Ep 32- How to Not Binge on Baked Goods

September 12, 2024

How I made brownies this week without binge eating them!

You deserve to peacefully enjoy baked goods and have them in the house without constant anxiety of overeating too.

So today I’m covering…

• my personal struggle with baked goods

• why baked goods can feel especially hard to have in the house

• 5 practical strategies to eat baked goods like a natural eater

• what to do when you have leftovers

 Hello, Confident Eaters! Happy Thursday! Today we're talking about how to have baked goods in the house without binge eating them. I made brownies this week. They were delicious, but I was not always able to feel this calm around having baked goods in the house.. So I'll probably be referencing brownies in this episode, but whenever I'm talking about brownies, what I really mean is this goes for any baked good and really any food.

You're going to learn some tools and strategies for how to have these foods in the house, whether it's baked goods or pizza or bread, or whatever you feel like is your thing that you have a hard time having in the house.

How I used to be around Baked goods and brownies in particular is I can never just have one I would have to have like at least a full row of them usually half the pan all at once Because I would go so easily into all or nothing mindset.

I thought I never get this food So what's time to go all out? And I would just keep going. Now I might have one or two, like I think I did have two the first day, but I feel so in charge of myself while I'm having the brownie. I don't feel like I'm not consciously making the choice. I feel empowered. I feel in charge.

I know I can make decisions that feel good to me and I can enjoy the brownie without guilt or shame or fear of What might happen from having that brownie? I just allow myself the pleasure of it and move the heck on.

So I want this for you, too. I want you to be able to have any food in the house without this fear or anxiety of binging on them because you deserve to enjoy baked goods peacefully if you want to and I mean baked goods are delicious whether they're just normal baked goods or maybe if you have a gluten or dairy sensitivity, having those in the house, just having some delicious treats in the house can be enjoyable and I want you to feel comfortable doing that.

So what can make having baked goods in the house hard? Is Typically when we bake, we are making larger portions of sweets than maybe we typically normally have in the house. So maybe you just have one chocolate bar in the house and now all of a sudden you have 20 cookies. And I know we're a little bit far away from the holidays at this point in time, but if you're listening to this later, maybe where you've hit the holidays and you're doing Christmas cookie baking, or you're making special breads and loaves of things, or a cake is happening or a birthday party is happening. So you're making a cake.

And if you are not used to having these larger portions of sweets in the house, it can bring up a little bit of anxiety. I like to compare this to If you, someone had a fear of snakes, and then they were just being put in a room of snakes, all of a sudden they would probably have a panic attack. When we are working on foods that trigger us, I use a process that's very similar to exposure therapy, where we start to slowly bring these things in amounts that feels good to you.

This is something that I go in depth into in my Confident Eater program. But the gist of it is we want to do it in a way, Or it's not going to feel overwhelming and so if it feels overwhelming to have all these sweets in the house at once that is normal and we can start to work your way up to feeling the comfortability of having something like 24 cookies in the house, but just because you might have some anxiety around this food does not mean you're not capable of eating it in moderation.

Your brain probably has a lot of memories of binge eating on these foods or overeating on these foods in, and having them in amounts that don't feel good to you. So because your brain has these memories and our brains are predictive machines, it is predicting that you'll probably binge on it this time.

But just because your brain is making that prediction right now does not mean it has to be true and does not mean you have to make that prediction a reality.

Something else I see that comes up is if you just live alone, a pan of brownies might just be too large of a portion to go through before they are bad. So if you are just eating one or two brownies a day when you make them, it's going to take a week to get through those and by the end of the week they might just start to be like really dry and crusty and like you don't even want those brownies anyways.

Because they're not really that good. That's something else to consider too. If it's just you in the home, we'll talk about some strategies that you can do for that. But maybe considering do I just want to make a mug brownie? There's so many recipes for just like making one. Or you can make cookie dough.

And have it in the freezer and just have a portion of cookie dough portioned out so you can just have one cookie at a time. I am clearly not that much of a baker. You could freeze the dough. I know that's a thing. I'm not exactly sure how they do it. But I know you can freeze cookie dough and just have a serving of it. So something that feels more manageable for you to have in the house.

What else is hard about baked goods is there might not be predetermined portions. So if you're having brownies or cake, you might be thinking I don't know how much to have. I don't know what's the right portion for me. Or you start by saying, I'll just have a little bit.

And then you end up having a whole half pan of it because you didn't really decide how much you were having. There was no clear portion or decision around how much you wanted. These foods also usually tend to be sitting out on the counter, on the kitchen island, somewhere that's in plain sight. And when you are seeing these foods all the time, your brain is going to think about them.

Now this doesn't mean you have to eat them just because you think about them, but just know we are very visual creatures. Vision is our primary sense, and so if we are seeing something out on the counter, especially if they're in like a clear container that they're easily visible, we're probably going to think about them a little bit more.

Another common issue that you may run into is if you are not used to baking these things often, you may have the sensation that thoughts of I never have this in the house. I don't normally have brownies or someone drops off baked goods at your house and you think I never make these for myself and that puts you into scarcity mode.

