Challenging Anorexia Food Rules and Overeating

Food restriction (dieting, cutting out foods, avoiding food groups, jumping on trends) is often the go-to response when people feel anxious, stressed, low in mood and/or out of control in life. And it is such a fool-proof way to ease the anxiety! Temporarily... 

Feeling bad about your body shape? -->  Cut foods. 

Feeling like you can’t control your emotions? --> Control your intake. 

Rather than solve any problems, however, this approach often exacerbates these problems… and it creates a range of other negative side effects along the way! Your body is forced to go through additional stress, your health may deteriorate, and your concentration may lag. 

Rather than ‘gain’ control, you may find yourself bingeing and feeling more out of control than you did to begin with! And, no, the number on the scales never do satisfy. 

In response to this, I see a lot of people put even tighter controls on their intakes, in the belief that things will work out this time around. And then it doesn’t. Again. Feelings of guilt turn into feelings of lack of control translate into even tighter measures, and so on and so forth. It’s a cycle, and the only way to break out is to stop the behaviours that keep it going. 

The problem is not lack of willpower or lack of control. It is the restriction, disguised as the solution. BUT RESTRICTION CANNOT BE THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION.

In today's video, I talk all about challenging anorexia food rules and overcoming night-time binges. 

I talk about 

1. how to determine your minimum intake requirements, 
2. how long it takes to recover, and 
3. how to break the binge-restrict cycle and overcome food rules.