Take
a Step Toward Ending
the Self-Defeating Cycle of Diets
and Out-of-Control Eating
How Can We Help You Overcome Binge Eating?
1. Figure Out if You Are an Emotional Eater.
Start paying attention to whether you have
"FOOD THOUGHTS" when you're stressed, or bored, or angry, or lonely,
etc. Emotional eaters use food thoughts to distract themselves from
uncomfortable feelings. The first step toward changing emotional eating
patterns is to recognize
"FOOD THOUGHTS" and overeating for what they are...
ways to manage and self-regulate mood. Emotional Stress (or Distress)
leads to "FOOD THOUGHTS" which leads to unhealthy eating.
2. Begin to identify the factors that drive (and perpetuate) your emotional
eating behaviors.
For example:
-
Do you have difficulty tolerating feelings?
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Are you eating over stress at work?
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Are you afraid to say "no"?
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Are you afraid of confrontation?
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Are you in an unhealthy relationship?
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Are you afraid of emotional intimacy?
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Are you depressed?
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Are you lonely?
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Are you eating because you don't have anything else to keep you occupied?
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Are you holding onto an unhealthy weight because you are afraid of
being sexually attractive?
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Are you having trouble breaking away from a critical or controlling
parent?
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Are you "in the dark" about why you overeat?
If you're not sure why you overeat, you're certainly not alone. Many
people are not at all conscious of what's driving their eating behaviors.
Which makes perfect sense since the whole point of emotional eating
is to keep our feelings out of our conscious awareness! Emotional
eating works! At least for a little while...
3. Stop Dieting!
Emotional eaters eat in an attempt to disconnect from feelings.
So, when we diet, we just replace the "FOOD THOUGHTS" with "DIET THOUGHTS".
To manage mood, for however long the diet lasts, we obsess about the
diet instead of about food. But it doesn't work for long. The moment
we "blow" the diet, we're back to having food thoughts. For emotional
eaters, dieting just delays the emotional and/or behavioral work that,
inevitably, must be done.
4. Ask For Help. It's O.K. To Ask For Help!
Making the shift from emotional eating to healthy eating is hard work!
An emotional eater has to develop healthier coping strategies to deal
with all the feelings that he or she is currently "stuffing down" with the food. Keep in mind that emotional eating happens on a continuum.
Some people do it a little and some people do it a lot. If it's a
problem for you, there is no shame in asking for help.
Find A Professional Who "Gets It"
Take a class, participate in a group, hire a Coach, a Therapist, or
a Dietitian who understands emotional eating? Interview them thoroughly.
See if their understanding of emotional eating matches yours.
How Can We Help You?
Take Our FREE 1-Hour Telephone Seminar
About Emotional Eating and Binge Eating
Participate
in our 8-Week
"Overcoming Emotional Eating" Telephone Group
Explore
Hiring an A Weigh Out Coach for Binge Eating
If in
Cincinnati, Participate in Therapy at the Acoria Center
"Mood, Food and Weight Loss Surgery"
An 8-Week Emotional Skills Group For Binge Eating
We Offer Training
For Your Doctor, Therapist,
Dietitian or Trainer Register
For An A Weigh Out Book Announcement
If you have questions, call (513) 321-4242
or email A WEIGH OUT.
Read our client testimonials from binge eaters
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