Blog 17 - Binge Eating Therapy

When food is the third person in your relationship

leora fulvio August 31, 2010

Some couples are drinking buddies. That is, they spend a lot of time going to bars together, or drinking at home together and alcohol becomes a big part of their relationship. Often these couples aren’t exactly sure what they’d do together if alcohol wasn’t accessible. Other couples are eating buddies. Their relationship revolves around food and eating. They plan elaborate vacations where food and restaurants are at the center of their itineraries, they cook big elaborate meals together, they eat

Sex, Love, & Food

leora fulvio August 23, 2010

Geneen Roth wrote a book almost 20 years ago called When Food Is Love. Of course, this is using food when what you are really craving is love. A common theme that I’ve noticed in women with eating disorders is this sense of unworthiness or a belief that they are not loveable. It’s incredible to notice that what you might do with your food is what you might do with your life. Binge eating and binge loving are one in

Just One Day Without Binge Eating Challenge

leora fulvio August 16, 2010

One of the many AA mottos is “One Day at a Time” That just has to be true. People who binge eat are often very polarized in their thinking. It has to be all or nothing. So, when people decide to recover from binge eating, they set the bar very high for themselves. “I’m never ever going to binge eat again. I’m only going to eat healthy every day for the rest of my life.” Wow. That’s really way too

Restau- RANTS

leora fulvio August 13, 2010

Salon recently put out an article about what happens when people don’t get the food that they expect to get at a restaurant. It seems that people go into an emotional tizzy when they don’t get what they expected. It’s no surprise that restaurants can be very emotionally charged experiences for people. They order their food a certain way and when it fails to meet their standards, they then become agitated and angry. This isn’t an unusual phenomenon. Yet, it’s

Free Food! But at what cost?

leora fulvio August 8, 2010

Then, there’s the free food phenomena. This is a binge eaters Achilles Heel. It sets up not just temptation, but a moral dilemma, “is it okay for me to waste this food?” There are many free food situations that get set up. But you have to look at the real cost in free food. Such as “if I eat this, will it set up a binge later?” “will I binge on this because it’s free?” “Is this unhealthy for me

The Grief Of Recovery

leora fulvio August 5, 2010

Saying goodbye to an eating disorder isn’t easy– that’s an understatement. There is a giant grieving process that goes along with it. When you decide to let go of binge eating, you are letting go of something that you feel has been a best friend, a lover, an ally, always there when you need it, always consistent. Letting go of that is certainly challenging. There will be a big part of you that just doesn’t want to give that up.

The Zen of Recovery– Using Meditation to help Binge Eating Disorder

leora fulvio August 2, 2010

Meditation can be a very effective way to help binge eating disorder.

Focusing on the Negative

leora fulvio July 29, 2010

So much of eating disorders is fueled by focusing on the negative. By negative, I mean what we don’t have. There is always this sense of “I would be better if i were thinner, if I had more money, if I had a boyfriend, if I had a baby, if I had new car, if I had a nose job, if I had a big house, if I were popular, if I had better clothes…” etc. etc. When Zen Buddhist

Choices and Reactions

leora fulvio July 14, 2010

It’s not what people do that upset us, it’s our reaction to it. It’s not our thoughts or our feelings that upset us, it’s our reaction to it. One of the things that we rarely remember in recovery is that we actually have a choice. Sometimes, when we have the urge to binge, it feels like we have no choice whatsoever. If we have the urge, we absolutely must do it. But the truth is, you always have a choice.

Routines and Rituals

leora fulvio July 6, 2010

In working with addiction, one of the most basic things that one can do to help oneself is to change up their routine a bit. For instance, someone who knows that they have a glass of wine each day when they come home from work, will begin to fantasize about that glass of wine a few hours before they leave work. However, if they can put a little break in that routine, they might be able to push through the

How to Love your Body

leora fulvio July 5, 2010

For the most part, most of my clients come in really hating their bodies and wanting to do everything they can to change them. Female bodies are exploited. They’re exploited for lust, for sex, for advertising, for humor and just for the sake of exploitation. Photoshopped and digitized porn images flood the internet, causing women to believe that their bodies are not good enough for their husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends or themselves. Michelle Obama is a brilliant attorney yet she is

