Binge Eating Breakthrough with Nadege Saysana

The moment you realize you’ve eaten “the whole bag” can feel like failure but what if it’s just a predictable pattern your brain has been running on autopilot? We sit down with coach Nadege Saysana to unpack binge eating through a lens that’s both compassionate and practical, especially for women who lift weights and want their nutrition to match their strength goals. We get honest about the shame cycle, the all-or-nothing mindset, and why chasing the “perfect diet” can backfire.

We dig into the restrict-rebound loop: not eating enough during the day (sometimes unintentionally), trying to be the “good girl,” and then crashing at night when willpower is drained. Nadege explains willpower like a phone battery and shows why evenings are when cravings, mindless eating, and emotional eating hit hardest. From there, we shift into tools that actually help: mapping the thoughts that create feelings, spotting the real trigger (boredom, overwhelm, loneliness, exhaustion), and using awareness to interrupt the automatic “one bite to whole bag” spiral.

We also explore the idea that cravings are clues, not character flaws. Sometimes they point to emotions, and sometimes they point to needs in the body (like magnesium). We talk about tiny, sustainable habit changes, bringing pleasure back to food through mindful eating, and why safety matters if your history includes scarcity or trauma. Nadege shares a simple calming approach from having techniques that can help your nervous system settle in the moment.

If this resonates, check out Nadege’s masterclass at MiloBingeFix.com/masterclass and connect with her on Instagram at nadegesaysana.coaching. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a softer path to change, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Meet Nan And Define Binge Eating

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello there and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole, and I'm so excited to be here today with Nan. So, Nan, um, take it away. Tell us a little bit about you and about who you help. This is going to be a very different episode than what we usually do, but I think it's an important topic. So please take it away, Nan, and tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Yes. So, first of all, thank you so much for having me here. It's an honor and a pleasure to be with you. Thank you. And so, who I help? Well, basically, I help women, especially women who lift, so who go to the gym and who lift weight. But what the important part of it is that I help them stop binge eating. And for those of you who don't know what binge eating is, it means that they eat more than they want to. So it's basically they're overeating, but it's overeating in a special way. It's not grazing throughout the day, snacking, etc. in the morning, in the afternoon. But it especially takes the shape of uh overeating uh a lot of food and in a very short amount of time. And basically after that, they usually feel shame, they usually feel guilt, right? So it's a little bit different from grazing, although there are lots of commonalities with that, uh, in the fact that uh we feel guilty, that very often we gain weight, and then we also have an opinion about that. So that's who I help because that's also my story. I always wanted to lift weights and look strong and be strong, and I was strong and I am strong, but as to the looks, it never quite um materialized because I was also being cheating at the same time. And we know that uh abs happen in the kitchen, and of course, this behavior was preventing me from actually looking better the way I wanted to. It was not just a vanity issue, it was also you know, feeling bloated, feeling heavy when I didn't want that for myself. So that's what I learned for myself, what how not to do this anymore. And uh that's now what I help my clients do.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

That's amazing. And binging can happen in a lot of different forms, not just in food. Um, so I think that it's important that we talk about the underlying mindset, right? Because it's something that can affect us and we might not even know that we're doing it. Um I love that you work specifically with people who lift. Um, I would like some advice on lifting because I want to get into lifting. Um, because that's definitely one of the things that I like to incorporate more of um is is you know, weights. But let's talk about the mindset underlying um, you know, what we're talking about here. Because at the end of the day, I don't think it's a food problem. I think it's a mindset problem. So can we talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Totally. No, I love that. You're spot on. Because we, yeah, it would make sense to think I have a food

