By Jessica Sepel – The Healthy Life
@jshealth
We blame our binges and emotional eating on emotional factors in our lives.
We’re sad, happy, lonely or excited – and so we turn to food.
But binges are triggered from an initial deprivation game – which leads to a vicious cycle of habit.
You put yourself on a diet. Restrict your food intake. You lose weight, perhaps. And for a moment, you feel happy. Victorious, even.
What is happy on a physiological level? Once the weight has been lost, you might initially feel great. But you also feel deprived.
Because now, your body is going into starvation mode.
And your body is so clever – it rebels against this starvation mentality. Because it wants you to survive!
So what happens? Your brain tells you to give up the diet and start eating again. You start eating again. But because of the initial deprivation, you eat more. And if you get stuck in the cycle? You start to gain weight back.
Why? Because your body is in survival mode and wants you to live. It holds on to fat to help you survive.
Binges often begin as a result of rebelling against the starvation mode. Then binges often become habit – this is something I learnt from the book, Brain Over Binge by Kathryn Hansen.
We blame our binges on emotional factors. There is a certain point, though, where we need to understand the physiological and behavioral causes of a binge rather than blame them on external factors.
The first word in the dictionary next to the word ‘diet’ is the word RESTRICT. Diets literally mean deprivation.
We may as well just say, “Sorry, I can’t have that – I am depriving myself today.” Doesn’t it sound ridiculous? Why would we want to do that to our bodies?
The word diet has become so common that it has lost meaning now. And even worse? It’s become dangerous.
If you’re struggling, I can assure you you’re not alone! I encourage you to read the article Beating The Binge for more guidance.
