What To Do After A Binge Day?
About 3.5% of women and 2% of men have binge eating disorder in America, making it the most common eating disorder. Binge eating is an eating disorder where a large amount of food is eaten in a short amount of time and occurs uncontrollably. Following the binging episode, a wave of shame and guilt usually occurs, resulting in decreased self-esteem and self-worth. Binging is not the same as overeating. Overeating occurs when you enjoy the food you are eating, so the act is out of pleasure. Binge eating occurs from a state of intense urge, and many times those who binge may eat foods that they don’t find super enjoyable. The episodes are explained as an unconscious act, where there is no choice involved in eating the large amounts of foods. Additionally, the eating continues until the person feels so stuffed and sick that they become immobile due to the large mass of food consumed. Origins of binge eating are vast, making it a complex disorder to treat. Regardless of if you are diagnosed with the disorder or if you find yourself relating to the description of a binge eating episode, there are steps to follow for what to do after a binge day.
1. Be kind to yourself
The first step of what to do after a binge day is to be kind to yourself. Easier said than done, of course, but it is essential to remember that your episode that occurred the day before does not define you. Guilt is a common emotion after people binge eat because they believe that they could have controlled themselves from eating that much. Unfortunately, these feelings of shame and guilt can increase the probability that you will binge again in the future. Shame leads to restriction, which leads to binging again. This is because many binge episodes occur due to a lack of nutrition that day or in the days prior. When we restrict food, all our body wants to do is eat; after too long of not eating, our hunger signals shoot through the roof, and fullness signals plummet. Our body wants to replenish nutrients and survive. It is not your fault that you couldn’t stop the binge, and you are not your binge tendencies. Don’t let the binge define you. Most people who recover from binging have some relapses because binging doesn’t just completely stop one day. It takes time to retrain your brain and your lifestyle habits. Some things to remind yourself of after you binge are: you are not your disorder or your habits, you are not a bad person because you binge ate, today is a new day and a new chance at working on your lifestyle and mindset habits.
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2. Relapses are part of recovery
Recognizing that relapses are part of recovery is the next step of what to do after a binge day. Again, it takes time to recover fully, but part of the recovery process is realizing that you will relapse during that phase. If binging is a regular pattern throughout the week, during recovery, that may go to one or two times a week, to every other week, to once a month, to then maybe a few times a year. Recovery doesn’t happen overnight, so focusing on the long-term goal instead of the short-term slip-ups will benefit your well-being.
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3. Do not weigh yourself
Another important part of what to do after a binge day is not to weigh yourself. Scale weight is a sum of bone density, water retention, digesting food, muscle mass, lean body mass, and fat mass. Notice that fat mass is only a small part of all the things that make up scale weight. Since you binged the day before, all that food holds mass on your body. The scale will most likely show a higher number than you are used to, but this does not represent how much fat you have gained. In fact, it is more so a reflection of how much water you are holding onto and how much food is digesting in your gut. You probably did not gain any fat mass at all just from one binge day. Weighing yourself after a binge day shows that your mindset is weight-focused instead of health-focused, which is one of the symptoms keeping you in the binge cycle. One study found that weight change in recovering patients with binge eating disorder was more dependent on a weight-focused mind rather than the amount of binge eating episodes. Focus on how you feel rather than how you look or how much you weigh.
4. Fuel Yourself Properly
The next step in what to do after a binge day is to fuel yourself properly. This looks different for everyone. The key is to listen to your hunger signals and not to restrict yourself. This is so important for what to do after a binge day because a binge usually occurs because you are not listening to your hunger signals in the first place. Restricting after a binge will just reinforce you to binge again. Furthermore, it is also important to recognize that the food from the day before will still be digesting and sitting in your system, possibly resulting in some leftover bloating and water retention. You may feel physically sick the next in response to this. Fueling yourself properly could mean drinking a lot of water to balance out the possible high salt and sugar intake or opting for hydrating fruits like watermelon or berries. If you feel pretty normal the next day, eat as you normally would and don’t restrict any foods. Part of binge eating recovery is telling yourself that no foods are good or bad; all food is neutral. Allow yourself to eat what tastes and sounds good according to your hunger cues and preferences.
5. Question your binge
After you have completed the first four steps, the next step of what to do after a binge day is to question your binge. It is essential only to do this when you are in a good headspace and when you do not feel guilty or shameful about your binge day. First, ask yourself what was happening in your life right before the binge, and then ask yourself how you felt internally before the binge. Noticing triggers or patterns with binge episodes is important for recovery because it will help you to know how to prevent binge episodes by managing triggers. Next, ask yourself if you have been feeling hungry a lot lately or if you have been overly restricting food/over-exercising on purpose. If yes, then this can indicate that your body has been deprived, and the binge episodes occur as a product of survival mode. Finally, ask yourself if you have been trying to seek control in your life. Many eating disorders begin when something traumatic and out of your control occurs ex: laid off of your job, lost family member, breakups, family issues, etc. These events can lead people to yearn for control, and food is an easy spot to do that because we all feed ourselves and have power over what we feed ourselves. Control over food can lead to an obsession and intense restriction, leading to binging.
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