Why It’s Not A Food Problem

SPEAKER_01 3:05

problem, I have a food addiction, I'm dependent on food. That's what I used to think so for so long. For 30 years, I used to think, okay, I need to do something about food. And uh, but actually, it was not the problem at all, as you said. So, because but I thought it was, so of course, I I kept turning to diets and trying to restrict my food, trying to control my food, trying to pick the perfect food, you know, the the good foods. What we talk about um from a nutritionist point of view, which is so interesting too. Um but actually, yes, you're quite right. It had nothing to do with food. I just happened to turn to food because it was available to me. It's so easily accessible in our societies. I live in France, and it's just like in so many western western countries, food is everywhere. So that's why I was turning to food. But I agree with you, for so many people, it's actually binge watching, been watching TV series, binge watching Netflix, binge strolling. We don't call it this way, by the way, but it's it can be the exact same behavior. You start and you can't stop. That's really what it is. And for my clients, it's we start with one bite, and then it's as if, oops, the whole bag, the whole box, the whole bar is gone, and we haven't even consciously eaten, chosen to finish it. But it's this automaticity, this mindlessness that we experience with food, but as you said, with TV, with screens basically, but also for some people with alcohol, right? Yeah, it's the same mindset. You're so right.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yes. Um, so what do we do? Like, how do we how do we notice? And how what are some of your tips that can help us break free of these binging cycles? Like yeah, okay, I have another question, but we'll we'll answer this one and then we'll go to that one.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Okay, okay, right. So, yeah, tips to break free. Right, the very first one is to really understand the pattern. And very often the pattern, it was for me, it's it's the same for so many of my clients. It's that throughout the day we tend to restrict. We can restrict for various reasons. Some of my clients don't even realize they're not eating food during the day because they're used to not eating food during the day, because they're so busy with work, that when night comes, they they're feeling famished and they have plenty of time. So they tend to eat, but then to overeat, and then it's all they do in the evening. For me and for so many of my clients, it's actually no, we're going to be good today. Today, I'm going to control the amount of food and the type of food that I eat, and I'm going to be good. I'm going to be strong. I'm going to be uh the one who knows exactly what she puts inside her body, how she feels herself. But come back when the evening comes, when night comes, then I'm tired of being strong. I'm tired of being the good girl. It's really like this rubber band effect. It's just like you stretch, you know, you you make it so tight throughout the day that

The Restrict Then Rebound Pattern

SPEAKER_01 6:20

in the evening it's nuts. You can't control it anymore. And so you give yourself a free pass. And if there's biscuit, popcorn, chocolate, you name it, then I'm going to tell myself, okay, I've been good all day, now I can't take it anymore. I'm going to turn to food. It's also a willpower question. Very often my clients come to me and say, I have no willpower whatsoever. But actually, they do, they do have willpower. It's just that willpower is like a battery, like a phone battery, for instance. You use it all day. In the evening, of course, it needs recharging, nothing's gone wrong. But so when we want to use willpower in the evening, it doesn't work because it's not the best time to use it. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

You haven't eaten all day. You've had the willpower to not eat the whole day, and then you're like, I don't have willpower. Like, yeah, you're just not noticing where it's going. That's such a good point.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Right. So that's the first tip I can give your audience is just to notice that nothing's gone wrong, that it makes sense that you turn to food in the evening, either because you didn't feed yourself properly, because you were just busy with other things. And of course, your body's screaming for food, doesn't want to starve, it wants to protect you. So it makes perfect sense. But then if you feed yourself regularly, consistently, with the right type of foods, the best type of food for your body, for yourself, and still in the evening you turn to food, it's because, as you said, you have a mindset thing. And then my advice is just to pose, and it might be difficult in the moment, so it doesn't matter if it's after the fact, it's okay, it makes perfect sense, it's fine. But posing after the facts and try to explore what was going on. We know you said it so well, and I totally agree with you, it's a mindset issue. So, what was going on that made food the solution to whatever you were experiencing? And for a lot of people, in the evening, they feel bored, they feel overwhelmed, they feel lonely, they they they also uh are completely exhausted. And so food can be a way to keep their brain stimulated so that they can keep on working, they can keep taking care of the kids, but also it may be entertaining when they're feeling bored. It may be solving, you know, kind of um uh filling um a void when they're feeling bored or empty after such a long day and after taking care of other people. Um or it can be something to distract themselves from the stress or the overwhelm that they're perhaps experiencing when they tell themselves, okay, I've got so many other things to do, and it's not even the end, you know, I and I also want to go to bed. And so food becomes a coping mechanism, overeating becomes a coping mechanism, but not to feel those emotions that are very normal, very natural for any human being. Just like scrolling a screen can be a normal coping behavior, but not one that serves us in the long run. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Um, and also control. Um, I had the opposite problem in high school where I just stopped eating. Um, and you know, the doctors were, you know, talked to me about it and they said that it was a control thing. Because as a as a kid, it's one of the only things that you can control. Um, you know, because you can't decide if you're going to school, you don't decide if you're you know, you don't decide your homework, you don't decide all these things. And so suddenly now you're you're having you're feeling out of control. And so I think that even as adult women, we could relate to that because there's so many things that are pressed upon us that we have to handle. And then the only thing we have left to control is food. And it's it's not a fun, it's not like a good control, but um, it gives you some sense of of you know holding on to something. And so, so yeah, and so it is it is that that mindset thing. So how do we heal that? How do we how are we able to um create new habits, right? Because like you said, if you're starving yourself all day, you know, there's things that you could do. Like I know one of the things that I do is I started prepping food for myself the day before, like maybe boil some eggs so that I have it in the morning. So I open the fridge, I'm like, oh, I don't have to cook anything, I can just eat it, right? Because that's like an ADHD thing. But what are some of the other things that we might be able to do, like um to help us create these new habits to support a healthier food, you know, relationship with food and a healthier life?

