Move away from comfort eating
Let’s look at how you can move away from comfort eating. This blog is for you if you want to break free from that cycle of turning to food for emotional support.
You can watch the video I made on this below or keep scrolling if you prefer to read.
You might call it emotional eating or you might call it comfort eating but, I’m talking about when you eat in response to your emotions or the situation, rather than for hunger.
I want you to start by being honest with yourself about how you reward yourself. Do you turn to food for every emotion? You eat when you feel happy or when you’re celebrating something. Maybe when you feel sad, angry or you fall out with somebody, you feel anxious. No matter the emotion you turn to food or you’re stuck in this binge-guilt eating cycle. Or maybe you use alcohol as a way to relax. These can all be problematic situations for a lot of people.
How does your comfort eating affect you?
Now I’m not saying, don’t ever treat yourself to yummy food or celebrate special occasions with certain foods. It’s fine to enjoy that glass of wine in the bath as an occasional way to unwind. But have a think about how in control you feel of your eating, Does your emotional eating interfere with your goals? How do you feel about your eating? Do you feel guilty about the way you eat or eat in secret? Do you hide what you doing, because you feel ashamed or embarrassed about it? If that’s the case, then it’s time to have a look at how you reward yourself and how you help yourself to feel relaxed, comforted and safe.
How can you break the habit?
Relaxing in front of Netflix with a bar of chocolate and a glass of wine every night, is a really easy habit to get into. It might be fine if it’s not causing you any issues, it’s not getting in the way of your goals. But if you’re finding that it’s causing you problems and getting in the way of where you want to be. It’s time to figure out how you can break the habit and move away from comfort eating. Start by asking yourself that question – how can you break this habit? What could you do to interrupt the cycle?
The first thing you could try is looking for an alternative way to relax. Maybe to break the cycle of associating watching TV or films with eating the food, you could do something completely different in the evening. Take a step back from turning to food or alcohol. What other things help you to feel relaxed after a tough day? Could you have a soak in a nice bubble bath or a hot shower?
we did a lot of it during the pandemic with all the lockdowns!
Time to find a new hobby?
What about doing some kind of hobby, especially some kind of craft that’s calming? Something that helps you to use your hands, that helps you focus and you have to pay attention to rather than thinking about food. Some people like to do sewing, knitting or it could be painting or writing. Maybe you could try to journal about your feelings and get it all out on paper? A lot of people find this useful, if there’s something bothering them.
Other people prefer using physical activity to help deal with difficult emotions. Being more physically active can help you feel good both physically and mentally. If you don’t like the idea of exercising, maybe it’s just a case of trying something new and interesting? Either going to a new exercise class or finding some videos or a course online if that makes it easier. Keep trying new things until you find something that works for you.
What do you enjoy doing that makes you feel pampered?
How can you pamper or celebrate yourself? Do you like going for a massage or getting your nails done? It could be that you pamper yourself at home with a facial or manicure. Or maybe what helps you feel good could be about connecting with other people more. Find ways to spend more time with friends or chatting on the phone. Look into local clubs where you could meet like-minded people or learn a new skill together with a friend. How could you give yourself more ‘me time’? Figure out what would work best for you and your lifestyle. It’s about learning to take a different perspective on rewarding yourself that isn’t connected to food or alcohol.
Some questions to consider asking yourself:
- What are you doing right now to reward or comfort yourself?
- How do you relax or unwind or manage difficult emotions/situations?
- Is this helping you?
- How could you take a step back from what you normally do and do something different that would be more helpful to feel relaxed, to reward yourself or to manage your emotions?
It’s time to be kind to yourself, do what helps you feel good and ditch dieting forever, because you absolutely deserve better.
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My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- I am now officially on maternity leave, which means that I (probably) won’t be blogging every week for a while. I may well write and share something if I feel like it, but I don’t want to put any pressure on myself. Remember if you don’t want to miss anything that’s going on then the best thing to do is get on my mailing list – you can do that by signing up for one or both of my freebies – see the buttons above.
- I’m still just about managing to get out to walk most days and keep up short yoga/exercise sessions. But I’ve found I need to start having a little lie-down during the day too! It’s all about trying to get the balance between putting my feet up to stop them swelling (lovely!) and moving to stop my back getting all stiff.
- We haven’t managed another walk yet for our little family challenge ’23 Walks in 2023′, but I’m not going to put too much pressure on us for the next month or so. The next few weeks will be all about getting prepared to welcome the latest member of ‘Team T-S’ then we’ll try and get back on it in May I reckon.
- I did manage to read more of my book this week, but not quite finished it so it’s not on the list for my reading challenge ’23 New Books in 2023′ yet. I reckon this one will be easy to keep going though with my plans to have more lie-downs in between yoga/baby prep over the next few weeks!
- Bird Nerd Report: The finches are still hanging around lots, but as I’m not going very far on my walks at the mo, I’m not seeing much else. Although I keep seeing a nuthatch at the churchyard. Plus there was a very cute coal-tit gathering moss off a tree once too and there have been LOADS of woodpeckers out again, hammering on trees. Genevieve was very excited to see one on the school run the other day!
