Do you ever find yourself scarfing down an entire tub of Ben and Jerry’s Phish food after you get into a fight with your hubby? Do you eat an entire large pizza by yourself when something doesn’t go your way? If this type of behavior occurs at least once a week for three months you could be binge eating. Do not fret though, with these easy steps you can kick the habit and move on to a new and better you!

1. You can do it!
The first thing you have to do is realize that you can change. Often times people think, “Oh I’m hopeless“ but the truth is that they are not. We all have the power and ability to make a change.

2. What are you stressed about?
The next step is to identify why you are eating. If you eat your feelings out, you are not eating because you are hungry which can be very unhealthy. It is important to realize the fact that stress can trigger this kind of detrimental behavior because once you realize that you are eating to numb the pain stopping will be much easier.

3. Whoa! Put the cookie down and ask yourself: what’s the deal?
Before you start to binge and eat your heart out, you must remind yourself why you are about to binge. Right before you binge you have what Ellen Shuman, the vice president of the Binge Eating Disorder Association, calls a “food thought.” When you have a food thought you must dissect why you are having this thought, and be active about not using food as an emotional crutch. Knowing why you are having a food thought will make it easier to resist the urge to binge.

4.Well that’s just silly…
Once you identify the emotion that is leading to the binge, ask yourself if the situation is something you should legitimately be upset about? Often times we find ourselves caught up in the heat of the moment and something microscopic seems as big an elephant. Shuman suggests thinking about the significance of the situation that is leading to the binge and asking yourself if it is significant in the grand scheme of things.

5. Embrace your emotions
Sometimes when you are bumming about something you just have to embrace and feel it. Before you immediately binge after a stressful situation give yourself time to feel the emotions running through your body and cry it out. Often times after a few minutes of letting ourselves feel our emotions, the urge to binge subsides.