Getting Support

leora fulvio July 3, 2010

Many people have this thought that they want to come in and get help for their bulimia and binge eating or read a book and cure themselves. Unfortunately, this is a pretty challenging road. Eating Disorders are diseases of isolation. You act out in your behaviors all alone. Because eating disorders thrive in isolation, the more alone you are, the stronger the behavior can become. Yes, of course it’s true that some people are able to heal alone, however, it

The holidays are coming. Again.

leora fulvio October 20, 2009

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Junkfood around your office… Oh how the holidays bring anything but joy for someone with an eating disorder… Starting in October, when sweaters get bulkier and winter clothes get bigger, all of sudden appears bowls of candy corns, nestles crunch, kit kats, twix and whatever else around the office. Some people find it a minor annoyance, but with an eating disorder, it’s like being stuck in the middle of a battlefield with nowhere to hide. These food

End Fat Talk Week!

leora fulvio October 19, 2009

Monday marks the beginning of FAT TALK FREE WEEK. Please do look through this website and treat yourself to a week free of fat chat, and- to talk it a step further, try to challenge yourself to be liberated from a week of fat thoughts. Of course fat free chat and thoughts might not be as easy as it sounds as both those conversations and those thoughts can be so automatic for so many of us… or can it be? For just

Candy Corns, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Spice Latte’s, Mini Candy Bars– What do I do?

leora fulvio October 6, 2009

Fall is the time for the beloved comfort foods as well as the start of the bingeing season. First comes Halloween with candy everywhere, then of course Thanksgiving, the national bingeing holiday and then there’s the whole month of December with gift baskets, alcohol, egg nog, and chocolate treats everywhere and no foreseeable end to the constantly filled candy bowl in the office. There are two challenging issues here, the first and most obvious is the abundant candy everywhere and

The inner critic part II

leora fulvio August 4, 2008

Often, we become so bogged down by the critic inside of us, that we are unable to separate ourselves from that voice, the voice that feels like it is us, but really is not us. It’s the little judge inside of us that is a perpetual teenage girl telling us things like “you’re so fat, you’re so ugly, you’re so stupid, no one likes you…” blah blah blah. This voice isn’t real. This feels like it’s you, but it’s the

The inner critic part I

leora fulvio June 23, 2008

You know that voice, the annoying one inside your head that’s always saying things like, “you should workout more,” or “you shouldn’t have eaten so much,” or “you should be skinnier…” or sometimes even worse things like, “you’re a fat pig,” or “you’re stupid,” or “you’re dumb,” or “people hate you…” or “people will think that there’s something wrong with you…” do you know that voice? If these voices sound familiar, you are intimately acquainted with your inner critic. In

do something different!

leora fulvio February 24, 2008

The concept of doing something different seems pretty simple, but in the moment of a binge, it can be very difficult. So, here’s a fun project. Make yourself a big beautiful sign that says “DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT.” Put in on your refrigerator, cupboard, pantry, wherever you go when you binge. On the back of the sign, make a list of other things you can do! For example: 1. take a walk 2. dance around your living room 3. do crossword

Staying binge free through the holidays.

leora fulvio December 2, 2007

In my first semester of graduate school, one of my professors asked if any of us were going home for Thanksgiving. About half of the class raised their hands. “No matter how much work you’ve been doing on yourself, no matter how many years you’ve been in therapy, as soon as you return home, you’re right back into whatever your role was in the family all those same old family dynamics. Good Luck. Have fun, enjoy being 12 years old

Holding On…

leora fulvio October 1, 2007

Sometimes, a binge can be a way to hold tightly onto very uncomfortable emotions; like fear, like depression, like pain, like sadness, like anxiety… Sometimes, when a feeling begins to show through, the instinct would be to push it down tightly by eating and making the feeling go away. Unfortunately, this is temporary. Very temporary. It ends up making you feel even worse about yourself. Feeling horribly uncomfortable in your body, feeling angry at yourself for the binge and feeling

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