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.

www.tlceatingdisordersupport.com welcome@tlceatingdisordersupport.com or WhatsApp +44 7981 577521