How to Stop Overeating, Binging, and Overindulging in Cravings

How I Stopped Overeating and Beat Cravings by Balancing Blood Sugar and Healing Hormonal Imbalance.

What to watch this in Video format? Look at my YouTube Channel!

If you feel like you're always craving sweets, always thinking about food, or battling the urge to binge — you're not broken. I was there too, and today I’ll tell you how I finally stopped.

It had nothing to do with willpower — it was all about my blood sugar and hormone health.

How I Overcame Overeating

My journey with food and nutrition started when I was as young as 14 years old. I remember spending most of my high school and college days "dieting" to stay skinny. I remember always having the worst food cravings ever and feeling like a total failure because I always seemed to succumb to my cravings. 

Oftentimes, I would end up overeating and feeling awful both physically and mentally. It was a cycle that I constantly found myself in and it wasn't until I started getting serious about my fitness journey when I actually started to see changes. You see, I had gotten to a point after college where I had studied nutrition, worked through my own disordered eating, and started seeing my own clients and I honestly didn't care too much about being "skinny". I wanted to be strong, athletic -- like I was growing up and playing sports in high school and at the junior college I went to in freshman and sophomore year of collage. I missed my athleticism. 

That's when it all changed for me. I started eating more, more often. I prioritized protein. I let myself have a snack and usually it was a pretty filling one. I started to notice that I no longer craved things and I had a new found skill of self-control around food. This is something that I immediately incorporated into my practice with women once I had had a few years of clinical practice as a dietitian and went to open up my own holistic wellness company for myself. 

These strategies have helped me and so many of the women I coach -- I hope they help you as well!

Root Causes of Overeating and Cravings

• Blood sugar instability

  • When blood sugar constantly spike, that can be a reason for blood sugar also crashing later and people finding themselves on the "Hangry Train". This train is a fast track to over eating, fatigue, irritability, crashing after meals.

• Under Eating Throughout the Day

  • When you skip meals or skimp out on meals and have SUCH small portions for breakfast and lunch, your blood sugar drops, raising your cortisol and causing you to have major cravings later in the day. Around 3-5 pm is the usual craving time I see with clients. That time as well as 8-10 pm. 

• Adrenal fatigue

  • "I was constantly in fight-or-flight mode — no wonder my body was desperate for quick energy."

• Dehydration

  • We often get our hunger cues and being dehydrated mixed up because the symptoms and feelings are often the same.

• Lack of Protein

  • 90% of women are not eating enough protein. Heck, most women I meet in my practice are eating less than half of what they should be eating per day when it comes to protein. Protein is the most filling of all the macronutrients. We cannot skip out on this one! It is what keeps us feeling full and satisfied. Having more of it also helps with our blood sugar as well. 

Steps to Balancing Your Cortisol and Insulin to Get Rid of Cravings

• Step 1: Prioritized balanced meals

  • (protein, fat, fiber, slow carbs) 

  • Eating at least 500 calories at breakfast and at least 500 at lunch (this is individualized and varies based on person and goals -- I am just giving you a ball park estimate here)

• Step 2: Eat regularly and let yourself have a high protein snack when needed (no extreme fasting early on)

  • Keeping my body reassured that food was coming was huge for calming cravings.

  • Eating regularly and not skipping meals helps us to having balanced hormones that keep us from having huge cravings and overeating. 
  • Leptin and Ghrelin are controlled by hormones because they themselves ARE HORMONES! Leptin tells your body when you are full and satisfied. Ghrelin tells your body when you are hungry. Usually those who are obese struggle with leptin resistance. Thus, never feeling satisfied with a meal. 

• Step 3: Supported adrenal health

  • Your adrenal glands are what make and produce your stress hormones -- particularly, cortisol! This hormone work with insulin to support all other hormones in the body (yes, even ghrelin and leptin!)

  • It is important to support the adrenals not only because you want to support cortisol levels, but because they adrenals can very easily use up hydrating minerals, such as magnesium, sodium, and potassium. 

• Step 4: Tracked how foods made you feel

  • It wasn’t about rules — it was about listening to my body for the first time.

  • Slow DOWN! at your meals. Chew each food thoroughly and at an applesauce consistency. Make sure that you are not distracted while you eat because that can make you overeat. 

Expect Results

• No more all-day cravings.

• Natural appetite control (no "white-knuckling" it).

• More energy, better mood, more mental clarity.

• Weight loss.

It's NOT too Good to be True

If you’re stuck in the cycle of cravings and overeating, it's not your fault. Stabilizing your blood sugar and supporting your body can truly change everything.

Watch My FREE Masterclass on the 5 Things that are Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Journey with Hormone Imbalances HERE!

Stay Healthy!

Sara