Binge Eating is Not Black and White

It’s the little things that you will need to notice and congratulate yourself on when beginning the recovery process from a binge eating disorder. These little things will be the stepping stones to gaining full control over yourself when food is involved. These tiny stepping stones will prove ...It’s the little things that you will need to notice and congratulate yourself on when beginning the recovery process from a binge eating disorder.

These little things will be the stepping stones to gaining full control over yourself when food is involved. These tiny stepping stones will prove to you that you are in control, at least somewhat control, of your actions. It’s time for you to rejoice in them, instead of beating yourself up about why you aren’t fully recovered yet.

Are you someone that binges twice a day for about five days out of the week? What are your trigger foods that you binge on? Let’s say that an example day of binging for you includes three bags of chips, one whole cake, one gallon of ice cream, ten cookies, and three sugary, carbonated drinks. When you start to take notice of you eating less, you need to pat yourself on the back. Instead of three bags of chips, do you only consume one? If so, this is a building block for your road to success. Instead of ten cookies, do you only eat two? Again, time to congratulate yourself for this accomplishment.

The reason why this is so important for your recovery is because most people see their life as black or white. Their life is either good or bad, right or wrong, sad or happy. Who puts these stipulations on us? Why such extremes? When you rid yourself of these chains and start living your life in most of the gray area, you will take things as they come and not be so hard on yourself for failing. Extremes will lead you to failure because it will be highly impossible that you will be able to live that way.

When you can learn to accept yourself, including all of your flaws, this is when you move into the gray area of life. The gray area allows for mistakes and is a constant learning experience. The gray area also allows falling, but pushes you to get right back up. The gray area is where we all need to be living; but sadly, it is not most of our realities.

We put insurmountable pressure on ourselves to be perfect. We want the perfect car, the perfect outfit, the perfect body. Society helps to fill our head with the perfect mentality. Anything short of that will not do. We are taught that perfectionism is the only way and that we should all constantly be striving for it.

Strive to get out of that mindset. You will only be setting yourself up for failure. It’s the harsh reality of it. Learn to live and prosper in the gray area. Congratulate yourself for the small things that you overcome throughout your day. It’s when you are at the point of seeing your obstacles being taken over by you that you will be creating your own path for recovery of binge eating disorder.