Ep. 190: How to Recover from a Binge

On today’s episode I’m going to be walking you through my tips on how to recover from a binge.  It’s a topic that not many people love to talk about, but because we’re imperfect, the chances are we’ve all been there at one time or another!  No shame, no guilt, just actionable steps to keep moving forward.

We’re back with our 190th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

Find us HERE on iTunes and be sure to “subscribe.”

[powerpress]

Episode 190 Sponsors and Featured Partners

• Capilano Beeotic – 100% Australian Honey with natural prebiotics to support gut health, Click HERE to get your own!
• Pride of Bristol Bay – Sustainable, hiqh-quality, nutritious, and wild-caught Alaskan Sockeye Salmon delivered right to your door!  Use the code “fedandfit” to get $40 off your first order!

Episode 190 transcription

Cassy Joy: Today’s show is brought to you by Capilano Beeotic Honey! Beeotic Honey is 100% pure natural Australian honey from the highest quality beekeeping families. It’s my favorite sweeteners for tea, a key ingredient in my jalapeno lime margaritas, my secret to chewier cookies, and it’s perfect for dressings or for drizzling over my morning yogurt. Best of all, Beeotic helps support gut and digestive health with 340 mg of naturally occurring prebiotic oligosaccharides per serving. These prebiotics nourish good gut bacteria, which is even more important for keeping us healthy during the winter months. You can grab your own Beeotic Honey at Walmart and Walmart.com starting at $9.98.

Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. I am your host, Cassy Joy Garcia. And I excited about today’s episode, because we are going to tackle a very popular topic. {laughs} It’s popular, but we’re all secretly interested in it. It’s not necessarily something that we want to broadcast and share with the world. So instead, I’m going to broadcast it and share it with the world {laughs} so you can maybe get some tips for something that I feel like might be very relatable for so, so many of us.

Today we’re going to talk about how to recover from a binge. And let’s define that, because I’m not necessarily talking about; I guess it could relate to just about any binge. Minus the scary dangerous ones {laughing}. Talking about food binges, maybe a weekend and you went out with your girlfriends and you had way more wine than you normally have. Or cocktails and desserts. Everything was on your plate.

There are a couple of things at play here. If you are in the middle of a reset, or in the middle of some sort of dietary or wellness challenge, then you might feel like you just messed up. Because you’re probably not feeling well, and that willpower muscle that you were working on building these last several days or weeks or however long you’ve been in the challenge, you kind of start to feel like; oh my goodness! Did I just go backwards in all the progress I had made?

So you have this mental battle of guilt, and wondering; how much damage did I just do that I’m going to have to try to undo? Am I going to have to go through that whole thing again? Am I going to have to go and work from the beginning all over again just to get back to where I was? Those are the things that rattle around in our heads.

And I’m saying this because I’ve been there, y’all. I have been there. I’ve gotten to the point where; maybe it was a special occasion. Maybe it was a wedding. And I said; oh, it’s a wedding. I’m just going to go ahead and have the cake and the; what’s, beef wellington is a really good example. Beef wellington is one of those dishes; it’s beef wrapped in all kinds of yummy things, but also is a puff pastry of some sort wrapped around it. And it’s lovely, and it’s amazing, but it’s definitely not gluten free. When gluten free puff pastry becomes a thing, you better bet we’re going to put a beef wellington recipe on Fed and Fit. {laughs} the website.

But let’s say you’re at a wedding, and beef wellington is on the menu. That’s one of those circumstances where you think; it’s so nice, and I definitely want the beef wellington over the dried out chicken, so I’m going to go ahead and get it. And then you’re like; oh, what’s a little bit of puffed pastry. And then what’s a little bit of groom’s cake with real deal Oreos? Those look so good. And then what’s a little bit of four glasses of wine? And then the next morning you’re like; oh, last night was fun. Let’s also have some mimosas and migas. Can I have extra cheese and sour cream. And then oh my gosh, those flour tortillas look so fluffy.

We’ve all been there. And then lunch rolls around, and you’re like; what the heck. I mean, breakfast was out the window. Let’s just go all in for lunch. I’m going to go get myself a double-double animal style. Maybe protein, and I’m going to get French fries and maybe a chocolate shake. And then pizza for dinner. I mean, I’m describing a day in my life, so don’t think this is some lofty, crazy things. {laughs}

And then, all of a sudden, at the end of that day, your stomach hurts. I’ve got a headache. And I don’t sleep well. And then on top of it all; on top of not feeling well, I feel guilty. Because I feel like I just cheated a diet. And I just cheated all of the hard work that I put into it. So that’s what we’re talking about {laughs}.

