How Bingeing Negatively Effects Your Salary: 5 Consequences to Avoid
Life itself is the proper binge. — Julia Child
You think your bingeing at night is just a personal problem, right? After all, you wake up in the morning and get yourself together, no matter how bad the post-binge brain fog is.
Your day probably was some version of this:
Breakfast — nothing, to account for the excess calories from the binge last night or the opposite end of the continuum and eating what you don’t really want to eat, but you’re not quite ready to get back on track, so…
Getting hungry at midday, so a coffee or diet soda or maybe even a smoothie might curb your hunger. If you’re still bingeing, donuts.
Lunch — you try to work through it and skip lunch or eat a salad, definitely no carbs. If you’re still bingeing, your go-to fast food.
Mid-afternoon slump time means either more caffeine or maybe an energy drink. If you’re still binging candy or some other sweet.
Dinner — by dinner your hunger has come roaring back and you’re famished. You want to eat everything in sight and taking the time to plan is out the window because now you’re just hangry. Maybe you have drinks with colleagues and that even further lets your guard down. Now you’re feeling the edge taken off, but that means you aren’t as cautious so, you eat until way past full. No matter, you got what you think you wanted and tomorrow you’ll start over with a fresh commitment and a heavy burden of regret.
This negative cycle is holding you back, personally and professionally.
It’s like you’re in a really bad relationship and you keep going back hoping that it will be different next time. The popular definition of insanity — to keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
The problem, from a career perspective, does bingeing rob you of focus, planning, creativity, etc.? Could you set your day up on a positive note?
Bingeing and shaming yourself go hand in hand. You might have even said something like this to yourself, piling on more shame in the process:
Instead of bingeing you could have gotten your work clothes & bag ready so you’re less stressed in the morning.
Instead of bingeing you could have spent some time catching up with a friend.
Instead of bingeing you could have read a book that deepens your understanding and awareness of how to maximize your interactions with colleagues.
Instead of bingeing you could have worked on your resume or social media presence.
Instead of bingeing you could have developed that great idea that popped into your head today.
How much time did you waste, first getting and eating the food and then feeling uncomfortable and lastly feeling bad about the entire situation and shaming yourself about it happening — again!
And, I’m sure there are lots of really good reasons to get your relationship with food back on track. Increasing your salary is one of them.
Getting focused on what you really want for your life is the biggest reason.
Here are some of the ways bingeing affects your salary and suggestions to solve each.
1. Difficulty with concentration.
It’s hard to focus when your body is struggling to operate without the fuel it needs to run well.
When you don’t operate at full capacity are you really going to put your best ideas forward?
Are you as quick to answer questions or make great suggestions in the next meeting — the meeting that will get you noticed as the next person in line for a promotion with a higher salary?
The Solution:
Even if you binged the night before, the best way to stop the cycle is to eat a well-balanced breakfast. This sets you up for following the natural rhythm of your energy needs throughout the day.
Take some time to allow yourself a bit of a brain break by consciously eating lunch and enjoying your break. Even if you spend 10 minutes stepping away from your desk, maybe get some fresh air and some natural sunlight too, it can help a great deal with feeling refreshed and ready for your afternoon.
2. Tendency to talk more about your diet and food.
Have you ever noticed that the more people talk about food, how food affects their body or the latest health kick they’re on, the more self-absorbed they seem?
While it’s great to be excited about changes you’re making for your health, are you colleagues genuinely interested? Even if they are interested, is it the best career move?
You want to be known for your work. Focusing on food draws attention to your relationship with food which is one of the most intimate aspects of your relationship with yourself.
The Solution:
Sometimes it’s best to keep certain things private. Lots of people are interested in the most current best way to eat.
But, there’s also way too many opinions and judgments about food. What if your boss is a diehard paleo person and you’re informing her that your diet guru says that’s a totally an unhealthy way to eat? Uh, not good!
Keep your focus on what you want to be known for, smart questions, creative solutions, kind and courteous interactions with colleagues. These are the things that matter to your career.
3. Over-focus on your appearance.
When you over-focus on your appearance are you more concerned about the image of who you want to be rather than who you are?
Do you want to portray the super successful person rather than doing the work to be a super successful person?
The Solution:
Limit yourself to 20–30 minutes to get ready in the morning. When you spend an excessive amount of time on hair, makeup, outfit changing etc. you’re reinforcing the negative things you say to yourself with each critical thought or comment.
When you limit yourself you also limit the negativity.
Use this time to listen to a great podcast, read a bit for self-improvement, do some meditation, etc. This will help you focus on what you need to do to get where you want to be.
4. Pre-occupied with food throughout the day.
When you’re thinking about food most of the day, it’s usually because you’re hungry and keeping food on your mind is part of our survival mechanism.
When you’re hungry and haven’t eaten and think about food a lot, it’s your body’s way to ensure you’ll get food when it’s available.
The Solution:
Eat regular meals, it’s really the only way to quiet the thoughts about food, so you can focus on your work.
It’s also helpful to have some snacks readily available that you enjoy and feel good about eating. If your employer does not provide snacks or if the snack bar isn’t helpful to you, toss a few things in your desk drawer or bag. Nuts, trail mix, dried fruit, energy bars, etc. are all great options to keep on hand and provide you with enough energy until your next meal.
5. Up and down moods give you a reputation of being moody.
Most people who binge or emotional eat tend toward eating high carbohydrate foods. When you start eating binge food it gives you a big rush of feel-good hormones that bathe your brain in the feel-good neurotransmitters.
That initial hit feels good while you’re eating, so you continue eating and the pleasurable feelings continue. There comes a point though when you feel stuffed and you have to stop eating. Since you’ve eaten simple carbs, they’re absorbed quickly and you crash.
This is the classic blood sugar rush and crash. The rollercoaster your body is on affects your brain with ‘happy, feel good’ and then ‘grouchy, irritable’ moods.
When you’re moody, no one knows what to expect.
In a work environment, it’s a huge advantage to be reliable and consistent. In many fast-paced jobs this might be the only thing that is consistent.
When you are the person who can be counted on to be clear-headed and calm under pressure, you become invaluable. Positive evaluations follow as well as movement up the career ladder.
When you experience a morning after the binge brain fog, the irritability continues and when you skip breakfast, it can get even worse.
The Solution:
One of the most overlooked ways to help yourself through this process is setting your intention for the day. You get to define how you want to respond to your environment.
We can’t always control what happens, like the accident on the freeway that delays you, your partner on the project who emails you to let you know her child was up all night sick and she won’t be in, your computer crashing and taking forever to reboot and restore your project, etc.
What you do have control over are your emotions and the actions you take to improve the situation as much as you can. When you set your intention that you will approach the day with fortitude, no matter what, you will move forward.
Another thing that can help, you probably guessed, use your morning time to eat a balanced meal too.
Conclusion
The ultimate solution is to become a Conscious Eater.
Conscious Eating gives you the pathway to stop binge and emotional eating for good. The pathway to get there is step by step, one meal, one feeling at a time.
If this article spoke to you, please head on over to my blog, consciousmindbody.com and I’ll send you the 5 Step Stress Eating Quick Stop and change your relationship with food forever!
