about disordered eating » recovery guidelines

Working on personal issues can be a short-term or long-term process, depending on your circumstances.  To support your efforts, here are some general recovery guidelines to help you on your journey of self-discovery and self-healing.

 

Each person has unique circumstances and reasons, but everyone who engages in emotional or binge-eating will need to discover what works and what does not in their case.

These general guidelines support the basic work that usually needs to be done.

1. Get to know your triggers
2. Get to know your thought patterns
3. Get to know your emotions and moods
4. Eat regularly
5. Plan
6. Track progress
7. Be kind to yourself

Get to know your triggers – so you can prepare for, avoid, and learn how to handle them

What are triggers?

People, places, situations, thoughts, feelings, or foods that set you off, and
seem to make you want to eat emotionally, even though you are not hungry

Click on the link to download a free pdf copy of the 93 underlying triggers listed in the appendix of my book, Binge Crazy.93 underlying triggers from Binge Crazy

 

Get to know your thought-patterns

Become very familiar with the thinking and thoughts that fuel your desire to eat emotionally

Here are some examples of triggering thought-patterns:

• • • ‘What’s the point … I might as well eat’
    • ‘I don’t care!’
    • ‘I’ll only have one’
    • ‘I can’t stand it anymore’
    • ‘I’ll start again tomorrow’

What are some of yours?   Write them down.

As you become more aware of the thoughts that help fuel your desire to eat more than your body needs, you’ll be able to intervene before you take that first bite.

You’ll also be able to challenge those triggering thoughts and overlay them with more constructive,more truthful ones.  For example, is it true that you don’t care?

 

Get to know your emotions and moods

Become very familiar with and able to tolerate the feelings and moods that fuel your desire to eat emotionally.  For many people, this is the most difficult part.

• Some people know what they are feeling but find that feeling extremely uncomfortable and difficult to tolerate for any length of time – they just want it to stop, and what better way than to use food.
• Other people don’t know what they are feeling, and that not-knowing and discomfort is difficult to tolerate for any length of time

Building your emotional awareness and tolerance – sometimes called ‘emotional regulation’ – is not a short-term project. Lots of the daily tools (in the moment) can help. Psychotherapy can also help.

 

Eat regularly

Learn what works best for your body

Choose a healthy combination of meals (and snacks)

Eat only foods you like and that your body tolerates well

Learn and accept the foods that trigger you

Learn and accept when you are not really hungry

 

Plan

Prepare and plan ahead

Have a written emergency plan, for those tricky moments

Thinking ahead about when you can shop for and prepare your food, about activities you schedule (including meals) with friends or family, and about your potentially vulnerable times can help you offset and avoid problems – or at least lessen their impact.

 

Monitor and keep track of:

Your triggering event(s)

Your thoughts and feelings – related to your triggering event(s) and during the day

Your daily progress – and give yourself lots of credit for any progress you make – however slight

All foods you consume – you eat it, you own it.

Your successful and unsuccessful actions

 

Be kind to yourself

In all of this, remember to be as kind as possible to yourself.

Trying to change habits and behaviors that you use to cope with your emotions can be a daunting process.  Lots of learning is involved, and there are bound to be mistakes along the way.

As you gain awareness of what and how you are doing, you may find it useful to explore additional tools that others have found helpful on a daily basis, or in the moment of actual temptation (click here).