Why can’t I stop eating? 3 Things to do to stop compulsive eating.

Once you start eating do you find that you cannot stop? Believe it or not your compulsive eating is not about the food?

Now there is also a caveat I will put in here that if you are bingeing on white food such as breads, sugar, crisps and chocolate there will be a part of that food that will be addictive. Because they are releasing sugar into your system and that is giving us this high and like any addiction we will naturally crave that high again causing us to want more.

However, to not be able to stop eating is a powerful force behind it and it can feel that we have totally lost control. Read here for how to get back on track after a binge.

Weirdly enough it might feel like the more you try to stop yourself, the more you put controls on yourself and the more you feel you get out of control. Eventually it becomes a bigger problem. Do you think those who can control themselves on some level are better then you, they have better control and better willpower? I’m telling you now, it is a fallacy that others have more self control.

Imagine a pin ball machine and when you bounce the ball one side it goes with force to the other side and it naturally pings from side to side because you are bouncing it that way. If the ball didn’t go to each side with such force it would go down the middle and that’s where we want to get to, we want to glide up the middle.

Tips to stop compulsive eating

Stop restricting yourself.

Stop; Putting rules on yourself, telling yourself what you can’t eat, cutting out the good and bad foods. It is all just food. When you start restricting yourself, then you break the rules, you feel bad with yourself because you can’t stick to the rules you have created. You end up putting more rules on yourself and then the harder it is to stick to those rules. It is these very restrictions that are causing you to binge eat.

These rules are self imposed. It’s like you are punishing yourself. That is the question to ask, what are you punishing yourself for?  What would happen if you were to allow yourself anything that you wanted? What if there were no rules?

Let yourself go.

This is going to be against what everyone else is telling you. But my advice for the short term is to go for it, go for the binge out. Eat what you want. The reason I am telling you this is because we spend so much of our energy trying to stop ourselves binge that it can actually make us want to binge more. By allowing ourselves to binge we are taking the rules away from us. We are letting our bodies get what it needs. Maybe our bodies need some fat, they need energy. Go on the premise that your body is binging because it needs something nutritionally. There is a worry that our compulsive eating will get worse, but when we are becoming more mindful trust that that will not be the case.

What is causing you to binge

To stop this going backwards and forwards, you have also got to work out why you are binging. This is requiring you to go inwards and do some soul searching.

Here are some questions for you to ask yourself;

What are you chasing when you are binging? What feeling? Some of my clients have answered, fulfillment, fun, being happy and content.

Now how do you feel when you are restricting yourself? Some people feel in control, like they are being good.

How does this replicate your childhood?

Or when did you start eating this way? What was happening for you when you started eating this way?

Sometimes this way of eating is because you want to suppress some feelings or you want to cover yourself up.

If your focus is on your eating, what does that mean that you are not focussed on? Normally it is feelings. When you can work that out then it is great start to managing those feelings so you stop turning to food to cover them up.

Here is some more information on Binge eating and Compulsive Eating for you.