Overcoming Overeating

Did you just gorge yourself on chocolate ice cream? Okay, start over, right now. Put down the spoon. Just because you ate too much ice cream doesn’t mean that you have to add brownies, potato chips, and french fries to your plate. Every moment is a fresh opportunity. Did you overeat yesterday? Start over today: eat a healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you fast in a misguided attempt to save calories, you’ll only end up starving at dinner. And guess what? You’ll be primed for another binge.

9. Practice exquisite self care.
If you’re denying your needs for comfort, love, sustenance, joy, and beauty, you will fulfill those needs, somehow. But instead of a pampering bath or a few hours with a novel, you’ll overeat, overspend, drink excessively, gamble, or smoke. Pamper yourself like a queen. Buy yourself flowers. Groom yourself impeccably. Paint your nails. Do whatever makes your heart sing, but do it regularly. Feed your spirit with self care, and your body’s hungers won’t be so demanding.

10. Eat.
This last tip sounds almost comical. You might say, “That’s the least of my problems!” But, I realized much of my overeating stemmed from real physical hunger. I was trying to eat as little as possible throughout the day, because I was always on a diet, and so I was starving by dinnertime. Then I’d overeat, not because I had no willpower, but because I was simply hungry.

Here’s the thing: most overeaters want to lose weight. But you may need to focus on one goal at a time. First focus on eating to your balance point. Then, when you’re eating three solid meals a day, on a regular basis, work on losing the weight. It’s very, very hard to stop overeating when you’re starving. Put the weight loss goal aside, just temporarily, while you work on balancing your eating. The irony is that by feeding yourself regularly you will be less inclined to overeat. And guess what? You’ll probably lose weight.

Karly Randolph Pitman is the founder of First Ourselves, helping women love their bodies, feel beautiful, and make self care a priority.