Notice I said diet, not diets.
That’s because I’m not talking about a temporary change to what I eat, where I turn everything upside down for a relatively short period before going back to my old patterns.
That way madness lies. Its not a solution, it’s a cycle. Going round and round without end. Sisyphus anyone?
No. I need to permanently change my relationship with and habits around food.
Which is not to say it will be easy.
I’ve been trying to get this sorted for over a decade. I’ve tried low fat, low sugar, low carb, intermittent fasting, counting calories, counting points, plate clocks and probably some other things I’ve forgotten along the way. For each one, I’ve gone in knowing it wouldn’t be a quick-fix, short term solution. And, each one has worked… for a while. But, for each one, I have inevitably, for want of a better term, fallen off the wagon.
I think it’s obvious, I need to do something different. Or, at least try.
But, what am I fighting against. Well, I eat when I’m bored, when I start eating I find it very hard to stop, the lower my mood the more likely I am to choose sugary food and when I eat refined carbs (like sugar) I find it harder still to stop.
On the flip side, when I’m not eating (or bored) I find it really easy to fast and I don’t actually eat when I’m hungry. Or, rather, I usually eat in out of habit or a sense of duty, before I actually get hungy.
Hmm. Cue the research montage with uplifting music….
See, I know how to eat healthily and even like eating fruits and vegetables and cooking my own food. So, in an ideal world, I would just eat what I want, in reasonable moderation, when I was hungry, happy to stop when I was done. Simple. But, I was pretty much doing the opposite of that. I was worried I’d somehow managed to break my body’s hunger regulation mechanism. But, actually, it seems like it’s working perfectly – the fatter you are the more ‘fullness hormone’ the body produces – so it makes sense that I am infrequently hungry, especially if I’m still overeating. And, when I do occasionally eat at the point of hunger, my sensation of hunger does go away normally. Lastly, when I get locked into my pattern of overeating eating, it’s not because I don’t feel full, I feel compelled to eat regardless of how full I am.
It turns out my behaviour matches the diagnostic criteria for Binge Eating Disorder, or BED for short (#NotADoctor). It sounds like my instance is relatively mild comparatively speaking, but still, it’s a different tack to try.
My earlier research montage recommended a book called Brain Over Binge by Kathryn Hansen and, seeing as I had spare Audible credits (#NotSponsered) I used one to download the audio and started working my way through.
I’m not finished yet, I will probably try to do a review when I am. For now, my plan is to use what I’m learning to combat my urges and create a new habit of eating when hungry and stoping when full.
So, far it’s going pretty well – although it’s only early days (nearly a week) and I only took my first measurements yesterday. But, it’s mostly working and I’m definitely not eating as much. Ultimately, it’s time that will tell – I managed each of the methods listed above and stuck to them for a week. I’ll keep you posted.
Around Fifteen Percent 