratitude, visualization, journaling, therapy...they can all feel pointless until they don't.

With time and consistent practice, things will start to feel more natural, more second nature and the effort will seem easy.

You'll also start to FEEL the change, feel the benefits and finally start to feel like it's all been worth it.

Recovery is worth it, even if it feels like it's not worth the effort in the beginning.

STOP

Allowing food thoughts to run amok.

“I can’t stop thinking about food”

“I wish I could stop obsessing over food”

“I think about food all the time”

Constant food thoughts and images are your brain’s way of keeping you focused on getting what it wants.

👉🏽 Planning what you’ll eat or binge

👉🏽 Thinking about foods that make you feel comforted

👉🏽 Dreaming about your binge foods

👉🏽 Recalling the times you ate something that gave you that 'ahhh' feeling

👉🏽 Wishing you could eat anything you like,

👉🏽 Ruminating over a previous binges or indulgences

👉🏽 Worrying about something you ate which you ‘shouldn’t’ have

Allowing these type of thoughts to form and cycle in your mind will cause a cascade of cravings and triggers to binge or eat compulsively. It's exactly what your brain wants you to do.

Gaining as much control as possible over HOW you think and WHAT you think about food, will not only be a huge weight off your mind (no more food obsession) but will also help to drastically reduce your cravings and triggers.

How do you do this?

This is where the brain rewiring focus is so important, and especially using tools such as meditation and specific visualization exercises, you can shift your brain’s pattern of thoughts away from food, reduce triggering, and onto healthier and more helpful thoughts.

​If this is an area you’ve been struggling with, it’s a key part of Daily Methods recovery framework – check it out here​

So power up your thought control game and give your mind a much-needed spell from food thoughts.

START

Increasing your special occasions.

Does eating out at restaurants, special events, or vacations trigger binge or overeating?

It’s a common trigger for people, especially those whose eating behaviors are rooted in restrictive dieting.

If this is a theme in your binge pattern, take a few minutes to reflect on the last time this came up for you. What was it about the time, place or occasion that bought on feelings of wanting to eat beyond a healthy amount?

Brainstorm a list of what these ‘special occasion’ moments represent to you or what emotions and feelings come up for you. Here's some ideas:

• Are you anxious about where you are, or about being away from home?
• Do you feel excited about the special occasion and you feel you want to ‘enhance it’ (by creating more dopamine hits).
• Do you fear that when this special occasion ends, you’ll have to go back to your 'normal' eating (restrictive eating), so you want to make the most of it?
• Is the practice of total overindulgence when away from home a life-long habit you’ve only ever known? Did you also learn this from your family?
• Are the people you’re with or the way they’re eating triggering you?
• Is your regular eating a bit too ‘plain’ or lacking interest, so when you have more exciting options it becomes hard to stop?

Brainstorm as many ideas as you can to explore the different scenarios you find yourself in.

These insights will be your first step towards making a plan to show up in these moments and not let it become all about getting as much food as possible.

Here’s an example plan for one of the most common scenarios – wanting to enhance or prolong the special occasion by combining it with your favourite dopamine chasing activity of unbridled eating.

Let’s say you uncover that special occasions are something that you get really excited about, and in the moment you find yourself wanting to ‘make the most’ of them or make them bigger. This leads to you giving yourself permission to keep eating for as long as you can.

This is likely a sign that you aren't getting enough of these 'feel good' feelings or moments in your regular life. It’s an indication that these special occasions, moments of relaxation or celebration are actually really NEEDED.

👉🏽 Firstly, start ramping up the things in your life that make you feel good about yourself, connected to friends, relaxed, loved, entertained, joyful, grateful, happy or special.

Write a big list of all the things that give you these feelings. Big and small.

• Chats with friends or family
• Hobbies
• Hot baths
• Shaving your legs
• Reading
• Cooking a fun recipe while listening to music
• Walking barefoot on the grass
• Seeing a theatre show
• Meditation

Anything that makes you feel more like YOU and makes you feel good, special or happy etc.

For the next couple of weeks, really make this your focus and see what effect it has on your food habits.

Discover what level of frequency and variety you need to be hitting your sweet spot, and make ‘special occasions’ feel a lot less like they are the only thing in your life that you get to look forward to.

For some people it might just be a few extra self-care moments in the week, but some may need a whole lot more.

Keep in mind that your needs in this area won’t be as intense after recovery. Once your food habits stabilize to a place you are happy with, you’ll be able to find a maintenance level of self-care.

👉🏽 Secondly, make a plan for reducing the power that unrestricted eating has over you.

Add as much interest to your foods and meals as possible. Don't 'health-ify' everything. Crunch up corn chips on your salads, add peanut butter or Nutella to your fruit, put your favorite cheese on your veggies...really lean into variety, textures, tastes and fun.

Your goal is to make eating out less of a "OMG FINALLY SOMETHING COOL TO EAT" moment, and to enjoy eating out for all the other wonderful things you get out of it, like great company, entertainment, new experiences, connection with others or even just the sheer fact that you don't have to clean up afterwards!