Tag: Emotional Eating

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Food & Nutrition Goal Development Health Coaching Spiritual Health Uncategorized

7-Steps to Conquer Emotional Eating (Part 2)

LATE NIGHT SNACK

“I’m not hungry but I really need something sweet right now.  Well now that I’ve had one bite how about another bite…. and then….ok just one more.”

This is essentially my inner monologue several times per week.  I am thinking these thoughts usually in the evening, after I’ve had a healthy dinner, my body feels satisfied, and I could easily go to bed content.

But, I don’t.

Why?  Because usually at that time, I also have this little nagging feeling in my head, mouth and stomach.  As though there is this little creature that is screaming “I need something sweet!  I need a treat!”  Sure enough,  I wind up in our pantry munching just for the sake of munching.  I’ve learned to have healthy sweet treats on hand, thankfully, but when we are away from home, forget about it!  I get myself into some precarious, overeating situations quickly!

I know I’m not alone with this little creature in my head.  For me it’s all about the sweets.  For you, it might be salty/crunchy variety.  But we can all easily suffer from CRAVINGS for food that is not about hunger at all.

Yesterday, I wrote about reading a very relatable book called, ‘Made to Crave’ by Lysa TerKeurst, where she wrote about her journey of trying to refocus her Cravings to God instead of the junk food she felt controlled by.   

Her book and scriptures prompted me to take a deeper dive into what the bible actually has to say about food and cravings too!  Surprisingly there was a lot!  It made me feel more “normal” knowing that if God uses food as an example in the Bible, then I’m not the only one out there exploiting and idolizing the role of food in my life.  It also gave me Hope because it gave me some scriptural places that I should be focusing my attention and cravings:

  1. The Word of God
  2. His will for my life (i.e. My Greater Purpose). 

This begs the question, however, how do we apply this to our every day life?  How do we actually take such a challenge and convert it into applicable, every day ACTION toward lasting success?

For me, the answer is easy because I’m going to use the same strategy I implement for ALL changes I want to make in my health and in my life.

Make a goal out of it.

Not just any goal, mind you.  No, as a woman of Faith, I know that this kind of challenge (which clearly has some Spiritual depth to it) means I need to make this a SURREND’hered goal!   

I will use my 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goal Development that I will use to effectively plan and implement this new way of health to defeat my affinity toward emotional and overeating. 

I recently offered an 8-day workshop explaining all 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goals to an amazing group of individuals that included daily emails, examples, resources and videos of me explaining each step.  Sorry if you missed it!

Lucky for you, however, because I have actually turned all 7-Steps into an Ebook that I am now offering for FREE to all email subscribers.  The book includes an in-depth look at all 7-steps to succeed in any goal, a list of books and references, PLUS a bonus of my fillable forms and charts that will help you effectively plan your own success!  You’ll see more of those is this very article.

Click this link to receive your FREE copy of this Ebook here!

My 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goal Development are:

7-Steps to SURREND'hered Goals FINAL

So, while you get the full in-depth explanation of all of these 7-Steps in my Ebook, I wanted to offer a living example of these 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goals as they apply to this goal I have of overcoming my emotional and overeating!

Step 1:  SURREND’her It:

As I explain in my ebook, this step is all about offering my goal as a living sacrifice to God.  This is recognizing that I will need to depend wholly on God’s strength to actually be able to conquer this dream.  To effectively practice this art of SURREND’hering I know I will need to do both PLANNING + PRAYER.     From one of my favorite books, The Circle Maker, by Mark Batterson, I have to do as he advises:

“Plan like it depends on me, but Pray like it depends on God.”

Also, even the Bible reinforces that to achieve any dream there is much activity required.

“A dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice in known by his many words.”  Ecclesiastics 5:3

So, I’m not going to be “all talk,”  or even “all prayer”, I am going to make a plan and put it into action!

Step 2:  DREAM It!

As I also explain, while I say my goal is to “not overeat or be an emotional eater” I know that this is not actually how I am to phrase my goal.  Nope, my goal needs to be AUDACIOUS, S.M.A.R.T., stated in the POSITIVE and PROACTIVE tense, and is BALANCED to include not just BODY goals but also MINDSET and SPIRITUAL goals too!  (You’ll have to read up to know what all of these rules mean!)

