It’s easy to stop dieting for a moment—and harder to stop dieting for a string of moments in a row.

Since we know based on a ton of research, that binge-eating is an almost inevitable reaction to restriction (or diet mentality),

a critical step in maintaining our sanity around food is resisting the impulse to go back to dieting—that is, resisting the impulse to go back to “phase one” of the diet-binge cycle—in the moments when life feels messy. 

When you think you’ve “slipped”
or “eaten too much”
or gained weight,
or you “feel fat,”
or your mother comments on your food,
or you start dating someone new,

can you navigate triggering situations and emotions—like fear, insecurity, or self-doubt—without desperately grasping for the next diet or another attempt at control? 

Too often we forget that dieting itself is a coping mechanism—perhaps just as much a coping mechanism (or more so) than emotional eating—although we don’t often acknowledge it as such, because we mistakenly think the eating is our core problem, despite clear evidence that restriction lies at its root.

Once we understand that binge-eating starts with restriction, we quickly realize that the hard part of overcoming this issue is resisting the pull of diets or restrictions themselves—that dieting is the real compulsion to break. 

Want to stop diet-binge cycling for good? Start with these videos.