Put an end to binge eating: the quick and easy way
End compulsive eating
You are minding your own business when suddenly a delicious cake, muffins or some other delicious treat appears. You weren’t hungry, but now that you’ve seen food, suddenly you’re hungry. You jump up and rush to get something before it’s gone. A few minutes pass, and then visions of bagels start dancing in your head. Your stomach is grumbling, you’re looking at the time, “Isn’t it lunch yet?” You see muffins, you want muffins. The cycle of seeing food eating food begins:
“I want another cupcake.”
“No, I shouldn’t, everyone will think I’m a pig.”
“But I really want one, they tasted good. No one will notice if I visit the diner on my way to the copier. I better hurry or they’ll be gone.”“What about my diet?”
“I don’t care. I’m going to buy another bagel, tomorrow I’ll start my diet.”
And ready. Frustrating, but so familiar. Since you know this is going to happen from time to time, it’s best to have a plan. The cycle starts when you see food, you want it, you eat it, then you get mad at yourself for eating it, so you want something to make you feel better, and you see food, you want it… and so on, all year long. and round Wouldn’t you like to stop this cycle? Can. Keep reading…
Stop the binge eating cycle
The following approach works to prevent the immediate see food/want food response when you jump up and rush to get something, before it’s too late. It’s another thing to do just long enough to give yourself a moment to think and then decide. It’s okay to realize you want a treat, it’s okay to decide to eat a treat, but if you want to lose a few pounds, stopping the “I see food, I must eat food” pattern is a good first step.
Changing the answer See food/Eat food
When you first feel the urge to eat, do a quick round of EFT (see resource box below to learn EFT). Use the wish itself, “I want to eat” or the specific food, “I want chocolate” to form your statement. Keep in mind that the words you use don’t matter, so don’t get hung up on needing to say the right words. Think about the problem and EFT will work its magic.
Here are some suggestions to get you started. State the problem first, “Even though…” and end with something positive like “I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Even though seeing those muffins made me hungry, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Or “Even though I’m suddenly starving…”
“Although I want some ________ (fill in the blank), …”
“Though I know that once I start eating I’ll never stop eating…”
“Though that muffin is going to taste great…”
“Even though I’ll ruin my diet by eating that cake…”
EFT are not positive statements
Before you decide that EFT isn’t for you because it seems to go against all the positive affirmations you’ve been making, stop worrying. EFT is not positive affirmations and has nothing to do with affirming your desire to achieve a goal. EFT is unlike any other approach I have tried. It’s something to address the electrical impulses that go off in your brain when you have a thought. Thought impulses can be easily changed with EFT.
Use this technique directly on whatever is first and foremost on your mind, which means your desire to eat the cookies, or whatever it is you are craving. Focus on what you want, make it as big as possible. Take it to an even higher level of desire, if possible. Think about how good it’s going to taste, how much you want it, how soft, crunchy, whatever. EFT will address and change that desire if you really think about it while doing the EFT exercise.
When you think about how much you want the cookies, your brain is connecting all the other times you enjoyed the cookies, all the good feelings, memories, everything is connected. This is how the brain works; makes connections and associations. So as you think about your problem, the EFT process is simply taking the signal out of your familiar path, effectively changing it.
Analysis paralysis or just driving
I don’t know how my car engine works, but I know how to drive. I get where I want to go, and I don’t need to analyze how that happens. Do the same with EFT. You do not need to understand or analyze all the nuances of EFT or why it works. Just use it and see if it is useful for you. (For information on learning EFT, see the resource box.)
After one round, think back to what you wanted to eat and see if your desire is the same. Is it higher, lower? Don’t try to make the wish different, just find out if you think it has changed. If it has decreased, but not by much, do a second round of saying, “Even though I still want to eat… I deeply and completely accept myself.” EFT only takes a moment to do, so do it as many times as you need, until that urge subsides.
Sometimes it happens so fast that people can’t believe it was EFT. “I just changed my mind,” they’ll say. “I really didn’t want the cookies after all.” We tend to need to rationalize everything that happens, and it’s no different with EFT. When something works so easily to simply change your desire from wanting something to not wanting it at all, there’s no way you won’t try with some reasonable explanation. Go ahead and decide it wasn’t EFT, but because you said you didn’t want to eat the cookies. Then just smile and know that you can have the cookies later if you want, but for now, you just don’t want them.