So my dream is actually:

To go 6-months straight of emotionally disconnecting from my food, intentionally “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full, planning and eating on a timed schedule, and use the act of eating to draw me closer with God, my Greater Purpose and His Word.  I will measure my success by body measurements as well as journaling/emotional comparisons.”

You can see that my above dream is measured and includes BODY, MIND and SPIRITUAL aspects to conquering this dream.

Step 3:  DIVIDE It!

As you’ll see, again, in the ebook the purpose of DIVIDING your ultimate goal is to create short-term “Phases” of goals that you focus on.  This will help not only help avoid the feeling of “overwhelm”  by such an audacious goal, but it will also provide opportunity for the very important REST periods and CELEBRATIONS after I accomplish each Phase Goal.

For this ultimate goal, I will divide all 6-Months up into 6 Phases:

Phase 1 (Month 1):  For 70% of the first 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal.

(*note* this will be broken down into “Mini-Goals”  for this first Phase as is covered in the ebook)

-Body Measurements/Pictures Taken

REST + CELEBRATION PLAN— I will take 3 full days off of all the habits and do something enjoyable to celebrate my success. 

Phase 2:  (Month 2):  For 80% of the next 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal. 

-Body Measurements/Pictures Taken

REST + CELEBRATION PLAN— I will take 3 full days off of all the habits and do something enjoyable to celebrate my success.

Phase 3: (Month 3):  For 90% of the next 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal.

-Body Measurements/Pictures Taken

REST + CELEBRATION PLAN— I will take 3 full days off of all the habits and do something enjoyable to celebrate my success.

Phase 4: (Month 4):  For 95% of the next 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal.

-Body Measurements/Pictures Taken

REST + CELEBRATION PLAN— I will take 3 full days off of all the habits and do something enjoyable to celebrate my success.

Phase 5: (Month 5):  For 97% of the next 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal.

-Body Measurements/Pictures Taken

REST + CELEBRATION PLAN— I will take 3 full days off of all the habits and do something enjoyable to celebrate my success.

Phase 6: (Month 6):  For 100% of the next 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal.

-Body Measurements/Pictures Taken

***REST + ULTIMATE CELEBRATION PLAN— I will take 7-full days off of all the habits and do something I dream of doing in honor of God, my Greater Purpose, my health and my life.  After 6-months of focusing my mind LIVING, my “celebration” is not going to be about overindulging on food!  It is going to be a vacation, a special outfit, and activity that I will do in honor of God!

Step 4: VISUALIZE & AFFIRM It!

As I expand on in the ebook, here is where I’m going to implement some proven psychological habits that reinforce this change to the subconscious area of my brain! 

I will make a daily/weekly habit of visualizing myself as this person capable of walking away from food when I’m 80% full.  I visualize myself going through my day, eating each meal on the schedule that I developed, journaling after each meal, relying on proper serving sizes and praying through each meal. 

I will also affirm this goal by repeating phrases to myself like “I eat to live” and “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” 

I may have a word of affirmation like “Satisfied” and an anthem (i.e. an inspirational song) like “I’m Going All The Way” by Sounds of Blackness.

Step 5: HABITUALIZE It!

Here is where I get a chance to practice daily habits to enforce this bigger goal.  I know from studying habits  that I need to actually replace my existing habit loops with new behaviors  so I can keep the Cue and the Reward, but just change up my behavior. 

I already hit on a few of the new habits that are tied to the actual goal:

  • -Eating at regularly scheduled times
  • -Journaling after each meal
  • -Praying before each meal
  • -Using a personal scale (1-10) to determine when I’m 80% full.
  • -Focus on healthier, more satisfying foods and drinks to help maintain cravings.
  • -I also may engage in some new habits like fasting 1-2 meals per week and eventually may fast 1-2 days per week to help reinforce my emotional detachment from food and turn it toward God instead.
  • These habits do not need to be introduced all at once.  I am actually only going to focus on 1 habit at a time and commit to doing each one for each Phase Goal!  I will rest and celebrate before adding on a new habit. 

