Nutrition Tips to Overcome Emotional Eating
Nutrition Tips to Overcome Emotional Eating, Cravings and Food Addictions……
Does this sound familiar? Once you’ve become educated on optimum nutrition and adopted a meal plan approach to eating, this is probably the second biggest challenge you will face.
These nutrition tips will help you overcome emotional eating. There are three basic steps to help you:
1) Fuel Your Body!
The human body is designed to run on whole foods. If we do not receive the necessary fuel in the form of whole food carbohydrates, protein, and fat, our body will CONTINUALLY ask for it. We experience this as cravings. Have you ever downed an entire bag of chips or box of cookies and found yourself looking in the pantry or fridge after? (Ok, maybe you watched somebody do that!) That’s a craving fueled by lack of enough “real food” and an example of how proper meal planning can ward off cravings.
2) Examine your emotional need.
What is it that you are feeling or needing to change? Maybe you’re tired and want a “pick me up”. Maybe you are experiencing strong emotions and want to “chill out” from them. Slow down and pay attention to what is really going on. So often we use food to satisfy a need that has nothing to do with hunger or calories.
3) Delay.
If you are craving your favorite food, put it aside. Follow the meals laid out in your plan. After you have either eaten your prescribed meal or taken a nap or called a friend to vent or exercised or meditated, check in with yourself – do you still have your craving? If your energy needs are taken care of through proper nutrition and if your emotional needs are taken care of through self-care, you probably will find it easy to say NO to that thing you really don’t want to eat.
Hopefully having a better understanding of nutrition will help you overcome emotional eating. However, if this resonates with you, please take the time to watch the following video Top Tips for Dealing with Emotional Eating. Dr. Rozalind Graham, one of my favorite authors on this topic, is interviewed specifically on emotional eating and staying on track with your nutritional and health goals.
