Are You an Emotional Eater?

Are you an emotional eater? You can stop it before it starts! One tip would be to keep a food journal to help you identify your emotional eating triggers. Emotional eating happens when you lose your connection to your grounded self. Don't think that stress makes you overeat! We need the physical stress of exercise to keep our bodies in good shape just as we need the stress of intellectual and emotional challenges to keep our minds healthy. What really leads to emotional eating is your mind getting caught up in " worst case scenarios" projections, misinterpretations and all the emotional overreactions that come with these thoughts. This turns a managable challange into something that makes you feel helpless and over whelmed - and sends you into an eating frenzy in hopes that these feelings will go away. Here are some ideas  to keep you grounded when your feelings start to spiral out of control: Inhale deep through your nose- then exhale like you're a ballon that's deflating- getting all of the air out of you. Do this slowly and do it 2-3 times. Next, breath normally and count to 10- then back to 1. Next, stop and see your surroundings, noticing and naming the colors and shapes in the space around you. What physical sensations are you experiencing?  Is it a sinking feeling? Knots in your stomach? Tension in your hands or jaw? Shortness of breath? Try to name the feelings that go with the sensation [ fear or anger?] The idea here is to stay in your body and in the moment. Instead of getting lost in your mind where all those unreal scenarios are just waiting to spin out of control.

Hugs&Health
Bernadette xoxo