Health
Habits
Food
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Better Than Butternut: Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
10 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Noticing
Juicing: Stupid and Pretentious or Nourishing and Enlightening?
10 Tasty Carbs That Won’t Make You Fat
How To Start Working Out When You Don’t Like To Exercise
Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight
Home Court Habits: The Secret to Effortless Weight Control
10 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight When You Think You’re Doing Everything Right
How To Burn More Calories Without Breaking A Sweat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Foodists
Linda Discovers The Mystery Behind Her Late Night Binge Eating
by Darya Rose | Mar 20, 2016
Linda suffers from late night binge eating, despite her healthy eating and exercise habits throughout the day. In this episode we consider a few possible reasons her habit may have developed before finally uncovering the true source of her trouble.
I was moved by this woman’s story. It’s true that loneliness is a terrible ache. Here are a few ideas that might help: do date night once a week instead of once a month, call the new friends from gym on the phone and talk in the evenings, find an online friend who used to live in California and share beach stories. Take a vacation to the beach once a year – a yoga retreat by yourself, or something with the whole family.
Great session. Amazing what can happen in about 50 minutes.
Thank you for this episode! I really connected with the troubleshooting and appreciated how you dug into the root of the issue together
Great session! I’d love to hear more about how you went from eating 1200 calories to 2200 and have lost weight from eating more.
HI Darya,
Nice epsiode. A good food habit leads to a healthy life. Late night snacks may affect health. It was fun to hear the session.
Maybe Linda and some of the lovely ladies could call each other by phone at times.
Another idea for Linda to get some human interaction in her life might be to volunteer at the local public library, or even get a part time job somewhere where she can interact with people. My heart really went out to Linda and I really feel for her.
Linda, it seems like even though your life is pretty great, you need to figure out what it is that will make you feel fulfilled. Obviously reading and watching tv in the evenings isn’t fulfilling you. What could you get fired up about? What could you get passionate about? And if you can find a way to incorporate getting fired up about something along with human interaction, you might find a way to overcome your struggle.
Anyway,thanks for sharing your story, and good luck as you try to figure it out!
Listening to Linda’s story got me thinking. And I would like to offer a hypothesis. Don’t believe that eating before bed is necessarily a bad thing. The body maybe is wanting fuel to do it’s work while sleeping. In my decade of learning about nutrition I have not come across a practitioner/nutritionist mention the nutritional needs while we are sleeping, only that the body is actively going through repair.
I also want to eat before bedtime, I crave carbs. However I don’t exercise anywhere near as much as Linda. My diet is similar to Paleo; minimally processed food, low carb, balance of protein, fat and vegetable.
Goodness. This really hit me hard, as a fellow butter addict and extremely lonely person. I just can’t get past the idea that the person I reach out to is thinking “oh God, why won’t she go away, she’s so weird and annoying”. So I stay home.
Becca,
I can relate to your thinking but just keep this in mind. That is all in YOUR head not in the person’s head you are reaching out to. You are anticipating rejection before you get rejected and that’s causing you to not even try. Check out this periscope. This really hit home for me as I think that same way too.
http://30kview.com/women-fat-loss-goals-and-the-anticipation-of-rejection/
Jen
Thank you – I will take a look at the article. It’s just exhausting, drafting messages to acquaintances suggesting our kids have play dates, or we go to the gym, or grab a coffee, trying to sound breezy!
Thank you for this episode. I did appreciate how well you took the time to listen, to give Linda space to let her think. This is a fantastic quality of yours.
I was so moved by Linda’s story. I could hear the loneliness in her voice, despite the love from her family, almost heartbreaking.
Linda, congratulations for your courage to put yourself out there, so frank and honnest about your reality. I think you just took the first step towards stopping the binging, but there may be more to come. Good luck!
That was fascinating to hear how she came in thinking she was just binge eating/over eating at night and then narrowed that down to her loneliness.
Darya, I was wondering if you have any advice for people trying to overcome binge eating and depression at the same time. I usually get the urge to binge during the day when i am home by myself. Logically, I know that binging will ultimately worsen my depression and anxiety, but at the same time being depressed seems to make eating more appealing as well as harder to resist. I know that eating will make me feel bad, but I already feel bad. And doing anything else feels like too much effort. I am working on my depression with medication and trying to develop healthy habits, but when I get stuck in a binge cycle I feel unable to do the very things that could help my depression the most (exercising, socializing, finding fulfillment in life, etc.)