Since I know new habits need at least 21-days to implement as regular habits, I will only take on a couple changes at a time so I can do it well.

STEP 6:  RITUALIZE It!

This is my favorite part because here is where I get to jazz up my habits in my own unique way.  I am going to buy a special journal and pen to journal in because I know that pretty little things make me happy and will up the reward center in my brain.   

I will create a morning ritual that will help me stay balanced and centered.  I am also going to ritualize the way that I eat–I am going to put my food on plate and sit down to eat and say a prayer before I start to eat.  This ritual of eating will help raise my awareness and mindfulness. 

Step 7:  TRACK & CELEBRATE It!

This is where I’m going to further ritualize and up my reward center of my brain by tracking how well I’m doing at my daily habits and progress!  I may use some good old pen and paper options or perhaps some of the dozens of apps that I included in my ebook that will help me monitor, track and show my progress toward my ultimate goal!  This is also how I’ll keep track of my body measurements and see how my new habits are affecting my figure and natural design!   As I already mentioned in the DIVIDE it section, the celebration of this success is going to really keep my momentum toward success!

Here is an image of what all of this looks like as it’s filled out on the SURREND’hered goal form included in the Ebook!

Example 7-Steps

Again, click HERE to receive access to the 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goal Development Ebook!! 

You will have access to this very sheet to use for yourself and dozens of other rescues, examples of goals for yourself and references that can not only help you tackle a goal like “emotional eating” but anything you can dream of!! 

I know that the idea of detaching from the emotional eating seems like it might be an impossible act!  But I know that if you take the time to PRAY + PLAN it and WORK FOR IT, you will be blessed with unimaginable success!  Just as Jesus said,

 “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

(Matthew 19:26)

Categories
Food & Nutrition Goal Development Health Coaching Spiritual Health Uncategorized

What Do I Eat? Usually, my emotions….

When Craving Doesn't Come From Food

I am hands down an emotional eater. I use food as both a reward and coping mechanism. Joy and stress alike make me want to eat. When I was preparing for my wedding, everyone kept telling me how much weight I’ll lose at the end because “you’ll be so stressed.” Well, they were half right. I was indeed stressed! But I didn’t lose a ton of weight at the end. Why? Well, because stress makes me EAT. A friend of mine noticed this and recommended I tried something like og kush strain to help calm my nerves. I understood where she was coming from, as stressing out never helps anyone. But alas it’s too late and I just wanted to eat. Not the mention the whole celebration part of it too. Celebrating makes me want to EAT too! So, let’s just say that “sitting” in my wedding dress would have been a cool thing, but it didn’t really happen for me. But, hey, the pictures looked great, so I still consider that a win! 😉

Well, they say you are supposed to “Eat to Live, Not Live to Eat.” But I’m pretty sure 75% of my current meals are the “living to eat” variety. My emotions keep me tied to my food much tighter than I would like to admit, especially as a nutritionist and health coach. I also don’t have one client who is not the same as me too, so I would imagine you might have some similar feelings on food as well.

My emotional eating doesn’t necessarily impact my health negatively because I’m actually emotionally connected to really healthy foods too. I am lucky that I have learned this otherwise I’m quite sure I would be just like every overweight and obese person out there. But I still know that even when I’m eating healthy foods, I have a strong tendency to overeat on a regular basis. Due to my addiction to healthy food though, it’s not as much of a problem for me. However, for those who don’t eat healthily, emotional eating can cause obesity pretty quickly. This health condition can put individuals at risk, meaning that they need to do something about it promptly. The first thing to do would be to try and stop emotional eating. From there, it’s important to try and lose weight. This can be difficult and can lead to people giving up before they’ve even started as results won’t happen overnight. However, if you’re struggling to lose weight, you might be able to get bariatric surgery to help you. Perhaps it’s worth getting in touch with Dr. Naveen Ballem, or another specialist, to see if they can help you make an important change.

My strong cravings for food tied to my emotions allow me to know that there is something about my inability to stop eating at times that is just not well with my soul. It is a sign of a Spiritual battle more than just a food thing.

