When the “train is gearing up”, here are some techniques to stop a binge before it starts…
At any point you’re feeling the desire to eat compulsively, try the following steps. The sooner you can try these steps, the better:
I. As soon as you notice the urge to binge (it might be recurrent thoughts about a certain food, planning time alone to eat, or thinking about a trip to the store for food), stop whatever you’re doing. It is important to focus your full attention on the craving. Without that focus, the craving has much more power to build.
II. Get someplace where you can have privacy to process this feeling as soon as you can.
III. Say out loud to yourself [private_membership circle]exactly what you’re thinking i.e. “I feel the drive to overeat after dinner tonight. I know this impulse will pass. Let me decide what to do with this feeling for right now.”
IV. Take 10 deep breaths, focusing on bringing peaceful energy in, and letting tension go. Notice what parts of your body move as you breathe.
V. Ask yourself: Do I know what I’m going to the food to do? What feeling, physical sensation, thought or image to I want it to effect? What do I want the food to change?
VI. Ask yourself: What is the likely effect of choosing to eat right now? How will I feel if I do, both now and later, both physically and emotionally?
VII. Ask yourself: What else could I do? Could I sit with the feeling a while longer? Deal with the issue directly? Get help or support? Avoid the feeling right now in another way?
VIII. Say to yourself: The food will be here for me to choose if I want it. Can I do something else right now, and see if I want the food later?
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Amy Pershing LMSW, ACSW, Clinical Director, The Center for Eating Disorders, Director, Bodywise Binge Eating Recovery Program and The Bodywise Intensive www.thebodywiseprogram.com , Board Member, Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDAonline.org)
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