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In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Glenn Livingston talks about how to stop binge eating and overeating.
Dr. Livingston is a psychologist disillusioned by what traditional psychology had to offer the overweight and/or food obsessed patient. He’s spent several decades researching the nature of bingeing and overeating via work with his own patients and a self-funded research program with more than 40,000 participants. Most important, however, was his own personal journey out of obesity and food prison to a normal, healthy weight and a much more lighthearted relationship with food.
Main Questions Asked about Stop Binge Eating:
- What was your own personal journey with obesity like?
- Why do people in our culture have such trouble with binge eating?
- Is it possible to stop binge eating?
- Is there anything else the listeners should know to stop binge eating?
Key Points Made by Dr. Glenn about Stop Binge Eating:
- Glenn was exercise bulimic when he was younger, as he got older and couldn’t exercise as often his eating habits began to catch up to him.
- Food can be tied directly to emotional issues like loneliness and stress.
- Addictions are linked to the survival drive we all share, you have to identify and separate the impulse in order to prevent it from dominating your behaviour.
- Name your impulses – Glenn named his “my inner pig”.
- The food industry is incentivised to put as many calories in as small a space and as enticing a product as they possibly can.
- Our culture treats addiction with uncertainty which really undermines our abilities to deal with the addiction.
- Make the decision and set a hard rule around your food; winners don’t give up, they analyze what went wrong and then get back up again.
- Create a food plan that you can own. Take responsibility for it.
- Use four categories to create your plan: Things you will never do again; things you will always do; things you will do under certain conditions; and things you can do in an unrestricted way. Start with one rule and then add more as you go along.
- Evaluate your plan and make sure it provides a nutritious but tasty diet.
- Step back and consider one food that really triggers you, make a rule based off that one food and identify the source of your impulse as your inner enemy. This will give you a chance to make a better choice.
- Stopping addictive behaviour doesn’t require you to understand everything about it. Just clarify your plan and you can begin to ignore your impulses.
Resources Mentioned for Stop Binge Eating:
Book – Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again
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