- Hey, everybody.
Today I want to talk about binge eating
and why it might be more common than ever right now.
And if you don't know,
binge eating is defined as eating more
than a normal person in a short period of time.
Now, the definition is a little bit tricky.
That's kind of the definition that I utilize in my practice
when I'm working with my eating disorder patients.
However, I know that those of you
who have a more restrictive mindset
when it comes to your eating behaviors,
a binge is gonna be less
than maybe some of my more binge eating based patients
or even what I maybe personally would define as a binge.
But for the sake of this video,
I just want to define binging
as eating more than what a normal person would eat
in a shorter amount of time.
Usually we're eating very quickly.
Now, the interesting thing about eating
and our nervous system or our mental health
is that we are wired from birth to be soothed through food.
Think about it.
We cry when we're children,
when they're babies, especially, if we're hungry.
Someone comes and they feed us, (sighs) and we calm down.
I mean, if you've ever babysat
or if you have children of your own,
you know how worked up kids can get
and how soothed they can be from being given a bottle.
That's because our nervous system is wired to do that.
I've talked with my friend, Dr. Alexa Altman,
who's a psychologist and trauma specialist,
and she talks about how sucking and swallowing,
that action, can activate our vagus nerve
and calm our system down.
Now, if our caregivers let's say didn't come
when we cried when we were a baby,
or we have some sort of attachment issue
for one reason or another, we can seek out food
as a way to self-soothe,
mainly because we don't have any other resources, right?
If when we were growing up and we were upset
no one came to our aid,
we find other ways to soothe ourselves.
I have a lot of patients
who have emotionally neglectful parents
who now struggle with binge eating,
not to mention those of us with BPD
or borderline personality disorder
can feel things so intensely,
and we struggle to find a way to self-soothe
because, if you don't know, a huge component
of borderline personality disorder is fear of abandonment,
so turning to a relationship for support
might not feel safe, therefore we can turn to food.
And also another component of BPD,
which kind of compounds that attachment
and that need to self-sooth, is our impulsive behavior.
So even if we know that we're turning to food
because we need to self-sooth, we maybe don't have that time
in between that thought and that action,
and so it can be really hard to slow down
our decision to jump forward and binge eat,
which is why a lot of my BPD patients
also struggle with binge eating disorder.
Not to mention that as the pandemic continues
or as we've gone through lock downs
and out of lock downs and vaccinations,
and all the stuff that has happened over the past year plus
has sent us into our stress response, right?
Our fight, flight, freeze, and those of us
who maybe didn't struggle with binge eating before
might find ourselves turning to food to cope
and to self-soothe because a lot of our other resources
have been taken away from us.
I mean, I can speak personally.
I used to go to yoga at least twice a week.
Usually I'd try to get in there three times,
but that doesn't exist anymore,
and now I can only go if I try to make an appointment,
and they're usually all full, and it's just not the same.
Especially if meeting with friends was another thing,
which was one of mine.
That's more difficult, as well.
And so a lot of us can be seeking
different ways to calm our system down
without many coping skills to choose from.
And also, I just want to add in that our binge eating urges
can get worse as the day progresses.
And that's truthfully
just because we get a little worn down,
we get more tired, and our resilience,
meaning our ability to kind of bounce back
from what life hands our way is a little bit lacking.
I like to talk about resilience as poker chips,
and, like, we wake up with a handful of, let's say,
14 poker chips, but by the day, by the time the day is done,
we only maybe have three left or none.
And as we have less and less poker chips,
meaning less and less resilience,
we are more vulnerable
to our emotional impulses and desires, such as binge eating.
And so if you find yourself, like,
at the end of the day, struggling the most,
that may be the time that you want to implement
some of the tools I'm gonna offer here in just a minute.
And the last thing I want to address
before I get into, like,
how to get out of this binge eating trap
is that because there is so much judgment
in our society about weight,
and there's a lot of fat shaming that goes on,
as well as just the kind of guilt
that we can find ourselves having after a binge,
when we binge, then we can swing into this, like,
shame, guilt spiral and feel like
we maybe need to make up for it.