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Absolutely. That's exactly what it is: a better relationship with food. And I love what you said that as kids, the only thing we think we control is the food we eat. It's an illusion, but it's it feels like control. Yes, because actually there are many more things that we can control. True, we can't control what our parents decide for us, we can't control what our boss tells us to do or not to do, uh, whether we promote it or not, we can't control the weather, we can't control the governments, so many things are out of our control, but we don't need to stop there. There are also so many other things we can control. So, one thing could be yes, what we do or what we don't do. As a kid, you chose to not eat when before you used to eat, and when after, after that episode, you chose to eat again, right? So you had control over those different um actions that you took or didn't take. Uh, and also we don't know this, but I think this is such an important thing, and it was such a mind-blowing moment for me when I realized that we also have the power of our own emotions. And it's super important because I thought if it was raining, of course I was feeling, you know, a bit angry, a bit grumpy, but it had nothing to do with that. It was because I was thinking, oh, I prefer it when it's sunny. When it's sunny, I like the sunshine on my skin, things like that. I don't really like the drops on my skin. Uh, but those thoughts were optional. And those thoughts, I don't like that, are what are what uh wasn't are what is or are what are making me

Emotions, Control, And Evening Triggers

SPEAKER_01 12:55

feel a particular way. Our thoughts create our feelings, and that's super important because the way I feel makes me behave a certain way or makes me not do other things. And this is what we have control over. So we don't always know that because who's aware of what we're thinking? We don't, there are so many things happening in our head that we don't choose on purpose. Sometimes we do, but it's not the majority of the time. Lots of our thoughts, those little sentences in our brain are so automatic. Some of them come from our upbringing, some of them come from what we hear on TV. When we hear commercials saying that chocolate is the best thing ever, ice cream is exactly what you need. We tend to believe that, right? And so those thoughts, however innocent they may seem, are actually what make us feel a certain way, like maybe a desire, a craving, an urge for ice cream. And that's what's going to drive us to the freezer when we think, yeah, that when we're experiencing something that we don't quite like. But what's super important is that then we can take um, we can change those habits, these thoughts, uh, feelings, and actions by first becoming aware. And we can do it very simply by just writing down on a piece of paper or talking on a dictaphone and saying what we're thinking, whatever's coming to our mind without censoring ourselves, without editing, just like, okay, what was happening? And just boop, just like we empty a bag on a on a table, we do the same with whatever's in our mind. And then we can sort them out, um, and deciding, okay, what's what's actually helping me, what's not helping me. If I think ooh, chocolate is the best thing ever, well, of course that's going to lead me to the kitchen. Is that what I want? And is that true? Is that always true? Is that are all chocolate equal?

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Tell me. Oh, um, there's something interesting though, because I used to get cravings for chocolate, and then I learned that I needed magnesium. And so when I got magnesium, I don't crave chocolate anymore. Um, and so sometimes our cravings are trying to tell us something. So, yeah, but not all chocolate is created equal. You're right, because once I had magnesium, I was good. I don't need chocolate.

