The first step in getting some control on your Emotional Eating is to Become Aware of How You Are Eating. This is a journey of self-discovery; of conquering inner demons and regaining control over your eating. While nothing can be fully healed in a short amount of time, this is the beginning point of creating new habits that will assist you on this path.
Work as slowly as you need to.
Make self-awareness a daily ritual by being more present in your life and acknowledging what you need in your life to be completely happy.
Making oneself the focus of attention, being aware of different aspects of the self including traits, behaviors and feelings. A study indicates that Binge Eating is used as an escape from self-awareness, so this aspect is especially important to practice.
When you start to fill your life with joy, you won’t have the need to fill your body with extra food.
Journaling
To Become Aware of How You Are Eating, it's important to understand that we cannot make lifestyle changes unless we are aware of what’s not working in our lives. One way to become aware of our purpose and to be present in our lives is to Journal. So, I want you to buy a Journal. It doesn’t have to be fancy; it can be as simple as a spiral notebook.
Why Journal?
Research suggests that the practice of Journaling may help wounds heal faster.
According to James W. Pennebaker, a social psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin who is considered the pioneer of writing therapy said there isn’t one answer “It’s a whole cascade of things that occur”, he said. Labeling emotions and acknowledging traumatic events - both outcomes of Journaling have a known positive effect on people, Dr Pennebaker said.
Keeping a journal helps to organize an event in our mind and make sense of trauma.
When we do that our working memory improves, since our brains are freed from the enormous taxing job of processing that experience and we sleep better.
This in turn improves our immune system and our moods.
How to Journal
It may be tough to journal when the tough feelings come up, so start Journaling during a stress-free day. Get into that daily habit so even on stress-filled days you’ll be able to sit and journal your feelings, as difficult as it may be.
Journal every morning about how you feel and your plan for the day this makes it easier to become aware of how you are eating too. Or journal in the evening by stating what you’re grateful for and what you accomplished. Make notes about how you can handle stress or other difficult situations going forward.
Allow yourself to open this door daily and explore those feelings. Feel them and identify them. When you feel, you will not run to the pantry to eat or hide a bag of chips in the car and eat them when nobody's looking.
The deeper you dive into your soul and re-write the story, the easier it will be defining your life and what you want.
Monitoring Your Eating
Several studies show that keeping a written record of what you eat increases the likelihood that you’ll lose weight and keep it off. One weight loss study of nearly 1,700 participants, those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records.
Monitoring what you eat in writing as you eat, helps you stick to your diet because it helps you remain accountable for what you actually eat. If we keep a mental tally and not bother to write it down we could forget. And it's not because we necessarily consciously lie to ourselves about what we’ve eaten. It’s just that it’s really easy to forget about the small amount of leftovers, the cream in our coffee or the second helpings at mealtimes. Checking off what you’ve eaten and writing down what you hadn’t planned to eat, forces you to become aware of how you are eating.
You can’t fool yourself when you can see the evidence there in front of you in black and white!
So that is how you Become Aware.
What To Do Next?
Buy a Journal
Journal about your feelings AND about what you have eaten - so it's a Food Diary and a Journal.
Join our Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WomenWhoAreBeatingEmotionalEating
