Binge Eating: How To Forgive Yourself

Forgiving Yourself For Binge Eating

“She looked back at her old life one last time, took a deep breath, and whispered, “I’ll never see you again.”

I remember the exact moment I told myself this. Other than giving birth to my daughters, this moment was the most powerful moment of my life. I knew when I made this vow to myself, with tears streaming down both cheeks and snot hanging out of my nose, that I meant it. As I stared in the mirror, after hitting rock bottom with my binge eating disorder, I felt a shift inside of me.

I knew I could no longer live a life of debilitating food addiction and I had to stop the continuous weight gain. I was quickly approaching 300 pounds, my entire body hurt when I moved and even when I tried to sleep, and I had a deep sadness inside of me that caused me great despair. I could not go on for even one more day in the out-of-control downward spiral I was in. I had been free-falling for over 10 years and finally hit rock bottom.

This moment was the most horrific and yet the most liberating moment of my life. I finally recognized the self-abuse and self-hate I had practiced for so long and for the first time I actually saw it for what it was... no delusions, no justifying, no blinders on. I saw the raw truth. I saw what I did to myself. Letting myself finally see the truth, and more importantly accepting it, allowed me to be empowered by the awareness in that moment of clarity. I soon after was able to take control of my life, because I stopped pretending and stopped fooling myself. I was finally ready to face the pain that I’d been stuffing down with food for years.

I share this moment in hopes that if you, too, find yourself in a world where you feel out of control and hopeless and at a loss with where to start, that you hear this...

You can stop your downward spiral by allowing yourself to see your behaviors as they truly are and FORGIVE yourself for them.

We adopt coping mechanisms in order to survive our pain. For me, I dealt with my life by eating copious amounts of food. I could find no other way to cope during those years. For those who don’t have an eating disorder, I know it sounds absolutely insane that I couldn’t find another way because there were hundreds of other ways to cope with loss and pain. But in my messed up head, there wasn’t and I didn’t have the strength nor the will to look for any other solution.

We develop addictions and disorders because somewhere along the way we chose to escape our emotional pain rather than face it and process it. That need for escapism leads to unhealthy thoughts which then lead to destructive behaviors. It happens easier than you’d think and it happens without you realizing it, until you’re in deep. It’s scary how quickly we can start down a dangerous path. We overlook and ignore the damage it causes so that we can continue to reap the reward (the escape and relief). But the reward is an illusion, an illusion that we’re dealing with our feelings when what we’re actually doing is avoiding them. This is how the connection between addiction and coping is made. We discover something that gives us immediate relief and then we begin to rely on that relief. It happens to the best of us.

The very first thing you must do to overcome your food addiction and bingeing is forgive yourself.

Forgive yourself for making shitty decisions to try to deal with shitty situations and feelings.

Forgive yourself for digging yourself into a hole.

Forgive yourself for making mistakes.

We do the best we can with what we have in the moment we’re in. Sometimes our best is not that great. Sometimes our best is downright crappy. But we don’t have to stay down. We can pick ourselves up and rise up to a new level. It’s in that new level where our best is better than it was before.

And there in lies the beauty of the journey. We start at the bottom and each next level let’s us climb a rung in our life ladder. With each rung we step up to, our best improves… and so does our life. Throughout our lives, we move up and down our ladder. Sometimes we get knocked down a few rungs. And sometimes we soar right past a few easily. Life happens…

We will never know what to expect with life and what it’ll throw our way, but we CAN come to a place where we know what to expect from ourselves and how we will deal with new challenges. Want to start over? Want your life to change? Start here…

Forgive yourself for the past and believe in yourself for the future.

It is impossible to begin taking the proper steps that are needed to improve your life unless you forgive yourself. You need to know and believe that you fell into this addiction as a result of circumstance and emotional roadblocks. You now are ready and capable of creating new circumstances. You are also now ready to face your emotional pain and process it in a healthy way this time. You are ready to heal. How do I know that? You wouldn’t be reading this far into this article if you weren’t. You’re looking for solutions and you’re ready to put energy into them.

If you are bingeing and you feel alone and out of control, know this… It has nothing to do with food. This has nothing to do with physical hunger. This is soul hunger. Bingeing is a coping mechanism created to numb feelings and dull the pain. The deepest part of you desperately wants you to listen to what it has been trying to tell you. It desperately wants you to face the pain so that you can heal and move onto the vibrant and joyful life you deserve.

In order to lose weight, yes, of course you need to eat at a caloric deficit and move your body. We all know this. But if you don’t take care of what is causing your deep soulful hunger and you don’t stop trying to feed it with the wrong thing (copious amounts of food), you will never be able to commit to the healthy eating and exercise. The deep inner work has to come before the outer work.

Anything that we have not properly dealt with will manifest itself into subconscious blocks, addictions, and/or depression and anxiety.

If you have truly looked inside yourself and just can't find concrete answers to why you haven't been able to lose the weight, even after multiple attempts, then you're battling a subconscious weight loss block. If you're prone to self-sabotage and find yourself ruining every diet you start or gaining all the weight back that you lost, then you're battling a subconscious weight loss block. Almost every single person who has tried over and over to lose weight for 10 years or more has a weight loss block.

If this sounds like you, I can help. My specialty is removing weight loss blocks. I have spent the last 10 years perfecting this block removal process with me being my very first client 10 years ago. My extensive background in psychology as well as being a licensed mental health therapist for over 20 years helped me do this. You can have freedom from food addiction, bingeing, obesity, and body/weight issues/obsessions. I have been helping women free themselves from these chains for 10 years.

You can learn more about how we would work 1:1 to remove your block here: 3 Month Weight Loss Mindset Program

PLEASE NOTE: This program is only for individuals who have either tried for many, many years to lose weight and have not been able to find success OR for people who suffer from bingeing. This program is not designed for newly overweight individuals or individuals with unrealistic weight loss goal deadlines. This program does not involve actively trying to lose weight. This program works on shifting mindset and adopting a healthy relationship with not only food, but yourself. This program is designed for LIFELONG results and requires you to commit to a lot of inner work and be willing to dig deep. In this program, I will work with you and we will identify, find the root cause of, and completely and permanently remove your weight loss block(s). If you have a food addiction and are actively bingeing, I will work with you on how to stop the bingeing and take control. Your compulsion to binge is directly related to and stemming from your block(s).

And of course, as with everything, results vary depending on the individual and the amount of work put in.

*The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content in this article is for general information purposes only. I am not a doctor, nor am I a dietitian. Talk to your physician before making any changes in your diet or exercise regimen. The information found in this article is from various sources which include, but are not limited to, the sites listed above. I encourage you to do your own research and talk with your physician before making any changes in diet or exercise. What has worked for me may not work for you. This information in this article or on this website should never replace or serve as medical advice.

NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING MEDICAL TREATMENT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON OR HAVE ACCESSED THROUGH THIS WEB SITE.