Binge-eating disorder affects all of us differently. We all crave different foods and we all have different triggers.

Some of the common triggers are stress, some other emotional reactions to something being around your trigger foods and also being presented with your trigger foods.

My Instagram Explore page is actually particularly bad for that.

But I have had a few moments where I’ve actually had some of the weirdest binge triggers in my past. These were binges triggered by something completely random, completely out of the blue and completely unexpected. Here are my five most unusual ones.

Listening To A Podcast About Binge Eating

Number one, listening to a podcast about stopping binge eating.

I really got into podcasts in the last couple of years. It was awesome to discover there are a few around binge eating disorder that are designed to help you with it.

I was a little bit horrified or disturbed or whatever the right word is here to discover that listening to people, talking about their binge eating disorder and the actions of eating was actually starting to trigger cravings and binges in me.

It’s weird because I can listen to people talk about food without any problem. I can listen to people talk about eating without any problem. But when I listened to people talk about the physical act of eating foods, it seems to trigger cravings in me.

So I’d be listening to this podcast and then suddenly have this huge craving for just something completely random. The first time it happened, I didn’t connect with two.

I just thought it was a one-off.

The second time it happened, I thought it was a little bit weird. The third time, I was just confused.

The fourth time it happened, I started to make the connection and the fifth time is kind of where I figured out this is actually an issue.

I still don’t know why it happens, but I’ve had to be a lot more mindful of what I put into my ears now and it is probably one of the weirdest binge triggers out there.

A Tough Workout

Second, on my list is after exercising. I suppose it’s not that uncommon because you’re tired, your blood sugar is going to be hit, and the glycogen in your muscles is going to be depleted. So your body will want something.

But for me, there have been times where I’d go from, rather than just eating something that’s going to support my recovery and get back the fuel I just burned off, to eating literally anything and everything I can get my hands on.

You know, I guess there is part of it, which is down to that sort of reward centre in the brain saying you’ve just burned off a load of calories. You need more, but not to the extent of the calories I was taking in when I would binge after exercise.

I’ve been able to stop this one fairly early on. My post-workout meal is pretty much set in stone now.

I have a protein shake blended with the banana and 15 grams of dark chocolate.

And because it’s fixed and tangible and I’ve made it a habit now, my brain doesn’t really question it. So I’ve been able to kind of nip that one in the bud.

The Day After A Binge

Next is the day after a binge.

This one hasn’t happened to me in a while, but in the early days, there were occasions where the day after a binge, I would actually just binge again because of how I felt from the first binge.

I mean, the day after a binge, if you’re feeling guilty, if you’re feeling a little bit of shame, you’re feeling stressed, you’re feeling self-loathing, your brain is primed from those emotions to want to do something about it.

And if you’re already prone to binge eating disorder, binge eating might actually be one of its go-to solutions.

In my case, it was also that feeling of failure. It was that feeling of having messed up the previous day so that self-loathing kind of constantly played on my mind. And that led to looking at food to try and overcome that.

I can’t really explain how but consecutive days of bingeing were very, very rare for me. So I didn’t have to explore this one too much or come up with another solution for it, but it did happen.

Getting Called Skinny

Next is when I get called skinny. I could probably go on for hours and hours about my issues and my history with weight and body image, but that’s a whole separate tangent. Just suffice it to say that we’d need to unpack a lot.

But despite being at a healthy BMI, despite being at a moderate to low body fat percentage, and in most places fitting into a size small t-shirt I still feel like I’m in a constant battle for losing weight. I don’t really know why, but

I guess it’s just an ingrained condition at the moment.

So that is something else I’ll be working on. Just not at this immediate moment.

So when someone compliments me and says I’ve lost weight, or I look slim, two things kind of happen in my head.

Number one is that because I feel like I’ve made progress, for lack of a better word I feel like I can “get away” with a binge Or with less nutritional discipline.

And number two is that for some reason, I also start to question if I’ve lost too much weight too quickly. And I end up trying to increase my calories a bit, screw up my nutrition plan and end up bingeing.

The last one on the list…

When I Feel Too Happy

When I feel too happy. Yeah. This one’s a hard one to explain.

I think when I’m in a setting where I feel comfortable and relaxed and everyone around me is feeling comfortable and relaxed and enjoying food freedom, I get on board with that as well.

And I think somewhere in the back of my mind my thoughts follow this pattern. They tell me to enjoy this freedom tonight. “I’m not going to do it tomorrow, let me just make the most of it now.”

So then that eventually leads to a binge. It’s not the same kind of way I would do it as I would when I’m on my own at home.

But it does still happen.

I’ve done it at Christmas. And at Easter. It’s happened to me at weddings too.

I actually remember I went to a wedding once and I drove on my own. And I was fine going there. I was fine there.

And then it got to dessert and I had a lot and on the 30-minute drive home, I had to stop the car twice and get out and walk around just because of how uncomfortable I was feeling in my stomach.

So yeah, apparently when I’m happy and relaxed, I’ve also been prone to binges before – also one of the weirdest binge triggers for me.

Other Weirdest Binge Triggers

Those are what I would probably call my most unusual binge triggers. If you have any that you’d like to share, please do feel free to let me know as well.