The 3rd Thing to Give Up if You’re Ready to Stop Binge Eating (3 of 11)…

The 3rd thing to give up if you’re ready to stop binge and emotional eating is weighing yourself constantly or “body checking.”

Let’s start with weighing yourself. That’s right, it’s time to surrender your beloved scale. I know you feel that your scale is a form of measurement that is absolutely necessary to make sure you are staying within your desired range, but stop and think for a second about what actually happens when you weigh yourself.

First let’s think about what happens when you see the number you want. Your anxiety might be eased in the moment, but this only sets up an attachment to that particular weight. I expand on this further in my course on mindfulness and binge eating, but for now, know that when we try to hold onto something too tightly – a particlar weight or size – we suffer, because nothing lasts forever and our bodies change and fluctuate ALL the time in a very natural way.

And what happens when we don’t see the number we want? Most likely a couple of things. It sends us into an emotional spiral and/or it leads us to believe we must become restrictive about what we eat. If this restriction method sounds like you, be sure to read posts #1 and #2 in this series to remind yourself that restriction is a slippery slope laced with recurring episodes of binge eating. If the emotional meltdown sounds familiar, it is most definitely time to break up with your scale. That number is just a number. It does not define you and you are the only one that can stop it from ruining your day. The bottom line is…

This type of attachment to our weight sets us up for an emotional rollercoaster.

If you feel like you can’t stop weighing yourself, at least try to significantly decrease the frequency. Your scale has become your prison and I am setting you free. The scale is such an inadequate measure for health and is so unreliable and inconsistent that I often tell my clients to throw it out. I do not own a scale. Don’t want one. Don’t need one. My body fluctuates and that’s okay. I’m also attuned to my body so I know how my clothes usually feel. This is enough of a feedback loop for me and it can be for you too.

Now, body checking. Body checking is when we are looking in the mirror at our bellies, thighs, arms, and other parts of our bodies to see how they look, make sure they look the way we want them to, or to find things to criticize about ourselves. I could really go on a rant about this because I feel so passionate about it – sooo of course I included more ranting about this in a later article in this series (#11, to be exact) – but for now, I’m grouping it in with your bad romance with your scale and letting you know that both of these behaviors perpetuate a critical and unhealthy relationship with your body.

You might be thinking that you don’t really care about your relationship with your body, you just want to stop binge eating, but make no mistake, these two are tightly linked and your relationship with your body must be prioritized if you are ready to stop binge and emotional eating.

Once again, I know I’m asking a lot. You want to maintain control and it feels like all hell will break loose if you are not constantly checking in on your weight and size. However, you are not doing yourself any favors. Instead of keeping yourself in check you are creating and perpetuating a ton of anxiety and destructive food behaviors, both of which fuel binge eating.

You’ve already learned that you have to ditch the diet, now I’m telling you to ditch the scale too. Scary? More like liberating. You’re welcome!

All my love,

Cina