Are You Making Yourself Vulnerable To Bingeing Over Christmas?

No matter where you are on your road to recovery the Festive Season can be a recipe for disaster.

Even when I was well on the road to recovery and relapses were few and far between I’d find myself getting anxious about food and my weight and how I was going to cope when faced with all the trigger foods and situations over the Christmas period.

And I’d go and make a Fundamental Mistake.

And this one fundamental mistake, heavily promoted at this time of year, would leave me powerless in the face of all the festive food and triggers. So, despite my best intentions I’d find myself bingeing.  Back then I simply could not understand why.

Are you about to make this mistake too?

Are you about to make yourself vulnerable to bingeing over Christmas?

If you’re considering dropping a few pounds before Christmas you’ll want to read on…

A pre Christmas diet to drop a few pounds can seem like the ideal solution to..

• Counteract potential weight gain at Christmas
• Gain control of your eating or
• To fit into a little black dress for that special event.

Now on the face of it that sounds like a pretty good idea, and one happily promoted in the media, magazines and by diet gurus but here’s the thing and the fundamental flaw in this strategy that sets you up for failure…

Whilst you might loose weight initially, you’re actually stacking the deck for bingeing and weight gain at Christmas.

You see the brain is actually hard wired to binge!

When you go on a restrictive diet (whether that’s restricting calories or food groups), even for a period as short as 2-3 weeks, your brain interprets this as the onset of a ‘famine’ and consequently clicks into survival mode, lowering your body’s metabolic rate and making you instinctively crave foods that are high in sugar and fat.

Not exactly what you want over Christmas.

Plus a restrictive diet can have a profound impact on the level of your hormones responsible for regulating mood and combatting depressive thoughts and anxiety.

Large-scale studies from Harvard and Oxford universities have shown that healthy women going on a 2 week weight loss diet of 1000 calories (which is a lot higher than many fad diets) significantly deplete their serotonin levels (the happy hormone) along with increases in hunger and loss of satiety.

And if that weren’t enough, just at a time when stress levels are high the psychological side effects of dieting can make you feel worse.

Below is a list of common side effects associated with dieting…

• General moodiness
• Poor motivation
• Feeling emotional and unable to deal with life’s ups and downs.
• Nervousness, anxiety and panic symptoms… these symptoms are not just emotional but commonly arise if the body’s stress systems are not getting sufficient nutrients to keep someone balanced and able to cope with life
• Increasing low self esteem
• Mood swings and depression.
• Heightened obsessiveness and compulsiveness
• Distorted and irrational thinking.
• Becoming very self critical and developing a distorted body image
• Feelings of begin overweight…. even though they maybe thinner!! I know that is a weird one but I can personal vouch for it.

And

• Obsessive thoughts about food and uncontrollable urges to binge

Again, not what you want over Christmas!

So in the run up to Christmas rather than be tempted by dieting and deprivation protect yourself…

• If you’re on a Structured Eating Plan – stick to it.
• If you’ve not yet started one – start.

And If you’re not sure what Structured Eating is or perhaps even how to start it please write me an email Julie@BulimiaFree.com and I’ll be delighted to send you some information.