What is Binge Eating?
Binge eating is where a person eats large quantities of food over a short period of time all the while feeling like they have absolutely no control over what they are doing.
It can be an organised binge where food is bought specifically for the occasion or it can happen spontaneously due to being triggered.
Either way the person loses control around the food they are eating which can be very upsetting.
They will feel disconnected and sometimes forgetful of what they've eaten.
It's also very likely that those who binge eat, diet and have food rules.
Restricting the volume eaten leads to hunger.
Deprivation of foods they love and enjoy leads to constantly thinking about said foods.
There are many reasons why someone would have the urge to binge:
- A change in situation that is difficult to cope with.
- Emotions being triggered - binge eating numbs these emotions out.
- Negative feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, stress, upset, anger, boredom, etc.
- Positive feelings of being over excited and happy.
- Being triggered by past events.
Hi! I'm Arlene Cullens
Loving life in Scotland with my husband and boys.
I love walking in nature beside the sea or river, board games with my boys, building lego, reading and jigsaws!
My mission is to empower at least 1,000 women to break free from the cycle of binge and emotional eating while taking their power back around food.
In this free resource, I'll show you 3 Steps to Bin Bingeing that will transform your relationship with food.
This is for motivated, entrepreneurial woman who are ready to take action now to live a life 100% in control of food.
CLICK on the resource above
Eating foods restricted when dieting
- Sticking your middle finger up to the diet you've just broken.
- Being rebellious to the food rules you've abided by.
- Gorging on the foods that you weren't allowed to eat.
- Not being the 'good girl' and breaking the rules and feeling great doing it.
Eating large volumes of food
- The signals of feeling full or satisfied don't come. They're non existent.
- Being on a mission to eat as much food as possible. To get as much in.
- Not wasting any food.
- Not being able to leave anything in a packet.
- Finishing everything.
- No stop switch.
Eating when you're not hungry
- There is a strong urge to eat.
- A need to change how you feel.
- To have the motion of putting food into your mouth.
- To feel the crunch or chew or melting of your chosen food.
Eating until you're overfull
- Not being able to leave anything on your plate.
- Having a second helping even though you know you've eaten enough, you can feel it.
- Knowing you are stuffing yourself fuller and fuller and being unable to stop.
Eating fast
- A short window to eat as much as possible.
- Almost as if you're being timed on how much you can eat.
Being out of control while eating
- Not being able to stop eating once you've dropped the current diet rules.
- Eating everything and anything, particularly those restricted foods.
Eating alone and in secret
- After a supermarket shop and disposing of the wrappers so no one at home will know what you've eaten.
- When family are out at work or school, wrappers to the bottom of the bin to hide the evidence.
- Not wanting anyone to know your embarrassing secret.
- Feeling ashamed of the actions.
- Disgusted at the amount of food eaten.
- Guilt at having no willpower to stop.
- Sad acknowledging this isn't helping to lose weight and knowing another diet is required to be slim.
Prolonged years of dieting causes binge eating.
Which leads to constantly thinking and obsessing about food.
Dieting restricts and deprives certain foods ending with bingeing on said foods.
The guilt and shame knocks your self confidence as you write yourself off as a failure.
You no longer tune into and eat as per your body's cues but dictated to whichever diet you are following.
Eating is based on what your head says, not your body.
Your body confidence takes a beating as you berate every imperfection and dislike of the extra few pounds that are creeping on.
All the above affects your mental health.
Personally, my bingeing episodes would last from a few days to a couple of weeks.
Food was all I could think about.
I obsessed about it.
I'd binge when I was home alone during the day.
This would continue until one morning I'd wake and it was as though a switch had been flicked and I was back on diet mode.
The bingeing had stopped.
There was huge relief.
I promised myself I wouldn't binge again.
At the time, I didn't know I was in a never ending cycle of diet, binge, diet and I had no control over the bingeing.
I'm so thankful I'm no longer on that cycle and I've found a different way to do food using body wisdom.
Your next step:
Book a 45-Minute Rewrite Your Food Story with Arlene!
If you've been on the diet bandwagon or are a binge and/or emotional eater then come and have a chat.
In this 45-minute session,
- We'll have a chat about where your relationship with food is right now.
- We'll chat about how you feel about this relationship.
- We'll then chat about what you'd like your relationship with food to look like.
- Finally, we'll develop an action plan that will get you moving on your journey so you can feel the results.
With love and happiness
Arlene x
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