Emotional Eating

It's very natural to be an emotional eater.  You probably grew up being rewarded with food, comforted with food, entertained with food, punished with food, and so on.  It's no wonder that as soon as feelings arise, you turn to food!  (If this doesn't apply to you, awesome!!!  You're very lucky!!!)

This can get in the way of any sort of "healthy weight" plans, because you are probably eating when you're not biologically hungry.  This can also keep you from really solving life's problems--because you are solving them with food, which is not really solving them.  

Here are 8 steps to help you with your emotional eating.  Test it out, and see what works for you.  Take it slowly.  No need to rush.  You're doing this for you--for your long-term benefit.  Be patient with yourself.  You'll need to try things over and over before they become easy.  And you will probably learn some things about yourself in the process.  

1.  Before you eat, assess your hunger level.  On a scale of one to ten, how hungry are you--one being ravenous, and ten being stuffed to the gills.    You may be thinking:  "But what if I find out I'm not really hungry, but I still want to eat?"  Don't worry.  Assessing your hunger level is not a commitment to not eat.  It's just an observation tool.

2.  If you are not hungry, identify what you are feeling.  Are you sad?  Depressed?  Bored?  Nervous?  Stressed?  Happy?  Why are you feeling what you are feeling?  Did you have a bad day at work?  Are you stressed because of an issue in a relationship?  Do you feel nobody is paying attention to you?  Sit with those feelings.  This may be miserable.  Allow yourself to feel miserable.  Throw a fit, if you'd like.  Cry about it.  Acknowledge what you're feeling, and that it is okay to feel that way.

3.  If you'd like to eat, go ahead and eat.  But acknowledge that you are eating to fulfill emotional needs, and pay attention to whether you feel those needs are being met.

4.  If you are indeed hungry and emotional, find something that will fulfill both your biological and emotional hunger.  But keep in mind that you may still have emotional hunger after your biological hunger is gone, and you'll need to address that if you haven't already.

5.  You identified your feelings, now ask yourself, "What do I really need?"  What do you need to feel loved?  What do you need to de-stress?  What do you need to calm down?  You may not be able to fix your problem right away.  Try and identify it though, and get on the road to fixing it.  Your problem may have not happened in one day--expect long-standing problems to require long-standing solutions.
 
6.  Find a temporary distraction if your feelings are too much to bear.  You may be taking steps to solve your problems, but still feel miserable.  Make a list of things you can do to distract yourself from your feelings, temporarily.  Then do one of those things.  Maybe going for a walk or run, taking a nap, reading a book, listening to music, or painting your nails would do the trick... just doing something that takes your mind off your problem.

7.  Remember the reverse golden rule:  "Do unto yourself as you would do unto others!"  I feel like people are very critical toward themselves these days.  Would you be as critical toward your grandmother as you are to yourself?  Or your best friend?  So why is it that you are so darn mean to yourself?!  Cut yourself some slack!  Maybe you are eating emotionally despite your efforts to do otherwise.  It's okay.  This is what you're used to.  You've been doing this for years.  Just go back to step one and notice your hunger.  If all you do is notice your hunger, you're still on the right path.

8.  Again, be kind to yourself.  I can't stress this enough.  If you are to busy hating yourself, you'll miss opportunities to learn from your actions.  The above steps can work (for the most part) in retrospect.

• Say, for example, you were depressed because of a break-up, and proceeded to eat a couple of bowls of ice cream for some comfort.  At this point, you not only feel depressed, but also feel guilty for eating all that ice cream.  You may think, "No wonder he broke up with me--I can't even control how much ice cream I eat!  I'm a huge pig!  Obviously nobody would want to be with me."  
• Try to stop yourself before that guilt is added to the feelings of depression.  Go back and recognize your feelings.  Acknowledge the fact that you ate because you were depressed.  Acknowledge that you felt like ice cream was all you could turn to.  Instead of harping on yourself, go back to steps 5, 6, and 7.  Ask yourself what you really need.  Find a temporary distraction.  And go easy on yourself.   

