Powerful Ways To Take Control of EMOTIONAL EATING

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2 70 Powerful Ways To Take Control of EMOTIONAL EATING and OVEREATING Once and For All Melissa McCreery, PhD Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 1

3 Introduction Changing your eating habits can be a challenge. If weight loss and healthy eating were as simple as just doing what you know you should do, most people wouldn t struggle. The truth is, for many, food and eating are tied up with emotions, relationships, and how you take care of yourself. Many have learned to use food for comfort, for stress relief, to celebrate, or to cope with painful feelings. Emotional eating is one of the major causes of overeating, weight gain, and even weight regain after weight loss. Tackling emotional eating requires the right tools and strategies. Without them, it s easy to get stuck in vicious cycles and end up weighing more than you did when you started your weight loss journey. Melissa McCreery, PhD TooMuchOnHerPlate.com th St., Ste. 200B Bellingham, WA info@toomuchonherplate.com Melissa McCreery, PhD. TooMuchonHerPlate.com Disclaimer: The information in this booklet is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease or medical or psychological or psychiatric disorder. This information is not intended as a substitute for the advice or medical care of a qualified health care professional. Seek the advice of your health care professional before undertaking any dietary or lifestyle changes. The material provided is for educational purposes only. This booklet is filled with practical and immediately useable tips delivered in doable bite-sized portions for creating a way out of the struggles with emotional eating and overeating. These tools and techniques have been tried and tested by my coaching clients and participants in my Emotional Eating Solutions programs. Discover the real secrets to taking charge of your eating and your weight; find out what to do instead of turning to food when you are stressed, frustrated, tired, or feeling bad; and learn some simple strategies for dealing with cravings. Most of all, discover how to make changes that last. Try these tips and discover how they can work for you. For more in-depth support, or to receive ongoing tips and articles, visit us at: Take good care, Melissa McCreery, PhD 2 70 Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 3

4 Are You an Emotional Eater? Many people turn to food to cope with emotions or for comfort. It s possible to have patterns of emotional eating and not be aware of them. Here are some signs that are likely indicators of emotional eating. You might be an emotional eater if: 1. The hunger comes on suddenly and the need to eat feels urgent. Physiological hunger comes on slowly and it s okay to delay eating. 2. You keep eating even if you aren t hungry anymore or the hunger doesn t go away although you are physically full. 3. You eat to the point of physical discomfort. 4. You don t know whether you were hungry or not when you ate. 5. After you eat you realize you aren t aware of how much you ate or how it tasted. 6. You have feelings of shame, guilt, or embarrassment after eating. 7. You eat because you are bored, tired, lonely, or excited. 8. Hunger accompanies an unpleasant emotion anger, hurt, fear, anxiety. Emotional eating begins in your mind thinking about food not in your stomach. 9. You crave a specific food and won t feel content until you have that. If you are eating for physical hunger, any food will fill you up. 10. You keep eating (or grazing, or nibbling) because you just can t figure out what you are hungry for. Nothing seems to hit the spot (physical hunger goes away no matter what food you choose to fill up on). Take Charge of Emotional Eating Start with a winning game plan. Build a foundation for lasting results with these tried-and-true success tips. 1 Practice asking yourself why you are eating or why you are feeling hungry instead of focusing solely on what to eat. This helps you identify the root cause of your overeating. 2 Create a clear picture of what peace with food means for you. Visualize yourself at your best and the role you want food and eating to play in your life. 3 Use curiosity to target what you re really craving. Before you eat, ask yourself what triggered your hunger and what you are feeling. Feeling hungry doesn t necessarily mean you need food. You may need something else like a break, stress-relief, reassurance, or even sleep. 4 Substitute curiosity for self-blame and perfectionism when you get off track. There is a lot of important information available when things don t go well. Examine why you overate and what you can learn from any missteps. This helps you be successful in the future. 5 Develop a bigger vocabulary to describe your emotions. Getting better at identifying your feelings helps you learn how to respond to them instead of overeating. 6 Record what s on your mind. Write a paragraph or two about how you are feeling every day. Journaling is a powerful way to download your brain and address your emotions directly instead of turning to food Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 5

