“What role does nutrition play in recovering from binge eating?”
Written by Jenn Hand, Holistic Nutritionist, Binge Eating Coach, Board-Certified Health Coach, NBC-HWC
When I first started working to get out of the diet/binge cycle, nutrition was the last thing on my mind.
I just wanted to be FREE and not trapped in an insidious cycle where I’d diet for a few days, promise myself I’d be “good,” then fall off the wagon and binge for days.
As I began to work through my “stuff,” I slowly began to understand nutrition in a different way.
Nutrition didn’t mean to rigidly follow a strict program and only eat foods I thought were “good.”
It meant to really understand how food impacted my body, how much fuel my body needed, what kinds of foods kept me energized and what messages my body was giving me physically, mentally and emotionally.
Nutrition and Binge Eating…
Nutrition does play a role in recovering from binge eating, but not necessarily in the way we think of when we think of eating “healthy.”
On this path, we take a different approach and shift the focus on restriction and deprivation to exploring what foods nourish the body in a holistic way. There aren’t “good and bad” foods but foods that work for our bodies. Instead of labeling food, we look at foods as more or less energizing, more or less nourishing and more or less satisfying.
This approach helps to rebuild trust with the body and promotes long term balance over a short term gain.
A part of this process is to develop a relationship to food where we are eating both foods that are nutrient-dense and foods that feel satisfying.
Putting Holistic Nutrition into Practice
My approach is to teach a protein and carb way of eating.
In this way of eating, we begin to stabilize the blood sugar and work to develop a regular rhythm of how we fuel our body. There is no program to adhere to, rules to follow or foods to omit.
It’s about developing a routine with eating so that once the body is more stable, we can work to understand cravings, discover what nutrients we may be missing, hear hunger and fullness, and learn what messages our bodies are giving us.
Food journaling can be very helpful to understand this–not to weigh, measure or track food from a restrictive mindset, but to look at what we are eating, how we feel when we eat, and where our “trouble spots” are during the day.
Over time, we learn to refine our food choices as we get to know ourselves better.
It’s a process of awareness and learning rather than simply implementing rules that we picked up in the diet world.
Related Articles
⚪ Recovering from Binge Eating: What to Do and How to Feel Better
⚪ How to Stop Bingeing at Night
⚪ The Binge and Restrict Cycle and How I Overcame It
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Schedule a 20-min CallAbout the Author:
Jenn Hand has been helping women like you become normal eaters since 2015.
She’s worked with thousands of women, helping them to balance their bodies, end bingeing, stop obsessing over food, and start feeling amazing again. As a board-certified health coach and holistic nutritionist, Jenn knows how to support you in making real positive changes that last.
Her articles have been published on Mind Body Green, Tiny Buddha, Thrive Global and other local and global media platforms. She’s the author of How to Be a Normal Eater and the creator of The Normal Eater’s Club program. Listen to Jenn’s advice and tips on the Cake Doesn’t Count Podcast, or read more of her articles for free on the Food Freedom Blog.
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