unknown 15:16

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yes, that's exactly what I teach my clients. Urges, cravings are clues, signals, messages that tell you something either about what your body needs, in your case, magnesium, or what we're experiencing in the moment. It's just like, as I said earlier on, boredom, loneliness, you know, stress, anger, frustration, whatever. So being aware that actually it's not random that I'm doing this, it's because I've learned that loop that going through those thoughts, feelings, and actions, that's what it is. So being aware, I think, is super important. It's like instead of you know trying to walk in a room in the dark and of course bumping into furniture and and tripping, etc., we switch on the light and we see what's around us so that we can arrange it if we want to the way we want to. So I I think that's super important. It's quite simple, but it quite can be really life-changing. And then I love what you said earlier on like getting food ready before the day before, taking it small. Um, what is the smallest thing I can do for me for tomorrow? Because of course, if I've created this pattern of overeating at night, well, chances are tomorrow I will want to overeat, to reach for the popcorn or the pizza or whatever. So, what can I do today, knowing that that will happen? What strategy can I put in place? And I love that we can start by making it small. I know lots of people, if they're perfectionists like me, they want to get a 360-degree change overnight. But is this realistic? Probably not. And so it's the tiny step that we know we can actually take that's sustainable, that we think, oh yeah, I can do that. Right. And then it's like uh interval training. If you if you ran, you know, interval training can be part of the training for marathon. It's just you challenge yourself to run very fast for a limited amount of time, and you do it again and again. And because you do it, you train your body to sustain that effort. And it's the very same, with a very tiny thing. It could be okay, tomorrow, well, for tomorrow, I'm going to put an apple on my table so that I think about eating an apple because I'm probably

Awareness Tools And Tiny Habit Steps

SPEAKER_01 17:40

hungry at night. That's it. If it's doable, perfect, you do that. But it really needs to be realistic and also loving. What I used to do was to plan to have, you know, just a salad, but by salad I meant just a bunch of lettuce leaves, and that's it. That's not realistic, that's not kind for myself. So, but that's something that we learned. So not appetizing.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Also, also if you throw some strawberries, some pecans, a little bit of cheese wrinkled, the a few more things, now you're gonna have a nice salad, right? But if it's just a bunch of lettuce with nothing on it, well, of course you don't want to eat it. You're not a rabbit.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Absolutely, and you're touching on something very, very important because if you've experienced diets like I had, when you're in that mentality where food is kind of punitive, either it's you know, um, a lot of food and you give yourself anything that's was forbidden and you have too much of it, or you only focus on good foods, but that that you may see as boring foods. But what if we invited pleasure, the pleasure of eating again in our normal life, in our everyday life? Not just you know, when we've been good, when we want to reward ourselves, but all the time, because food is meant to be pleasurable, and we can really emphasize the pleasure we get out of eating food by slowing down, really focusing on the food sensations, you know, the senses, all the senses, the sense of uh, you know, hearing the crunch, but also the smell, but also the texture and so on in our mouth, but in our hands, so that we are so satisfied that yeah, reaching for more doesn't make sense. And we actually notice that we stop earlier on. So, yes, really bringing back pleasure in our life around food, but also around so many other things. I love to have a pleasure plan for my clients. What else makes you feel good in the evening or throughout the day? So that you fill yourself up with so much pleasure from everywhere that come the evening, you're fine actually. You don't crave, you know, comfort or pleasure. You've given yourself plenty of this.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, and um something that I thought of is what if it's a trauma response? And we feel like we have to eat because I remember being like very broke, like homeless, you know, like I don't have a home broke. And when you're in a when you're in a situation where you're so focused on lack, you're like, I have to eat as much as I can because I don't know when I'm gonna eat again. And so recalibrating our our homeostasis to be safe, because if we feel safe, we can say, okay, I'm gonna leave the rest of this food. If you are, you know, in in a vibration of abundance, I don't have to finish this food because I know there'll be more later. But if you're in a in a trauma response and you're focused on life, you're like, I have to eat it all, or I'm not gonna have any later. And and then so there's also that underlying. So it's so important to focus on healing the mindset, healing the body. And it kind of all comes together because I I remember being on a lot of yo-yo diets and and doing a lot of stuff and really learning to eat. Like if you're gonna go out with your family, you're going out for pizza, like you don't have to eat all pizza. Like, what if you ate some pizza and then you had some salad with it, you know? And so adding some variety, because now, like you said, there's more, there's more to enjoy, learning to enjoy the texture, the different taste. Like I've fallen in love with vinegary things. I don't know why, but now you know, like uh like pickled onions is like one of my new favorite things, and that is so good for you, but it adds like this this different, you know, this uh this flavor and this crunch and um and you know, all the probiotics and all that good stuff that's good for your belly, right? And really getting to learn to enjoy, like you said, um you have to be able to be in the present, right? And that requires a healthy mind. You have to be able to feel grateful for every every every bite that you take and enjoying it and knowing I'm I'm gonna be able to get more food. Those all the conditions have to be met so that we can be in that pleasure, right? Because if you're not sure where your next meal coming from, you're not gonna care how crunchy the salad is. I just need this right now. So yeah, it's just so important to to heal, to, to create a place of safety, like you said, so that it becomes an enjoyable experience, you know, all of these things. Eating, eating well, eating things that are good for you, learning to enjoy like cutting your vegetables and participating in the prep and getting to feel