And I really want to zero in on a couple of things. I’m going to give you some actionable steps on how to recover from this kind of binge. But first and foremost, mindset is always first. It’s pillar number one here at Fed and Fit. If you want a copy of the Fed and Fit book, you know I talk extensively about how mindset comes before anything else. And I really want to address that. Because I think the first thing you have to do is you have to level with yourself. You have to look at; not necessarily the associations of your decisions. Don’t look at the associations. Or the meaning of your actions. Look at what actually happened.

I think when we stop, and we weigh. If you’re having a hard time doing this in your head, then maybe write it down. Write down what actually happened. What actually happened. Not what do you think it means, but what actually happened. What actually happened was I went to a wedding, and I ordered a beef wellington, and I ate the puff pastry, and then I had the cake that had real deal wheat in it. Which I know makes me have a 7-month pregnant belly type situation. Sometimes it’s that bad. Sometimes it’s not that bad. I know it makes me more migraine prone, and I did it anyways.

And then I went out for breakfast and I had mimosas, and I made all these other food decisions that I wouldn’t normally make. But here’s what I ate. That’s what actually happened. And then when you re-read. You go back, and you read what you did, you start to see and understand that the associations are optional. The meaning that you’re applying to those actions; they’re not actual. Right?

What I’m trying to say is you didn’t necessarily throw the baby out with the bathwater, unless you believe you did. And you can change that. You didn’t give up all of your effort. All you did was have maybe four meals outside of scope. Maybe you had way more wine. But the good news is, you can recover from that. You can recover with some tips I’m going to give you today. And you can recover from the guilt by looking at what actually happened and believing that you’re ok. It’s fine. You’re living your life. It doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. It means that you made some decisions that maybe resulted in you not feeling well. That’s it. It does not mean that you cheated yourself. It doesn’t mean that you cheated your hard work. It just means that you probably don’t feel very good right now because you ate some food that didn’t necessarily agree with you.

Cassy Joy: Today’s show is brought to you by Pride of Bristol Bay! Where you can get truly sustainable, high quality, nutritious Alaskan sockeye salmon delivered right to your door. Pride of Bristol Bay’s wild salmon is sustainably harvested in the pristine waters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Their focused team of fishermen are committed to the highest quality in handling standards at the point of harvest, creating the unsurpassed quality and flavor you’ll find in every one of their wild sockeye fillets and portions.

Each case of their wild salmon is labeled with the name of Bristol Bay fishing district in which the salmon was harvested. It’s the ultimate in traceability. Boxes of supremely fresh frozen fillets and portions are of the highest quality salmon, and they’re delivered to your door, skin on, and already deboned. It’s incredible. It’s hands down the best salmon I’ve ever enjoyed.

You can learn more about Pride of Bristol Bay and support their important work by ordering your first box of frozen salmon, visiting their website over at PrideofBristolBay.com. Make sure you submit the discount code, fedandfit, all one word, lowercase, at checkout for $40 off.

Cassy Joy: Ok, so that’s step number one. The mindset piece. Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. This is probably what you’re here to hear. Two different versions of “here”.

Number one step. This is what I do when I’m recovering; maybe it’s a weekend girlfriend binge. Lots of wine. I was recently in San Angelo, Texas with my family and my sister-in-law and I; we put away some wine. It was kind of like one long Christmas party, and we just embraced it. And I don’t normally drink that much wine day after day. I have no regrets. I definitely didn’t feel good at the end of it. I didn’t feel super healthy. I ate a lot of foods that I normally wouldn’t eat. So when I came home. And this was a 10-day; we can call it a 10-day binge. Food binge. Too much wine binge. Not enough water. Not enough movement. Not enough sleep. I was just kind of a hot mess by the time I got home.

So, this is just a fresh example, but I have done this a lot. Try to get back on track. And this is what you do to recover. I want you to think about giving yourself one day. One day. I’m not saying that you need to carve out two weeks, 28 days, 30 days, whatever it is. I’m not saying you need to do that. I’m saying; give yourself one single day to do a concerted effort to recover.

