to see the video: https://youtu.be/mWGKPGkrvMs
Here is what has been effective for me and my clients to get free of emotional eating, and it boils down to three Bs: Your Body, Your Baggage, and Your Best.
Your Body: Every Body is different. All diets work for someone, and a particular diet may work for your best friend or Auntie Delle, but if you cannot make it work for YOU, well pfft! We blame ourselves. Must be me – my hormones, discipline, commitment, whatever, but it must be my fault. Something is wrong with me.
NO. Changing that mindset will free you to find what DOES work for your body, and what DOES work for your body won’t leave you tired, hungry, and cranky all the time.
Your Baggage: That food that calls your name, that food you cannot say no to — what created that? With a true craving, it’s usually a nutrient deficiency of some sort. It’s a signal from your body that you need something, and the craving is direction. If it’s not a deficiency craving, and truly emotional eating, it’s probably not so much that food as the memory it encases.
We reach for ice cream because of an experience with it. I reached for peanut butter because I missed my grandmother. Identifying what that food represents in your heart and mind will free you of the compulsion to reach for it when you’re sad, mad, happy, tired, frustrated, etc. Working through your baggage is how we face our stuff, so we no longer need to stuff our faces.
Your Best: When you are feeling your best, do you make better choices around those foods that call your name? Do you feel so driven to over-exercise or beat yourself up for something you ate? I know my best self makes much better choices.
Remembering and connecting with your best – and knowing what works for you – will strengthen and encourage you at the moment you need it most. And it’s okay if you don’t yet believe me. You’ve probably been beating up on yourself for a long time, so you’re out of practice at remembering your best.
This is how I got free from emotional eating – and you can get free as well. It’s not magic. It is a challenge, and we do have to make different choices, but imagine the feeling of knowing what to do when that need hits you and the feeling – and result – of consistently making better choices around that. Can you envision yourself at your goal? How cool would THAT be?
