Stop Bingeing, Start Living Quotes

“Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“KEY PRINCIPLES OF INTUITIVE EATING Tribole and Resch compiled a list of 10 key principles in their book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works. 1.Reject the diet mentality: The diet mentality is the idea that there’s a diet out there somewhere that will work for you. Intuitive eating is the anti-diet. 2.Honor your hunger: Hunger is not your enemy. Respond to your early signs of hunger by feeding your body. If you let yourself get excessively hungry, you are likely to overeat. 3.Make peace with food: Call a truce in the war with food. Get rid of ideas about what you should or shouldn’t eat. 4.Challenge the food police: Food is not good or bad, and you are not good or bad for what you eat or don’t eat. Challenge thoughts that tell you otherwise. 5.Respect your fullness: Just as your body tells you when it is hungry, it also tells you when it is full. Listen for the signals of comfortable fullness, when you feel you’ve had enough. As you’re eating, check in with yourself to see how the food is tasting and how hungry or full you are feeling. 6.Discover the satisfaction factor: Make your eating experience enjoyable. Have a meal that tastes good to you. Sit down to eat it. When you make eating a pleasurable experience, you might find it takes less food to satisfy you. 7.Honor your feelings without using food: Emotional eating is a strategy for coping with feelings. Find other ways that are not related to food to deal with your feelings: take a walk, meditate, journal, call a friend. Become aware of the times when a feeling that you might call hunger is actually based in emotion. 8.Respect your body: Rather than criticizing your body for how it looks and what you perceive is wrong with it, recognize it as capable and beautiful, just as it is. 9.Exercise—feel the difference: Find ways to move your body that you enjoy. Shift the focus from losing weight to feeling energized, strong, and alive. 10.Honor your health—gentle nutrition: The food you eat should taste good and feel good. Remember that it’s your overall food patterns that shape your health. One meal or snack isn’t going to make or break your health.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“The first step to eating more mindfully is to notice the initial desire to eat, then pause and ask yourself why you want to eat. Is it because of a feeling (i.e., anger, joy, boredom), a form of habit (i.e., same time of day), or does your body need the fuel? In other words, is the cue to eat a result of a desire to meet an emotional need, or is your body telling you it needs nourishment? Either reason is valid, but understanding the “why” helps you become more aware of your needs and better prepares you to craft a just right response. That “just right response” can be to fill a need for nourishment, but it can also be because eating is the best option you have for caring for yourself at that particular moment. Being conscious of why you are choosing to eat puts you in a position of strength. As a result, you are choosing your method of self-care, and eating isn’t happening to you in an out-of-control way.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“MINDFUL EATING Statistics show that people consume more food when they multitask at mealtimes. Are you someone who must have a book or magazine with you when you eat? Or do you typically eat in front of a TV or laptop? These are all methods of disconnection and distraction. By not being present and focused on the act of eating, you lose the ability to tune into your body’s signals, and this disconnect can lead you to overeat.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Mindful and intuitive eating help us learn to trust our bodies to lead us to appropriate nourishment. When we are attuned to our bodies, we make food choices that will satisfy our needs and quiet the mental churn of diet rules that lead us to question every food choice.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“By transitioning to mindful and intuitive eating, you will begin to alter or end long-standing habits that have contributed to your binge eating. Mindful eating has to do with how you eat, while intuitive eating is about listening to the innate wisdom of your body. These practices will redevelop your ability to notice the cues that have long been overruled by the diet guidelines. Those cues exist because the organism that is our physical body signals us to eat what we need. While it is anathema to the falsehoods that come from the billion-dollar diet industry, the truth is that our bodies encourage us to eat in ways that will sustain us and bring us to health.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“After eating, think or journal about the emotions you felt during the exercise. Was it a pleasant or unpleasant experience? Are you looking forward to eating in this manner again? Consider your thought habits. Were you critiquing your food choice or manner of eating? As you note these thoughts, try to label them: self-criticism, guilt, pleasure, frustration, etc. Remember, there is no right or wrong answer here. This is an exercise to bring your attention to the experience of eating, and, like any newly acquired skill, it takes practice and repetition.