WHY DO WE OVEREAT?

Firstly, – it’s normal to overeat sometimes and it can be a range of things that are happening- restriction, time of the month, stress, boredom, tiredness.

Despite whatever we may think, these episodes of overeating don’t happen in isolation.

When we are at the bottom of a tub of Ben and Jerry’s, we may well think that it “just happened”.

But there are in fact many steps:

• You must decide you are going to have this food.

• You must get it in or go and get it.

• You then choose to reach for more and more once you have the food.

It doesn’t just magically find its way into your lap and then into your mouth (even though it may feel like it does!)

This is not a reason to feel bad, we have all done it from time to time.

Whatever leads you to overeat, is not mysterious, it could be something, or several things, for you.

And this is where journaling comes in-this can be super useful to work out why it’s happening.

Were you hungry, bored? Did you feel restricted? Have you not allowed yourself certain foods for so long that it ended up in an all-out binge?

Identifying why you do it is a really important step- write it down- figure out what it was and then find different ways to deal with it.

If it was hunger, look back at your day, have you had enough protein, enough fibre, enough water?

If it was boredom, shut the fridge and find something interesting to do!

If it was restriction- eat the food, but eat it with purpose, not mindlessly. Maybe think about increasing your calories until you feel more in control of life.

Remember the dimmer switch, if life is giving you hell, maybe dieting isn’t a priority, dial it down a bit- focus on your good habits and do the best you can. When things calm down ramp it up and kill it!

And remember it happens, don’t beat yourself up, journal it and move on.

Restrictive rigid dieting when you have strict food rules about what and when you are allowed to eat, will make you end up feeling SO hungry over time, the body’s natural response is to crave and seek out all the foods you’ve deprived yourself.

You feel shame, guilt, and worthlessness and beat yourself up over your lack of self-control. You might freak out about the impact of a binge on your weight and body shape. So, you make a conscious decision to follow your diet even harder tomorrow.

And then the cycle continues.

Using food to deal with low moods is also problematic- You might find yourself overeating after a long, crappy day.

This is because it’s uncomfortable having these negative emotions, so instead of addressing the feeling, you try to avoid them which involves overeating your favourite highly palatable foods which temporarily makes you feel better.

The problem is that you feel worse off afterwards and just repeat the cycle.

It’s important to come up with different ways of coping without resorting to overeating.

Remember I am here to talk if you are struggling with overeating – always happy to help!