Overeating With Freedom From Eating Disorders

JUST FOR TODAY:  If you overeat, know that that full feeling will pass.  It may take several hours, but you will eventually feel hungry and need to eat again.  Trust your body!

We all overeat sometimes.  But for someone with a history of eating disorders, overeating can be a major challenge.  People with binge eating disorder may continue to eat more, above and beyond the point of excess, and then try to "sleep it off."  Bulimics may feel so uncomfortable with their level of fullness that they end up purging.  Anorexics may restrict their food intake for the next few days as a means to compensate.  Every time you engage in eating disordered behaviors, you reinforce them.  Every time you can resist acting on these behaviors, you allow your body to heal.  Your gastrointestinal system gets a break.  You allow your body to regulate itself more easily.  You are one step closer to freedom.  If you overeat today, try to catch yourself before you take it to an extreme.  Then, do your best to "sit with it."  Get back to an intuitive way of eating at your next meal.  It is possible to overeat and stay free of eating disorders.  Be true to your Self!  

©2009 by "Dr. Dorie" McCubbrey, M.S.Ed., Ph.D. – Eating Disorder & Obesity Treatment Specialist – Denver, Colorado