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Beginning a mindfulness practice, no matter how small, can be immensely helpful in healing disordered eating, as well as helping in other areas of your life. For this activity, you may begin by simply choosing one piece of food—such as a piece of chocolate, a raisin, a slice of watermelon—or a complete meal. 1Create a relaxing ambiance by putting on quiet or soothing music, lighting a candle, or dimming the lights. 2Become aware of your hunger level. 3Sit down at a table. 4Note the smell, texture, and temperature of your food. 5Take the time to chew. Try for at least 10 chews per bite, and note whether you prefer to chew on one side of your mouth or the other. Pause to take a drink, and notice the qualities of what you are sipping (is it cold, warm, bubbly, refreshing?). 6Put your utensils down while you chew. 7Periodically notice your hunger level until you end your meal.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Eating mindfully means paying conscious attention to the experience of eating. It involves eating while noticing and attuning to all five senses, without judgment, with moment-to-moment awareness, and noting the range of flavors and textures within each bite. By engaging in mindful eating, you can gain clarity around your thoughts and feelings toward food.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Another common thought process that causes you to miss out on satisfying life experiences is the statement, “I will do [x] when I lose weight or stop bingeing.” Thinking this way keeps the exciting experiences available only in the future and only if you make these changes. This mentality puts life on hold and keeps you stuck not only with binge eating, but also other things in life that need to be let go. It denies you the things you want and blames the weight, when most likely it is a deep-seated feeling of unworthiness.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE BINGE? A binge typically begins with some type of provocation or trigger. These vary from person to person and occur either directly preceding the binge or up to several hours prior to the binge. Binges almost always occur in private, such as alone in a car, at home, or in the bathroom at work. Often, when one is alone, discomfort, boredom, or loneliness gives rise to a sensation of crawling out of one’s skin and a very impulsive pull toward food. What follows feels like an out-of-body experience—a frantic, dissociative, or trance-like state, often occurring while standing. Binge foods tend to be ones that have been labeled as forbidden or that can't be consumed in front of others for fear of judgment. The binge episode frequently ends with extreme stomach pain and/or exhaustion.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Some ways to increase the enjoyment of your food and mealtimes include: •Sitting down at a table to eat, versus eating standing up, in the car/bus, or at your desk. •Making your environment a pleasant one. For example, dim the lights, light a candle, have soft music playing, or eat outside. •Compose your meals with a variety of colors and textures. •Take a few deep breaths or pause for a moment of gratitude before the meal. •Engage in mindful eating, i.e., let yourself savor each bite of food, slow your chewing, and really notice how the food feels, smells, and tastes. •Choose foods you like, and do not force yourself to eat things you do not like the taste of.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“As they slow down to savor the flavors and notice how their body responds, they will feel more satisfied and content. By eating what they think will make them feel good, they choose things that are nutritious and tasty. Thus, the yearning that fuels mindless eating no longer exists, resulting in less overeating and urges to binge.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Our body releases chemicals—ghrelin and leptin—that signal when we need food and when we are full. Most of us frequently ignore these signals for one reason or another.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle

“Our emotions also trigger the urge to eat when we are not physically hungry. Here are the most common of these emotions: Boredom: Especially for perfectionists, this feeling triggers a variety of unhealthy coping reactions. Many of my clients express feeling extremely uncomfortable with unstructured blocks of times in their day. Turning to food has become their way of filling time, as taking a break or actually relaxing may feel intolerable. It also helps to distract them from the internal voice berating them for “doing nothing.” Stress/overwhelm: Stress isn’t always a bad thing, but when we allow it to build, our bodies begin to burn out from the overwhelm of holding it all in. Turning to food can be seen as a way to disconnect from the stressful thoughts and feelings by engaging the body in something seemingly comforting and generally distracting. Loneliness: Food is a constant. It’s always there and doesn’t have anything negative to say. It doesn’t ask you to be vulnerable or step out of your comfort zone. It’s something to look forward to at the end of a long, hard day and doesn’t require you to give anything in return. Excitement: This emotion can produce a lot of energy in the body that may feel overwhelming to contain. Eating can be a way to ground the body or at least change the internal energy. Food is also something that often accompanies a celebration or event.”
― Shrein H. Bahrami MFT, Stop Bingeing, Start Living: Proven Therapeutic Strategies for Breaking the Binge Eating Cycle