For years I believed planning my meals was the key to overcoming binge eating. Every therapist, book and recovery plan seemed to say the same thing: plan your meals, plan your snacks, plan your life.
But no one warned me that planning itself can be a binge trigger.
When I first started treatment for binge eating, my therapist gave me a structured meal plan: three meals and three snacks a day, prioritising protein and nutritious foods. It sounded perfectly sensible. Yet even as I followed it, my binges didn’t stop. In fact, I started gaining more weight and feeling even more out of control.
Looking back, I can see that what I was really trying to do was control my food, not support myself with it. Planning felt like code for control, and my inner rebel hated that. Even when I was “doing it right,” part of me was already rebelling against the plan.
The problem is that for many of us, planning feels like “Day 1” of another diet. Our nervous system remembers all those previous attempts and braces for restriction. Even well-intentioned, “sensible” planning can lead to what I call insensible overeating, because underneath it all, we’re still trying to get it right.
These days, I prefer to think in terms of rhythm rather than planning. Our bodies like rhythm — a sense of predictability without rigidity. It’s about creating structure that supports you, while still leaving space for freedom and permission.
If the idea of food planning makes you tense, you’re not alone. I’ve made a video about how to create rhythm without restriction, and how to stop planning from turning into another diet.
