Alcohol and Binge Eating
I needed a couple of days to relax after my vacation, so that’s why I haven’t blogged. It’s funny - We go on vacation to relax and have fun and then when we return, we need a vacation from our vacation. Ha, ha.
Not sure if you’ve ever wondered about the topics that I choose to blog about - where they come from, etc., but lately, I’ve found my “inspiration” from the emails that you write me. It’s nice to be able to help a few people with the same question all at once.
The latest, most popular question has been about alcohol and binge eating disorder. When anyone (with binge eating disorder or not) has some alcohol, your guard gets lowered. Perhaps you were doing great with eating healthy and cutting out your binge trigger foods, and after 2 glasses of wine, you find that those french fries do in fact look yummy and that one will not hurt.
This happened to me a lot when I was bingeing. I would be so proud of myself a certain day because of my eating, then the phone would ring, an invitation to happy hour would be accepted, and on the way home I would stop and get fast food. Just about every single time. I felt like such a loser because I couldn’t control my willpower. Have you ever felt like this?
Clearly the most obvious solution is to give up alcohol, right? If you feel like abstaining from wine, liquor, or beer would suit you best, do it! It will really help curb those unwanted binges and I’m sure that some pounds will melt away too. You will feel better and not be tempted as easily.
However, if you are like me and happen to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner (not every night, just to clarify!), then here are some things you can think about so that you end it with your one glass:
1. Make sure not to overdo it. Don’t binge on food and alcohol. Have a drink and call it a night.
2. If you are the kind of person that can exercise at night, do it instead of snacking. Personally I’ve never been able to go to sleep when I exercise late in the evening, so this option never worked for me.
3. Before you start really feeling the alcohol, ask yourself if it is really worth it. You might want a glass of wine with dinner, but if that one glass leads to another and another, how will that affect your weight, your bingeing, and your overall feeling about yourself?
4. Go for an after dinner walk with your pet, significant other, or friend. Make the decision to only have a glass of wine with dinner and no more after that.
5. Think about how not drinking will really help your bank account… When you pair that with curbing future binges (due to alcohol), you will have saved some money for sure!
Drinking and binging totally go hand in hand for me. Although I just realized that I have Binge Eating Disorder, I am already aware that I have a binge drinking problem. I’m not an alcoholic, but when I do go drinking at a bar or a favorite restaurant, it’s always way too many.
When I first started drinking at the age of 19, 4 drinks would get me pretty buzzed up. But at the age of 27, the tolerance bar has been drastically raised.
A week ago, I went out partying and I had a gin-tonic, a dry martini, a Purple Haze, 3 Grasshoppers, and….wait for it…..10 APPLE PIE SHOOTERS. And I barely felt it!
So I’m thinking of taking a sabbatical from alcohol for a few months because I don’t need that kind of damage getting in my way!