5 7 Find ways to connect with yourself and to stay aware of your feelings, your hunger, and your needs. Set a reminder on your phone to check in with yourself, practice meditation, or spend quiet time alone. 8 Respect your need for me time and selfcare. Practice doing something just for you on a daily basis. 9 Identify the feelings that can trigger emotional eating. Experiment with alternate ways of addressing them. 10 Keep it positive. Focus on what you will do instead of declaring what you won t do or eat. 11 Be playful and be curious when you are starting a weight loss plan. Expect to make mistakes, encounter bumps, and to tweak your plan as you go. 12 Create reminders. These can be phrases, pictures, quotes, etc. of your peace with food goal. Put the reminders where you will see them frequently. 13 Identify a support system and practice using it. Friends and mentors can help you stay on track when you don t feel confident or motivated or need a gentle push forward. 14 Be honest about who you are and what works for you. Your eating and weight loss plan or program must be a good fit for you for it to work for you. Thrive to be Slim Combining overwhelm and overload can be a recipe for overeating. Nourishing yourself in other non-food ways can positively impact the scale AND your life. 15 Spiff up your self-care. Claim me time (even a few minutes) on a regular basis so overwhelm and overload don t sabotage your healthy eating intentions. 16 Do one lovely thing for yourself just for you each day. It doesn t have to be anything major, just lovely. When you reward yourself in other ways, rewarding yourself with food becomes less tempting. 17 Practice feeding all of your senses, not just taste. Reward yourself with good smells, wonderful lotions, music that boosts your mood, or a massage or a pedicure instead of turning to food Put yourself on your calendar. Schedule me time so it will definitely happen. Take breaks. Stop, stretch, breathe, and check in with yourself on a regular basis. This helps with stress, productivity, and emotional eating. 20 Learn to say no. This reduces your stress and overload and creates space for things you d like to say yes to. 21 Practice delegating tasks and asking for help. Get comfortable with this by setting a goal of asking for help with at least one thing every day. 22 Give yourself the same compassion, respect, and kindness that you d give a close friend or family member. It s time to stop being harder on yourself than you d be on anyone else. Guilt and self-blame fuel emotional eating Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 7

6 Handling Food and Cravings Years of struggling with diets, overeating, and your weight can create unhelpful habits. These tips help you make peace with food and take control of emotional eating in ways that SATISFY. 23 Set a no multitasking policy while you eat. When you eat mindfully you eat less and feel more satisfied. Eliminate distractions and focus on eating the amount that satisfies your hunger. 24 Practice savoring. Allow yourself to fully taste and enjoy the food you choose to eat. Slow down the pace of your meals and focus on using all your senses when you eat. 25 Commit to treating yourself well and fueling yourself in the best ways possible. Move forward with the intent of nourishing your mind, your spirit, and your life in addition to your stomach, rather than focusing on depriving yourself. 26 Cultivate your inner wisdom. Ask yourself what you know about why you eat when you do and why some times and situations are more difficult than others. 27 Identify the times of day you tend to overeat. Create advance strategies for these specific situations and circumstances. Adjust and tweak as you learn what works well, and what doesn t. 28 Fuel your body well to reduce stress eating, overeating patterns, sugar slumps and energy shifts throughout the day. Aim for smaller, more frequent meals that include some protein. 29 Ask yourself what you were doing, feeling, or ignoring that may have triggered an urge to eat when hunger or strong cravings come up suddenly. This is a clue to notice in the future. 30 Make sure that you are getting enough to eat during the first two thirds of your day. Deprivation backfires and can lead to bingeing or grazing in the afternoon or evening. 31 Take time to plan your meals in advance. This keeps you from being caught by surprise when life gets busy or stressful. 32 Save your weekly menus and grocery lists. Build a four week collection so you can reuse them instead of recreating them again and again. 33 Have a Plan B for those days when life goes haywire. Make a list of ten quick, low or no-effort, healthy, good tasting meals you can grab-and-go. Keep the list in your purse or on your phone so you will be in control of your choices. 34 Play with feelings of hunger and fullness. Experiment with allowing yourself to get a little more hungry or a little less full. Notice how hungry you typically feel before eating and how full you tend to be when you stop. What would happen or what would you feel if you made different choices about when to start or stop eating? 35 Ask yourself how hungry you are (on a scale from one to ten) and what exactly you are hungry for before you eat. If you don t know the answers, it s probably emotional eating. 36 Respect your hungry feelings. Make every effort to understand what triggered them (physical hunger, an emotion, a situation) and to respond to that trigger in the highest quality way Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 9

