Binge Eating disorders are the most common of the eating disorders. It is not bulimia (purposely throwing up, abusing laxatives, or excessively exercising after binging), yet these two can co-occur. Binge eating is when an individual eats more than most people within a period of time. They feel a compulsion or lack of control to consume when not hungry or already satisfied. This happens at least once a week for several months. These people can be chronic dieters as well to make up for it.
The feeling of pleasurable taste and the excessive need to cope and escape is a cycle of self sabotage as there can be guilt, shame, embarrassment, low self-esteem, lack knowledge, and/or learned family patterns. The addiction to certain foods can enhance this cycle of seeking food to self-sooth to temporarily feel better.
I tend to be a fast eater who can consume more than I need. I remember in elementary school I would eat 2 family sized bags of cheese puffs in one sitting (because fake cheese is delicious), yet I do not recommend this as nutritious or heathy at all. It's actually very addicting. Eating hordes of the giant carton box of goldfish you could get at Sam's Club when I was a kid (and they stopped selling these giant carton sizes a long time ago). Eating bowls after bowls back to back of sugary cereal as well was part of my normal. Some periods of time I would eat a whole frozen pizza by myself almost everyday. It was just easy, and I could consume a lot! It was challenging for my mom to prep that much food ahead of time, plus I loved these processed foods. I didn't quite like how they hindered my body image issues, but that didn't connect in my brain as I enjoyed my bad snacks. Processed food alone can become very addicting, making you crave more of that tasty deliciousness in your mouth. It can be simply because of boredom or wanting to eat while studying. Then when you look at yourself in the mirror, it's not the version of yourself you want. At least for me at the time it didn't help. You may feel down about yourself, which may cause you to exercise and do something about it. But then you crave or overeat again.
A little reminder, when you're working out a lot, or are a younger person who can burn more overall energy and calories as well as are involved in many physical activities, you will be hungry. You may also still be growing, making you more hungry as your body wants and craves more nutrition in order to function, recover, develop, and grow. Train yourself to drink more water first. Then practice trying to go for the real, home-cooked meals or fruits and vegetables first before reaching for any boxed items to eat. If you're not willing to eat the healthier items that you have access to first, but choose to grab the cereal, sugary, or processed foods first, would you question if you are actually hungry or if you even care and love yourself? With the knowledge that we have today, why would you choose options that would hurt yourself? Even if you don't feel the effects today, you know over time there are a plethora of negatives that can slowly evolve that you alone will mainly have to live with. This can be lower self-esteem, lower energy, weight gain, visceral fat increase, loss of money overall as health is an investment as well as processed foods are actually more expensive as you end up eating more of it to feel satisfied. It leads to a habit and craving that you didn't realize you entered and have an even harder time trying to quit. You unconsciously training yourself to go towards a snack or a sugary drink whenever you are en-route and always pass that easy drive through to or from work or school. The temptation to turn into that drive through so easily can become such a habit that just started with those first one or two tries, that lead to more. The beginning of the downfall to not only your waistline, but your bank account. You may have had good intentions and ate a healthy snack or meal before you took a drive, but the little alarm of temptation makes you just drive through that well known habit of comfort. You train yourself to get up and take a little break or walk, but this wall is to the refrigerator or vending machine because you just don't know what else to do with yourself but search for something to fill that missing piece of your soul inside. What is it? Sometimes it's something deeper. Sometimes we just need to simply become more aware so then we can correct and change the old habit into a new more positive one. Perhaps we need to change the route we drive simply to avoid a trigger response for a little bit. If you care about yourself and have a healthy sense of self-esteem and care for yourself, I would think you would try. If not, what is it that makes you not care about yourself and your well-being? It can get deep!
Breaking this cycle is hard, especially in the western civilization that is surrounded with abundance and temptation. Maybe in our economy, abundance has a different meaning as everything is more expensive and we may feel squeezed. If so, take that opportunity to figure out how to make healthier food choices with your budget. You may find that the healthier options aren't as expensive as you thought. It was all of the additional processed foods and items not actually needed, but wanted that increased that number on the receipt so high. Children are vulnerable as they are limited to what is bought within the house. Role models lead the way in the home for family behavior and belief systems for so many things. Food is another one. But you can learn to make better choices and break this cycle.
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