Pleasure, Safety, And Calming The Brain

SPEAKER_00 22:45

all the things and you know washing your hands when it's yucky. Yeah, but all the things, yeah, because food is such an important part of life. And I remember being in a place where I'd be like, why do I have to eat so many times? Like this is so frustrating. And so learning to create systems for myself because like at night I know I tend to be more like I'm gonna cook, I'm gonna do this. So that's what I started doing. I was like, okay, I don't want to cook in the morning. So I'll cook something while I'm in my active phase. And then tomorrow in the morning I can eat that thing and I don't have to actually cook anything. And so I I found little little ways to to help myself and and when you actually eat the whole day you're right like the end of the day comes and you don't feel ravenous. And so you can just eat a regular portion and you're like all right and then you know hey at breakfast I'm gonna have some food. So your body's not like ah give me more food. Yeah so it's a beautiful balance and it's it's learning learning to heal and learning to be healthy again. Right. So yeah. Yeah I love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

I love that I love what you said about yes this lack and this abundance and we forget that between lack and abundance there's also sufficiency. And what I like to do, I've been recently certified in havening techniques it's not very well known but haven't techniques is basically using the sense of touch to calm the brain down. We know how important the sense of touch is for babies especially premature babies but I didn't know it was also important for us grown ups. And so basically you can do a self-hug as if you were you know hugging yourself putting your hands on your shoulders and going down to your elbows and that creates a safety butt safety feeling in the brain with the delta waves and and so on. And you can actually use that also to tell yourself I'm safe now right so that yes I may not have all the food and everything I want right now but right now in this moment in this present moment I'm okay and you can repeat to yourself I'm okay right now you can breathe and it calms down is like pushing you know pressing the pose the mute button of the alarm system in the brain that says ah everything's going wrong it just quiets the brain and that can be very helpful especially yes when your brain gets crazy like this.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah. Yeah of course like it makes sense if you feel like you're being chased by a lion you're not gonna be worried about you know like which berries can I put in my salad give me food I gotta go you know and that's that's how we end up at the drive thru. That's how we end up doing all of these things.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah yeah all right so this has been a great conversation um you have a gift you have a gift that you mentioned before we started recording can you tell us a little bit about that and how we can access it absolutely yes so if you like this conversation you're probably going to love the the masterclass I'm having which is called one bite doesn't have to turn into the whole bag or how to go to bed without regret you can sign up for it on my website which is called Milo M I L O Milo Bingefix.com slash masterclass and you can have access to it.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Awesome and how can we stay in touch with you like on social media? Right

Masterclass Gift And Be Curious

SPEAKER_00 26:05

so on social media you can find me especially on uh Instagram at nan.cisana at uh dot coaching that's what it isana dot coaching yes and all the links will be available down in the show notes as usual all right perfect nan and can we end off usually we ask for you know like your best tip your final quote so what do you got for us?

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Okay what I've got for you is well you mentioned earlier on you know um being curious around food and uh looking for vinegar food pickles in particular I love that and this is really the shift the mindset shift that I think is one of the most important for my clients it's just we're so used to being furious oh I ate that again when I didn't want to what's wrong with me and so on. We tend to beat ourselves up when we realize we ate without really deciding to eat. So instead of being furious which never helps us change our habits I'm really inviting my clients but also your audience to be curious. So it's a one letter difference but it's such a beautiful mindset shift, a mind-blowing shift because when you're truly curious this is when you actually stop beating yourself up and you discover what was happening and what you can do about it. It expands the possibilities and the ways you're going to take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

So I think my my really my last uh recommendation is be curious not furious I love it that is awesome I love that the way that that worked out love it love it love it all right well thank you so much Nan this has been a wonderful conversation and we will catch you guys next time on the next episode of Overcome Yourself the podcast thank you so much thank you that was so funny