Brittany Brown

It’s something that I asked all the time: What is the best way to eat to stop binge eating? This is a totally legitimate question. And to be honest, there aren’t very many clear answers out there.

The typical answer is just to “follow a diet”, “control your eating”, “keep your trigger foods out of your house”… But what happens when you discover that dieting makes binge eating even worse because of the self-imposed restrictions?

Then you have the other side “don’t diet and listen to your body” which can be equally confusing when your body is telling you to binge.

If you’ve been wondering how to eat in a way that supports your health and vitality and does not trigger binging but also doesn’t rely only on “listening to your body” then you’re in the right place!

I want to walk you through how to eat for optimal health and vitality, and without triggering binge eating.

After watching the video if you are wondering how I know all of this – let me give you a bit of background on both me and my team!

My team and I have guided over 3000 women to finding freedom from binge and emotional eating.

So I’m not sharing a pre-prescribed plan from the internet. It’s a successful system we’ve created, and it has come from years of trial and error.

Our system is the culmination of my personal experiences, my team’s experiences, and our work with thousands of students. We’ve been there and done that — and now we want to support you get there too!

Let’s start with a few examples of the usual things you find when you look for answers…

When you get on the internet to find solutions to binge and emotional eating, you usually find two extreme schools of thought.

One extreme is all about restrictive dieting. It’s about killing it at the gym and cutting calories and carbs. We’re talking about those platitudes like “stick to your macros,” and “sweat is your fat cells crying.” (I bet this one sounds familiar, as I’m pretty sure we’ve all tried it at some point!)

Then there’s the other extreme–don’t diet at all. Eat whatever you want, when you want, and everything will all work out.

It’s the “anti-diet” movement, and it’s turning up a lot more these days in binge and emotional eating circles.

Sure, it’s an interesting idea in theory. After all, I’m a big advocate of stopping traditional dieting! But sometimes just “quitting the diet” alone leads to unintended consequences.

You can end up losing control with food, going back to binging, and gaining weight…which can be super frustrating.

So here’s the interesting part about both of these extremes. While dieting is significantly more dangerous, Either one of these extreme strategies can eventually take you back to square one–to binge and emotional eating.

But if these commonly touted binge eating solutions both lead to epic fails, what can you do to truly break free? That’s why we at Beating Binge Eating have created an amazing step-by-step system to help you do just that, and I want to share a foundational piece of it right here.

I’ll start by giving you the short answer to the original question: what IS the best way to eat to stop binge eating?

In my own journey to healing my relationship with food and my body, I discovered that the best way of eating is eating in a way that supports you and your body’s needs – Eating in a way that supports your health and vitality.

It’s eating in a way that encourages natural weight loss based on self-care.

I know, that might sound VERY oversimplified!

How are you supposed to just know that way of eating that will support you the most? (Because if you knew that, you’d already be doing it, right?)

If you’ve been struggling with food for years on end, we don’t expect you to figure it out on your own. Most of us don’t go from extreme dieting to total freedom just like that!

This is why we’ve created an easy process that helps you transition from binge eating to food freedom, one step at a time and the best part is that it works!

So where do YOU begin?

The first step is important. Read closely. Get your brain and body out of the place that we call “survival mode.”

Survival mode without a doubt is a direct result of dieting. It’s what happens when you’ve been restricting your food for so long that your brain starts to fear that you won’t feed it properly. Then that fear makes your brain trigger you to eat.

This, of course, leads to binge eating, overeating, uncontrolled eating–all the things. And the more that this diet-binge-diet cycle repeats itself, the more that this binging pattern gets established in your brain.

Try this one simple thing: Ensure that you are eating enough to support your body’s needs first.

Why is this step so huge, you ask?

Once your brain starts trusting that you’ll eat enough to support your body’s needs, those binge urges start to settle down. Eventually, the more you build trust with your brain and body that they’ll be fed, the less they’ll trigger you to eat.

Now, when I say “eating enough to support your needs,” I don’t mean eating those baby fitness meals all day long to “speed up your metabolism.” I also don’t’ mean fasting for extended periods to “burn fat.”

It’s about eating enough food to take care of your needs and getting your brain out of those food overdrive patterns.

Now, let’s talk about how to make that happen!

The goal is eating meals that leave you feeling that legit, warm-bellied satisfaction. Meals that hold you over for at least three to five hours. Of course, how much food varies from person to person. But generally, we’ve found that the sweet spot for most people is three to four meals a day about three to five hours apart.

