The Two Strategies That You Won"t Be Able to Stop Comfort Eating Without
All of the information I read about how to stop comfort eating tells you to do behavioural things such as take a walk if you're feeling the urge to eat something or have a bath and much of it comes from a psychological perspective.
If you suffer from comfort eating then you will know that this is just not adequate information.
There are numerous ways of tackling the problem of comfort eating, that irritating problem that stops you being the weight and shape you want to be, that stops you being the woman you know that you should be, but because people are usually trained in one discipline or another they offer inadequate advice because they don't understand how the mind and body interlink.
I can vouch for this 'professional' ignorance from my own journey to overcome emotional eating.
I've seen a 'therapist' twice to help me with my earlier food related problems without success.
On the first occasion I was directed to a dietician who showed me a diet sheet and said, 'look, you can have a digestive biscuit and not get fat'.
What kind of advice is that? On the second occasion I went to a therapist who just kept going on about my mum and dad.
Again, what help is that? Trying to deal with a food related problem such as comfort eating and not treating it holistically is like trying to tie your shoelaces with both hands tied behind your back: unless you've got a freakishly supple tongue then it just isn't going to happen! No, you have to be fully aware of the bigger picture.
You have to work nutritionally and psychologically and, in my experience, in that order.
That is not to say that people who suffer with comfort eating have a mental health problem, it is more likely that earlier attempts to control their shape and weight, perhaps as a teenager, upset their nutritional balance and led to a problem with food and comfort eating.
It's a complicated situation that I can't do justice to here but here are the two strategies that you can't stop comfort eating without: Strategy 1: Make sure that you are nutritionally balanced.
If you don't you will never combat cravings: For our body cells to function they require certain nutrients.
These nutrients are the end product of digestion and include glucose (sugar in the blood), fats and amino acids (from protein).
All three of these essential nutrients have a strong influence on hunger and are carefully regulated by the brain.
If we become deficient in these nutrients then we begin to feel hungry Blood Glucose for example is demanded by the brain for its energy supplies and its very survival, and needs a surprising 33% of our total daily energy requirements.
This means that the brain will demand its energy fix at all costs and this means that when the sensors that monitor glucose levels are alerted of a shortage you begin to crave carbohydrate rich food (carbohydrate turns to glucose in the body).
Protein plays a crucial part in maintaining a healthy body: the amino acids in dietary protein support the immune system, make hormones and many other essential chemicals, and repair body tissue on a day to day basis.
Again, sensors in the brain are at the forefront of signalling hunger when protein levels are low.
This means that even if you've snacked on carbohydrate rich snacks if your protein levels are low you will still feel hungry.
A decrease in fat levels in the body can also trigger hunger.
So if you attempt to starve yourself, perhaps because you overindulged the day before, your body begins to produce more glycogen, a safety mechanism, which triggers the urge to eat.
The brain is a fatty organ and relies on the essential fatty acid Omega 3 for the transmission of electricity from each brain cell (neuron) to others.
Sensors in the body detect fat imbalances, such as too much Omega 6 and not enough Omega 3, and can create an excessive appetite for fat.
Strategy 2: The second strategy is to combat negative thinking.
Negative thinking is an enormous stressor so learning how to block negative thoughts and deal with your inner critic is crucial if you want to kick comfort eating into touch: We experience the stress response almost instantaneously whenever we feel threatened.
This doesn't have to be because we are about to be attacked by a lion or anything drastic.
It can happen if we're asked to give a presentation when we're not a confident public speaker.
It can happen if we feel under financial strain.
And it can happen if someone upsets our sense of self esteem.
We feel the fear and then start thinking negatively about the situation.
Taking an objective look at your negative thoughts, just noticing them, is the first step to helping you turn your stress response off.
Once you know what you're thoughts are you can begin to challenge them or simply turn them round.
Being knowledgeable about nutrition and learning practical techniques and skills that help change your habits and your thinking are the keys to being able to stop comfort eating and become the shape and weight you want to be.
If you have problems with comfort eating then you are advised to take your first steps on the path to freeing yourself from its tyranny by downloading the FREE digital workbook '9 Essential Strategies to Stop Comfort Eating' available at www.
comforteatingcoach.
com
If you suffer from comfort eating then you will know that this is just not adequate information.
There are numerous ways of tackling the problem of comfort eating, that irritating problem that stops you being the weight and shape you want to be, that stops you being the woman you know that you should be, but because people are usually trained in one discipline or another they offer inadequate advice because they don't understand how the mind and body interlink.
I can vouch for this 'professional' ignorance from my own journey to overcome emotional eating.
I've seen a 'therapist' twice to help me with my earlier food related problems without success.
On the first occasion I was directed to a dietician who showed me a diet sheet and said, 'look, you can have a digestive biscuit and not get fat'.
What kind of advice is that? On the second occasion I went to a therapist who just kept going on about my mum and dad.
Again, what help is that? Trying to deal with a food related problem such as comfort eating and not treating it holistically is like trying to tie your shoelaces with both hands tied behind your back: unless you've got a freakishly supple tongue then it just isn't going to happen! No, you have to be fully aware of the bigger picture.
You have to work nutritionally and psychologically and, in my experience, in that order.
That is not to say that people who suffer with comfort eating have a mental health problem, it is more likely that earlier attempts to control their shape and weight, perhaps as a teenager, upset their nutritional balance and led to a problem with food and comfort eating.
It's a complicated situation that I can't do justice to here but here are the two strategies that you can't stop comfort eating without: Strategy 1: Make sure that you are nutritionally balanced.
If you don't you will never combat cravings: For our body cells to function they require certain nutrients.
These nutrients are the end product of digestion and include glucose (sugar in the blood), fats and amino acids (from protein).
All three of these essential nutrients have a strong influence on hunger and are carefully regulated by the brain.
If we become deficient in these nutrients then we begin to feel hungry Blood Glucose for example is demanded by the brain for its energy supplies and its very survival, and needs a surprising 33% of our total daily energy requirements.
This means that the brain will demand its energy fix at all costs and this means that when the sensors that monitor glucose levels are alerted of a shortage you begin to crave carbohydrate rich food (carbohydrate turns to glucose in the body).
Protein plays a crucial part in maintaining a healthy body: the amino acids in dietary protein support the immune system, make hormones and many other essential chemicals, and repair body tissue on a day to day basis.
Again, sensors in the brain are at the forefront of signalling hunger when protein levels are low.
This means that even if you've snacked on carbohydrate rich snacks if your protein levels are low you will still feel hungry.
A decrease in fat levels in the body can also trigger hunger.
So if you attempt to starve yourself, perhaps because you overindulged the day before, your body begins to produce more glycogen, a safety mechanism, which triggers the urge to eat.
The brain is a fatty organ and relies on the essential fatty acid Omega 3 for the transmission of electricity from each brain cell (neuron) to others.
Sensors in the body detect fat imbalances, such as too much Omega 6 and not enough Omega 3, and can create an excessive appetite for fat.
Strategy 2: The second strategy is to combat negative thinking.
Negative thinking is an enormous stressor so learning how to block negative thoughts and deal with your inner critic is crucial if you want to kick comfort eating into touch: We experience the stress response almost instantaneously whenever we feel threatened.
This doesn't have to be because we are about to be attacked by a lion or anything drastic.
It can happen if we're asked to give a presentation when we're not a confident public speaker.
It can happen if we feel under financial strain.
And it can happen if someone upsets our sense of self esteem.
We feel the fear and then start thinking negatively about the situation.
Taking an objective look at your negative thoughts, just noticing them, is the first step to helping you turn your stress response off.
Once you know what you're thoughts are you can begin to challenge them or simply turn them round.
Being knowledgeable about nutrition and learning practical techniques and skills that help change your habits and your thinking are the keys to being able to stop comfort eating and become the shape and weight you want to be.
If you have problems with comfort eating then you are advised to take your first steps on the path to freeing yourself from its tyranny by downloading the FREE digital workbook '9 Essential Strategies to Stop Comfort Eating' available at www.
comforteatingcoach.
com
