Why You Don’t Need to ‘Start Over’ on Monday: How to Stop the Binge-Restrict Cycle
Why You Don’t Need to “Start Over”
Do you spend your week being ‘good’ with food and then feel out of control on the weekends or at the end of the day? Then you promise yourself you will ‘start over’ the next day or Monday morning? The reality is you are stuck in the restrict-binge cycle and trying to be ‘good’ is just going to keep you stuck in this cycle.
What Really Fuels the Binge-Restrict Cycle
It may seem counterintuitive, but ‘being good’ is just setting up your body for a binge. When our bodies do not get enough food to fuel us during the day, our brains will do anything to get enough food. What that might mean for you, is once you start eating it can be hard to stop. It could also be restricting certain food groups. Did you feel out of control around Halloween candy? It wasn’t because you lack willpower, it’s because of the scarcity mindset. When you feel like you can’t have something ever again, you will want to eat as much of it as possible.
Why Willpower Isn’t the Problem
Willpower is not the problem and another diet is not the solution. Binge eating is our bodies natural reaction to restriction. So you’re body is not ‘messed up,’ it is actually trying to take care of you by getting enough food.
How to Break the Cycle with Self-Compassion
Do you find yourself restricting during the day (or week) and then eating past fullness at night or all weekend? And then the guilt, shame, and negative self-talk berates you and tells you that you HAVE to start over the next day. You NEED to ‘do better.’ But this inner critic is not helping, it is just keeping you stuck in this cycle. I work with my clients on ways to use self-compassion to break this cycle. Try to notice your negative inner critic and pause and respond to yourself in a different way. This may be what you would say to your friend or even “I’m trying to not talk to myself like that anymore.”
3 Simple Practices to Reconnect with Your Body
Listen to Your Body’s Subtle Cues, Without Judgment
Most of us have been taught to ignore or override our body’s signals (hunger, fullness, fatigue, even emotions) in favor of rules or routines. Reconnection begins with noticing what your body is communicating.
Pause 2–3 times a day to ask, “What does my body need right now?” It might be food, rest, movement, or a boundary. There’s no right answer, just information.
Practice Grounding Through Sensation, Not Appearance
When you’ve spent years viewing your body from the outside, worrying about how it looks or what others think, it can help to gently come back inside your body.
Try this: Do a 2-minute sensory check-in: notice five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste or imagine.
Nourish Your Body as an Act of Care, Not Control
Food, movement, and rest can become ways of honoring your body, not punishing or “fixing” it.
Try this: Ask before meals, “What would feel satisfying and supportive right now?” or before movement, “What kind of movement would feel good today?”
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