Not always, but I just want to mention it,
because a lot of us get caught in what I would call
the binge restrict cycle, and I've done a video about that.
You can search it on YouTube.
Just Kati Morton, binge restrict cycle.
And that's why sometimes following a binge,
we will feel really bad about ourselves,
think something is, like, inherently wrong with us,
and then try to quote-unquote make up for the binge
by restricting later, which we know
then only leads us to binging again,
because we go too long without food,
we're super, super hungry.
And then in our race
to feed our body what it needs, we overeat.
Okay, now let's get into some ways
that we can get out of this binge eating trap.
And my first tip is to eat more regularly.
Because we can tend to binge when we've waited too long
and we are too hungry, if we eat every three to four hours,
yep, you heard me, every three to four hours,
it's less likely that we will overeat
when we actually sit down to eat a meal or a snack.
And another thing is to have food on hand
so that we can eat more regularly.
If you're like me and sometimes you won't realize
you're hungry until you're hungry,
you wanna have something readily available
so you can open up your fridge or your cupboard
and you can grab something and eat it right away,
so that you don't find yourself going longer and longer,
maybe waiting for the food to be delivered
or preparing a really time-consuming meal.
You have something you can eat quickly.
I'll even snack sometimes a little bit
while I'm preparing a larger meal
so that I don't become overly hungry,
and when I sit down to eat, find myself overeating.
And when you do eat, make sure that you're eating foods
that leave you satisfied.
If we're just eating, like, a quote-unquote healthy salad
or something with no, maybe no protein,
no beans or no fiber in it, it's just not good,
we don't like it, it's not what we want,
we're not gonna be satisfied.
We're not gonna be full.
We're going to want to eat other food later.
And so make sure that you're eating something
that your body actually wants.
It's okay to give into cravings.
I know diet culture tells us no, no, no, no,
only eat no carb, no sugar, certain thing.
That is only gonna lead us to binging later
on the food that we told ourselves we couldn't have.
You know what I mean?
So make sure that the food
is leaving you full and satisfied.
One of the ways to do that,
along with listening to your body and what you're craving,
is also just to make sure that your meals
have a lot of protein and fiber in them.
That will leave you feeling full
and satiated for longer.
My second tip is to notice how you talk to yourself
about your eating habits and food.
Are there a lot of should and could and would
and you can't have that?
Are we talking to ourselves that way?
If we do eat this food
that has been deemed quote-unquote bad or unhealthy,
are we then punishing ourselves?
Even if it's not physical punishment,
is it mental punishment?
Are we telling ourselves that we're lazy, stupid, fat?
What's the story?
What's the thing that we're talking to ourselves about
when it comes to our food and our eating habits?
It's really important,
because you'd be surprised how many people
who don't even think they have any issues with food
punish themselves emotionally
through the conversation they have with themselves
after eating a quote-unquote bad or unhealthy food.
There's no need for blame and shame.
We all have cravings, we all get hungry.
Our body needs the food.
We're gonna have to eat every three to four hours.
That's just what our body needs to sustain us.
Sometimes we're gonna eat things
that might be quote-unquote healthier
or have more vegetables in them or less oil or something.
But other times we're gonna eat things
that are higher calorically
or have different ingredients
that we maybe think aren't as good for us.
But I'm here to tell you, all food has a place in our life.
It's all about eating when we're hungry,
stopping when we're full,
and recognizing cravings and giving into them.
Because a craving usually tells us
that our body needs something.
Like, if we have been kind of restricting,
maybe eating a very bland meal,
our body's gonna crave something
that has a higher fat content or has more flavor.
Because that original meal wasn't very satisfying,
it's gonna seek it out,
and that's why giving into cravings
isn't a terrifying, scary thing.
It's just the more we put them off and shove them away,
the more we want them and the more apt we are
to overeat when we finally allow ourselves
or give ourselves permission to eat it.
Which rolls nicely into my third tip,
which is stop dieting.
