#14 How to stop overeating.

If Self-Control is Hard, This is the Issue for You.

I used to binge-eat. Silly as this sounds, I didn’t know that was a thing for the first three decades of this habit and I thought it was just me.

A place I used to work in had a ‘biscuit drawer’ where they kept a huge supply of biscuits that were put out for the morning tea break. We all paid a small sum each month via an honesty box system and popping down for a nibble and moan about the students made life a bit cosier.

Until, looking for a spoon one day, I figured out where the biscuit drawer was. Then, the nightmare started.

I would head down on free periods, check the coast was clear, and scoff half a dozen, sometimes a whole packet. I did this for months and was only caught once, but they never said anything. I more than replaced the extra biscuits I ate or would overpay when no one was there. But the “biscuit situation” was eventually noticed. And they stopped doing it a few weeks later.

As I didn’t purge, this was all just extra calories and I managed to gain a huge amount of weight in a few months. Was it just a stressful period? No. Not at all. Life was good. Did I have childhood trauma or other psychological problems? Again, no.

Eventually I got on top of the situation once I realised what was driving it, now rarely feeling that kind of drive to stuff my face. And, what I learnt overcoming it can be useful for you even if you don’t have runaway urges but face a more normal problem of overeating.

Let me tell you what I figured out.