{"id":1791,"date":"2023-06-20T18:10:39","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T18:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2024-05-09T21:18:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T21:18:25","slug":"emotional-eating-cycles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/20\/emotional-eating-cycles\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Eating Cycles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is for people who want to lose weight but struggle to stick with diet changes and end up overeating, emotionally eating, binge eating\u2026or whatever other term fits for the experience of feeling out of control around food while also trying to lose weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This image is a pretty typical pattern; do you recognize your own process reflected here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You start out wanting to lose weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You find a \u2018diet\u2019 or way of eating that requires you to change some aspect of your current eating patterns. I didn\u2019t put an arrow here but want to note this as a possible intervention point. There is nothing wrong with changing your eating patterns to be more healthful. For some people, this requires eliminating or cutting back on ultra processed foods, added sugar, and refined carbs. It means imposing some structure on when you eat. Please make sure whatever eating plan you choose is sound and based on solid science and evidence. There are many eating programs based on pseudo-science! This is a possible intervention point to ensure you are following principles of sound nutrition. Generally this will require cutting back on carbs, especially processed ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling deprived and hungry on your new eating program is an intervention point. Feeling deprived in particular is largely based on your personal beliefs about food and eating. Do you believe you should be able to eat whatever you want, whenever you want it? Do you believe it is unfair to have to put in work and effort to managing your eating? Are you truly hungry (in which case, evaluate whether your chosen diet is nutritionally sound) bored, or experiencing strong emotions? Is eating a way you cope with stress? Do you have emotional associations to the foods you eat? Does eating help you avoid something you don’t want to do, face, or experience? Remember, to lose weight may require you to eat differently than you currently do and possibly develop different ways to respond to your eating cues. Working with your mindset can help you effectively respond to feelings of perceived deprivation, find satiation through nourishing food and eating patterns, and develop healthy self care practices that nourish you\u2014 body, mind, & soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BINGE EATING AND OVEREATING are behavioral CHOICES that you MAKE in response to feeling deprived and hungry. You may feel deprived at times. You may feel hungry at times. The goal is to CHANGE HOW YOU RESPOND to these experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes overeating or emotionally eating makes you feel better in the short term, but that\u2019s often followed by negative feelings and\/or physical sensations such as bloating. You may also have distressing thoughts about how you ate, your weight, etc. These experiences are understandably uncomfortable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, you AVOID. Sometimes this looks like containing to overeat. Maybe you vow to start over on a very strict diet. Whatever this looks like for you, consider it as a way to avoid dealing with the uncomfortable fact and reality that you binged or overate or broke your diet or whatever. Rigid or strict attempts at dieting can often function to avoid the distress of the binge and\/or help you regain a sense of control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026but eventually the cycle continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you do to break the cycle? Fortunately, there are MANY things! Here are 10:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Change the focus from trying to lose weight to improving your health. This shift can impact the foods you choose to eat and how much of them you eat. Do you think it is healthy to overload your body with food it doesn’t need or to eat refined junk food?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Choose sound eating plans that focus on real whole food. Ideally get your nutrition information from reputable sources. Try an eating program for a period of time to see if it’s a good fit for you, like a week or 2, or a month. Treat it like an experiment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Work to change how you relate to your mind and thoughts around food, eating, and what it means to be deprived. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Explore your emotional associations to food and eating & recognize when you have fallen under their spell.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Practice being with cravings and urges to overeat without doing anything about them\u2014 without trying to get rid of them or figure them out. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Identify other practices and activities you can engage in when you experience cravings or urges to overeat. Check out my Whole Health card deck for ideas!<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Practice embodiment and develop a respectful attitude towards your body.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Make sure you are getting enough good quality sleep.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Be active in ways you enjoy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Reduce stress and actively engage in self care practices.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is for people who want to lose weight but struggle to stick with diet changes and end up overeating, emotionally eating, binge eating\u2026or whatever other term fits for the experience of feeling out of control around food while also trying to lose weight. This image is a pretty typical pattern; do you recognize your … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Emotional Eating Cycles”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-food","category-self-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2009,"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions\/2009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tovaabelmancoaching.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}