Binge eating
The first thing to do is distinguish between a Binge Eating Disorder, and sometimes overdoing it or overeating at particular times of the day.
Binge Eating Disorder
BED is also called compulsive eating, emotional eating or overeating and it is characterised by repeated episodes of binge eating, feeling out of control and powerless to stop while bingeing, and feeling guilt and shame afterward. BED is not simply eating too much occasionally, but rather, is a serious and under-recognised mental health illness. A person with BED does not use compensatory behaviours, such as self-induced vomiting or over-exercising after binge eating as someone with Anorexia Nervosa or Anorexia Bulimia ma and many people with BED are overweight or obese
Sadly, BED often begins in late adolescence or early adulthood and often following a strict or major diet. The bingeing is unrelated to hunger or physical need for food and people will eat very quickly and continue to eat long after they are full, or they may not even be aware of being full or not. People with BED experience feelings of guilt, disgust, and depression and often have low self-esteem and beat themselves up over their eating. Binge eating often occurs at times of heightened emotions, stress, anger, boredom, anxiety or depression and eating is a way of numbing the intensity of emotions and an attempt to manage those challenging emotions.
The occasional or time-based binge
Most people will at some point overdo it at the food table and celebrations such as Christmas dinner and parties are renowned for this. This may not be ideal, but if your eating habits are healthy the rest of the time then it would not be considered BED.
The other situation in which people over-eat is at particular times of the day, classically mid-afternoon and after dinner. There can be a number of things happening here, for example:
- You skipped breakfast and/or lunch, or maybe just didn’t eat enough and now that it is 3pm you are ravenous and have grab a huge muffin to eat before having normal dinner a couple of hours later.
- The kids have finally gone to sleep and you collapse on the lounge with a tub of ice-cream or block of chocolate, or wine. Or all three!
If you get to 3pm and are starving, then the answer is to look at what you have been eating and drinking during the day.
- Have you had good quality protein (eg lean meat, nuts, grains, legume, cheese, eggs), wholegrains (eg natural muesli, brown rice salad, quinoa, wraps) and veges and a piece of fruit?
- Have you had any fats, such as avocado, olive oil dressing, nuts and seeds?
- And, have you had any water to drink?
Balancing your food intake can often make all the difference to the afternoon blow-out, meaning you can enjoy a snack rather than inhaling something you immediately feel bad about. In addition to looking at what you have been eating, it is worth spending a moment to check if you have had 5 minutes to catch your breath during the day or if you have been running around a million miles an hour without a break,
If your weak time is after the kids have gone to bed, think about how you are feeling:
- Do you want to reward yourself for managing to get through another crazy day and get the kids to sleep (fair enough)
- Do you want a treat that you didn’t want the kids to see?
- Are you feeling completely stressed out that you don’t think you can wind down and go to sleep without having a drink?
The trick is to identify what is happening and then develop a plan to find other ways of managing the issue. For instance, you could have a good soak in the bath, a hot milk, a smaller serve of chocolate, or you could do a yoga dvd, or go to bed and read a good book.
Tips for healthy eating
- Check-in with yourself: take a moment and ask yourself why you want to eat: is it because you hungry, tired, bored, upset? You might want to use a diary for a few days to see if you can notice a pattern.
- Emotional eating is pretty normal, so if you occasionally grab a large tub of gelato when feeling down, then don’t beat yourself up about it. However, if you realise that raiding the fridge is your only response to emotions, then it is time to develop some additional strategies.
- Work on managing your stress: exercise, relaxation techniques, counselling, talking with a loved one.
- Write a list of non-food treats or rewards: having a bath with relaxing music, going for walk, spending time on a hobby
- Avoid boredom: being bored sometimes is fine as we are more likely to be overstimulated but not interested. Gardening, sewing, puzzles, writing, painting, photography, music, seeing family and friends are some ideas.
- Avoid restrictive diets: starving and depriving yourself sets you up for a binge and feelings of low self-worth; eating healthy, nutritious food is a much better bet.
- Eat regularly: three meals and a couple of snacks.
- Shop smart: if your pantry isn’t full of chocolate biscuits and your freezer doesn’t have 4 different kinds of ice-cream, then you have a better chance of grabbing the apple form the bowl when you need a snack.
- Get some exercise: this can help with stress management, easing depression, improving sleep and generally wanting to eat more healthily as you use your body more.
- Sleep: it is so important to enable your body to recover from the day and is essential for good mental health, heart health and in achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight.
Resources
A few really useful resources:
http://bodypositiveaustralia.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/moderationmovement
http://www.thecenterformindfuleating.org/
http://thebutterflyfoundation.org.au/
