Binge Eating & Cheat Day Mentality

I really hate to admit it but there was a time when I would wait until my family was all asleep in their bed to go back downstairs and eat more of whatever I had been restricting all week.

I used to have “cheat days” where I’d eat whatever I wanted from 12am-12am.

It wasn’t strategic, mindful, or at all considerate of my body or goals because it was really just the one day I could binge without feeling bad about it.

Well, I’d feel like crap physically but the permission to binge once a week was what I thought was a right of passage in the fitness space to achieve my goals & be successful.

Cheat days were always being promoted by coaches, athletes, & influencers.

I didn’t realize how toxic much of the messaging was to my relationship with food & long term goals.

Anyway, this reel, literally used to be me.

My mom didn’t sleep very much, she would stay up late at night & always downstairs.

I felt like I couldn’t be seen eating certain foods so I’d always wish she would go up to bed so I could gorge myself or I’d grab food quietly.

This happened for years pre competing & post show it was a constant fixation.

I even started opening the extra snack foods in the garage just so I could pretend to be getting something from out there when In reality I was stuffing my face with oreos.

I hated it so much.

It was like this crazy monster in my head making me resent people for being around because The monster wanted to eat.

I felt powerless.

Sometimes I’d make up crazy stories to justify the actions.

But I knew I needed to stop because it was furthering the divide between myself, my goals, & my values.

Finding freedom with food was worth it.

I’m so happy to do the work I do now, having the personal experience & being able to apply more formal education from psychology & clinical mental health counseling on top of the personal development & mindset practices I created & further installed into my life & my mentorship programs through application, tweaking, & evidence.

I get to help other athletes see that their fitness goals don’t have to come at the cost of their mental health.

Start your journey in my free food relationship coaching series.

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