One of the biggest challenges my clients face is bouncing back and forth between eating in alignment and then overeating to the point of numbing out and feeling sick.

This is one of the biggest challenges I’ve overcome, personally.

From my late teens to early 20s I severely restricted my food, sometimes to less than 1,000 calories a day, and then finally broke down and binged.

This turned into a vicious, repetitive cycle of “clean” eating then bulimic patterns.

Today I eat what my body is asking for and I almost never overeat. Really.

There’s just no appeal to overeating anymore, whether it’s kale or pizza.

It doesn’t feel good. I don’t get any joy out of it. I’ve done it enough times to know it’s never the move for my body.

No food is dirty or clean, it’s all just information that’s interacting with my unique body, and my body is always giving me vital feedback.

As you might be navigating overeating yourself, today, I want to make something very clear: It’s not that I never have the fleeting desire to keep eating beyond satisfaction and comfort, it’s that I respect my body enough to stop.

I have deep reverence for my body, and I know that overeating never serves me in any way.

I respect my body’s boundaries.

Just like you have boundaries in any relationship (or don’t, oops), there are boundaries within the relationship you have with your body.

With your loved ones, it’s not that you never want to cross a boundary to get your momentary needs meant, it’s that you love and respect the other person enough to honor their boundaries. Their no. Their stop.

You may have the desire to cheat on your partner when you see someone really attractive, but if you’re monogamous and you respect your partner’s boundaries, you’re not going to go through with it.

Wanting it isn’t wrong, acting on it is.

About a month ago I got some fresh apple cider donuts from a local farm stand in upstate NY and ate one. It was amazing.

I felt the sugar rush and for a minute I wanted another one right away, but my body said no. My body said stop. So I decided to wait, and the desire passed.

Another donut would not have felt good in my body.

It would have made me tired, sluggish, and numb.

This is not restriction, this is self-love and self-reverence. On a different day, two doughnuts might have felt great. That day, one was enough.

When you respect your body’s unique boundaries and needs, your relationship with yourself becomes your greatest source of support, stability, and love.

Today, do you respect your body’s boundaries around food?

There is no right or wrong answer, and there is no superiority or shame in either answer.

We are on this path together, moving toward the same goal of ever-deepening self-love and genuine health.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Much love,
Lula