Food & Mood
Being inadvertently sabotaged by a friend, spouse or family member because they did something or said something that upset you can be all that it takes to reach for the bag of Frito’s. Getting emotionally upset can lead us down the path of soothing ourselves with food and usually the unhealthy kind. This is what we call ‘emotional eating.’
Emotional eating is a way to suppress or soothe negative emotions, such as stress, anger, anxiety, boredom, sadness and loneliness. Sometimes emotional eating doesn’t include stress or negative feelings at all but just the opposite. Many times we eat because we are happy and excited about something. The happy feelings can be a common trigger to celebrate with food for many people. Both positive and negative emotions can push the right buttons to make you hunger for the bag of potato chips or bar of chocolate in a nano-second.
Lack of Self Education
Understand the connection between mood and food. Why do our emotion make us run for the cake, ice cream and comfort foods that soothe us? Some foods may have seemingly addictive qualities. For example, when you eat enticing foods, such as chocolate, your body releases trace amounts of mood- and satisfaction-elevating hormones. Rewards may reinforce a preference for foods that are most closely associated with specific feelings. There is also the simple fact that the pleasure of eating offsets negative emotions.
Do you ever find that you eat as a distraction from worrisome feelings or anxiety over an event like giving a presentation at work or having dinner with the in-laws? This is a common reaction and we are using comfort foods to take our mind off the occasion even if it is just for a little while. Your thoughts focus on the food at hand giving us a temporary reprieve from what’s to come. The issue then becomes the fact that we still have the event looming but we may now have the extra burden of guilt because we overindulged.
Knowledge is power. Knowing how you react to situations gives you the ability to pre-plan for the next event with some great strategies. People who suffer from anxiety disorders use distraction as a means to give the body a break from the anxiety. You can also do this. First learn to recognize when these feelings are present and then have a simple plan of distraction to implement. Something simple like a word search, puzzle, walk, talking on the phone, cleaning or anything that can let you zone out for a bit. Having the stress leave without the association with food will become easier with reinforcement and repetition.
When we are upset, anxious and emotional it is hard to stop and think ‘what can I do to stop these feelings?’, “How can I distract myself?’ Having a few items in your head to turn too is a great help overcoming these emotional barriers.
No Support System
Having a support system is vital to your weight loss success. Support helps you overcome those moments that can break your control and have you sneaking the donuts into your desk drawer at the office. Having someone to share and talk with really impacts your success. Today there are many places to get that support. Community websites, weight loss websites, friends, a weight loss buddy or even a coworker can be the voice of reason when you need it.
Instead of plunging head first into a bag of cheese puffs another option is to release your emotions and one way it can be accomplished by keeping a journal with you to write in when you feel the need to vent about someone or something. In addition, checking in at the end of the day with someone by phone or email is enough to keep you on track. Knowing that you will have someone to share your day with as well as the accountability factor is a great help. Being able to say that you handled the situation well verses you went to the drive through and had three happy meals, will build your self confidence each time you overcome the emotional urge to eat.
No Rules or Recognition
Kids are not the only ones who need boundary’s. We do too. We need to establish non-negotiable rules for ourselves as we so often do with our kids. Make some hard and fast rules like the kitchen closes at 8:00p.m., or no eating in the car. Simple rules take the decision making process out of our hands and that takes the ‘mind chatter’ away and the stress of ’should I’ or ’shouldn’t I’. One of my client’s made the rule he would no longer eat in his car. He said it was great because his car stays so clean. It actually made him feel better. Find your most effective rules by mentally going through your day and seeing where you can make the most impact. Maybe it is after dinner, or breakfast or your 3:00 p.m. snack, whatever it is make a hard, fast rule and keep to it.
Identify Your Triggers
If you don’t know there is a problem it is hard to fix it. Triggers are a problem that can impact your diet in a not so friendly way. Most of us don’t realize we have been triggered until it is too late and we have downed a full bag of potato chips. Why is that? Why don’t we know our triggers when they impact us so greatly? The answer is that we don’t want to know them because we don’t like the way they make us feel so we avoid looking into them. That’s why we stuff the bag of potato chips down our throat, to avoid those feeling. So how do we rectify this? Try taking a step back and look at your situation from a third party perspective. Take yourself out of the picture and put in someone else. Identify what happened. Notice the events,feelings and the actions that ‘they’ took to get through the trigger. Brain storm solutions for ‘them’ and write them down. Now take those solutions and try them out when you are in that situation. You don’t have to correct the trigger because sometimes we can’t. Say it is your boss that triggers you, well you can’t always remove him or her from your life so put in a solution you can control.
