Avoiding Binge Eating

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The key to finding a balanced and healthy weight loss plan is properly managing what you eat. That means carefully monitoring the nutritional values of the foods that you’re putting into your body and making sure that you don’t slip up and go overboard by eating way more than you should. A few slips here and there won’t break up all the hard work you’ve put into your diet, but an absolute diet killer is binge eating. One of the biggest problems with binge eating is that, often, you won’t even realize that you’re doing it. If you worry you’re at risk for binge eating or just want to stay extra vigilant against it, here are a few tips.

• First things first, don’t give yourself access to binge foods. For a lot of people this is mindless eating. You know those foods that you can eat a ton of without really noticing it. The big offenders here are chips, crackers, candies… just about anything that comes in “bag” size. If you’re really serious about staying away from binge eating and keeping with your diet then just don’t allow yourself access to these kinds of foods or keep them in your home. You can’t eat what you don’t have, right’
• If you don’t live in a space where you can control your access to binge foods (roommates, etc.) then you should shift your focus towards good portioning habits. Portioning is one of the key points of good diet management and this goes double for snacks. If you want to have a snack that you know can be unhealthy if it gets out of control, just portion it into single serving baggies based on the nutrition facts on the package. Just make sure not to go overboard and have more than one “snack serving” at a time.
• The greatest protection against binge eating is remaining vigilant against it. Like I said before, bingeing is also referred to as mindless snacking which can’t happen if you’re paying close attention to the foods you’re buying and eating. You can’t accidentally eat a whole bag of chips or box of donuts if you’re making sure to monitor and track all the things you’re eating. Your own level of focus is the best guard you have against the dangers of binge eating.

At the end of the day, more important than any of these tips is persistence in your drive to reach your weight loss goals. Even if you find yourself slipping or notice that you’ve binged on snacks that doesn’t mean your diet is over and you should give up. All it means is you made a small slip-up and you have to be more careful next time, something you’ll be sure to do after you’ve recognized what lead to your binge eating in the first place.