I hope this gives you some ideas to work with.  These steps definitely take a lot of awareness, and thus will take effort.  You may find yourself overly-conscious of your feelings for a while.  That's good though--it means you're not shoving your feelings back down with food.  It means you are solving some of your life's problems.  Respect yourself, be patient, and good luck!!

Metabolism Survival Guide

Have you ever been dieting and dieting and dieting, and get to a point where you can't seem to lose any weight; in fact, you may get to a point where you're eating the least you've ever eaten, yet the scale doesn't budge an ounce?  Or maybe you're eating very little, and actually *gaining* weight?

Let me introduce you to one of your body's survival mechanisms.

Imagine you're a caveman (or woman).  You hunt for your food, you eat when you can, but sometimes have to go without food because you just can't find any.  Fortunately, your body is designed to survive these times.  How?  By slowing down your metabolism so as not to use as much energy--a conservation mechanism.  You might feel yourself getting cold.  You may feel fatigued, unmotivated to make extra movements.  And when you finally find a rabbit to catch and eat, you're body is going to really hold on to the calories the rabbit provides, because who knows when the next meal is going to be?

Fast forward to present you.  You hunt for weight loss, you eat according to a restricted plan, and sometimes you skip meals in hopes of progressing your weight loss.  Unfortunately, your body doesn't know that there's a Taco Bell around the corner.  So it slows down your metabolism as a conservation mechanism.   And then you wonder why you don't have enough "will power" to go to the gym, when actually you just literally don't have the energy--the energy is being stored because who knows when your next meal is going to be?

Long story short, you need to eat!  You need to reassure your body that it will not starve.  It's like your body is a camp fire, and in order for the fire to continue, you need to throw logs in there on a regular basis.  If you fail to do so, the fire will slow down, and eventually die.

Don't let your fire slow down.  Keep it nice and full and warm, and it will support you and your metabolism.

National Cheesecake Day Detox

First, go to this link.

Here are a few things I have noticed or experienced recently.  Try to figure out what they have in common.  

• I went to a restaurant and looked at the menu.  I noticed that there is a "guilt-free" section of the menu that has lower-calorie options.  All the menu items listed had little halos over them.
• I was in the gym locker room and overheard two ladies talking about dieting.  One said she had given up cookies and hadn't eaten them in a few days.  The other praised her for being a "good girl."
• I googled "diets" and found the top ad to be "Foods you must not eat."
• A website with "Diet-Friendly Baking Tips:  Sneaky baking tricks that will have you seeing desserts in a whole new 'light.'"
• A magazine article that implies you're a "pig" for eating after your workout.

All these things give food a moralistic feature.  

When you clicked on the link above, what did you feel?  Did you feel hungry?  Guilty for wanting cheesecake?  Out of control for drooling over the decadent desserts?  Or was it no big deal?  It's just cheesecake.  I can have it whenever I want.  And when I eat it, I enjoy it.  And usually it's so rich and enjoyable that I can only eat a few bites before I'm satisfied.  

We live in a toxic food environment.  

Everywhere we go, there are messages telling us we should be dieting.  We should be thin.  We should eat healthy. 

Morals are tied to food--if you eat healthily you're a good person.  If you eat "bad" you must be a bad person.  Think about what you've heard or seen lately that has tied morals to food or eating.  

Strange, isn't it, that an aspect of our life we are supposed to enjoy has become so guilt-ridden that we can barely eat a slice of cheesecake without either receiving judging glares, or just judging ourselves for our transgression, as if we are not worthy of enjoying food.  

So, in honor of National Cheesecake Day, I challenge you to participate in a detox.  Detoxify guilt from your eating.  Instead of feeling guilty, enjoy every bite of your delicious food.  Chances are, some of the following will happen as a result:

• You won't even need to eat the entire thing.  
• You won't feel anxious around certain "forbidden" foods, or out of control for eating them.
• You'll be able to discover your true food preferences.
• You'll be more in tune with what your body wants and needs.  

Try it!  You may like it!  :)