Scarcity mode is where you want to get it all in right now because you're not sure when you're going to get it again. Now, it might be true that you don't normally have these in the house, but you probably have good reasons for not having them in the house all the time. Even though I feel comfortable around brownies now, and I very much enjoy eating brownies, I still choose not to bake them all the time, Simply because there's other foods that I enjoy having.

So really showing yourself, if you don't have them in the house, why is that? Do you have a good reason for it? Because the truth is, you could go out and have brownies in your house every single day. If that's your favorite food, power to you. You can absolutely do that.

So the last thing I see is people will get in this energy of I made these brownies. I made this food, but I'm not really allowed to have any. This isn't really for me. I'm not supposed to eat this. This isn't really healthy. I made these, but I'm not going to allow myself to eat them.

What will happen then is they start to feel deprived and then you want to have some and so you'll do what I call Especially with brownies or cake is the brownie line cut Where you do a little cut of the brownies like a little teeny sliver you say, okay Just this and you quickly shove it in your mouth while you're standing up over the counters and then you say, oh, that was so good I really want more. I don't know. I'm gonna get these again. These are so delicious And so you do another brownie line cut, and then you do another and another until you've eaten through a whole roll of brownies or half the pan of brownies and you don't even recognize what happened or don't even remember eating them because you were so mindlessly just cutting away the whole time, feeling so much guilt and anxiety around doing it.

Okay, so I'm now going to give you five tips to have baked goods in your house without binging them.

The first thing you want to do is give yourself permission to eat them. Now, I know this is the scariest thing, but like I just mentioned, when you tell yourself, I can't have them, that rarely works. And you usually just end up having 10 times the amount that you would have if you gave yourself permission to peacefully and mindfully enjoy the brownie in the first place.

It is okay to have baked goods. There is nothing wrong with enjoying them. It's okay to sit down and taste a brownie just because it's joyful to do you are not doing anything wrong or bad for enjoying a sweet. Now, sure, I am not going to sit here and argue with you that sugar is not bad for you or it has any health benefit, but we don't always need to do something because it's the healthiest thing to do.

Watching TV is probably not the healthiest thing to do, but we do it anyways. We probably should be meditating and working out, but sometimes we do things just for joy and pleasure.

Sometimes we like to scroll TikTok and I can tell you for sure There is not always the most useful information on there, some things we are just watching funny cat videos of, and while it might not be drastically improving our life, it is bringing us a little joy.

So you can allow yourself to have food especially just for joy. And the key to having a food just for joy is making sure that you're eating it in joyful amounts. So it is not going to feel good in your body if you have half the pan of brownies all at once, right? That is when it becomes unjoyful. But having a brownie or two in a sitting, that can feel really good and enjoyable. And that can make it more fun and actually make it something that you feel comfortable giving yourself permission to do.

Now, the second thing I want you to do is decide how much you're going to have before you start eating it. So this is a big mistake that people make, is they just go into eating it especially when something, if the brownies aren't cut up yet or you have to choose your portion of cake that you're slicing, make a decision before you put it in your mouth.

Because if you're standing over the counter and just starting to eat cake from the cake pan, your brain is going to keep telling you that it wants more. It's not going to tell you, oh. I think this is the perfect amount, at least right now, as you start to build your natural eater skills, that will become something you can do.

But we decide how much we want ahead of time, not so we, because we're not allowed to have more after, but just to create that little pause. So I want you to decide what is your perfect portion. Not based on what diets have told you, not based on what your binge eating brain tells you, but what your true future self, if you could think about the you, who has your Dream eating habits.

Not your perfect eating habits, but your dream eating habits. How much would she have? What would they choose to slice out for themselves of a piece of cake when they want it and be intentional about it? So choose your portion of food you want scoop up your brownie or slice a cake put it on a plate in a napkin and Sit down with it. No eating from the container No Cutting the brownie lines or the cake lines Decide how much you're going to have and then intentionally sit down and eat it. This will help you so you can actually be mindful during it and enjoy the experience so you can get the satisfaction of it.

Now, after you finish that, if you decide you want more, that's okay. You're allowed to go back for more, but you must do this thing. You must take a few deep breaths, right? Really slowing yourself down, calming yourself down, and then make sure to still put it on a plate or napkin again. Don't say, okay, I want a second piece, but this time I'm just going to say, screw it and start eating from the cake box. No. Put it on the plate go sit down and mindfully eat it again because again That is going to make sure that you are actually enjoying it and getting the satisfaction that you came for from it.

The third tip I want you to do is to put these things away in a container. So I feel like when you have cake, it's normally in the fridge and I feel like that's okay so You know, maybe it's in a clear container, but so be it but when you have like brownies out in a clear like right now I have the brownies in the original pan they are baked in with saran wrap. I feel okay with that now, but I will say I am thinking about them more, because I literally see them every time I go in the kitchen. I see through the saran wrap and I see the brownies.

So in order to make this process easier for you, again, this isn't something you have to do forever, but just for now to make it easier for you, I want you to You know, slice up your brownies, take your cookies, and if you have a dark container, put them in that so you don't see them.

