How to Stop the Binge-Restrict Cycle
Do you struggle to stick with your eating habits?
Do you feel like you are sooo good all week and the weekend comes around and everything goes out the window?
Are you forever starting over with your diet on Monday and swearing off your favourite foods?
I get it. I have been there too. After an indulgent weekend away with my girlfriends or celebrating a holiday or birthday eating whatever I liked and maybe having a drink or two, I would always come back on Monday feeling like I had to be “good”. I would swear off all my favourite foods and commit to eating egg whites and salads all week only to backfire on me by the end of the day (hello binge eating!).
This cycle happened over and over again and I was constantly left feeling like I had no willpower and that I was a failure.
If you feel like you are constantly swinging between eating “healthy and clean” to over indulging, I call this the start-stop cycle. We all want to eat healthy and try our best, thinking we can’t incorporate our favourite foods and fail to develop consistent eating habits.
So how do we find more balance?
Stop with the dieting. We are bombarded with health information all the time, especially through social media. Keto, vegan, intermittent fasting, paleo, whole 30...it can be easy to want a quick fix. Whenever you decide on a diet, ask yourself these questions: Is this maintainable? Do I enjoy eating like this? Is this giving me energy? Is this restricting me? Can I still go out and enjoy myself when I’m out for dinner or am I worried about what to order?
Learn about what works for you as an individual. What foods make you feel good? Which ones maybe don’t settle so well with you? How can you eat so that you are more consistent and not feeling restricted? Define your own vision of wellness.
Let go of the idea of being perfect. A healthy life is not a perfect life. Decide to let go of the guilt around certain foods. Tap back into your intuition and listen to what your body is telling you.
Stop thinking short term. There is no quick fix. Changing our habits, learning to love and nurture our bodies again takes time and patience.
You are deserving of nourishing your body and finding consistency. If you need a little more guidance, I have some spots still available in my online program, The Mind Body Food Reset where I will teach you how to nourish your body and let go of the food guilt and dieting for good.
xx
Mia