Every time you overeat or feel compelled to reach for comfort food, take a moment to PRAY and then figure out what triggered the urge. If you backtrack, you’ll usually find an upsetting event that kicked of the emotional eating cycle. Write it all down in your food and mood diary: what you ate (or wanted to eat), what happened to upset you, how you felt before you ate, what you felt as you were eating, and how you felt afterward.
Over time, you’ll see a pattern emerge. Maybe you always end up gorging yourself after spending time with a critical friend. Or perhaps you stress eat whenever you’re on a deadline or when you attend family functions. Once you identify your emotional eating triggers, the next step is identifying healthier ways to feed your feelings.
In order to stop emotional eating, you have to find other ways to fulfill yourself emotionally. It’s not enough to understand the cycle of emotional eating or even to understand your triggers, although that’s a huge first step. You need alternatives to food that you can turn to for emotional fulfillment.
ALTERNATIVES TO EMOTIONAL
EATING
If you’re depressed or lonely, call someone who always makes you feel better, play with your dog or cat, or look at a favorite photo or cherished memento.
If you’re anxious, expend your nervous energy by listening to a hymn, squeezing a stress ball, or taking a brisk walk.
If you’re exhausted, treat yourself with a hot cup of herbal tea, take a bath, light a candle, or wrap yourself in a warm blanket.
If you’re bored, read a good book, watch a sermon, explore the outdoors, or turn to an activity you enjoy (woodworking, playing the guitar, croqueting, knitting, organizing, scrapbooking, etc.).
Pause when cravings hit and check in with yourself.
Most emotional eaters feel powerless over their food cravings. When the urge to eat hits, it’s all you can think about. You feel an almost unbearable tension that demands to be fed, right now! Because you’ve tried to resist in the past and failed, you believe that your willpower just isn’t up to snuff. But the truth is that you have more power over your cravings than you think. Remember: Phil 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
- Take 5 minutes before you give in to a craving.
Emotional eating tends to be automatic and virtually mindless. Before you even realize what you’re doing, you’ve reached for a tub of ice cream and polished off half of it. But if you can take a moment to pause and reflect when you’re hit with a craving, you give yourself the opportunity to make a different decision.
Can you put off eating for five minutes? Or just start with one minute. Don’t tell yourself you can’t give in to the craving; remember, the forbidden is extremely tempting. Just tell yourself to wait. PRAY!!! Most important! God promises he will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able. 1 Cor 10:13 – There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
While you’re waiting, check in with yourself. How are you feeling? What’s going on emotionally? Even if you end up eating, you’ll have a better understanding of why you did it. This can help you set yourself up for a different response next time.
Learn to accept your
feelings—even the bad ones
While it may seem that the core problem is that you’re powerless over food, emotional eating actually stems from feeling powerless over your emotions. You don’t feel capable of dealing with your feelings head on, so you avoid them with food.
Allowing yourself to feel uncomfortable emotions can be scary. You may fear that, like Pandora’s box, once you open the door you won’t be able to shut it. But the truth is that when we don’t obsess over or suppress our emotions, even the most painful and difficult feelings subside relatively quickly and lose their power to control our attention.
To do this you need to become mindful and learn how to stay connected to your moment-to-moment emotional experience. This can enable you to rein in stress and repair emotional problems that often trigger emotional eating.
Support yourself with healthy
lifestyle habits
When you’re physically strong, relaxed, and well rested, you’re better able to handle the curveballs that life inevitably throws your way. But when you’re already exhausted and overwhelmed, any little hiccup has the potential to send you off the rails and straight toward the refrigerator. Exercise, sleep, and other healthy lifestyle habits will help you get through difficult times without emotional eating.
- Make
daily exercise a priority. Physical
activity does wonders for your mood and energy levels, and it’s
also a powerful stress reducer. And getting
into the exercise habit is easier than you may think.
- Aim
for 7-8 hours of sleep every night. We are counseled to be in bed
by 9 pm. When you don’t get
the sleep you need, your body craves sugary foods that will give you a
quick energy boost. Getting plenty of rest will help with appetite control
and reduce food cravings.
- Make
time for relaxation. Give yourself permission to take at least 30
minutes every day to relax, decompress, and unwind. This is your time to
take a break from your responsibilities and recharge your batteries.
Getting in the bathtub is a good way to do this too!
The
bath is a soother of the nerves. Bathing helps the bowels, the stomach, and the
liver, giving health and energy to each, and it promotes digestion. {CG 108.3}
- Connect with others. Don’t underestimate the importance of close relationships and social activities. Spending time with positive people who enhance your life will help protect you from the negative effects of stress.
When negative emotions threaten to trigger emotional eating,
you can take steps to control cravings. To help stop emotional eating, try
these tips:
- Keep
a food diary. Write down what you eat, how much you eat, when you
eat, how you're feeling when you eat and how hungry you are. Over time,
you might see patterns that reveal the connection between mood and food.
- Tame
your stress. If stress contributes to your emotional eating, try
a stress management technique, such as deep breathing.
“The one who sits and stands erect is more likely than others to breathe properly. But the teacher should impress upon his pupils the importance of deep breathing. Show how the healthy action of the respiratory organs, assisting the circulation of the blood, invigorates the whole system, excites the appetite, promotes digestion, and induces sound, sweet sleep, thus not only refreshing the body, but soothing and tranquilizing the mind. And while the importance of deep breathing is shown, the practice should be insisted upon. Let exercises be given which will promote this, and see that the habit becomes established. . . .” {CG 364.4} - Have
a hunger reality check. Is your hunger physical or emotional? If
you ate just a few hours ago you're not hungry. Give the craving time to
pass. Drink cold water or juice.
- Get
support. You're more likely to give in to emotional eating if you
lack a good support network. Lean on family and friends or consider
joining a support group.
- Fight
boredom. Instead of snacking when you're not hungry, distract
yourself and substitute a healthier behavior. Take a walk, watch a sermon,
play with your cat, listen to music, read, surf the internet or call a
friend.
- Take
away temptation. Don't keep hard-to-resist comfort foods in your
home. And if you feel angry or blue, postpone your trip to the grocery
store until you have your emotions in check.
- Don't
deprive yourself. When trying to lose weight, you might limit
calories too much, eat the same foods repeatedly and banish treats. This
may just serve to increase your food cravings, especially in response to
emotions. Eat satisfying amounts of healthier foods, enjoy an occasional
treat (like on Sabbath) and get plenty of variety to help curb cravings.
- Snacking
is NOT healthy. If you feel the urge to eat between meals, drink
some cold water or juice as I said above.
- Learn from setbacks. If you have an episode of emotional eating, forgive yourself and start fresh the next day. Try to learn from the experience and make a plan for how you can prevent it in the future. Focus on the positive changes you're making in your eating habits and give yourself credit for making changes that'll lead to better health.
How To Lose Weight
https://ravishingrecipesandhealthfacts.blogspot.com/2019/07/how-to-lose-weight.html
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