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Hi this is Monica – I love running, eating & sharing the best tips and strategies to help you run your best life. It’s time to get inspired, do the work and be brave so you can chase down your goals!ย
Today Iโm sharing a trick that really helped me stop binge eating – and along the way I realized itโs a tool you can use to change a bad habit or something about yourself that you want to stop or improve.ย
Oh and – Diego almost drowned this weekend. Letโs talk about that while we warm up.

Warm Up:
2 Dog Stories
ย 1st I thought I was being attacked!!ย
2nd Diego Almost Drowned!!!
Pictures from Diego’s near drowning drama…

This is the plastic tarp that helps keep the pool water warm. It’s a Solar Pool Cover –ย meant to help heat the pool water stay warmer with the heat from the sun & prevent evaporation.

Listen to the podcast for the story!

Main Event:ย
Stop Self Sabotage Behavior – How I Stopped Binge Eating

I want to pass on a life-changing hack that I learned when I was battling with binge eating in college. And whatโs magical about this trick is that itโs helpful to deal with a lot of different bad habits or self destructive behaviors that you want to work on.
First a disclaimer: Eating disorders and mental health are very important. If youโre struggling with something – get professional help. This is serious. Monte Nido is a residential eating disorder treatment center.
You donโt have to be diagnosed with a specific eating disorder or mental health issue to need help. You deserve to live your best life and if your relationship with food, your body image or self esteem are negatively impacting your life – get help to change that.ย
Iโll put resources in the show notes for information on where to get help for mental health and eating disorders.ย Iโm not a doctor or therapist and this show is not advice or guidance on your health.ย
Resources for Mental Health, Eating Disorders, Disordered Eating and more:
- National Eating Disorders Associationย
- National Eating Disorders Association Covid19 Resources page
- National Institute of Mental Health – Eating Disorders info
- American Psychiatric Association – Eating Disorders
- ANAD Services page
- Intuitive Eating Book on Amazon
- Intuitive Eating Workbookย