What are we going to do on this one single day? Of course you know; spoiler alert. We’re going to bleed this one single day, and upsell it into a second day. And then a third day. And then after our fifth day, we’re going to be just fine. But think about one day to start.

Number one thing to do when you wake up on that first day back from your weekend away or you’re really indulgent time. You are going to wake up, and you’re going to move. You’re going to move your body. You’re going to put on your tennis shoes, and just go for a walk. If you can’t possibly think through what kind of a workout you might do, maybe just go for a walk. Maybe put on your shoes and go for a light run. Maybe do like I used to do, when I was first marathon training. I would run 30 seconds, walk 2 minutes {laughs}. I did that for a very long time, and it worked. I’m definitely not the athletic type, and that worked for me.

Maybe you sign up for a class, if you’re a gym junkie like I am. Gym junkie is not fair. A class junkie; that’s my preferred form of working out, so I sign up for a class. That’s kind of what I do. And I just show up. I have no plan. I know I’m probably not going to feel good. But I need to get a little movement in. I want to get my body moving. I want to get some of those toxins worked out of my muscles. I want to get a sweat in, and then especially the carrot that I’m chasing are those post workout endorphins. Because people who; what is the quote from Legally Blonde? “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. And happy people just don’t kill their husbands.” If anybody is also a Legally Blonde fans, you know what I’m talking about.

Endorphins make you happy. They really, really do. It’s a feel-good hormone. You’re going to get it after you workout. And that’s going to make the rest of your day making healthy decisions that much easier. So move; number one. First thing.

Number two. I want you to get home. Or on your way home from the gym, or wherever. Maybe you carried it with you on your walk. I want you to drink some water. Seriously drink some water. Think about drinking a good 60-plus ounces of water on this day. Especially day one. Because you’re going to want to flush it all out.

And you’re going to probably feel; if you’re not used to drinking that much water, you might feel a little bit like you were just thrown into the deep end of a pool, and you were just having to sip your way out of it with a little curly straw. So, just embrace it. Try to drink the water. Break it up throughout the day. But try to drink a bunch of it at the beginning of the day so you can front-load.

Number three; look around your house. This one is hard to do, but trust me on this. I’m going to hold your hand, ish. Emotionally I’m here for you. I want you to look around your house, and I want you to collect the temptations. I’m talking; the leftover Christmas cookies, the brownies sitting on the counter. I’m talking the Rice Krispies treats that you made for the kids’ school, and half of them stayed home. I’m talking about the half-opened bottle of wine.

I want you to collect all of that, and then go give it to your neighbor. {laughs} Seriously. Go knock on your neighbor’s door, and just offer it up. They will love you for it.

The next one I want you to do is I want you to go grocery shopping. Head to the store, grab some really fresh meats, veggies, root vegetables. And then I want you to get a head start on preparing your dinner. This is really important. Because I know that by the time dinner; maybe lunch rolls around. By the time dinner rolls around, you’re probably going to be hungry and so tempted to call Chinese. So tempted to call in a pizza. So tempted to just reheat whatever Stauffer’s lasagna is in your freezer.

But go ahead. Because you already started prepping dinner. You already started marinating those pork chops. You already prechopped the Brussel sprouts. It’s going to be easy. Stick everything in the oven and have it ready to go. Try to eat some leafy greens, and remember to embrace the suck. This is the last piece of advice.

Embrace the suck. It’s going to suck. Day one, it’s going to suck. But, the good news is, if you go to bed and you made good decisions all day long. You moved your body. You drank water. You ate some leafy greens. You ate really good healthy foods for yourself. You got over the fact that you didn’t actually cheat anybody or yourself, you just ate some foods that didn’t agree with you.

Your head is going to hit the pillow at night, and you’re going to feel like a weight has been lifted. And tomorrow, and making more healthy decisions, is going to be that much easier. It really, really is. And that’s how you upsell day after day, and doing better and better. I’m telling you, if it takes 5 days, don’t workout all five days. Maybe move your body all five days. You get up and you go for a walk some of those. It takes 5 days of really loving on yourself and giving yourself really good healthy treatment. You’re going to feel like a million bucks again. And you’re not going to feel like you lost any time.

Alright, that’s all I have for you. Thank you for joining me. As always, we’ll be back again next week.