You heard me.
Diets don't work.
The diet mentality will tell us
that you can't have certain foods
because somewhere in some random scale
that someone has put together, they were deemed bad.
That's only, like I just said,
gonna lead us to wanting it more.
I don't know if anybody else can, you know, understand this,
but if someone tells me I can't have Oreos,
all I'm gonna be thinking about is Oreos,
and I'm gonna want those all the time.
And so once we get out of this diet mentality,
foods being good or bad,
then and only then can we stop binging
and stop restricting and start enjoying food again.
Getting more in touch with our body,
being able to read when we're hungry and when we're full,
and do that, meaning start eating or stop eating.
If we can stop ourselves from dieting,
then we can stop the shame spiral we can get into
and the judgment that we have around food,
which in turn, going back to number two,
will improve our self-talk,
but it will also get us out of potentially
that binge restrict cycle or that binge shame cycle.
Which brings us to my fourth tip,
which is to drink more water.
If you didn't know, the signs of thirst
often mimic the signs of hunger.
And so make sure that when you're at work or home
or even on the road, maybe have a water bottle
in your car at all times.
Make sure that you're drinking enough water.
And no, soda or juice or tea, it doesn't count.
I'm talking just water.
Maybe if you need to put a little lemon in it
'cause you don't like the flavor,
my mom was one of those people,
she doesn't like the flavor of water.
I'm like, flavor?
What are you talking about?
But if you're one of those people,
then it's okay to put other things in it
so that it tastes good.
Just make sure it's not filled with a bunch of sugar
or a bunch of other, you know, natural flavorings.
You want your body to get exactly what it's asking for,
which is water.
And so the less we can do to it, the better.
But make sure you're getting enough water.
I know really popular on TikTok right now and Instagram
are, like, those huge jugs to make sure
you drink enough every day.
If that helps keep you accountable, pick one of those up.
But if not, just keep a water bottle
with you at all times and fill it when it's empty.
And my fifth tip is get enough sleep.
You would be surprised the amount of research out there
about sleep and weight gain
and hunger fullness cue disruption.
If we don't get at least seven and a half hours
of sleep each and every night,
our body can be thrown off kilter.
Meaning, like, our circadian rhythm gets out of whack
and we can feel hungry when we shouldn't
and full when we're not.
And having a routine around bedtime can really help,
meaning maybe we shower or wash our face, brush our teeth,
doing those same things all the time
and getting our body into a rhythm
will let it know and let it prepare for sleep, right?
It will be aware that, oh, I'm getting ready,
I'm going to bed, I'm going to sleep.
We do this with toddlers and babies.
and we can do it for ourselves.
And also there are things like over the counter vitamins
and things that naturally occur in our body anyways
that help us sleep, things like melatonin or L-theanine,
so you can talk to your doctor and pick those up too
if you're interested.
And my sixth and final tip
is to see a therapist and a dietician.
As you guys know, I specialize in eating disorder treatment,
and if I'm ever working with a patient
who has eating disturbances of any kind,
I always recommend, sometimes require,
that they see a dietician.
This will help you maybe get a better handle
on what an appropriate meal size is
or what is a snack that leaves me satisfied.
They can help you better understand
your relationship with food and also offer
some tips and tools along the way to keep you on track.
And the therapist's role is to navigate
and help you manage how you talk to yourself about food,
what are the role models in your life
maybe showed you the bad way to think about food?
Maybe you had a mom that yo-yo dieted
or a dad that told you certain foods weren't okay
if you didn't get great, you know?
There's all this, like, you have to earn food talk.
And a lot of times being in therapy for that
can help you untangle it, help you better understand
where your belief system comes from
and why you act the way that you do around food.
And having those two professionals,
meaning your therapist and your dietician,
working in tandem can give you the best result.
We're getting kind of help on both sides.
I hope you found the information helpful.
If you have other thoughts or ideas
or things that have helped you
get out of this binge eating trap,
leave those in the comments down below,
and I will see you next time.
Bye.
(upbeat music)