How I Stopped Binge Eating
First a little backstory on meโฆย I started dieting in high school and ironically ended up gaining more and more weight In collegeย I tried every diet I could – high protein / low carb, weight watchers, cabbage soup diet, pre-portioned meals and more.ย
And the one that I kept going back to was basically a very low calorie diet, barely eating anything all day.ย
I was busy – so Iโd exercise, go to class, my part-time job, another class or do homework, hang out with my boyfriendโฆ it was often a long day โฆ on probably half as many calories as my body needed.ย
So Iโd come home and eat dinner, then dessert, then 13 other random snacks and treats because my body was hungry and thought food was scarce.
Eventually I started to binge eat when no one was around. Then, Iโd wake up feeling like complete shit about myself both physically and mentally. Iโd โpunishโ myself by trying to barely eat anything the next dayโฆ which would lead to another binge and repeat.ย
I was constantly thinking about food. Every second I was obsessed with if I ate too much at my last meal or when I could eat again. It was miserable – and sad.ย
I realized I had a problem because my boyfriend at the time wanted to do normal things like go to Disneyland or his friendโs BBQ and I wouldnโt want to go because I was too self conscious about how I looked or was stressed about the food theyโd have there.ย
Thank God I decided to go to therapy and eventually found a therapist that was helpful. I also read a lot of books about binge eating and dieting. And one of my favorite books is still – Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
The concept of the book is that weโre born knowing when weโre hungry and how much to eat. But that signal can be put on mute for various reasons likeโฆ
- You’re forced to eat all your food when youโre not hungry
- Youโre rushed to eat over and over for a long time
- You didnโt have enough food at one point
- You were told (or told yourself) a certain food was โbadโย
- You used food to distract yourself, as a friend, to keep you company, numb feelings, etc.
- You dieted or restricted food
- You overate (or binged)
Or a lot of other reasons. The point is – you canโt tell when youโre hungry. But the good news is you can get back to intuitive eating – you just need to rebuild those signals.
But – this is extra hard for someone who has body image issues, wants to lose weight or uses food as a coping mechanism.
When you judge yourself for when you eat, when you eat, how much you eat or how you look – itโs hard to change bad habits because theyโre not just habits – theyโre emotional.
For exampleโฆ Letโs say I want to lose weight. I donโt like how I look and believe I really need to lose 20 pounds.ย
So Iโm going to go on the keto diet to lose weight. And Iโll keep running 6 days a week – that way Iโll lose weight fast!
And I start the diet, it goes great at first. I stick to it the first few days. But then I start to get hungry and I feel like Iโve been denying myselfโฆ so I end up standing in front of the freezer at midnight eating an entire gallon of ice cream and half a box of cookies.ย
My reaction would be to feel like shit, feel fat, hate myself, be so discouraged and stressed that I just ruined any progress I made!! Iโd be mean to myself and decide to start over.
But that isnโt really helpful, right?ย
I found myself with an empty gallon of ice cream for a reason – and Iโm not learning about what really got me there by being mean or negative.ย
So finally we get to the hack:
How to Stop a Bad Habit or behavior that isn’t good for you
Imagine youโre an anthropologist... Youโre assigned to study the behavior of one human in different situations. (In case youโre not familiar anthropologists study humans, human behavior and societies.)
Your task is to quietly and carefully watch this human and take notes when theyโre in certain stressful situations.ย
Note the action and anything that may be relevant. [Ex. Time of day, stress, blood sugar, fatigue, preceding events, upcoming events, previous social interactions, future social interactions, etc]
Do not make any judgement or conclusions about what you see.ย
Keep all your notes neutral, but sensitive to their emotions and mental health.
Be kind and curious at all times.ย
Use the information to list 3-5 factors that may have led to this situation.
List 3-5 things that may help this human avoid this behavior in the future.ย
ย The human you’re assigned to is YOU.ย
And if you truly do this with an open mind and open heart – you can get to a place where you just see yourself as an imperfect human making mistakes and question why youโre making those mistakes.ย ย
The thing is shame, judgement or defensiveness can get in your way. Itโs not helpful so nothing is going to improve.ย
ย If I think about how I binged last night and just think about how much I hate myself and am frustrated with myself and should punish myself todayโฆ Iโm not learning anything.ย
So I do it over and over without slowing down to question – why am I doing this??
If you canโt imagine yourself as an anthropologist – you can try this exercise by just being KIND and CURIOUS.ย ย
Be kind and curious towards yourself when youโre trying to overcome harmful or unhealthy habits.ย
Be kind and curious towards others when youโre trying to figure out why they say or do something you feel is wrong.
This is directly relevant to Run Eat Repeat and I also want to point out that this exercise is helpful in life.ย ย
If you are automatically defensive when someone tries to tell you somethingโฆ it shuts the conversation down.ย ย
If youโre dismissive when people talk about racism or sexism then you might miss an opportunity to learn and grow.ย ย
Be kind and curious towards yourself and everyone around you when thereโs a teachable moment. And definitely teach when you can!ย
Iโm not saying kindness = quiet.ย
ย You can be firm in your beliefs and convictions, lead by example and not tolerate racism or hate.ย
ย It would be great if we all got really good at speaking in such a way that people didnโt get defensive, so they were able to listen and learn.ย
ย But if you canโt even do that with yourself – if you canโt watch yourself do something crappy and say, โHey, whatโs going on? What happened that made you want to say that or do that?โ
ย How do you expect to understand someone else? It has to start with you. Lead by example. Be kind and curious towards yourself. Work on yourself. Be kind and curious towards others. And keep going.ย
ย It took me years to really โget itโ but maybe thatโs for the best because Iโve realized one of the key things I learned in trying to stop my out of control binge eating cycle is advice thatโs helped me work on other issues that were taking me down.
ย Itโs a kind of a self-awareness exercise thatโs helped me feel more comfortable looking at unhealthy and self-harming behaviors.ย
ย And being able to actually pause and look at these things for even a second without being overwhelmed with embarrassment or shame helped me see it in a different way and made me more able to address it.
ย Because if youโre doing something really crappy, either to yourself or to someone else – and someone points it out to youโฆ the default reaction is often to be defensive or deny it.
ย So nothing gets better! You keep doing that crappy thing and being defensive about it if youโre confronted – even if you try to confront yourself.ย
ย I originally adapted this from the book Intuitive Eating when I was years into a binge / restrict cycle that I wanted desperately to stop – but couldnโt. And since itโs a tool in my lil tool belt of coping mechanisms, I realized itโs helpful related to other negative traits I want to work on.ย

ย Awards:ย
- All the dogs in the world for being amazing. I love you boo.
- American Dirt – by Jeanine Cummins. LOVED it.ย
- Social media – for keeping us connected during the social distancing situation! Speaking of social – be sure to follow @RunEatRepeat on Instagram and let me know what youโre doing right now!

ย You get read about the bad habit hack, plus see pics of Diego post pool situation on Run Eat Repeat.com – link in the podcast description.ย
Thank you so much for listening! Have a great run!!
Thank you for listening to the Run Eat Repeat Podcast!
If you have a minute please leave a review for the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play or your fave podcast app. I appreciate it!!
Youโll find information on todayโs episode โ plus training plans, recipes and more onย RunEatRepeat.comย
Follow @RunEatRepeat on Instagramย for more runs and fun! See you there!!
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How to Train for a Virtual Race episode 123
How to Run Your Best Virtual Race episode 124
What the Boston Marathon Cancellation Means 125
Disclaimer: All the information on this show and the corresponding website and social media are intended for entertainment use only and are not medical advice.ย This podcast, website and social media are the opinions of the show host and guests. Always check with your doctor before trying any diet or exercise routine.ย
I myself try to discipline myself in order to eat less junk food and do exercise which is why I found the information on this blog really useful .
Another amazing post, is literally the BEST weight loss community anywhere. I read it everyday and i’m so glad I found it helped me not only lose weight but keep it off, hope this helps some others too!