5 Things I Did (& Still Do) To Stop Overeating
Back when I was recovering from my eating disorder, I leaned on MORE food to get me through my obsession with RESTRICTING food…and needless to say, it was not a healthy coping mechanism. All of the years of diligent “portion control” and being oh-so selective with what I could vs. couldn’t eat simply led me to a daily free-for-all of consistently overeating. I was no longer “binging” necessarily, but I would often eat when I wasn’t TRULY gut hungry for food, and my meals would leave me feeling bogged down and with a pinch of guilt - knowing deep down that I had a few bites too many…and it was adding up as excess weight in all the wrong places.
But I knew too much about the mental angst that “dieting” would send me back into…so that didn’t feel like an option. Regardless: I needed a solution to feeling like baseline crap all of the time…and my secret desire to be thin was still there (I was just pretending like I was “healed” from it!).
Here’s the deal: rules of eating almost ALWAYS lead to OVEReating…and while I had let go of my “rules” (cue: goodbye orthorexia!), I needed some new, more flexible BOUNDARIES. I will explain each in detail below…
1. Turn pleasure into pain (& pain into pleasure).
Do you feel like eating MORE = pleasure, and eating LESS = pain? I sure as heck did! The idea of “portion control” was downright depressing. I had spent too many sacred years of my life worrying about eating too much…that the concept of limiting myself to less food felt terrifying and would only spiral me back into old ways.
Until I had a mindset shift. It was actually from reading one of Tony Robbins’ books, where he talked about the fact that, as humans, we are constantly in a state of moving towards pleasure and away from pain.
Okay…so?
Essentially, I had to realize that eating MORE was actually causing me PAIN (hello bloating!) and eating LESS actually felt ah-freaking-mazing!
I began looking forward to my “stop” of eating - I got EXCITED to end my last bite of food so that I could move forward into enjoying my body. I would remind myself that if I stop now, I could enjoy lightness & energy in my body all afternoon/evening, and avoid a feeling of weighted heaviness that brought me down.
Choosing to stop as soon as I felt balanced also felt like I was DOING something…I love DOING! It felt like momentum forward - versus the concept of ‘eating less’, which felt less tangible.
2. Make eating a “thing” - a sacred ritual.
I had always done this when I was in the depths of my eating disorder…and the idea behind it is not all bad! I am always one for taking the essence of what works and leaving what doesn’t - so I needed to get HONEST with why I was skinny before…I was ENJOYING my food as a separate break in my day.
I got back to that.
I scheduled time in my calendar (even if it was just “flowy” white-space) to actually take a break and eat. *That includes prep + clean-up time.
No more eating at my desk. Now my eating is calm, intentional, and never rushed! Zero multitasking. Just present eating so that I can (literally!) savour each and every bite.
Funnily enough, this was intuitive to me when I was “so good” at “restricting” because I only allowed myself certain times to eat and in certain amounts – I absolutely had to make the most of it!
Now, without the head-chatter & fear-based energy, I value this sacred time from a more self-love focused perspective.
3. Only eat when truly hungry (so I could catch my satiety cues).
Ever feel like your ‘fullness cues’ need a tune up? Yeah, I did too.
Until I got brutally honest…
It was hard for me to recognize when I got “full” because I wasn’t really hungry to begin with. How can you tell when you hunger ‘turns off’ if it wasn’t really ‘on’ in the first place?
I made sure all of my eating occasions started from a place of true gut-hunger, and diligently waited to begin my meal until that was the case. It’s simple, and it works.
4. Plate food intentionally.
This one might sound a bit 90s diet culture vibes…but babe: plate your flipping food and thank me later!
I consistently ate MORE when I had lack of clarity (and visual cues) of HOW MUCH I was actually consuming. Greeks are very into having big bowls of various dishes on the table, and each person continually serves themselves multiple scoops throughout the dining experience. Well, that wasn’t conducive to my success. I’m NOT saying going for seconds is “bad” or at all “off limits”, but I am saying: FINISH what you’ve plated yourself first. Check in. Feel in. IF then you STILL want more, decide and own it…but be conscious that you’re having additional portions AKA there should still be room in your stomach for it…is there? Only you know. But be honest with yourself.
When eating on my own, I applied this knowledge by re-thinking my usual ‘autopilot’ portions. Sometimes we eat certain things & their corresponding amounts simply due to habit. …We just always ate 2 slices of pizza, so why even bother thinking about it now?
Well, time to reassess! Not from the frantic, deprivation-based energy of ‘OMG I NEED TO EAT LESS I’M GETTING FAT’, but instead from the loving, parent-like energy of ‘Would a little less actually feel better for me?’.
5. Find something else to do when it’s over!
Let’s be real, sometimes the end of the meal is sad. Oh no…it’s over! If food is the only pleasurable break in your life, it can be a bit depressing when it ends…BUT we have to be responsible to ourselves! More food when we are already at balance only TAKES AWAY (& does not add to) the pleasure in our bodies (and life).
I often advise my private 1:1 clients to find appropriate ‘stepping stones’ to get back into the movement of their life. Could you choose something easy, fun, and highly accessible that you could move straight into immediately after eating? Ideally a short activity that helps you shift out of your eating and ‘softens the blow’ (so to speak) of the fact that, well, the food that tastes oh-so-good has now come to a comfortable close.
*Bonus tip: remind yourself that you have your whole life to eat, and in fact, you can have this very thing (that you’re eating/just finished eating) again the next time you’re hungry!