EATRITE - 4c - Binge Behaviour Modification

To be able to succeed in any eating programme, we need to not only change what we eat and how much we eat, but we need to look at some behaviour changes as well. You have already started your behaviour modification by cutting down on unhealthy fats in your diet. You have started curbing and reducing your sugars. You are learning to stop eating when you have had enough. Now it is time to take a major step forward.

THINK! DECIDE! DO!

EATING PLACE: Choose a couple of appropriate eating places where you can be comfortable and relaxed whilst eating. Mentally and/or physically label these places DEP. (Designated Eating Places).
Lay your eating place beautifully and purposefully – best cutlery, best crockery, best glassware, serviette, flowers/decoration/ornament.
Your Designated Eating Place is not your Designated Work Place, or Sleep Place, or Study Place, or Leisure Place.
Your Designated Eating Place is where you participate in the sacred RITE of eating. Rite means “religious or solemn ceremony or observance, prescribed order for performing religious service.”
All these pleasant additions will be cues for your new eating style.

ASSOCIATED EATING ACTIVITIES: When partaking of a meal, that is all you should be doing. When you eat, be truly thankful. Really taste the food; feel the textures; enjoy the flavours; savour the aromas.

FOOD DISPOSAL: Give away, put away for another designated meal, or throw away left-over foods. Don’t let food hang around the house loose and uncommitted.
You are not the dustbin – rather let the food go to waste, than to waist. Nibbling leads to a lapse, which can lead to a relapse, which can lead to a collapse. Nip that process in the bud.

STORING FOOD: Store foods in containers – use opaque ones if that is helpful to you (Out of sight, out of mind). Keep food stored in appropriate storage areas. No sweets on the TV, no matter how beautiful the crystal bowl! Even fruits in a basket or chips in a bowl could lead you to a binge.
Put pine cones or shells in your bowl and tumbled stones in your basket.

DINNER PLATES: Try eating from a smaller plate (or the smaller part of the plate). It will soon become part of your routine. A psychologist demonstrated that 70% of an experimental group were more satisfied with less food when it was served on a salad plate than on a dinner plate.

SECONDS: Try this: Divide the food you would normally eat in two. You can go back for the second half for “seconds” when you have finished the first half. This causes a delay in the middle of the meal. Hopefully this will create a “thinking” step after the first half: “Do I really need more food?”

TITHING: We are taught in Malachi to bring all our tithes into the storehouse that there may be food enough in His House. Tithe your time, your treasures, your possessions. Now we will add tithing our food. Dedicate 10% of the food on your plate to the Lord. He will see the attitude of your heart and honour you for this. In doing this you will break a habit that has been with you for years. Separate your 10% onto a part of your plate, or onto another plate before you start your meal. Gather the tithes of food and use them for sacred and holy purposes – share with the less fortunate, eat as a gratitude token, save for a later meal.

ASKING FOR FOOD: Never accept food from another person unless you ask for it. People will try to “love” you with food and wait for you to “love” them back by eating it.

MINIMISE CONTACT: Arrange your food contacts in a way that will minimize the chances for impulsive eating. After preparing a meal, put all the ingredients away and clean up before eating the meal. Food out of sight is more out of mind.

STRESS RELATED HUNGER AND EATING: Most adults eat for reasons other than hunger:

Anger
Loneliness
Boredom
Frustration
Fear
Anxiety
Happiness
Sadness
Irritated
Impatient
Distracted
Excitement
Rebellion
Self-punishment
Helplessness
Spite… etc

Renew your mind and re-condition yourself with new coping mechanisms.
Instead of trying to soothe/help yourself in a way that actually harms you:
Change the subject! STOP! Quit whatever you are doing and do something healthful, truly helpful, and positive and problem-solving for and to yourself. Breathe. Go for a walk. Read a book. Go shopping. Relax. Listen to some music. Dance. Take a bath. Visit or phone a friend. Get away from the food.

BEHAVIOUR CHAINS: As soon as you identify one of your behaviour chains… Interrupt at any point the activities that link into chains that have previously ended with you overeating.

Homework 4c:
Fats and Sugars – notice, continue cutting them down.
Second Helpings.
“Yes please” “No thank you”.
Affirmations.
Exercise.
Prayer.
Your “Heart”.
Eating Frequency and Places.
Persist daily.
Direct safe sunlight every day for 30 minutes.
Ephesians 1 – 6.
Think about Designated Eating Places! Decide! Do!

From EATRITE – Leslie Hand