7 37 Visualize before entering tempting situations. Create a clear picture in your mind of the choices you want to make and the way you want to be. Picture yourself and the way you want to feel after the event or situation has passed. What to do INSTEAD of Eating Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows there is a huge difference between knowing what you should do, and actually doing it. Willpower is rarely a lasting solution. Peace with food, and control of overeating and emotional eating happen when you have tools and strategies to use INSTEAD of turning to food. Here are some great tips to get you started. 38 Fight stress eating. Develop a list of strategies to use when you are stressed instead of white knuckling it through tough times. Brainstorm your list and write it down before stress hits. 39 Identify feelings that trigger emotional eating. Ask what eating accomplishes in these situations. It may numb, calm, distract, or comfort you, or do something else. Consider what else you might do to create the same or a better result. 40 Practice being kind to yourself and feeling the feelings when you are experiencing difficult emotions like anger or hurt or worry. This works better than trying to ignore them, make them go away, or bury them with food. 41 Seek out tools to help you address conflict and anger. Discomfort with conflict and trying to avoid anger are major causes of emotional eating. If you don t know what to do with tough emotions, seek out an expert who can help you discover the tools that you need to feel effective. 42 Phone a friend or reach out for help when you feel overwhelmed or overloaded. Do this instead of reaching for something to eat. 43 Collect ways of rewarding or comforting yourself that do not involve eating. Make a list of 25 ways that you can be nice to yourself. 44 Learn to rest when you are tired. Exhaustion increases your appetite and your cravings. Let yourself rest instead of turning to food as a pick-me-up if you are tired. 45 Insert a pause when you feel like overeating. Delay eating for fifteen minutes and do something else instead. Be open to whatever happens. 46 Ask other people whom you trust or admire how they cope with stress, anxiety, or other uncomfortable feelings that can trigger overeating. It s a great way to broaden your own range of coping tools. 47 Consider what you need this week to be in charge of your eating. Be proactive and plan for upcoming stressful situations with do-able sized steps. Work, Rest and Play These tips are helpful whether your tough periods are during the busy times, the down-time, or even the space in between. 48 List your worries and to-do list on paper. This keeps them from taking up space inside your brain and short-circuiting your productivity or your good intentions Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 11

8 49 Do something physical that fits your personality and your health. Get out of your head by getting into your body to minimize overwhelm and fatigue. 50 Pay attention to transitions such as between work and home or between dinner and bedtime. Develop a ritual of pausing for a few minutes to ask yourself how you feel and what you need. Overeating, bingeing, and mindless eating often happen when you are tired or on autopilot. 51 Take a thirty second time out before you munch at your desk. Determine whether it is food you crave or something else. 52 Sleep a minimum of seven hours every night. Sleeping less causes weight gain, increased appetite, and cravings Identify the times of day you overeat. Have an advance plan for them. Put more play and fun in your life and it will be easier to avoid rewarding yourself with food. 55 Commit to a time when your day will end and you begin transitioning towards sleep. Develop a ritual for unwinding and preparing yourself for sleep so that stress, worries, and late night eating are less likely to interfere with your rest and your well-being. The Power of Ten (Minutes) You might say it s hard to get control of eating because you are so short on time or energy. Food may seem like a quick and easy comfort to reach for when you are stressed or overloaded. However, these ten minute tips are extremely effective ways to end vicious cycles with food. 56 Minimize night eating. Create a winddown ritual that includes some nice things for you without including food. 57 Carve out me time. Pay attention to what you really need, even in small doses. You will be less likely to turn to food for a reward or for escape. 58 Short-circuit stress eating and overwhelm. Claim ten minutes at the beginning of your day to get clear on your priorities, identify where to best spend your time and energy, and set your schedule. 59 Create a ten minute transition between your work day and your after-work routine. Sit. Breathe. Be. Getting clear about your needs and plans for the rest of the day can help curb impulsive eating and overeating. 60 Spend a few minutes at the beginning of your week to get clear on your priorities and your boundaries. Give yourself permission to say no so you have the time and energy to address your real priorities. 61 Take a ten minute time-out when you feel like overeating or rewarding yourself with food. Leave the area, put on music, or stand up and stretch Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 13