Then, once you are eating enough to support your needs, breaking those binging patterns in your brain becomes a lot easier.

After that, you learn to relate to food in a new way. Over time, you learn to eat in a way that supports all your needs–physical, mental, and emotional. And without fear of losing control.

That’s what we call Food Freedom Forever!

Of course, this can sound a LOT easier said than done, especially if you feel like you’ve tried it all to break free.

So if this sounds like something you want help with but you don’t know where to start, I have some exciting news for you!

Click the image below where I’ve got a special gift for you! We call them, “Craving Cards”, and they’re one of our most popular tools!

If you ever feel night time cravings, sugar cravings, the urge to just say “screw it I’m going to start my diet over tomorrow”, or like you need a little body confidence pick me up… 

Just grab a card, go through the prompts, and shift it instantly! 

Click the image above and let me know where to send them!

You’ll also get mini demo video training sessions for each card where I share how to use the cards and some of my best tips for food freedom forever!

With our Craving Cards and Demo Series… 

You’ll learn how to stop cravings in their tracks, feel confident, and get back your power, fast! 

Love,
Brittany

PS: Want the exact freedom and ease with our foods that myself and thousands of our clients get to experience?

In our Beating Binge Eating Blueprint (BBEB), I show you how to make this happen in just 8 weeks!

Many of our students have seen a DRASTIC difference in as little as a few days!

It’s our signature program, and up until recently it was $3000 or more to join.

For now, you can get it as a part of our Food Freedom Collection for practically free by clicking the image below!

There is no catch…every resource I’ve created for food freedom and body confidence will land straight in your if you just click that image below and let me know where to send it!

You might know that I had a LONG struggle with binge and emotional eating that consumed my life. We’re talking about 12+ years of the diet-binge-repeat roller coaster (honestly felt like forever).

Throughout that struggle, I did some compulsive, sneaking, and out-of-character things to keep my binge eating underwraps.

Some I’m not proud of, but all I have a lot of compassion for!

Why? Simple. I was ashamed of my binge eating. So I did everything I could to hide it.

Today I’m sharing all the things I used to do to avoid getting caught binging.

Then, I’ll share how I shifted out of those behaviors, dropped my shame, and stopped binging for good.

OK, let’s DO this…

Back when I was at the height of my food and body struggle, I acted like the last person you’d suspect was struggling with binge eating.

Although I had large weight fluctuations, the way I represented myself was the epitome of health and fitness.

I worked in a gym, and I was a health coach at the time. My identity was built around this. But all the while I was terrified.

“What would people think if they found out that I had a secret binge eating problem?“

“What if I was exposed as a fraud in front of clients”

Still, no matter how afraid I was of getting found out, the urge to binge felt impossible to resist.

I felt like I had to satisfy that urge, no matter what the risk to my reputation…or my relationships.

Well well well the end result?

I harbored a ton of shame and secrecy. I was mortified about what I was doing, but couldn’t make myself stop. So I hid it all from everyone.

The more I hid my binging in shame, the worse it ALL got.

So how did I hide my binging from the world, and why am I sharing all this now? For two reasons.

First, I want you to know that if you do any of these things too, you’re NOT alone.

Second, I want to show you how to shift out of this shame and secrecy, and reclaim your power the way I did!

Let’s dive into some of the things I did to make sure the world never found out my big binging secret…

1- Eating in secrecy (and hiding the “evidence”). When I did binge, it was behind closed doors. Then I’d hide the evidence at the scene of the “crime.”

For example, I’d sneak into the pantry and eat a box of cereal bars. But I’d never just throw the wrappers in the trash. I’d wrap them in paper towels and frantically shove them to the bottom of the trash can.

I’d also hide food wrappers in the couch cushions. Or in my car. Anywhere that I could stash them without getting caught if someone walked in on me in the act.

The wildest part was that while it was happening, it felt totally normal in the sense of – it just felt like “this is what I do”.

After all, I was caught up in the haze of the binge, in an auto-pilot kind of way. Stuffing wrappers anywhere I could hide them didn’t seem strange at all…

Then, the haze would wear off and I’d realize what had happened.

The wrappers were everywhere. The fast-food bags were shoved under the seat in my car. All the evidence was right in front of me.

Needless to say, it was mortifying — and all I could do was hope that I never got busted and hope I could change one day.

2- Plotting and planning NOT to binge (and then binging anyway). Every time I was invited to a party, dinner out, or a get-together, I’d make a plan. By that I don’t mean a plan to have fun at the party. I made a plan to avoid what might trigger me to eat.

