Subscribe to Alive Newsletter

RSS Feed

NEXT ISSUE: Managing stress and anxiety

Newsletter - January 2010

Happy New Year to all!

It's more than a new year, it's the beginning of a new decade.

Do you remember what your life was about in year 2000? Are you better now or are you still striving and struggling? If you are still in the latter, you are more likely like the majority of us.

The beginning of a new year is always filled with a sense of renewal. A lot of New Year's Resolutions are made with great intent and somehow is let go of later.

On the lists, In particular is the Resolution to lose those extra pounds. We all know the best way to do it is to follow the simple formula of eating less and exercising more. It does seem so simple...but, a lot of folks just can't follow through. There is certainly an epidemic in the country of obesity. The number of health problems related to obesity are many.

I have been interested in this problem for some time and think the reason a lot of people fail in this endeavor is the failure to deal with the big secret underlying the fat cells. And that is Emotional Eating and Motivation.

In this newsletter and the next, I will explore this issue in hope to help shed light on these problems. I am also producing 3 new self hypnosis CDs related to these topics. Hypnosis and self hypnosis worked with on a daily basis will help your subconscious mind deal effectively with these issues. It is indeed a very effective tool. So let's get to work!

Emotional Eating

Source: Shrink Yourself: Break free from emotional eating forever! by Roger Gould, M.D.

Are You an Emotional Eater?

To find out if you're an emotional eater, answer the following seven questions. The last time you ate too much:

1. Did you notice your hunger coming on fast, or did it grow gradually?
2. When you got hungry, did you feel an almost desperate need to eat something right away?
3. When you ate, did you pay attention to what went in your mouth, or did you just stuff it in?
4. When you got hungry, would any nutritious food have sufficed, or did you need a certain type of food or treat to satisfy yourself?
5. Did you feel guilty after you ate?
6. Did you eat when you were emotionally upset or experiencing feelings of "emptiness"?
7. Did you stuff in the food very quickly?

Let's see how you did.

1. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, while physical hunger develops slowly. Physical hunger begins with a tummy rumble, then it becomes a stronger grumble, and finally it evolves into hunger pangs, but it's a slow process, very different from emotional hunger, which has a sudden dramatic onset.
2. Unlike physical hunger, emotional hunger demands food immediately, and it wants immediate satisfaction. Physical hunger, on the other hand, will wait for food.
3. A difference between physical and emotional hunger involves mindfulness. To satisfy physical hunger, you normally make a deliberate choice about what you consume, and maintain awareness of what you eat. You notice how much you put in your mouth, so that you can stop when you're full. Emotional hunger, in contrast, rarely notices what's being eaten. If you have emotional hunger, you'll want more food even after you're stuffed.
4. Emotional hunger often demands particular foods in order to be fulfilled. If you're physically hungry, even carrots will look delicious. If you're emotionally hungry, however, only cake or ice cream or your particular preferred indulgence will seem appealing.
5. Emotional hunger often results in guilt or promises to do better next time. Physical hunger has no guilt attached to it, because you know you ate in order to maintain health and energy.
6. Emotional hunger results from some emotional trigger. Physical hunger results from a physiological need.
7. When you are feeding physical hunger, you can eat your food and savor each bite, but when you eat to fulfill emotional hunger you stuff the food in. All of a sudden you look down and the whole pint of ice cream is gone.
   

You eat when you aren't really hungry because you have two stomachs--one real, the other phantom. The hunger in your belly signals you when your system has a biological requirement for food. If that was the only sign of hunger you received, you'd be thin. It's the phantom stomach that causes the problems.

The phantom stomach sends out a signal demanding food when unruly emotions and unsolved personal agendas start pushing themselves into yourself and you feel compelled to eat, or more accurately to stuff yourself and shut the feelings up.

Phantom hunger has such power that it drives you to almost any lengths to satisfy it. You'll drive to a convenience store in the middle of the night for snacks; you'll steal your child's Halloween candy when she's asleep; you'll sneak and hide food.

For emotional eaters eating less simply isn't possible; the urge to eat is too strong. Food has become a psychological tool, a way to avoid feelings that are too intense or anxiety provoking If you haven't learned to cope with life and your emotions in a way that doesn't include food, you will not be able to adhere to any diet plan for very long.

Using food to deal with feelings, however, creates a vicious cycle. Food lets you avoid your problems or what's bothering you for a while, but when problems are left unattended they grow in intensity. This makes you stuff yourself and then you're filled with guilt on top of your original problem. The cycle spirals out of control because then you need food to deal with the guilt as well as the original problem. Sure, food can serve as a fabulous quick fix, it can bring immediate relief and pleasure, but it doesn't take long to see that one cookie doesn't do it. You end up needing more and more to fill up the emptiness from living an unexamined life.

Emotional eaters have struggled with this vicious cycle for years in some cases or even decades. It's so difficult to change the cycle because simply recognizing it doesn't help, nor does willpower.

In order to change this deeply entrenched pattern, you have to go deep below the surface to new places never before explored. You need to analyze what's happening in your life--you need to address that which you're trying to avoid by eating, and arrive at a new response. That is the only way to break the cycle.

It really boils down to feelings of powerlessness

1. You feel powerless about how to deal with your self -doubts.
2. You feel powerless about how to get real satisfaction in life
3. You feel powerless to insure your own safety.
4. You feel powerless to appropriately assert your independence
5. You feel powerless to fill yourself up when you feel empty inside.

Stress Management and Emotional Eating

One factor in excess weight is an association between food and coping with difficult emotions. The emotions that are most difficult to handle are those that arise in response to stressful events and situations. Stress indeed can wreck havoc on the body and emotions.

Turning to emotions in order to deal with the negative emotions of stress is known as "emotional eating. " Emotional eating is not a response to hunger. It is a response to difficult emotions. Emotional eating is a prominent factor in obesity.

What can you do?

Take measures to stress proof your life:

• establish loving, mutually supportive relationships;
• find meaningful work or activities
• practice meditation or relaxation
• work on mastering your time management skills
• resolve unfinished business
• develop on your own or with a therapist solution oriented approaches to life problems
• utilize hypnosis for stress reduction
• increase your spirituality

Ways to help Reverse the Addiction to Food

• Remove comfort foods from yourhome and replace them with healthful snacks
• One way to reverse a habit is to replace it with another ritual. Turn to healthier ways to soothe difficult emotions: negotiate with friends, co- workers, family to support you and stop tempting you with sweets and fattening foods.
• When you are faced with temptation of sugary, starchy foods, say NO immediately. Don't give yourself time to mull it over.
• Don't attend gatherings that focus on fattening foods--the wine and cheese party, ice cream social, the chocolate bake off.
• Trying to taper off gradually doesn't work because it's easier to turn down the first cookie than the 10th--by then, you are "on a roll." Until you can effectively and consistently manage stress in healthy ways, it's best to avoid problem food altogether, so that they are not even an option to consider.
• Be aware of the ways in which you sabotage yourself and STOP IT!!! Do you say, "Just this once is okay" or "Just one doughnut won't hurt" or "I am really down today, so this time doesn't count."
• Believe you CAN reverse this addiction.
• Take it one day at a time. The reality you live today won't be the reality of your entire life. Each morning when you wake up, tell yourself, "For today, I am willing to make the choices that promote my health and well-being.

You have to want something else more than you want food, even during times of discomfort. The question is not whether you want a piece of cheesecake right now, but whether you want to remain overweight.

Every time you turn to food for comfort you make the statement that you are willing to remain overweight and continue feeling unhappy about it. Eating a slice of cheesecake should feel like an abhorrent transgression, an assault on your body, a violation of your values!

NEXT ISSUE: Managing stress and anxiety.