Discover the benefits of mindful eating—feeling great without guilt or shame. Embrace a lifestyle where you eat when truly hungry, savor each bite, and break free from food obsession. View every meal as a nourishing experience for both your body and mind. Achieving this mindset may not be easy, and I’m not saying it was for me. After all, we spend years developing certain habits—expecting to change them overnight isn’t realistic. But starting today, you can improve progressively because emotional eating is simply a habit, and habits can be transformed. I’ll share how I overcame emotional eating, so you can, too!
Struggling with Emotional Eating? It’s not just you.
After the challenges of new motherhood, I found myself juggling the demands of caring for my baby and meeting tight deadlines. With the stress of balancing work and family, emotional eating became a recurring response to the pressures I faced. The rollercoaster of emotions, combined with external pressures and self-doubt, led to consistent overeating and stress eating.
I quickly realized that waiting for external circumstances to change wouldn’t resolve the issue. Determined to break this pattern, I dove into research on emotional eating, stress eating, and binge eating. By identifying the underlying triggers and understanding how to regain control, I began to shift my approach to food.
In this blog, I’ll discuss the challenges of emotional eating and the practical strategies that helped me address them. If you find yourself eating despite not being physically hungry, this post offers insights and solutions. By recognizing emotional eating triggers, you can start to build healthier eating habits and regain control over your relationship with food.
Put it on paper: Better Diet with a Food Diary
Consider using a diary to track your cravings. Establishing a pattern for your binge eating is crucial. Initially, you might not see a connection between your emotions and binging, but persistence is key.
For instance, on Day 1, watching a movie triggered a craving for chips. On Day 2, a pleasant dinner with your in-laws led to consuming a large amount of ice cream. Day 3, feeling lonely after friends left early, resulted in eating leftovers and ice cream.
Avoid judgment and try to think clearly about your feelings. You MUST be kind to yourself. You may realize unresolved emotions are fueling your eating habits. For example, feeling neglected by a best friend or lacking emotional support from in-laws. Moreover, writers may find themselves snacking excessively while revising, possibly due to anxiety about their work’s reception.
By understanding your triggers, you can effectively manage your eating habits and address the underlying emotional causes.
A Must-read: The Binge Cure
If you’re struggling with emotional eating, Dr. Nina Savelle-Rocklin’s latest book, “The Binge Cure,” is a must-read. Dr. Nina advocates for acknowledging and naming your emotions, as this is often the first step to breaking free from the cycle of binge eating. We often don’t recognize the range of emotions we’re experiencing, which can lead to self-judgment when we turn to food for comfort. This self-blame only perpetuates the cycle of emotional eating. By understanding and identifying our emotions, we can begin to unravel the patterns that drive us to overeat, ultimately finding freedom from binge eating.
How to End the “Down the Rabbit Hole” Cycle
Do you find yourself worry-eating and spiraling down the rabbit hole of negative thoughts? It’s common to fall into patterns of eating when feeling lonely, bored, or stressed by deadlines. The good news is that you can break this cycle by taking proactive steps.
One effective exercise to combat worrying is to use an “if/then” statement to confront your worries head-on. Start by stating your worry, then follow it with a restatement using an open-ended “if/then” statement. This exercise helps to reveal the irrational chain of thoughts that often accompany worrying. By completing these if/then statements as almost free association, you can see how your mind plays tricks on you with worrying.
For example, if you worry about not finishing a project by a deadline, your mind might create scenarios about the catastrophic consequences. By completing the if/then statements, you can see how unrealistic these thoughts are and gain perspective on the situation.
Remember that worrying excessively about unlikely future scenarios can lead to mindless worry-eating, impacting your present well-being. It’s important to recognize that there are other aspects of your life and accomplishments that make you valuable, regardless of the outcome of a specific concern.
By practicing this exercise and acknowledging the irrationality of worrying, you can break free from the negative cycle and find healthier ways to cope with stress and anxiety.
Other than this exercise, there are many meditation apps that might be helpful. One of my favourites is Simple Habit. It’s not as well known as some others, but I love it.
