Stop food restrictions
A common trigger for bulimia patients is food deprivation. Restricting food intake can trigger a natural response. Your body can go into starvation if you don’t need your body’s nutritional requirements.
The habit of starvation can lead to binge-eating. It might seem counterintuitive but eating regularly in moderation helps greatly in preventing bulimia. Tend to your hunger, take care of daily nutrition requirements, and give your body the food it needs. You can even make a healthy plan and replace empty calories with healthy and whole foods to overcome the fear of gaining weight.
Identify all the triggers
Many people diagnosed with bulimia experience triggers such as binging, purging, vomiting, and exercising extensively. Anything can be triggering for a patient- it can a specific time of the day or a place. Emotions such as sadness, anxiety, stress, and depression can also lead to you repeating the cycle.
To stop the binge-purge cycle, you need to identify and learn all about the triggers. Address all the places that trigger a behaviour like this. After you have identified all the triggers, make a strategy to avoid them.
Be mindful
Keeping little habits in mind and being conscious and aware of your body can help to recover from bulimia.
Drinking plenty of water throughout the day helps your body both to recover from the damage done to your body, and to keep yourself fuller to minimize the chance of a binge.
Try to go slow when you eat, your body's natural hunger and fullness receptors will be dampened slightly and if you feel too full, you may be triggered to relapse. Also be aware that fullness isn't a bad thing and that your body is being nourished by the food you eat, whether the foods are "bad" or not.
Also try to keep a log of the food you eat, when you binge and purge, and why. Being aware of your habits can help you to better curb them.
Avoid the binge-purge cycle
One pattern of bulimia is binge-eating and purging later on either through exercising extensively or by vomiting. The painful pattern of exercising, vomiting, and using substances can sometimes be impossible to break. However, learning the triggers and recognizing the symptoms of this pattern can help you avoid it.
Keep eating in moderation and try working out regularly instead of purging or using substances to compensate for the empty calories. Stop the cycle of eat-purge-eat and get help from your treatment team.
