I ate too much! What do I do?

It was my father-in-law’s birthday today. It was my second day of trying to stop eating junk food. Guess what? I ate lots of junk food.

It was lucky that I had already planned for this. I gave myself permission to binge whenever there was a family gathering.

But I felt ill after. I already knew different types of cheese and rich chocolate layer cake doesn’t mix well in the tummy but it didn’t stop me eating when the food was in front of me.

Fortunately, if you’ve overeaten, all is not lost. This is what you can do after overeating:

Don’t beat yourself up about it

If you haven’t given yourself permission to have ‘off days’, you’re probably feeling uber guilty and beating yourself up about what a failure you are. Stop it!

I can tell you everyone who is trying to be healthier have failed more times than they can count. So what if you’ve given in and broke your promise to yourself not to eat junk?

Tomorrow is a new day. Restart your wellness mission.

Drink water

Water is a double edged sword after a heavy meal. Yes, you want to drink water. Especially if you’ve had too much salt. It dilutes the salt in your blood stream and hydrates you.

At the same time, drinking water will also dilute your digestive juices and make you feel even more bloated.

Don’t drink more than 4 to 8 ounces after a large meal. But make sure you continue drinking fluids throughout the rest of the day.

Oh yes, and keep away from gassy drinks. They will only bloat you up further and make you burp and fart like nobody’s business.

Go for a slow walk

A slow walk or even just standing will help stimulate your digestion. Sitting down will just make you feel more bloated and it will take so much longer for the food to digest.

Taking antacids?

Antacids like ENO and Tums are actually calcium carbonate. When you overeat, your stomach makes more acid juices to digest all the food coming through. Sometimes this results in heart burn.

Antacids, being alkaline, neutralizes the stomach acid and therefore, calms heartburn down.

At the same time, because it neutralizes the acid, your stomach doesn’t digest the food in it as efficiently and this results in a longer bloat time.

I would only take antacids if I felt really bad. Try just standing around for a bit and don’t lean back or lie down if you have issues with reflux.

Resolve to eat better next time

Overeating is not all bad. Be present in your suffering. Feel the bloat and yuckiness. Remember how bad you feel. And resolve to do better next time so you don’t have to feel this way again.

You should also go light on the next meal to give your digestive system time to catch up.

To wrap up

Binging always strengthens my resolve to eat better next time because it makes me feel so bad. I guess that’s why I allow myself to ‘binge’ every so often. It’s a bit like McDonald’s. Once in a while, you just need to have it so you realize how good life is without it.

 

2 thoughts on “I ate too much! What do I do?”

  1. Pingback: How to stop eating junk food? – Madame Well

  2. Pingback: Lifespan book summary: How to live longer and better

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *