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Time for Day 8 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon. If you go crazy trying to deny yourself food that diet boot-campers forbid, then today’s 10 minutes could restore your sanity.
Read the steps first, then take 10 minutes to think about them and take action.Ready?
The crisps are going in the CUPBOARD! I had a stressful day at work today so treated myself to a glass of wine at lunchtime. I am tempted to have more when I get home, but have decided after reading this, that one was a treat, and that’s enough. It’s so easy for me to open a bottle of wine and then drink the lot. There is no need. I think what I really want to do is go to bed early with a book, so that is what I shall do!
My husband and I are on totally different planes as far as diet is concerned. I can’t pack up his stuff and put it in a box. Instead, I have had to mentally identify certain things as “his” and certain things as “mine.” I don’t eat his stuff. As for my own junk foods (corn chips and trail mix come to mind), I will put them in a separate container out of sight. The emotional eating piece possted by Terrie (and her crew) are great! Some of them really resonate with me, and I’ve noticed over the past few days — eating when I’m bored; eating when I’m thinking through a difficult problem; eating to stay awake … her list solidified my thoughts on some of these things, and really encouraged me to keep noticing and naming when I eat stuff I don’t really need.
I have purged my home of most of the temptations and have place a large fruit bowl front and center in my kitchen so that I see that first. When I do want to treat, I go buy one. If I have a package of cookies in my home I am more likely if feeling down to eat the whole thing so I stop at the local store and pick up a snack pack of whatever it is I am wanting. Also, because the store is so close, I will usually walk to get my treat and when the weather is bad, I accept it and eat fruit instead. I never really deny myself anything due to bingeing, but am trying harder to space my cheat treats out a little farther even time.
Your solutions don’t have to be conventional. If you have an intuition that something weird [Halloween] or wacky [Comedian] might meet your needs, add it to your list.
You might like to keep your list somewhere handy note on your cell phone.
If Tiredness Is Your Trigger [take a nap or ME time]: Allow yourself to be tired. Take a catnap.
Take a nap, take a day off, relax and unwind when you get home from work, school or volunteer or give yourself an hour to relax and unwind from your busy day.
Write down your feeling’s as they occur so you can eliminate the situation from reoccurring.
Don’t Let a Setback Stop You
When setting goals, you will hit bumps in the road. Relook at your goal and continue to ascertain what you have set for yourself. You hit a snag evaluate for educational purposes & go on with your life. If it occurs again, you’ll know what to do. I wonder why. [TV food ads cause me to eat more sweets/junk food]
– Huh – what’s that about? This would work in certain situations at your discretion.
Just accept yourself as an imperfect person [there is no perfect person in the world today] aiming for progress. No criticism. No judgment. Self-abuse and judgment are what trap you in a binge spiral. Don’t give them the chance. Don’t strive for perfection just continue to do better.
If you have cravings eat a small portion to take the temptation away.
We will eat junk food when we want it. Putting it in a box or bag would not work for us.
Identify Your Emotional Eating Triggers: After 1 month analyze your patterns & make the adjustments.
Identify your underlying needs:
– If you’re bored (the trigger), you may need stimulation (the underlying need). Watch TV, read a book, meditate, watch Hulu or Netflix, or watch DVD’s = bored to relaxation
– If you’re tired: Relax & watch the news [to see what’s going on in your neighborhood] & take a catnap
– If you’re upset, you need comfort. Talk to somebody
– If you’re happy, you need celebration. Tell somebody to plan a happy party = Let’s Get Acquainted
– If you’re anxious, you need calming. Count to ten & exhale & relax
– If certain foods, people, or situations are hard for you to cope with, you need to avoid them or mange them better. Call someone to talk on how to change the people for better = a toxic person changed to a positive person otherwise the toxic person is off your friend list.
Make a list of things to do when you notice a trigger Talk with a neutral person to resolve the issue
– Do something creative – drawing, counted cross stitching, journal, paint by numbers, jigsaw puzzles, or write a book or poems
– Meditate Relaxation to calm you via music, reading & meditation tape & prayer
– Pray praying to myself as a personal relationship; low verbal voice
– Take a bath – and add some lovely fragrance with candles [if you have a large bathroom] or bath oils your favorite bubble bath
– Go for a walk & focus on the sights, sounds & smells Walk in a local park or your local zoo
– Read a funny, inspirational or motivating book for relaxation
– Get or give a massage, or practice self-massage Treat you to a massage periodically at a local massage parlor
– Take a nap Take a catnap with your pet or for relaxation
– Think about your future plans/roadmap of what you want future life to be
– Get absorbed in a craft project complete craft projects that you have started before you start a new one
– Research your family tree known as Genealogy
– Do some gardening – make flower arrangements for your home or garden
– Learn something new learn a new craft or write a poem
– Play a musical instrument Guitar, Flute, Native American flute & pianist
– Read a magazine Instead of purchasing magazine read them online; only purchase a magazine if it’s of interest to you or your projects
– Plan & save for a trip my dream trip is Israel to see the Holy Land
– Clean out a drawer or De-clutter a room De-clutter a room per month
– Play a game – with friends, online, or with the kids Big Fish online games; scrabble, Uno, cards, bingo, checkers, chess, Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy
– Take yourself to an uplifting movie Heaven is for Real; if the cost of going to the movies is too costly rent a DVD or wait for it to go on sale or join Netflix or Hulu online
– Watch a fun DVD Comedies: Mrs. Doubtfire, MaDear goes to jail; First Wives Club, Meet the Browns
– Write to a friend or family member who’s far away Correspond via email or Facebook
– Take some photos of family, extended family, friends, celebrations, events, vacations. Frame some, photo albums by category. Digital photos download to your computer & create photo albums. Create a scrapbook.
– Give yourself a good hot bath, put on dress up clothes, go out for the evening with a friend to dinner & a movie.
– Clean out your closet each season: take everything out of your closet; sort it into categories: dry clean, launder, iron, needs mended, tattered=trash, doesn’t fit clean & donate to a place of your choice. Check all your pockets for money. Put your closet back together organized.
– Do some free writing a newsletter for a nonprofit or writing class material for RC GOW, write a poem to share at an upcoming event
Our group responses are as follows: Eat a small portion of your favorites periodically to get over your sudden craving! You can’t make treats a habit – only when you want to satisfy a strong desire. Most people aren’t random in their binges – they use emotional eating as a response to certain types of triggers. Feel nervous & binge = limit to a small portion; if you see it when grocery shopping = be strong & don’t buy use the money for something beneficial. Go grocery shopping on a full stomach to avoid buying junk food when you check out.
Look for Patterns: The first step in dealing with emotional eating is to know what makes you do it. Sure, emotions are to blame – but which ones? Under what circumstances? Chocolate, potato chips, donuts, cashew peanuts, Cheetos, ice cream, cookies, Hershey almonds & kisses & fruit slices. You’re excited & must eat a small portion of these foods one at a time.
For 1 month keep track of your patterns so you can address the issue[s].
Ok, this hit home. As I started going through these steps, the first thing I saw was the cherry pie. I don’t especially like cherry pie but my husband does so I made it for him yesterday and ate a healthy portion myself and not strategically. I am trying to organize the home With your home organizer wizard. So these fit well together. I am de-cluttering the kitchen while getting rid of tempting high calorie treats.
I’ve thrown out most of the chocolate except a few expensive pieces and turned the candy dish on my desk into a place to hold my bananas.
I am a mental health therapist and deal with emotional eating ALL_THE_TIME so you think I’d be AMAZING at it, right? WRONG. I believe emotional eating is used too much as an excuse. I struggle with associating a “bad day” or “because I had a fight with the boyfriend” as a reason to eat that cupcake. Because if I do that, where do I draw the line? Nope, I work on becoming aware of what I’m feeling at the time and give myself the time to appropriately distance myself from wanting to eradicate the emotion with food, because I know that I will feel WORSE after I do that. I’m still working on replacing eating with something more appropriate. I only try to treat myself if I’ve 1) exercised that day and 2) if my calorie log will allow for it. And rarely do I do it because of an emotion.
Eat a small portion of your favorites periodically to get over your sudden craving! You can’t make treats a habit – only when you want to satisfy a strong desire. Most people aren’t random in their binges – they use emotional eating as a response to certain types of triggers. Feel nervous & binge = limit to a small portion; if you see it when grocery shopping = be strong & don’t buy use the money for something beneficial.
Look for Patterns: The first step in dealing with emotional eating is to know what makes you do it. Sure, emotions are to blame – but which ones? Under what circumstances? Chocolate, potato chips, donuts, cashew peanuts, Cheetos, ice cream, cookies, Hershey almonds & kisses & fruit slices. You’re excited & must eat a small portion of these foods one at a time.
We use emotional eating as a response to certain types of triggers. Feel nervous & binge = limit to a small portion; if you see it when grocery shopping = be strong & don’t buy use the money for something beneficial.
For 1 month keep track of your patterns so you can address the issue[s].
Identify Your Emotional Eating Triggers: After 1 month analyze your patterns & make the adjustments.
