Do you give yourself a hard time?

Posted 23rd October 2019

Comfort eating and self criticism

Watch my video to see the link between self criticism and binge eating, and how you can start to overcome it:

In my work with binge eating, what I see most, is people who are really hard on themselves.
This is one of the main reasons that people over eat.

So, today I’m going to talk about how to stop giving yourself such a hard time, without asking you to stop bingeing.

In my last video I asked you to think about when it is that you overeat.
It also really helps to ask yourself exactly what you were thinking, just before you decided to abandon any good intentions and devour the whole packet of biscuits.

What are the exact words you had in your head, just before you gave up?
Were you putting yourself down in some way?
Were you being really nasty to yourself?
Do you have phrases that put you down that you repeat over and over again to yourself?
Things that you would never say to someone else, never mind someone you love.

What is often missing in the mind of an emotional eater is a kind of a self concerned voice.
We need to start asking ourselves what we’re really saying to ourselves.
Calling yourself a ‘stupid cow’, ‘silly bitch’ or an ‘idiot’ is never going to make you want to stop comfort eating. So, just learning to notice this consistent, and sometimes really nasty, self talk is a really good step to starting to treat yourself better.

That’s your first job. Just to notice. Honestly, I’m willing to bet that it’s a lot more than you realise.

Then, what you need to do next, is to start to create a self nurturing voice.
How could you replace that bitchy comment with something kinder?
What about trying to understand the reasons you feel or act the way you do?

Emotional eating comes from somewhere, and it usually deserves human compassion.