This plan usually had a crazy twist, too. It was my intention to leave the party early–and go binge anyway.

Instead of eating the appetizers or desserts on offer at the party, I’d say “no, thank you” in front of everyone.

I’d look like the paragon of health and fitness for turning down the food I labeled as “bad”. So far so good, right?

Well, it never lasted. I’d start obsessing about getting food, and sometimes I’d leave early to do so!

Sometimes it’d be drive through(s), sometimes snacks at home…

Oftentimes, I’d spend the rest of my evening indulging in a post-party binge…alone.

3- Compromising relationships just to get food. Sometimes I’d resort to seriously out-of-character actions to satisfy those binge urges.

For instance, there were many occasions I’d sneak into the cabinets and take a roommate’s food. Sure, I’d replace what I took, but I wouldn’t tell them.

Now, I’m sure by now that all my former roommates knew what I was doing (or at least suspected). Honestly, I don’t know who I thought I was fooling.

But that compulsion to eat was fierce, and it frequently made me take what wasn’t mine–and then hide that I did.

Then there were those times when I’d have a friend or family member over for dinner. I’d be cooking the healthy meal while they were with me in the kitchen.

But the moment my guest stepped away and the coast was clear, I’d eat what I could before they came back as fast as I could.

4- Hiding my binging from coaches and coworkers. As I mentioned before, I was once a health coach for a big coaching company. But as irony would have it, during that job tenure I was still struggling off and on with binge eating.

It got to the point where it brought on intense thyroid and adrenal issues. So I enlisted the help of another health coach to help me both resolve those issues and lose the extra weight I’d gained.

At the time I had just stopped taking my thyroid medicine. I came off of it pretty fast (I DON’T recommend doing this), which definitely contributed to my weight gain.

But there was another factor that I didn’t share with my health coach: I was still binge eating.

I didn’t tell my coach that I was binging in secret. I blamed my weight gain and health problems on quitting the thyroid meds too fast.

My coach didn’t have all the facts, and he thought our lack of success was on him.

I honestly was embarrassed. I didn’t want to lose my job for being a fraud of a health coach. So I kept it to myself and tried so hard to stop binge eating in hopes that my body would eventually balance out.

Eventually things go so bad that I felt so out of integrity working as a coach and personal trainer. I resigned from the health and fitness industry all together for a few years so I could focus on my healing.

The space was needed, and the healing eventually happened. It wasn’t a linear journey at all (more on that in many other blog posts) but it was all worth it because it lead me here to serve so many women through our programs!

I wanted to share all this with you for one main reason. You are NOT alone. So many of us who’ve ever struggled with binging have done all of these things and more.

I also wanted to be sure you know that no matter how extreme your binge-hiding behaviors might feel – you are NOT broken.

There is nothing wrong with you, you’re not beyond help, and it’s not your fault.

Here’s the truth. Over time, binging can hijack your brain. It activates a primal, irrational part of your brain that triggers impulsive behaviors.

Binging actually activates the part of your brain that has nothing to do with the real you. In the end, it triggers out-of-character behaviors to satisfy what feels like insatiable urges.

But here’s the good news…

No matter how long you’ve struggled with binging, you can break free. It also doesn’t matter what extreme lengths you’ve gone to hide your binging. You can heal it.

You can break free.

And regarding the sneaky behaviors we’ve been talking about, here’s a BIG takeaway for you…

Shame and secrecy are the fuel to the fire of binge eating. Letting go of both these things is a huge step toward freedom.

Now, what can you do right away to start breaking the shame and secrecy cycle for good?

It could actually be something as simple as enjoying food you normally wouldn’t let yourself have with a friend.

I’m not saying to binge in front of someone else just for the sake of being “open” about it! But what I am saying is to step just a little bit out of your comfort zone with food. Let yourself enjoy a small treat in someone else’s company, and let go of the fear around it.

This small step will help you let go of that shame around food just a little bit at a time.

The key is to shift your behavior from the inside out. It’s about getting to a point where you never have to struggle with food shame again.

This is where we can help!

Click the image below where I’ve got a special gift for you! We call them, “Craving Cards”, and they’re one of our most popular tools!

If you ever feel night time cravings, sugar cravings, the urge to just say “screw it I’m going to start my diet over tomorrow”, or like you need a little body confidence pick me up… 

Just grab a card, go through the prompts, and shift it instantly! 

Click the image above and let me know where to send them!

You’ll also get mini demo video training sessions for each card where I share how to use the cards and some of my best tips for food freedom forever!

