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Regular eating - how does it help?

One of the principal components of CBT-E is regular eating. However much you eat, the aim is that you eat at regular intervals.


WHY?

  • If you don't eat for more than 4 hours, the body can go into a semi-starvation state - this might then make a binge more likely as the body will let you know it's not ok. It also impacts metabolism.

  • If you eat regularly it becomes "normal", "acceptable", "just what you do".

  • Regular eating keeps blood sugar stable, reducing the risk of being tired, irritable and having poor concentration.

  • Structured regular eating, unlike grazing, is less likely to connect to bingeing - a more unstructured way of eating.

  • Regular eating is likely to help you feel in control of your eating rather than that your eating and thoughts about food control you


HOW?

  • Plan ahead of time what you will eat at every eating event (3 meals and 3 snacks are best at first)

  • Don't worry if you repeat the same meals - you can eat more flexibly later.

  • Use the clock or set alarms or have an accountability partner to ensure you don't miss meals.

  • You may feel uncomfortable at first if you haven't been eating regularly for a long time. Your body will settle - these might be good moments to use EFT.

  • If you do miss a meal or snack, get back on track rather than criticize yourself

  • Don't leave a gap of more than 4 hours between eating.

  • If you feel hungry, increase the size of your meals or snacks rather than graze between - you want times in your day when you aren't needing to focus on food and you can allow yourself to grow the non-eating disordered parts of you.

  • Prioritize eating - if you want a richer life, something will need to change and this is a great place to start.


To your success! Tanya


Do reach out if I can be of any help. EFT can really make this process easier - and when combined with CBT-E or MANTRA it's based on solid evidence-based techniques.

 
 
 

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