Overcoming Emotional Eating Step One
One of the biggest obstacle to weight loss for many people is emotional eating.
Emotional eating affects more people than you may realize and it varies greatly to what extent they are affected. Some individuals deal with it occasionally and others struggle with it daily. The big positive is that emotional eating is a learned behavior and that means we can unlearn it with the right tool, patience and support. No matter how out of control you may feel your eating is right now when it comes to emotions and food, you have the ability to unlearn it with a little time and effort and kick it to the curb for good. Won’t that be nice.
When you overcome emotional eating you will no longer be at the mercy of your emotions and derailed from your weight loss efforts. You will be able to deal with feelings and stress that normally send you to the candy machine or fast food restaurant. It is an incredibly freeing experience and once you understand how to do it, it becomes easier and easier each time. So how do we start to overcome emotional eating that leads to overeating and often an eating binge?
The first step is really simple but takes a little practice. What you want to do is slow down enough to start to observe your eating patterns. When you first start doing this it can be difficult because you often find that your emotions and thoughts are triggering your “need” or want for food and we tend to rush through right to the food so we don’t feel them. Observing means we start to slow down enough to feel them. We don’t have to change anything yet so if you still eat that’s OK, but you want to start the process of tracking what the feeling is that is making you go for the food.
Why? Well, because you really don’t want to observe those feelings, you really want to avoid them. That’s why you have been heading to the nearest fast food joint when something triggers you. You crave certain foods when these feelings, emotions and stresses occur because they effect your pleasure center in your brain and is an distraction solution to what you are trying to avoid. It could be as simple as a comment from a stranger or the stress of your morning routine that triggers your emotional eating reaction.
Taking the time to start to journal when, what and why you are eating can be instrumental to turning the emotional hunger switch off. If you can start to observe yourself you can then start to work on new behaviors to put in place of eating. When you start to resist the food and start to replace the activity with a new one your brain will start to process the information differently. Instead of calming yourself with food it will start to substitute the other behavior, using it to give your body the time to calm itself without the use of food.
This can take some effort and some patience. If you continue to eat even after you observe the feelings that are coming up, it’s OK, so don’t beat yourself up. Just observe yourself and what you are feeling. Keep the journal for the first week or two and start to get a picture of when and what is triggering you. Next, think of some other healthier behaviors you can substitute for eating. Like call a friend, take a nap, reading a fitness magazine, go outside for some fresh air, you get the picture. Just pick things you enjoy and will give your body and mind something to do other than eat. Your goal is to disrupt the learned habit of eating for distraction and engaging the pleasure center in the brain with food. After about a week of observing start to sneak in some healthier substitutes instead of food.
Action Step: Observe, what you eat and when you eat and write it in your journal. If you know what is pushing you towards food then write it down, but if you don’t that’s OK too. Sometimes things aren’t as obvious as we think and it may take a while, even days before we figure out what’s bothering us.
For now just write down what you observe. Make a list of things you can do that would make you feel better that is unrelated to food.
When I did this exercise I found that I usually was anxious about something and also tired. I thought if I could just lay down for ten or fifteen minutes it would help. I would never give myself permission to do that so instead I ate. Once I did give myself permission I found that I was able to calm down and re-energize in a way that did not include food. It worked almost immediately.
I found the first day I did this I layed down 3 times for 10 minutes or if I couldn’t I just closed my eyes at my desk for that time. I did some deep breathing as well. I never would have thought it would have worked so well but it did.
Later, I found that this method was in line with how our brain works in relation to how it body responds to stress. So keep and open mind. Remember don’t expect perfection just keep an open mind and start a small, slight shift. You can do that.
Remember to get your free weight loss journal Weight Loss Journaland your free MP3 download titled Unstoppable Weight Loss here Weight Loss Coach
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment