Emotional Eating

Hello strangers!  I think about my blog quite often... and I've just accepted the fact that there aren't enough hours in the day to get around to it.  But that's okay because it's SUMMER!  My favorite season!  It's the opposite of COLD (I strongly dislike the cold), and there's so much to DO! But I can talk about that later.  If I have time...

I actually have something specific to talk about today.  Food.  Okay, I know I always talk about food, but I want to talk about the emotional component of food this time.  Actually there are a lot of components.  And I'm certainly not a psychologist, but I've experienced emotional eating first-hand.  I'm still guilty of it!  I think we all are, right?  It's when we eat to fill our hearts, not our stomachs.  Or when we eat because we're bored and it's a habit.  Or because we're addicted to something (usually sugar) and it tastes soooo gooood that we can't just stop at one.

Harlee loves Big Hero 6, so I felt this shot worked well for this post!

Food is fuel, and food is medicine.  I've discussed this before, and finally more and more people are becoming aware of how important a healthy diet is to true wellness.  But so many people use food as a crutch or a comfort measure, and that's where it gets a bit unhealthy.  Comfort food is different for everyone - it can be a warm, buttery bread roll, a slice of pizza, a fast food cheeseburger, a piece of cake, or, if you're like me, a chocolate candy bar.  For a lot of people, it takes a lot of work to consciously avoid these comfort foods.  If we're unhappy or stressed or even simply bored, it's even harder. And for most people, it's not a bad habit - it's an addiction.  And you need to treat it, and beat it, like an addiction.  I'll elaborate on that topic in a future post.

I was addicted to chocolate and junk food starting with Halloween last year and all the way into Easter this year. I totally fell off the Paleo wagon and could not get back on.  Junk food was engrained in my brain!  I started personal training, hoping that would motivate me to make changes, but I still could not stop thinking about chocolate.  I felt like my exercising was going to waste.  I was sabotaging my own progress.

What helped me was realizing I should stop being so hard on myself.  So instead of beating myself up for ruining my progress toward a healthy lifestyle whenever I ate too much chocolate, I'd say to myself, "That tasted good, I enjoyed it, and that was enough.  I'm done, and my clean eating starts NOW."  I'd remember I'm human, I make mistakes just like all humans, and that's okay.  Mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow.  I'll learn from this, and move on.

And with that mindset it became easier and easier each day to say no.  I cut out gluten completely, which was starting to become an addiction too when we'd go out to eat.  When I cracked down on that, I was starting to feel a LOT better. I was happier, my mind was clearer, I had more energy through the day, things didn't stress me out so much, my workouts were going better, and my cravings were becoming more for healthy foods rather than junk food, and I finally got off my weight loss plateau and started losing again!

Then, after the few experiences I had with eating dairy and it flaring up my pollen allergies, which I wrote about in my last post, I cut that out too.  That's when it finally clicked for me - it's not worth it to enjoy the flavor of food only to feel like crap for days after eating it.  And that was the breakthrough I needed to stick to eating healthy on a regular basis.

Take the time to recognize your eating habits.  Are you really hungry?  Or are you just giving yourself something to do?  Or are you upset about something and since that cupcake tastes so good maybe it'll make you feel good too?  Think about the consequences.  Are you going to feel like crap for eating that?  How many calories is that?  Is it worth it?

Reread my post about Motivation if you'd like a few more tips on how to break your habits and make a healthy lifestyle change.

It took awhile, but I got there.  You can get there too.  Just start by being kind and gentle with yourself.  Allow yourself time, because you need to form new habits, and break an addiction.  It takes work, self-discipline, determination, and perseverance.  And if you have a goal, whether it be to look better or to feel better, you can get there.

Hope you're all having a great summer so far!  I'm hoping to find time to blog more - I have lots of ideas.  But in the meantime, follow me on Instagram @NaturallyJami or Like me on Facebook to see what I'm up to!