Adaptogens for Stress Relief and Hormone Health
When addressing stress as an Ayurvedic nutritionist, it’s important to talk about adaptogens. Fluctuating cortisol levels due to stress can trigger cravings, but adaptogens have been immensely helpful in managing my cortisol issues.
If you’re seeking a comforting and stress-relieving recipe, consider making a soothing soup with Golden Mellow. Simply steam root veggies, such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and carrots, then blend them well with cauliflower for extra creaminess. Add cayenne pepper, Himalayan salt, and a dash of Golden Mellow for a delicious and anti-stress soup.
It’s essential to prioritize hormone health, especially if you’re on medication, pregnant, or nursing. Research, and seeking medical advice are crucial to tailoring adaptogen usage to individual needs. When used properly, adaptogens can be life-transforming, and everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from them responsibly.
Boredom Eating: How to Break the Habit
Boredom eating is a common habit that many of us struggle with. Whether it’s mindlessly snacking on popcorn while binge-watching Netflix or indulging in a bowl of ice cream just because it’s there, boredom eating can easily derail our healthy eating intentions.
To combat boredom eating, try these strategies:
1. Make a list of alternative activities to do when you feel bored or unmotivated. This could include calling a friend, going to a yoga class, taking a walk, or working on a creative project.
2. Avoid screen time, especially when you’re feeling bored and tempted to snack. Instead, opt for activities that engage your mind and body, such as reading a physical book or engaging in a hobby.
3. Swap out unhealthy snacks for nourishing options. Keep your kitchen stocked with satisfying yet nutritious snacks like fruit, nuts, or veggies and hummus to curb mindless eating.
By being mindful of your habits and making intentional choices, you can break free from boredom eating and nourish your body in a healthier way.
Practical Solutions to Avoid Emotional Eating
If you’re looking for more practical techniques to prevent emotional eating, here are a couple of innovative strategies to help you curb those cravings:
1. Skip the Purchase
The most effective way to resist the temptation of indulging in unhealthy snacks like ice cream is to simply avoid buying them in the first place. By not having these treats readily available at home, especially late at night, you significantly decrease the likelihood of consuming them on a whim.
2. Mental Affirmations
Another unconventional yet effective method is to use positive affirmations. Visualize your ideal self and condense this image into a few impactful words, such as “graceful,” “fabulous,” or “wise.” Embrace these affirmations and reinforce them when cravings arise, making it more challenging to succumb to unhealthy temptations.
By implementing these strategies, you can minimize emotional eating and take a step towards transforming your lifestyle.
Improving Mindfulness and Healthy Eating Habits
Asking yourself if you’re truly hungry before eating is a powerful mindfulness practice. By pausing to evaluate your hunger and food choices, you can make healthier and more satisfying decisions. For further guidance on mindful eating, consider the book “Mindful Diet.”
Picture yourself sitting at a table, fully focused on your meal and portion size. Contrasting this with mindless binge-eating, such as eating while watching TV, highlights the importance of mindful eating.
Additionally, it’s common to exaggerate the consequences of minor slip-ups, leading to a cycle of unhealthy behavior. To break this pattern, avoid catastrophizing and focus on making positive choices, even after small indulgences.
Meal prepping can also be a game-changer. Even simple preparations like steaming veggies and washing fruits can make healthy eating more convenient. For personalized meal planning support, consider trying PlateJoy, which offers a free trial and batch meal options to ensure healthy meals are readily available.
How to Make it Stick: Long-Term Control
No diet will provide a lasting solution without addressing underlying emotions. Our bodies are wired to seek comfort through food when emotions are unaddressed, leading to overeating. There’s no quick fix, but confronting emotions head-on can help break this habit. Until then, using the strategies above can help manage emotional eating. To complement your newly found routine, check out my offerings here. You will find accountability, whole-person healing, healthy eating habits, and customized wellness.
PICK YOUR SPARKLE
The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, supplement regimen, or health practices, especially if you have a medical condition or are taking medication.
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