??Overeating can happen to the best of us. I don't think I've met someone who hasn't admitted to eating 'too much food' at one point or another in their lives. For some, binge eating and overeating are daily struggles. For others, it may be an irregular occurrence.

Overeating can be caused by a number of factors, and it is important to fully understand these factors in order to properly overcome it. We will get to these soon; but first, let?s address why overeating can be detrimental to our health.

Firstly, overeating leads to excess kilo-joules consumed which typically causes weight gain. It can also contribute to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and an array of other health conditions. The amount of food we consume has increased dramatically over the years. To put this into perspective for you, the average Victorian adult consumes roughly 52kgs of takeaway, pastries, desserts, cakes and biscuits each year.

Each year Australians consume:

• 1.3 billion litres of ice-cream and
• 7.6 million Packets of Tim Tams.

Frankly, these numbers are insane and need to be reduced. Now that we have an idea of the large quantities of food that we are consuming and the health consequences resulting from this, we can focus on the reasons why you might be feeling the urge to overeat.

Determining Your Reason For Overeating

1. Emotional. This is one of the most common reasons that I hear about time and time again with my clients. Emotional eating is where a person constantly turns to food for comfort, and typically occurs when they're sad, angry, stressed or frustrated. The best way to try and overcome this is to identify your triggers, and find an outlet other than food. This could include reading a book, having a cup of tea, going for a walk or taking a bath. Find something that works for you and try it out. When you overeat please remind yourself that this is normal. One slip up is not the end of the world, and you can get back on track tomorrow. Whatever you do, do not throw in the towel; you are stronger than that!
2. Diets. Maybe you're constantly trying to lose weight by dieting, which may mean that you're depriving yourself of your favourite foods, or alternatively, not providing your body with adequate 'fuel'. My tip? Ditch the fad diets. There is no point going through hell and back to try and lose weight that won?t stay off. You will end up doing more damage to your health than any good. If you are wanting to lose weight, eat nutritious foods, and plan for days in which you can treat yourself (to a certain extent). Doing this will ensure you won?t get to the end of the week and binge out on your favourite foods.
3. Portion sizes. As I mentioned before, as a nation, we Australians are significantly increasing how much we are eating. When you dine out, the plates are huge and are piled up with food. Because it's right there in front of us (and we've paid for it), we think we must finish it all in order to be ?polite? or get your money's worth. I know you are paying for the food and don?t want to be wasteful. However, you can always ask for a doggy bag to take your excess food home in. I want you to always remember the following: you are not a rubbish bin, you do not need to stuff yourself full. Take it home, it will be there tomorrow for you to consume.
4. Boredom. When we are bored, we can trick ourselves into thinking we are hungry, and therefore we eat. Before you head straight to the fridge, instead try drinking a glass of water and then waiting 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes has past, consider if you REALLY want/need the food you are about to eat, or should you just go find something else to do instead to cure your boredom? The mind can be very powerful; however, we all have the skills to determine whether or not we're hungry, or if our mind is just telling us we are.

How To Overcome Your Overeating Habit

Once you have worked out your primary reason(s) for overeating, I want you to spend some time writing down how you are going to help overcome it.

For example, you could write down something like: "When I am next feeling down and sad, instead of turning to food I will go to my bedroom with a cup of tea and spend 20 minutes reading my book." 

This way, you know exactly what to do; and once you've done it often enough, it will become a habit and you will no longer feel the urge to reach for that tub of ice-cream or packet of Tim Tams.

Mitigating The Effects Of Overeating

I get it, not everyone is perfect. Even if we do everything to try and prevent ourselves from overeating, there's still the inevitable likelihood that it'll still happen from time to time. Understanding this, you should be proactive about taking steps to ensure that if you do happen to go on a massive binge eating sessions, it won't be detrimental to your health.

The tip that I give my clients time and time again is to stock your fridge and pantry with healthy snacks. That way, if something does in fact trigger your desire to binge eat, you physically won't be able to just grab unhealthy foods and eat to your hearts content, unless you actually go down to the store and buy it. These healthy snack can be things that you've bought from a store, or that you've made yourself.

If you're looking for some healthy snack ideas, check out my Salted Caramel Bliss Balls or my Choc Brownie-Caramel Slice.

And please always remember, if you slip up, you are only human and can only try your best. You need to adopt the mindset that "tomorrow is a new day, and I will do even better than I did today." After all, if we're not trying to better ourselves every day, then we're merely existing, not living.

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