9 Create Changes that Last Wouldn t you love to get off the yo-yo diet rollercoaster once and for all? Here are strategies for creating lasting change and real peace with food. 62 Be pro-active. Anticipate the tough spots or challenges for your weight loss or healthy eating plan and develop strategies in advance. 63 Ask yourself, What can I learn from this? Do this even (especially!) when things don t go well. 64 Honor your efforts by learning from what works and from what doesn t. Remind yourself that rarely do things go perfectly. 65 Seek out others who have a relationship with food similar to the one that you want. Let them inspire you and help you develop new habits. 66 Be gentle yet persistent with yourself. Small, do-able changes can create massive shifts in your eating and your weight. 67 Know that you will have days that don t go so well. Create an advance plan for getting back to your healthy eating program when things go off course. 68 Focus on taking do-able and consistent steps. Remember that creating a peaceful relationship with food is a journey. Make small, manageable changes in your eating that you can stick with. 69 Allow yourself to seek the help and resources you need along the way. The tools exist. You may not know about them. You can get help rather than go it alone if you don t know what to do. 70 Create strategies to keep you motivated when the going gets tough. Reward yourself and celebrate the milestones you achieve as you move towards your goal. You are done feeling deprived, unappreciated, and overworked that s just a recipe for overeating! The best plan for creating lasting change includes both trying and tweaking. Try on these tips and learn what works for you. Then tweak, adjust, and try a few more. Small, consistent steps create powerful change. About the Author Psychologist and Life Coach Dr. Melissa Mc- Creery focuses on the three Os that ambush successful, high-striving women overeating, overwhelm, and overload. She is the founder of TooMuchOnHerPlate.com where her clients take control of overeating and stress and add more ease, success, and joy to their health, their businesses, and their lives. The creator of the Emotional Eating Solution Series, the Put Yourself First 7 Day Blast-off, and The Success Soundtrack, Melissa has been featured in Self magazine, on Yahoo Health, in Diane magazine (the magazine of Curves Fitness Centers), SparkPeople.com, and many other wellness publications. Visit to learn more and to claim your free audio set: 5 Simple Steps to Move Beyond Overwhelm with Food and Life Powerful Ways to Take Control Of Emotional Eating and Overeating 15

10 Ten Ways to Promote Your Practice or Organization and Help Your Clients with this Booklet (It can even be customized especially for you.) 1. Use this booklet as a thank you or as a welcome gift when new patients join your practice or organization. 2. Mail it to your members or clients to stay in touch. 3. Offer it free with any purchase during a specific time, with a certain purchase amount, or when opening a new account or initiating a new membership. 4. Distribute this booklet to prospects at trade shows. 5. Give it as an incentive for completing a questionnaire or survey. 6. Include it as a thank you gift when mailing your invoices. 7. Package it as a value-added bonus with a product or service you sell. 8. Deliver a copy to the hands of the first X number of people who enter a drawing, register for your next seminar/workshop, or visit your store or office. 9. Provide copies of this booklet to people and organizations that can refer business to you. 10. Send it to your clients at year-end, thanking them for their business. What are you waiting for? Powerful Ways to Take Control