story here where I share how I overcame my drinking, drug and eating disorder and live a healthier life now and am here to share with you ways to overcome any bad eating or exercise habits to get you feeling better than you have ever felt before. In today’s article I want to focus on binge eating, and share with you 20 tips to help you break free from the binge eating behavior and move toward a healthier lifestyle with diet and exercise. Remember you didn’t find yourself where you are overnight so don’t expect that you will break the habits overnight either. If anyone tells you it can be done quickly they are probably trying to take your money and remember if you push yourself, be patient, be CONSISTENT, you will get better and you will be successful. These are 9 Tips that you can pick and choose to try, don’t overwhelm yourself, set yourself up for success not failer, start small and work your way up

End Binge Eating for Good

TIP #1: Don’t go looking for another diet that is not the answer. I am only speculating but I would assume that a diet was what lead you into binge eating in first place, you had to cut back, eat less, count calories, deprive yourself of things you love, instead of treating yourself for all your hard work. One day you gave up and started eating everything and anything like you would never have it again. This slowly turned into a habit till you found yourself where you are today. The answer is not in a diet so don’t search for one! TIP #2: Add to your Palate don’t restrict yourself. I know you’re thinking Yvette are you crazy? Why would I eat more? Well that is the key eating more of the right foods instead of the wrong foods. When you add things like a salad, or eat a apple and banana as your morning snack you will naturally start removing things, If you are already full on the healthy good for you foods you wont find yourself eating that whole cake in the fridge. Also if you start setting your mind up as I can eat a whole bowl of fruit, rather than I can’t you will slowly turn that into a strong habit, and your body will start craving the right type of foods. Think about it this way if you’re thinking about what you can’t have you then binge eat, then you feel guilty and you try to avoid it again and you then finally give up and binge eat again, over and over this cycle continues.  So start by finding foods to ADD to meals; veggies, fruits, meats, dairy, etc. Try new foods and enjoy the variety and stop thinking I CAN’T. TIP #3: You can Succeed without Standing on Scale Every Day You will drive yourself mad if you step on scale every day. The number does not indicate how well your doing, your self-worth you will find yourself discouraged, because you may gain, and its not always bad gain it may be muscle not to mention every day if you weight yourself after you eat, just GET OFF THE SCALE, this is a easy tip to follow, and it will make a big difference. Remember does not indicate your success or failers. TIP #4: Don’t fall in the pit of a Cheat Day Ok so you do great all week long then Saturday rolls around you say well I can cheat today and get back on it tomorrow. It is like off roading with a convertiable you think you can hit that muddy dirt road for a few minutes and get right back on the main road, but find yourself stuck in the mud wasting precious time trying to get back on the road. So eating same thing you get a taste of that forbidden food and your one cheat day turns into 2 days then week, creating excuses of why you can wait till next day to start. TIP #5: Continue to Love food don’t just use it to fuel your body   You will hear from some fitness nuts that food is just a way to fuel your body nothing to great about it.  So some just eat whatever who cares about taste, well if your reading this and suffer from binge eating I would assume you are like me and LOVE FOOD. You can try that food is for fuel approach but you will probably quickly find yourself eating the binge foods again. So you need to continue to love to eat even without the binge eating attribute. So it is pretty simple eat what you enjoy, either real, whole foods or those favorite not as healthy delicious foods, but in moderation of course. TIP #6: Have a support system that understands what your reaching for You can’t do this alone, even if no one knows about your binge eating habits, you need to reach out to someone close, ask for their help. But remember there are some people that will not understand will think it is as easy as just stop doing it. Don’t surround yourself with people who make fun of you and frankly could care less about what your going through. A great quote that hits the nail on the head “ Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not in fact just surrounding yourself with assholes.” So in short just find someone you can trust and talk to them. If you don’t feel comfortable with friends and family reach out to a counselor who is qualified to help with disordered eating habits. TIP #7:  Actually making an effort to change your habit I am stating this because you can’t simply say “I want to stop binge eating” then continue to eat the same foods and feel the same way. So start focusing on the little actions and changes you make each week. For instance go to the grocery store and fill your fridge with healthy foods you enjoy, veggies, fruits, meats etc, set up a workout schedule and stick to it, eat your meals slower to enjoy each bite as well as feeling when you are full. Say positive things to yourself in morning before starting your day. To stick to your goals even write them down, put them on your fridge so if you try to reach for something that is outside of your goals you can remind yourself what you are trying to achieve. TIP #8: Binge Foods Working for you not against you So this is going to have to be really up to you and how you can handle your vice foods, the items you find yourself eating the whole bag or box even if you try to stop. But I have found the best thing to do is to keep the foods out of the house, if they are not available to me I can’t eat them. Now this is by no means me telling you that you can NEVER have that favorite dish of ice cream ever again. No but until you can control your portion sizes I would recommend keeping the large quantities out of the house. Maybe instead buy a single serving of ice cream when you want to treat yourself for your hard work. There will be no guilt for enjoying one of your favorite foods. TIP #9: Stay positive and confident in yourself You are the only one that can make this happen. You can have everyone there supporting you, telling you that you can do it, but if you find yourself using words like hate or don’t like when you are referring to your body it is time to change that. Don’t use those words anymore, instead focus on positive motivating words, compliment your physical abilities and even if you still don’t love what you see in the mirror, positive thought will keep you moving to get you exactly where you want to be. Bringing us to the idea of being confident, know you’re going to reach your goals, stop binge eating, get in shape, etc. So instead of always thinking will this ever get better will I ever be done binge eating be confident and know “I WILL stop binge eating and Win!”

Your Time is Now – break Free and end Binge Eating

That is all ladies, I want you to take one or two of these tips and start applying them now, do that for a few weeks then add another. Focus on the actions you take each day and be kind to yourself, if you slip don’t give up get back on the horse. Feel free to email me or text me whenever you need extra support or someone to stay accountable to. Photo Credit: mariah.bater via Compfightcc