Navigating Social Situations: Overcoming Binge Eating Challenges
Whether you live in San Diego, London, NYC, Atlanta, or elsewhere, navigating social situations when you are in recovery from binge eating takes a delicate touch. People may not realize that even choosing a restaurant or deciding what takeout to eat as a group or cooking altogether can be fraught with anxiety. It’s important to cope ahead in order to overcome binge eating challenges when you’re with friends, family, or even in work settings.
Eating in Restaurants When You Have Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
When you struggle with binge eating, it can feel daunting to eat at restaurants. You may even feel less in control because of all of the menu options out there. That’s why I tell my clients that the goal of binge eating recovery, whether you live in Florida, California, Colorado, or anywhere in the world, is to be able to go to a restaurant, open the menu, and choose whatever you want without thinking too much about it. That may feel far away from where you are in your recovery journey, so let’s see what taking the next steps will look like.
Navigating Restaurant Settings
Restaurant settings widely vary. From London, England, to San Diego, California, figuring out how to navigate restaurant settings can feel overwhelming. From the overflowing bread basket to the unlimited tortilla chips, it can make you feel shaky.
Put Food on Your Plate
Whenever you are eating “family style” with all of the main dishes in front of you, or there are available appetizers on which you are nibbling, make sure that you put the food on the plate before consuming it. This action helps tell your brain, “I am eating now,” which assists with feelings of satiety.
Focus on Conversing Instead of Consuming
While you’re in recovery from binge eating in San Diego, California, or anywhere else, it’s easy to hyper-focus on the food instead of being fully present at the moment. I remember when I was in the thick of my eating disorder. I would go on a date with my partner at my favorite Indian restaurant, and instead of being fully present with him and engaging in our conversation, I was mentally calculating calories and feeling very anxious about what I was eating.
Sound familiar? It’s a sobering realization. What helps to counter that is to take deep breaths and focus on the people with whom you’re eating. Practicing gratitude also helps, as it turns our brains away from the food and toward our loved ones. For example, feeling grateful that I was eating with a loving, attentive, and interesting partner actually calmed down my nervous system and got me out of the food-obsessed cycle in my mind.
Use Meal Delivery Services
There are pros and cons to using meal delivery services. The pros are that it’s a no-brainer. It’s fast, easy, and if you have go-to meals at your favorite restaurants, you don’t have to worry about it. The cons are that it can trigger or perpetuate binge eating.
The two tips I have for using meal delivery services when grappling with BED are (1) putting your food on a plate instead of eating out of the container, and (2) eating with loved ones. The first tip helps remind your brain that it’s eating time, and the second tip counters the isolation that is so prevalent during binge eating episodes.
Cooking While Struggling With BED
Some of you may love to cook. Some of you may hate it. Many likely fall in between the two extremes. For those struggling with binge eating disorder, cooking can be very stressful. The pressure to make the “right” choice that will prevent you from binge eating can feel overwhelming.
The key is to avoid overly focusing on that one meal. Instead of thinking that this particular meal will make or break your binge eating recovery, recognize that you’ll likely be eating again in 3 hours, so whatever you do or don’t have for the meal in front of you, you can have it again or have it anew during the next eating time.
Make Cooking as Easy as Possible
When you’ve dieted in the past, you’ve likely made extremely complicated meals that tasted, uh, not great. Been there, done that. One thing I’d like you to focus on is ease. It’s important during binge eating recovery to make cooking as easy as possible so that it doesn’t stress you out.
One of the best recommendations an eating disorder dietitian gave me was to get a frozen or fresh pre-prepped meal that I could make in the microwave, and then pair it with frozen or fresh veggies. It was a game-changer.
I especially liked the frozen meals because they don’t go bad, and they are frozen at the peak of freshness so they are particularly satiating. Trader Joe’s in the U.S. and Tesco in the U.K. are especially helpful in providing these types of meals.
Have Guests Over When You Have BED
Isolation perpetuates binge eating disorders. I don’t care whether it’s raining in London, UK, or it’s snowing in Colorado, or it’s blazing hot in California, it’s important to reach out for meal support.
The goal is not to avoid binge eating. The goal is to connect with others to combat isolation. When you combat isolation, you combat shame. Shame propels the binge eating cycle, so if you can get shame to dissipate, you make a huge leap forward in your recovery.
Ready to Start Working With a Binge Eating Coach for Binge Eating Recovery in London, Florida, NYC, Atlanta, Chicago, Colorado, and Anywhere in the World?
Are you ready to navigate social situations with confidence in your binge eating recovery? Begin seeking support in binge eating recovery where you will learn strategies to navigate social settings, build resilience, and develop a healthier relationship with food. Embrace the transformative power of binge-eating recovery by working with a skilled binge-eating coach as you gain the tools to overcome triggers, cultivate self-compassion, and thrive in social situations. Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Sign up for the INEVITABLE BINGE EATING RECOVERY PROGRAM*
Start the self-paced binge-eating program with the support of a binge-eating coach
Begin navigating the challenges that come with binge eating recovery!
Binge Eating Recovery in London, England, UK Can Be Supported in My Programs
💙 Take the first step toward binge eating recovery in DR. MARIANNE-LAND’S BINGE EATING RECOVERY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM*, which combines a comprehensive online binge eating class with a private, hidden Facebook group where you can get support. It’s an online course for high performers who aim to transform their relationships with food.
💙 Sign up for the ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD**. It’s a 3-month, 1:1 online binge-eating coaching + an online class for professionals, students, athletes, and all-around high achievers who just want to gain balance and control of food.
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Disclaimers for Body Image, Binge Eating, and My Virtual Online Binge Eating Program
*DR. MARIANNE-LAND’S BINGE EATING RECOVERY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM is online binge-eating education and private virtual group support via a Facebook Group. The aim of this course is to help people reduce and eliminate any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. DR. MARIANNE-LAND’S BINGE EATING RECOVERY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment program and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.
**The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is virtual binge eating education and LIVE virtual coaching support. The goal of this program is to help people stop any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment program and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.