Lack of Redirection
Redirection is used for many people with anxiety disorders. I personally have seen it work on my son who was diagnosed with severe Contamination Obsessive, Compulsive disorder. Redirection was something he was unknowingly doing to get through his anxiety, which at the time was classified at a 10 on a scale of 1-10 and he was not on medication to soothe him. If he can do it at a level 10 anxiety so can we when our lives for the moment overwhelm us to the point of wanting to reach for the Dorito’s. What he would do would be to zone out for few minutes if he felt anxious or uncomfortable. Similar to how we can feel when we get upset or anxious about something and turn to food. He would day dream, do a puzzle, Lego’s, take a walk [this helped tremendously], listen to music that he liked, wrote in a fantasy journal about anything other than his anxiety or discomfort, basically do anything that took him away for the moment until he could better handle it. He would just redirect his focus.
Some people like to clean when they get upset [me] because they get immediate gratification from it [sounds like what you get from food when you eat it when your am upset], some just recognize the incident as a negative give themselves a time limit to be mad and then choose to release the anger [because it doesn't effect the person who made them mad and only hurts them if they hold on to it]. Have a list of quick rewards that dont involve food handy so you dont have to think doesn’t about what you should do you can just pick from the list. If you can’t think of any look to people who have succeeded before you and take something from there tool box. Go on line and read success stories if you need to get a spark for some ideas.
Keep it clean
Avoid having an abundance of high-calorie comfort foods in the house. Also don’t go food shopping when you feel hungry or blue, postpone the shopping trip for a few hours so that these feelings don’t influence your decisions at the store. Get rid of the unhealthy food. Many people tell me the food is there for their kids. My response is why? Why would you want to feed your kids unhealthy foods that will hurt them in the long run? Did you give them unhealthy formula when they were babies? They are still developing and they still need good food, even more than you do. So you need another excuse. No excuse is a good excuse, just get rid of it and replace it with healthy alternatives.
Not Eating a Balanced Diet
Try to eat at fairly regular times and don’t skip breakfast. Include foods from the basic groups in your meals. Go for the whole grains, vegetables and fruits, as well as low-fat dairy products and lean protein sources. When you fill up on the basics, you’re more likely to feel fuller, longer. If you’re not getting enough calories to meet your energy needs, you may be more likely to give in to emotional eating. Try eating a piece of fruit high in fiber like an apple before your meals. studies have shown people eat less during their meals.
Not Snacking Healthy
Snacks are just as important as your meals. If you feel the urge to eat between meals, choose a low-fat, low-calorie food, such as fresh fruit, vegetables with fat-free dip or non buttered popcorn or test low-fat, lower calorie versions of your favorite foods to see if they satisfy your craving. Your snack should be between 100-200 calories or not much more so choose wisely.
Getting the Right Exercise and Rest
People burn the candle at both ends. Get adequate rest regularly and you will consume less calories and have more control. Your mood is more manageable and your body can more effectively fight stress when it’s fit and well rested. Study upon study shows that people who are tired consume more calories.Choosing the right amount of exercise is equally important. Try to work towards 30 minutes a day and then increase to 45- 60 minutes if possible down the road. Remember you can break it up throughout your day.
Release Your Emotions
Factor your emotions into your day. Plan for the ups and downs and how you will handle them. Everyone always thinks of the perfect day when planning their diet and then wonder why they went off when their day didn’t go as planned. When was the last time your day went as planned? I thought so. So make plan B your plan A. Many times the emotion [i.e. anger] that we feel is a trigger that makes us turn to food for self soothing. We find our mind chatter telling us that, We deserve it because they did this to me, or because No one recognizes all the hard work I do. You are feeling frustrated at something or someone. We all have a right to get upset and no one should be treated badly. However, it is how we handle the anger that is important.
Plan for the ups and downs and how you will handle them. Everyone always thinks of the perfect day when planning their diet and then wonder why they went off when their day didn’t go as planned. When was the last time your day went as planned? I thought so. So make plan B your plan A. Recognize the anger for what it is and how you are reacting to it. Why? Because you are only hurting yourself when you put the food in your mouth, not the person or thing that made you angry. Learn to release the emotion, communicate your feelings so you can redirect the anger to be useful and not self sabotaging.
Learn to S.T.O.P [Step back, Take a deep breath, Oppose the urge to eat and Pat yourself on the back] and empower ourselves with what meets our long term needs as a whole and not feed an non serving emotion for the moment. Each time you succeed with this you reinforce your success.
SLAM DUNK YOUR SUCCESS!
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