With our Craving Cards and Demo Series… 

You’ll learn how to stop cravings in their tracks, feel confident, and get back your power, fast! 

Love,
Brittany

PS: Want the exact freedom and ease with our foods that myself and thousands of our clients get to experience?

In our Beating Binge Eating Blueprint (BBEB), I show you how to make this happen in just 8 weeks!

Many of our students have seen a DRASTIC difference in as little as a few days!

It’s our signature program, and up until recently it was $3000 or more to join.

For now, you can get it as a part of our Food Freedom Collection for practically free by clicking the image below!

There is no catch…every resource I’ve created for food freedom and body confidence will land straight in your if you just click that image below and let me know where to send it!

5 Reasons Why Intermittent Fasting Is NOT The Answer To Stopping Binge Eating And Weight Loss

“What do you think about intermittent fasting?”

I get asked about it a LOT, especially by people who struggle with binge and emotional eating.

“Is it the long-awaited miracle cure the gurus and influencers claim it to be?”

“Isn’t it the solution to being able to eat big meals and still lose weight?

My short answer? Not if you want the weight loss to be easy and last.

Read on and watch the video below where I share not only my take on intermittent fasting but also the real scoop on what it’s all about.

You’ll get the objective facts along with my honest opinions and experiences. When we’re done, you’ll have the tools you need to decide if fasting is worth a go for you–or not.

So let’s jump into the world of intermittent fasting right now!

Now, before we start, here’s a quick disclaimer.

I’ve tried intermittent fasting. I’ve had many clients who have tried it too. I’ve seen a lot of its real-world effects. I’ve also done a lot of research and have seen all the science behind it.

Needless to say, I’ve got a loaded opinion about fasting. It’s backed by all the things– science, research, personal experience, and coaching experience. So I wanted to be clear on where I’m coming from before we start.

If you’re not familiar with intermittent fasting, it’s basically this:

You set a designated eating window every day, typically 8 hours or so. You’ve got a set number of hours to get your eating in, and when your time is up, you’re done eating.

For example, an average intermittent faster might only eat between the hours of noon and 8PM. That means that before noon and after 8PM, no eating is allowed.

Some fasters take it to even greater extremes and shorten that 8-hour time frame. For example, I’ve seen some people limit their eating to one meal a day, sometimes waiting as late as 3PM to have it. Then it’s back to fasting until 3PM tomorrow.

Sounds pretty extreme, right? But for a lot of binge eaters, the idea of intermittent fasting actually has a lot of appeal…

Think about it for a moment. You get to stack all your calories into a short window. You get that overly full, satiated feeling that many binge eaters really like. Plus, the experts also claim that fasting will also help you get more mental clarity and energy, and of course lose weight.

When you put it that way, it almost sounds like the ideal solution, doesn’t it?

When I first heard about intermittent fasting, it sounded like a dream. I could eat all my calories in two sittings, get these huge meals, and feel satisfied. Plus, the experts said I’d lose weight and get rid of the binging brain fog, too. What could possibly go wrong?

So, I get why the idea of intermittent fasting appealing in theory. Not only does it make some exciting sounding claims, but it also has a lot of compelling science behind it.

But as with many things that seem too good to be true, intermittent fasting let me down. I learned really fast that in the real world, it didn’t improve my struggle with binging.

In fact, it made my struggle WAY worse.

Here are 5 things that I’ve learned about Intermittent Fasting:

1- Running on empty taxes your body. Many of us live high-stress lives. One of the most important ways to manage stress is by properly fueling your body. Even if your life isn’t super-stressful, your body still needs support to get through the day.

But when you deny yourself food because it is “fasting hours,” you only trigger more stress. And more potential long-term problems.

During a fast, your body pulls from its reserve fuel supplies. Now, that might sound exciting, especially if you subscribe to the idea that your body uses fat during the fasting times.

Unfortunately, this age-old idea is pretty much a myth! Sure, your body does burn some fat when you fast. But it mostly stresses out your adrenals and taxes your hormonal systems.

Fasting can be seriously taxing on your body whether you’re a man or a woman. But with women, pushing your body to the fasting extremes can be extra hard on your hormones, your adrenals, and your thyroid.

So you might get a hit of mental clarity from a morning fast. But long-term, it wreaks havoc on your body’s systems and puts you in a perpetual stress mode. For a life that’s probably stressful to start with, it’s stress on top of stress.

2- It actually slows weight loss (in many cases). Most of us look at fasting as a way to lose weight. But the irony is that over time, fasting actually can actually halt your weight loss efforts.

