What if your struggle with food restriction isn’t about willpower - but about survival? This gentle reflection from Binge Free & Worthy explores food scarcity, safety, and recovery.

Reading time: 1 min Originally shared as part of Inbox Reflections - short, heartfelt emails to support your binge eating recovery as a highly sensitive woman. I have a theory that highly sensitive women who struggle with their relationships with food and their bodies have a hard time receiving. Receiving their sensitivity Receiving their worth Receiving their bodies Receiving nourishment Receiving support Receiving attention Receiving the moment But I also believe that we have the greatest capacity to receive when we know how to and feel safe in doing so. Because being sensitive and receptive go hand in hand. Does this ring true for you? If so, one of the most profound practices for you might be to simply: 1. Receive as you inhale Receiving yourself, the moment and whatever is there for you, even if it’s uncomfortable. 2. Release as you exhale Surrendering and letting it all completely go (this is just as important). This is my core practice right now, and in fact, it has been for some time. There are many times I still find receiving infinitely hard, but this little practice has benefited me in more ways than I could tell you... I hope it serves you as much as it's served me.

Reading time: 1 min Originally shared as part of Inbox Reflections - my honest, heartfelt emails to support your binge eating recovery as a highly sensitive woman. Our world is so focused on weight, that it’s easy to forget that good health isn’t predominantly reliant on a number on the scales. It stretches across all of our systems; the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. And these systems all tie in together, impacting one another. Good health can include: A sense of safety Feeling calm around food An adaptive nervous system Acceptance of yourself A vivid imagination A good night’s sleep An active sex drive A connection to intuition An ability to express emotions A lack of aches and pains Strong boundaries Feeling inspired by life You get the idea… How might softening your focus on weight actually support your health? And where might your focus be more needed right now?

Reading time: 3 mins, 30 secs Originally shared as part of Inbox Reflections - honest, heartfelt emails to support your binge eating recovery as a highly sensitive woman. How familiar are you with the “normalising” process in binge eating recovery? It’s the practice of not only allowing yourself the foods you tend to restrict (and later binge on) but repeatedly having them in your home and incorporating them into your meals and snacks. The normalising process is all about creating a feeling of safety and peace around these foods, and a deep knowing that if you truly want them, you can have them. When you trust this, binge urges (linked to food restrictions) no longer have a reason to exist and so naturally drop away. Although I stopped binge eating about 3 years ago now (🙌), I’m still in the process of normalising some foods, or at least making sure that I really, truly feel no tension around certain types. (You don’t tend to unravel years and years of disordered eating patterns overnight - though I do believe it can happen!) And I’ve noticed some things shift for me over the last couple of months or so… Firstly, pizza (which I held a lot of judgements around) used to be a big binge food for me. I’d try really hard to eat “healthily”, tirelessly making all my food from scratch, but a few days later, I’d find myself compulsively ordering Pizza Hut takeaway on my way home from work. It became a somewhat expensive habit! Instant noodles were a similar one. Now I LOVE noodles but again they weren’t something I’d allow myself to have at home and enjoy when I wanted. And so they became another of my “go-to” savoury binge foods and I’d often end up down the noodle aisle in Tesco of an evening. So to make sure that I feel completely at ease in my relationships with pizza and noodles (and don’t find myself slipping back into old habits), about a year ago I decided to have a pizza night and a noodle night every week! And it worked incredibly well… I’d buy a frozen pizza in my weekly food shop to enjoy after work and before heading out to the roller disco as my “fun Friday treat”. And the noodles I’d have on an evening when I knew I’d be tired and grateful not to have to cook properly, although I’d almost always made a side of greens to go with them. This continued most weeks until recently when I was writing my shopping list and noticed that I had no desire for noodles that week. There was no want, but also no “but I have to have it” tension. And so I simply planned something else to eat for that evening. Then a couple of weeks ago I was eating my Friday night pizza and halfway through thought “nah, I’m done with this” and just stopped eating it. I noticed that I was going through the motions and was actually bored of pizza. Again there was no desire, but also no deeper, underlying pull. I know right now that these two foods are truly “normalised” for me. They no longer have a hold over me because I know and trust that I can eat them whenever I want and that I will again eat them whenever I want (which I doubt will be before too long)! I wanted to share this little story to show you that no matter how crazy you feel around certain foods and no matter how much you binge on them, you can gradually, with compassion and awareness find peace with them. If you recognise that at least some of your binges are driven by diets and other food restrictions but have no idea where to start with normalising these foods, my mini-course Breaking the Cycle might be for you. During the course, you’ll get clear on the ways you’ve been restricting foods, identify the foods that have the greatest hold over you and begin this normalising process in a way that is created to help you feel safe and supported throughout. All the information about Breaking the Cycle is here , including options with 1-1 support if you feel you need that too. And if you have any questions about the mini-course, feel free to email me lucy@bingefreeandworthy.com

Do you really need to read another book or listen to a new podcast to stop binge eating? Perhaps not… Read more.