Identify your underlying needs:
– If you’re bored (the trigger), you may need stimulation (the underlying need). Watch TV, read a book, watch Netflix, or watch DVD’s = bored to relaxation
– If you’re tired: Relax & watch the news & take a catnap
– If you’re upset, you need comfort. Talk to somebody
– If you’re happy, you need celebration. Tell somebody to plan a happy party = Let’s Get Acquainted
– If you’re anxious, you need calming. Count to ten & exhale & relax
– If certain foods, people, or situations are hard for you to cope with, you need to avoid them or mange them better. Call someone to talk on how to change the people for better = a toxic person changed to a positive person otherwise the toxic person is off your friend list.
Make a list of things to do when you notice a trigger Talk with a neutral person to resolve the issue
– Do something creative – drawing, counted cross stitching, journal, and paint by numbers, jigsaw puzzles
– Meditate Relaxation to calm you via music, reading & meditation tape & prayer
– Pray praying to myself as a personal relationship; low verbal voice
– Take a bath – and add some lovely fragrance with candles [if you have a large bathroom] or bath oils Champagne Bubble Bath or your favorite bubble bath
– Go for a walk & focus on the sights, sounds & smells Walk in a local park or your local zoo
– Read a funny, inspirational or motivating book for relaxation
– Get or give a massage, or practice self-massage Treat you to a massage periodically at a local massage parlor
– Take a nap Take a catnap with your pet or for relaxation
– Think about your future plans/roadmap of what you want future life to be
– Get absorbed in a craft project complete craft projects that you have started before you start a new one
– Research your family tree known as Genealogy
– Do some gardening – make flower arrangements for your home or garden
– Learn something new learn a new craft or write a poem
– Play a musical instrument Flute, Native American flute & pianist
– Read a magazine Instead of purchasing magazine read them online; only purchase a magazine if it’s of interest to you or your projects
– Plan & save for a trip my dream trip is Israel to see the Holy Land
– Clean out a drawer or De-clutter a room De-clutter a room per month
– Play a game – with friends, online, or with the kids Big Fish online games; scrabble, Uno, cards, bingo, checkers, chess, Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy
– Take yourself to an uplifting movie Heaven is for Real; if the cost of going to the movies is too costly rent a DVD or wait for it to go on sale or join Netflix or Hulu online
– Watch a fun DVD Comedies: Mrs. Doubtfire, MaDear goes to jail; First Wives Club, Meet the Browns
– Write to a friend or family member who’s far away Correspond via email or Facebook
– Take some photos of family, extended family, friends, celebrations, events, vacations. Frame some, photo albums by category. Digital photos download to your computer & create photo albums.
– Give yourself a good hot bath, put on dress up clothes, go out for the evening with a friend to dinner & a movie.
– Clean out your closet each season: take everything out of your closet; sort it into categories: dry clean, launder, iron, needs mended, tattered=trash, doesn’t fit clean & donate to a place of your choice. Check all your pockets for money. Put your closet back together organized.
– Do some free writing a newsletter for a nonprofit or writing class material for RC GOW, write a poem to share at an upcoming event
Your solutions don’t have to be conventional. If you have an intuition that something weird [Halloween] or wacky [Comedian] might meet your needs, add it to your list.
You might like to keep your list somewhere handy note on your cell phone.
If Tiredness Is Your Trigger [take a nap or ME time]: Allow yourself to be tired. Take a catnap.
Take a nap, take a day off, relax and unwind when you get home from work or volunteer or give yourself an hour to relax and unwind from your busy day.
If Feelings Are Your Trigger
Instead of eating play an online game, listen to music, read a book, watch TV, watch a DVD, meditate, exercise of work on a craft.
Write down your feeling’s as they occur so you can eliminate the situation from reoccurring.
Don’t Let A Setback Stop You
When setting goals you will hit bumps in the road. Relook at your goal and continue to ascertain what you have set for yourself. You hit a snag evaluate for educational purposes & go on with your life. If it occurs again you’ll know what to do. I wonder why. [TV food ads cause me to eat more sweets/junk food]
– Huh – what’s that about? This would work in certain situations at your discretion.
Just accept yourself as an imperfect person [there is no perfect person in the world today] aiming for progress. No criticism. No judgment. Self-abuse and judgment are what trap you in a binge spiral. Don’t give them the chance. Don’t strive for perfection just continues to do better.
If you have cravings eat a small portion to take the temptation away.
We will eat junk food when we want it. Putting it in a box or bag would not work for us.
Generally I can do this well, but the last two days have been emotional eating out of control. Maybe having read this will help me get a handle on it again.
Completed 🙂
Completed 🙂