Do you have any advice or mental strategies to use when facing the decision to give into an urge to binge, when the alternative of not binging seems just as bleak? Although I am aware of urge surfing and other alternative coping strategies, I find it hard to muster up the willpower to resist. It’s like I don’t care what happens to me. Thanks, and sorry if this question was too long or redundant!
Hi Alex,
This is a very complex issue that will likely take much trial and error. My guess is the most important thing will be for you to be compassionate to yourself when things don’t go as you hope. Focus on caring for yourself and giving yourself the things you need to succeed, rather than on the things you can’t control.
xo
Darya
I felt Linda’s loneliness through my earbuds. It was great to hear her come to the conclusion on her own with just a little guidance. One thing she might consider is playing tennis. It’s such a social sport and is an easy way to meet ladies close to your own age that are active. Most gyms offer lessons, group clinics, ladies’ leagues, etc. Just a thought. It’s so difficult to feel content without a community to give you a sense of belonging. Good luck to Linda on her journey. Love the podcast!
This was really wonderful. It’s really interesting to see emotional eating being considered with the same non-judgemental, hypothesis-testing approach you’re so good at for physical issues, too.
On another note, I know this isn’t strictly food-related, but was wondering, Darya, if you might be able to share more about how you have gone about establishing your ‘crew’ in New York. You said you were really aware of it as an issue and have worked hard to establish a friend base. I have been living in a ‘new’ city since finishing university and though I’ve made some friends, we’re all so disparate and busy that we hardly see each other–it takes two months of arranging and rearranging to find a time we’re both free. And even then I wouldn’t say I’ve found a ‘crew’, which is what I would really love to have. I have work friends, my partner’s friends (who are also my friends)…but I haven’t found my ‘tribe’–that group of girlfriends I see regularly and really connect and feel at home with.
I’d love to hear what some of your strategies have been towards building a group of good friends in a new city–such important parts of an awesome life and health style!
The quick version is I say yes to everything and go out of my way to be spontaneous. That’s a little contrary to my normal personality, but I knew it was important.
Do you have your subject info in print. I prefer to read the article, interview, etc. not to listen to a podcast or other audio.
“Linda Discovers the Mystery ….”
Listen on itunes
Listen on Stitcher
Listen on souncloud
How about Print?
I like this idea, too. ALthough I do love podcasts and they are great for getting me out walking (takes the boredom away), sometimes it’s easier to get the main ideas from a quick skim read. Makes it easier to share with non-podcast listening friends, too.
I will say this one was worth listening too, just for catching the feelings of the interview. I ‘ll comment more below.
Wonderful episode! I’d love to hear a follow-up call or even just a quick update on how she’s doing.
I thought the same – I’d love to hear a follow-up.
I finally had a chance to listen to this episode and read these comments – looks like I’m not the only one who found Linda’s story very touching.
I know it really depends on one’s personality but I too would urge Linda to find SOME way to be out with people more. Surely there is a local group she could volunteer with? Book group? Church group? Take a class? Tutor?
Even online stuff would be better than just sitting alone and eating. The Internet is a great big WORLD of knowledge and friendships, just waiting. Yes, we have to be careful with social media, but I think it can be a real lifesaver for a shy person, and could lead to real life relationships and activities, too. Sounds like she’s made a start on that already.
All the best to Linda, and I hope to get an update on her some day.
I have almost TOO MANY outside activities, and I still overeat after supper – just a BIT. How can I stop BEFORE taking that last bite or 2 or 3 – of peanut butter or Nutella or something calorie-rich – and decide not to eat it? I keep forgetting to brush my teeth immediately after supper. That might help. I’ve tried to make a new goal of “just clean something” after supper – that would be a win/win – cleaner house, cleaner eating. I could even do some healthy food prep but that keeps me in the kitchen where temptation lies…
I heard you mention during Linda’s story that you eat about 2200 calories and maintain your healthy weight. How is that possible? Do you do a lot more than your 10,000 steps?
Hi Jane,
I work out pretty hard 5 days a week and usually get 12-16K steps. I love my workouts and live in NYC so it’s easy for me to do these things. But I think the most important factor is the quality of my calories.
Darya