The Psychology Behind the Binge: Solutions for Slimness
Are You Captive In A Body You Dislike?
The purpose of this report is to correct some of the irrational ideas that cause and perpetuate binge eating, or, eating despite the fact that YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO. These crimes of the palate come from a struggle that goes on inside your head. Your head generates a message that says something along the lines of: “…eat, and you will feel better…go ahead…just one little bite won’t matter…” So, if you are overeating to feel better, then what is it that is making you feel so badly to begin with? Besides difficulties in everyday living, being captive in a body you dislike (or simply not in control of any behavior) can definitely be upsetting. Overeaters are powerfully conditioned to the “quick fix” of another food binge because the results are so swift and gratifying.
However, it is fair to say that overeaters live on a roller coaster of pain and pleasure. Pleasure becomes progressively more associated with food, even though food is also the cause of the underlying pain. The remorse and frustration due to the overeating leads, then, to more eating. This contributes to the seemingly innocent snack talk that goes on in your head: “I’ve had a hard day, those cookies will do the trick, just one or two… or…oh the heck with it, donuts today diet tomorrow, I’ll just really start tomorrow.” Do you ever say something like this to yourself? Eating yummy, scrumptious foods can initially give you such a rush you can turn into a zombie in search of a fix.
Everything Flows From Your Thoughts
Let’s look at the thinking or psychology behind this problem. Did you know that you produce about 50,000 thoughts per day, which are channeled into a running dialogue in your head? This dialogue is so ingrained and habitual you often do not even notice it. If two-thirds of your thoughts throughout the day are about food—what to eat for lunch, what you want to eat but shouldn’t, when you should eat, if you should have that snack and have a smaller dinner, etc etc, you will probably wind up eating a lot during the day.
Why? Because your thoughts spill over onto your behaviors. If you are doing the to-eat-or-not-to-eat dilemma, or even if you are on a diet and paying close attention to your eating, you are still thinking about food, food, food. This usually leads to eating, eating, eating. You know the saying…hang around a barbershop long enough and you will get a haircut: well, when you think about eating…GOOD OR BAD…you usually wind up eating. That’s right, even when thinking about good foods to eat on diets, you can easily fall into the trap of overeating and binging. Overeating good foods can still lead to weight gain, high cholesterol and other health problems.
Everything flows from your thoughts—choices about whether or not to be healthy and optimistic or self-defeating and gloomy. Small choices can make such a big difference in your life.
It only takes a small choice to listen to the positive voice in your head—the voice that goes something like this, “Yes, I will stick to my commitment to have healthy, long-term eating habits. Yes, I will let that voice be my guide. Yes, yes, yes.” Notice I said, “long-term commitment to healthy eating habits” not “lose weight.” Why have a goal be negative? Losing weight in the short term is not going to solve any problems if a lifetime commitment to healthy habits is not the primary goal.
While it is nearly impossible to know the reasons why you need to eat a particular food at a particular time, it’s very important to be in touch with that desire. You must listen to the illusory voice of desire that says, “My urge to eat is something that must be filled.” Most dieters have not learned to do this.
In order to learn to do this, I would like to give you some information that originates in the field of addictions, so you truly know what is going on and how to amend this self-defeating process. I’ve become an expert in the addictions field over the last 10 years, teaching at the University of Maryland, as well as completing my doctorate on the topic.