What To Do After You Binge?
Yesterday I ate a whole box of fig newtons. I’m not proud of it. Fig newtons are a mediocre cookie at best. Shit happens.
We all binge on junk food from time to time and generally regret it afterward. And that’s ok; don’t dwell on it.
Let’s speak candidly for a moment: You don’t live on an organic farm, and your diet won’t be perfect. It would be super cool if you did live on an organic farm—I once spent a month WWOOFing, and it was the healthiest my diet ever has been or likely ever will be. I love the ideas behind the paleo diet or Whole30, but they’re hard to practice.
How do you expect to get veggies at the airport? Sometimes you eat at McDonald’s and get on with your life.
Don’t get me wrong—I greatly respect people who can always keep a strict, clean diet. I wish I could do it every day, but when the healthiest acceptable snack you can find is an $8 juice smoothie that keeps you satisfied for the duration of this sentence, eating non-processed foods becomes a bit more of a challenge.
Falling off your diet can mean many different things to different people. Everyone has a standard they hold to and their individual relationship with food. So what causes us to fall off our proverbial wagon?
WHAT CAUSES BINGE EATING?
To stop binge eating, the first thing you need to do is determine the cause. So here are a few of the most common causes:
Inadequate Sleep
Sleeping regulates your hormones, and you’ll feel hungry if you don’t sleep enough. In addition to feeling hungry, you may not feel full when eating. If you often binge eat, your sleep is the number one thing to get in order.
If you have trouble sleeping, here is an article about how to shut off your brain and fall asleep faster.
Stress
Stress is another thing that causes hormone imbalances. Stress is a vicious cycle because you can stress about binge eating, which can cause you to binge eat more. To combat stress, endurance exercise is just about the only thing you can do short of removing the stressors from your life. Aim for a minimum of thirty minutes of endurance exercise a day or longer if you have time. Steady-state cardio can help relieve stress and depression, which is our next point.
Depression
Look, I cannot fix your stress or depression with a 1500-word article. Steady-state cardiovascular exercise can help with both but will not cure clinical depression alone. Seek professional help on this issue. While none of the suggestions in this article alone can fix depression, they can certainly help.
Dehydration
The feeling of thirst is often confused with the feeling of hunger. When we are dehydrated, we tend to overeat. Staying hydrated helps you feel satiated throughout the day. If you are looking for tips on how much water you should drink, here is an article dedicated to all things water.
Alcohol or Marijuana Usage
Alcohol lowers your inhibitions, and marijuana gives you the munchies. Both substances promote binge eating. If you want to stop binge eating, consume less of these drugs. Or when you do consume either drug go in knowing that you will fall off your eating regimen. People have fewer regrets when they plan their cheat days.
But this article is about the unintentional binge. It is about the one you regret and wish you could take back.
WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU BINGE?
Step 1: Acknowledge it and move on
You cannot change the past, so there is no reason to dwell on it. Instead, acknowledge that you did overindulge and move on with your day. I’m positive there are more important things in your life to focus on than the last meal you ate.
What you can think about for a maximum of 30 seconds is what caused you to binge. Are you stressed at work? Did you miss a good night’s sleep?
If you aren’t stressed, tired, or under the influence of alcohol or marijuana, then you may just have an off night. That’s ok. There are things you can control and things you can’t. So move forward with good intentions.
Step 2: Eat healthier or intermittent fast
Us humans have relatively short-term memories when it comes to what we eat. I’m positive you can’t tell me what you ate on this day last week, regardless of whether it was healthy or junk.
What you can control is your next meal. When I binge eat, usually late at night, I’ll intermittent fast the next day. And I know some people will say this isn’t a healthy habit; those people are soft. Not eating for 12-16 hours is not a big deal. I have some strong and healthy friends that eat one meal a day.
Intermittent fasting is a tool in everyone’s arsenal to help reset your system, increase your energy levels, and lose weight. However, it isn’t for everyone. Not everyone wants to fast or can handle their daily lives while fasting.
Regardless of when you eat your next meal post-binge, make it something healthy—a salad, veggies, fruit, or whatever healthy food you enjoy. Use short-term memory to your advantage; after a few healthy meals, you’ll forget about your binge.
How can you prevent bing eating in the future?
The first step to improving your eating habits is acknowledging that this will happen again. You will binge eat at some point in the future. It is inevitable. You cannot stop the tide from changing, and you cannot prevent overindulgence in perpetuity.
That is why I urge you not to become overly anal about eating clean. Don’t attempt to be perfect. Plan to eat well 90% of the time, and if you eat 10% garbage, so be it. Control what you can control:
Do 30 minutes of steady-state cardiovascular exercise a day
Don’t eat while watching TV or doing anything distracting
Don’t drink alcohol or smoke weed
These five things are well within your control; focus on accomplishing them and eating healthy whenever possible. I know that list isn’t necessarily easy, and changing your habits is difficult, but all you have to do is a little better than the week before.
You don’t have to change overnight. You just need to make minor improvements consistently.
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How To Shut Off Your Brain And Fall Asleep