Give yourself permission to eat when and what you want.  There is nothing like saying you “can’t have this” to make you want to have more of it!  If you are binge eating you feel shame and guilt on top of all the calories you are consuming which is causing you to binge even more.  When you get to the root cause of why you are compulsively over eating you can then work on a healthy eating plan.

Develop positive coping skills to use for managing stress. Stress is a huge concern for binge eaters because negative or bad stress leads to unhappy feelings and emotions which leads to wanting to soothe those feelings which lead to binging.  That is a typical binge cycle.  Practice assertiveness training if you are having trouble dealing with stressful situations.

Acknowledge your feelings and emotions. People who binge eat sooth their feelings with food because they don’t know any other way to deal with their painful emotions that they do not want to face.  By dealing with your feelings you can face them head on instead of burying them in the sand.  What is it that you are running away from?  What is causing you pain?  Binge eating has nothing to do with being out-of-control but everything to do with not facing your true feelings.

Use the power of your brain to bring about changes.  It’s called the Law of Attraction.  When you focus on what you want instead of focusing on what you don’t want you will get more of what you want.  In other words if I said, “I want to be happy, healthy and confident” versus “I don’t want to binge anymore or feel bad”, what is my brain actually hearing?  In the first sentence it hears happy, healthy and confident and in the second sentence all it hears are negatives.  Your brain does not hear the word “don’t” so change the way you talk and you change the way you think.

Grab a journal and start keeping track of exactly when, where, and why you are binge eating.  See if you can determine what feelings you were having so you can deal with those feelings. Were you stressed out?  Did the boss tell you he wanted to see you?  Did you not make a deadline?  Did you get in a fight with your boyfriend?  What are you having trouble dealing with?  All these things can help you better understand what triggers your binge cycles so you can become more aware of them.