Here’s the deal. The longer you fast, the more your body misses out on the nutritional support it needs. When your body doesn’t get what it needs, it triggers what is essentially a fight-or-flight response.

It’s what we at Beating Binge Eating call “survival mode” (more on that in a moment). And survival mode has a ton of nasty side effects.

Survival mode lowers your metabolism. It slows down your digestion. Your body has a harder time assimilating the nutrients from your food. All these things set off more cravings and food-focused thoughts. This leads to more binging, and eventually more weight gain.

So the longer you practice fasting in hopes of losing weight, the more likely you’ll get the exact opposite result.

3- It triggers binge-like behavior. One of the key steps in freeing yourself from binging is to fuel yourself throughout the day. But if you spend several hours fasting, clearly this isn’t going to happen.

Even worse is what happens when you DO allow yourself to eat. The food floodgates open, and the ravenous eating is ON. This is because those fasting hours put you into survival mode.

That’s the thing about survival mode. It doesn’t matter what your mindset is, your psychology, or how committed you are to your goals. When your brain perceives food scarcity, it drives you to seek out food. It makes you think about food, crave more food, and eat more food.

So those fasting hours can actually set you up for binging, no matter how well-intended they are.

4- It creates an on-track/off-track relationship with food. With traditional dieting, there’s this whole “on-track/off-track” idea about food. You’re either on the diet and doing it right, or you mess up, eat a cookie, and blow it. Then, of course, you figure you’ll “start over tomorrow” and finish that bag of cookies. (We’ve all been there and done that, right?)

But just like dieting, intermittent fasting creates an all-or-nothing attitude about food.

For example, many fasters go overboard with food during their eating hours. Then tell themselves that they’ll just “fast longer tomorrow.” This almost permits them to eat more in the moment, telling themselves they’ll get “back on track” later.

In the end, fasting almost becomes an excuse to go on and off-track with food. It also creates the same long-term mentality that dieting does–and the same results.

5- It doesn’t encourage present-moment choices. Another key step to beating binge eating is making present moment food decisions. That is, taking steps like asking yourself what you need to eat to feel nourished and supported. It’s knowing what your body needs moment to moment, and honoring it accordingly.

But, allowing the clock to decide whether you can eat or not will not support you long-term. It won’t encourage you to honor your body’s needs from moment to moment. It will just tell you when you can and can’t eat based on the hour of the day.

A balanced, easy relationship with food is the key to food freedom. But having to look at the clock before you give yourself permission to eat clearly won’t help you achieve that!

So, with these five key points, I bet you can guess my personal position on intermittent fasting. Honestly, I don’t recommend it to anyone, especially if you have any struggles with food.

Let me put it this way – If your relationship with food doesn’t feel easy, fasting is at best a band-aid solution. Sure, It might tame down some of the binge-like behaviors and triggers for a while. But in the long run, relying on fasting will backfire with more cravings, more binging, and more weight gain.

Even worse, it will further disconnect you from your body. It will push you out of the present moment, and keep you in an on-track/off-track relationship with food.

Pretty much sounds like dieting in the end, doesn’t it?

So here’s my last take on intermittent fasting. If you truly want to heal your relationship with food and end weight loss struggles for good, intermittent fasting is NOT the answer.

Now, let’s talk about what actually will help you achieve the things you desire!

Click the image below where I’ve got a special gift for you! We call them, “Craving Cards”, and they’re one of our most popular tools!

If you ever feel night time cravings, sugar cravings, the urge to just say “screw it I’m going to start my diet over tomorrow”, or like you need a little body confidence pick me up… 

Just grab a card, go through the prompts, and shift it instantly!

Click the image above and let me know where to send them!

You’ll also get mini demo video training sessions for each card where I share how to use the cards and some of my best tips for food freedom forever!

With our Craving Cards and Demo Series… 

You’ll learn how to stop cravings in their tracks, feel confident, and get back your power, fast! 

Love,
Brittany

PS: Want the exact freedom and ease with our foods that myself and thousands of our clients get to experience?

In our Beating Binge Eating Blueprint (BBEB), I show you how to make this happen in just 8 weeks!

Many of our students have seen a DRASTIC difference in as little as a few days!

It’s our signature program, and up until recently, it was $3000 or more to join.

For now, you can get it as a part of our Food Freedom Collection for practically free by clicking the image below!

There is no catch…every resource I’ve created for food freedom and body confidence will land straight in your if you just click that image below and let me know where to send it!