But just either way, put them in a container and put them in the cabinet. Put them away. We hold all of our other food in the cabinet. Why would we think it's weird to put cookies in the cabinet? Put them in the cabinet, and again, this is not to prevent yourself from eating them, but more to give yourself that space and to use it to your advantage that you don't have to see them 24/7. You have to really think ahead of time more about wanting the cookies versus just getting triggered from seeing the visual cue of them out.

Fourth, you want to stay out of your all or nothing thinking. So you are not ruining anything by having a baked good. You're not going off track. You're not being a bad person.

You have not ruined your diet. You are not super unhealthy now. Part of being a natural eater is having these foods in moderation. Right just for the purpose of joy

So reminding yourself that you truly can have these foods anytime you want. As a grown human You can go to the grocery store and buy more of this food. You can bake more food But you're making an intentional decision of when you want to have it and why you want to have it Not because you can't have it later. But because you genuinely want to feel good. Right? Again reminding yourself that You have other sweets in your life that you enjoy. So once the brownies are gone, it's not that you're never getting brownies again, so you better get them in all right now, it's just Oh, I also enjoy ice cream and I also enjoy chocolate, so I also want to include those foods in sometimes too.

And reminding yourself that this is not the only pleasure you are getting. You have pleasures in your life outside of food. And if you don't, have a conversation with me and we will start to work on that. Creating a pleasurable life outside of food.

All right, my fifth tip for you is if you are someone who lives alone or you frequently have a lot of leftovers of this food like for example, someone gives you a birthday cake You guys have two slices of it and you have A ginormous birthday cake left. If you tend to get the thoughts of I don't want this to go to waste So i'm going to eat it all now This is going to be for you.

I want you to think of what else you could do with this food. So maybe you could give it to your neighbors. I don't think any of us are talking to our neighbors enough This would be a great opportunity to say hey, I have some leftover cake. It's so delicious. I think you'd love it can I give you a piece right and give it to them if they eat or not? Whatever You're giving it away, and so it could have some use to someone else.

You could bring it to work to set out. So maybe you have a work kitchen that you can set it out for other people to enjoy. You can give it to a work colleague and say, Hey, I made these awesome cookies the other day, and I made way too many of them for me to eat. So I'd love to give some to you.

Dropping it off for family or friends giving them a cookie or two. So looking at this as a good opportunity for connection and sharing the joy. You don't have to necessarily have an entire thing of 24 cookies to yourself if you want to bake them fine But you can decide what else can I do with these so other people can get the pleasure for them, too.

Now, let's be honest after a few days of Having baked goods in the house they start to get a little bit dry and crumbly and less moist And they're just not as good and it might not be even worth it for you to eat it because who really wants a gross dry crumbly cookie.

One of my favorite things that I see in my clients is when they start to become more picky with foods. I had a client tell me the other day That they were out and someone had bought bakery cookies they were, like, good quality cookies, but when they looked at them, they just didn't look that good.

And so they just decided they didn't really want one. And this is what will start to happen to you too. Is as you start to give yourself permission to eat these foods, you'll start to only want the highest of quality things. As your baked goods start to dry out and just not be so good anymore, you might just need to throw them away. And if that is making you cringe right now, I get it. It is hard to throw away food.

No one wants to waste something, but you deserve the best of the best, and it's not a waste if your body doesn't need it. It's not a waste if you just really don't really want it anymore. It's not a waste if you're going to force yourself to eat all of this because you're scared of it going away and your body's Just going to turn it into fat then that is not a waste and if we are throwing away something We're feeling guilty about food waste because food waste is a big problem in our society.

I want you to remember this the food waste problem in the world is not being created Because people are natural eaters and throwing away their last crumbly brownie.

Food waste is a very big global issue caused by very many big businesses and the way our food is produced in this just do a quick research do a quick Google search on where food waste is created, and you will see it is not because you're throwing away your last bite of brownie, okay? It is a much bigger global problem than that, and that does not mean you need to be wasteful with your food, but just knowing that there's a time and place of recognizing that Our health and our well being is more important than trying to save an overeating on that last bite of brownie. It's really not doing anything helpful for us, our body, or the world.

So if learning to eat in moderation is something you want to be able to do with any food, and what I've said has resonated with you today, this is something I cover in depth in my Confident Eater program. I am currently open for a few more private clients, and when you work with me one on one, you're going to get in depth coaching for a total of six months.

So we really do this complete transformation of your brain and start to rewire it. So you can be someone who is this natural intuitive eater effortlessly. I know it sounds difficult, but I promise you it's so much easier than you might imagine. And I was someone too, who thought, No way I would be able to have baked brownies in the house and have them without binge eating on them. And now I can't. Now it's effortless. Now it's easy. Yes, I still enjoy brownies, but they don't have that same desire that they used to.

So I would love to help you stop overeating and binge eating so you can have these eating habits of your dreams. The first step in working with me is booking a free consultation call. This is where we go over your goals, your habits, we really do a full eating assessment for where you are now and see what's working for you, what's not working for you, why that is. And then I give you all the details of the Confident Eater program. So scroll to the show notes, you'll see a work with me page and you can book your free consultation call with me there.

Hope to talk to you soon. Otherwise, I'll talk to you next week.