How to Avoid Binging on Thanksgiving: Tips From a Binge Eating Disorder Therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah
As a binge eating disorder therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah, I see a huge spike in anxiety around Thanksgiving and the holidays. Many of the women I work with don’t just worry about “overeating”; they fear losing control around food, slipping back into the binge-restrict cycle, and feeling intense shame afterward.
On the outside, they may look high-functioning and put-together. Inside, holidays can bring up dread: food fear, family comments, pressure to be “good,” and the belief that one day of eating will undo everything. For women who struggle with binge eating disorder or emotional eating, Thanksgiving isn’t just a meal, but it’s a trigger for old patterns and self-criticism.
This is why binge eating disorder treatment focuses less on rules and more on understanding the emotional and biological forces that drive binges, especially during high-stress, high-food situations like the holidays.
For some people, thanksgiving is a holiday they love and look forward to every year. They’re thrilled to cook and bake and to be around the people they love. For others, Thanksgiving is something they feel anxious about. They don’t have a good relationship with food and worry about the consequences of what they eat on this day. They struggle to be around their family which makes them uncomfortable. Everyone has a mixed experience on this holiday, and that’s ok.
One way people cope with uncomfortable feelings is through binging or restricting food. Even the average person, struggles to not binge or overeat on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is known as the meal that everyone binges on but that doesn’t have to be the case. If being uncomfortably full or binging is not your goal, I would love to help.
Why Thanksgiving Can Trigger Binge Eating and Food Anxiety
The most important thing I need you to know is that we aren’t creating a rule that you can’t overeat on Thanksgiving. Honoring and listening to your body in the moment is what’s important. If you don’t want to binge eat on thanksgiving, I have some tips for you.
Restriction Before the Holiday Meal Increases Binge Risk
Whether you eat your Thanksgiving meal at lunch or dinner, you might feel tempted to skip the meals before. You can either be trying to compensate for the meal you’ll eat later or you want to save room for your thanksgiving feast but this ends up being counterintuitive. Restricting meals often leads to overeating when you do eat. This causes you to be overly hungry, and you are more likely to binge on Thanksgiving dinner. Eat normally leading up to your meal if you don’t want to be prone to binging.
Permission and Satisfaction Reduce the Urge to Binge
When it comes right down to it, you’re eating to fuel your body and not to please other people. If you don’t like Aunt Susan’s green bean casserole, you don’t have to eat it. You don’t need to fill your plate (or your life) with things that you don’t really love and enjoy. Sometimes it helps to think beforehand about the foods you really look forward to on Thanksgiving. Plan on eating those because those are the things you like. Skip out on the food you don’t want or enjoy. You’re not alive to people, please. Take care of yourself.
Staying Regulated and Present Around Food
Take some deep breaths before you start your meal. Put down your fork between bites. Again, this isn’t a rule, and you aren’t trying to restrict food. However, if you’re trying to listen to your hunger and fullness signals it can help to go slow. No thanks to diet culture eating slowly is another trick to restrict. That’s not what we are trying to do here. Eating slowly helps you stay present and in tune. Eating food fast will have a higher likelihood of resulting in a binge.
Why “I’ll Start Over Tomorrow” Fuels the Binge-Restrict Cycle
If you’re going into thanksgiving dinner or any of the holidays with the mindset that the diet starts on Monday or in the New year, you’re going to not just binge for one meal. You’re going to binge all weekend long or for the rest of the year. Just the thought of restriction will lead to a higher likelihood of binging. You will get into “the last supper” mentality and won’t be listening to your body. Dieting leads to a rebound in weight gain plus some in 95 percent of people. Dieting is out and listening to your body is in.
Self-Compassion After Eating Prevents the Shame Spiral
In the end, it’s just one meal. Whether you overeat or binge, it’s ok. It’s one meal. It’s not going to ruin you. You don’t have to beat yourself up or give it any more thought. Be kind to yourself. You did the best you can. Berating yourself isn’t going to lead to long-term positive results. Try self-compassion instead.
Binge Eating Disorder Treatment in Salt Lake City, Utah Can Help
Binge eating disorder treatment in Salt Lake City, Utah can help you break out of the restrict-binge-shame cycle by addressing the emotional, biological, and relational roots of binge eating, rather than relying on willpower or food rules. If you find yourself stuck in a cycle of restricting and binging, it can be difficult to stop on your own. I’m sure you’ve tried. There’s nothing wrong with you because this is where you struggle. Working with a professional who specializes in binge eating disorder can help you stop the cycle. It can erode your self-esteem to keep bouncing back and forth between binging and restricting. There is a way out, and binge eating disorder treatment can help.
Begin Binge Eating Disorder Treatment in Salt Lake City, Utah
If Thanksgiving and the holidays bring up anxiety, loss of control around food, or intense shame after eating, you’re not alone. These patterns don’t come from lack of willpower; they come from years of restriction, pressure, and emotional coping around food.
I provide binge eating disorder treatment in Salt Lake City, Utah, for women who feel stuck in the cycle of restricting, binging, and then promising themselves they’ll “do better” next time. In therapy, we focus on understanding what drives the urge to binge, building emotional regulation, and developing a more stable, compassionate relationship with food.
If you live in Salt Lake City or anywhere in Utah, you can work with me through secure online eating disorder therapy in Utah, making it possible to get specialized support even if there isn’t a binge eating therapist in your immediate area.
To get started:
We’ll talk about what the holidays and food have been like for you
If it feels like a good fit, we’ll begin binge eating disorder treatment tailored to your needs
Many of the women I work with also struggle with body image, anxiety, and the emotional aftermath of dieting. These issues often overlap, and therapy can help you address them together rather than in isolation.
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in Utah
It’s important to be able to have access to a therapist that specializes in eating disorder treatment. There are many parts of Utah that don’t have an eating disorder therapist in their town. This is why I provide online therapy in Utah. It allows you to meet face-to-face with an eating disorder therapist over a video platform. It’s just as effective as in-person therapy.
I work with women across Utah who struggle with binge eating and food anxiety during the holidays, including clients in Salt Lake City, Provo, Logan, Ogden, St. George, and surrounding areas. For many, family gatherings, food-centered traditions, and comments about weight or appearance intensify the binge-restrict cycle and bring up shame, perfectionism, and fear of losing control. Through online binge eating disorder treatment in Utah, women are able to get specialized support even if there isn’t an eating disorder therapist in their immediate town.
Other mental health services at Maple Canyon Therapy
Binge eating disorder treatment isn’t the only counseling service provided at this Utah Counseling Clinic. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include EMDR therapy, birth trauma therapy, eating disorder therapy, body image therapy, and anxiety therapy. Schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation to see how I can help.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt is a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Maple Canyon Therapy in Utah. She has two bachelor's degrees: a degree in psychology and a degree in family life and human development from Southern Utah University. Ashlee has a master's degree in social work from Utah State University. She has worked with eating disorders at all levels of care from inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient. Ashlee loves helping women work through eating disorder recovery and find freedom from the anxiety they feel around food. When Ashlee isn’t doing therapy, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two Goldendoodles exploring Utah.