Reintroduce the foods you love, without triggering a binge!

I used to have a long list of foods I couldn’t keep at home. A jar of nutella? Absolutely no way, I would eat my way through the jar with a spoon. A packet of biscuits? Definitely not, I wouldn’t sleep knowing they were in the cupboard and I could never stop at one or two. Having these foods around would trigger an all out binge. Just knowing they were there would haunt my mind until eventually I would give in and eat them. Once I started, I wouldn’t stop and it would end with me kicking myself for my lack of control and feeling the need to restrict to make up for it.

For the longest time, I thought that keeping these foods out of my cupboards was the answer. If I did buy something sweet, I would put whatever was leftover in the trash immediately so I couldn’t eat it again later. Knowing that I would only be able to eat them in one sitting before the rest went into the trash, just reinforced the feeling of future scarcity and encouraged me to overeat.

The thing is, not buying these foods wasn’t really a long-term solution.

As soon as I would go to a party where there was a buffet, or the moment I would have one little free sample from a stand in the mall, it would trigger a binge. The truth is, I could avoid having these foods at home but I couldn’t avoid them for life! This is why I encourage you to slowly reintroduce your favorite foods into your diet.

Allowing yourself to eat the foods you fear on a regular basis will take your trigger foods off the pedestal you’ve placed them on. It will decrease their value and make them less desireable. It takes time but I promise you, there is a future where you can keep all of these foods at home, and have such little fixation on them that you may even find they expire before the next time you’re interested to eat them!

To help you navigate the fear and reintroduce foods in a manageable way, read through the steps below.

Incorporate Trigger Foods Into Your Meals.

Instead of eating trigger foods alone, add them into your meals. If Doritos is your thing, can you have a few on the side of a sandwich, crushed over a salad or sprinkled into a burrito bowl? Can you break some chocolate up into a granola and yogurt bowl instead of having the bar on its own?

Of course, eating these foods alone is totally fine but adding them into meals alongside protein, healthy fats and carbs will make a satiating meal. I don’t know about you but if I eat a chocolate bar, it’s gone in 60 seconds and I could eat another quite easily. Adding the foods you love into meals means you’re less likely to eat as much as you would if it’s served on its own. More importantly, incorporating these foods into meals regularly begins to take away the novelty and over time, you’ll stop wanting them so much.

Sharing Is Caring.

If you’ve been restricting for a while then the chances are you will eat more in the beginning. Eventually, you rebuild trust that these food are available whenever you want them and the initial novelty will wear off. However, that initial period can be frightening and uncomfortable. So if you don’t feel ready to keep an entire packet of biscuits in the cupboard, can you take them to work to share instead? Can you take one portion and give the rest to the doorman of your building or maybe drop those extra biscuits at your mum’s house on your weekly visit? Sharing is caring but it’s also a good way to slowly re-introduce trigger foods whilst reducing the chances of it becoming a binge.

Practice Adequate Eating.

It might be that you’re still bingeing frequently and don’t feel ready to jump into this. If thats is the case for you, then don’t! It might be better to seek support from a professional to help you get there rather than trying to reintroduce these foods at home when you’re in a vulnerable stage. If a few episodes of overeating will send you into panic mode and result in you saying “see, this is exactly why this will never work for me” then seek support. As you continue to practice adequate eating and develop new ways to cope when you feel triggered, you can then work towards reintroducing a variety of foods. We want to avoid this becoming “more evidence that you’ll never have control around food” so if you don’t feel ready, it’s totally fine to give it more time.