So, this led me to pick up a very good book by Lysa TerKeurst called “Made to Crave.“ In it, she reveals her own journey in junk food addiction and struggle with being overweight and how she was able to fill her life with God more and food less. A journey I can vividly relate to as this is my desire as well.

The Emotional addiction of food is the true concern and threat of this idol. We do know that we need food to survive, but we need not treat food as it is something to worship.

Her book taught and motivated me to do some spiritual and biblical research on food and how we are supposed handle our own cravings. This two part blog series will cover:

  • Part 1. What does the Bible say about food and our cravings?
  • Part 2. How can I take these passages and create a practical plan to overcome my eating?
  • thinking-food

Part 1:

While food is a blessing in our life, the full dedication of one of our 5 senses in taste, it can serve as an agent of destruction to our soul. The apostle Paul writes:

“For as I have often told you before and now say again with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame.“ (Phil 3:18-19)

Our human nature can easily become consumed with food. Our days can be filled living only meal to meal. Obsessively planning our diets and fantasizing our indulgences. DietAlso, the gift of flavor from real, true food, has been manipulated and exploited by the food industry for capital gain (a byproduct of another damning idol of our humanity –> greed).

However, we cannot to just shift the blame of our food issues to the manufacturers… or worse to God himself for our emotional and physical addiction to food by saying “God made me this way.” For God did not make us to crave anything but God himself.

We must recognize the power and opportunity to strengthen our Faith and deny ourselves of our idols (i.e. food) to grow closer to God.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily to follow me.“ (Luke 9:23)

Nor should we “worry” about our diet and what we shall eat.

“Do not set your heart on what you will eat and drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after such things and your Father knows that you need them.“ (Luke 12:29-31)

So what are we to do? I know for me, this feels like a seismic and impossible shift in my psyche and what I think about all day long. Food is simply one of my favorite things to think and worry about.1a944a2f712afee99e126a02c9c2cda9

But, as is my own business model presents, I must take heed to my own words. If I want to change what I “think” about, I need to dig deeper to the depths of my Spirit. The best way to detach my mind and my focus away from food is not to make sweeping statements about what I will “not do.”

To over-consume my thoughts with phrases like “I will not be consumed by food or controlled by my cravings of (x, y, z)” all my subconscious mind hears is “food, food, food” causing us to think of nothing else but–> food.

To overcome any battle, we much instead engage our inner spirit to the task. Turning our hearts on what will feed us from within, not what will not.

“Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.“ (Matthew 4:4)

“My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of Him who sent me to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

These passages give us our answer of spiritual focus for fulfillment:

  1. Focus on the word of God
  2. Focus on God’s will for our lives (i.e. our Greater Purpose).

Just as God made Jesus for a Greater Purpose (to live perfectly but die for our sins) he also made you for a Greater Purpose. (For more on what Greater Purpose is click on this past article HERE).

SURREND’hering our spirit UP distracts our feeble minds from our sinful nature and attachment to food. It is not the FOOD that is the sin, but how we treat it.

“For everything in the world- the cravings of a sinful man (…) comes not from the Father but from the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

Instead of obsessing over our food choices or overindulging in unhealthy foods, we can

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.“ (Psalm 34:4)

Feeding on the spirit does not mean we will give up food or fast for the rest of our lives! Don’t mistake my point of this calling. We must all still eat.

But SURREND’hering our emotional connection to food and exposing the idol that it can be for many of us will allow our minds to break free from the stronghold that food/drink addictions and obsessions with food can be.

This ranges from everything from compulsive eating, mindless eating and obsessively tracking and counting your food or any other act of food obsession. If your mind thinks about food more often than it thinks about God then we have work to do. (Both of my hands are raised up in the air for this one!!)

411a4ni2oVL._SY355_We must realize that God did not design us to be hangry.

God did not design us to uncontrollably eat and gorge ourselves on food or drink.

God did not design us to obsessively track every calorie or macronutrient.

God designed us to use the food he gave us a fuel.

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To trust and have faith that there will always be enough for us. We must find a way to be content in all situations. As the apostle Paul said,

“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:12)

We can detach from food and find contentment by turning our spirit and our attention to the word of God more, to our relationships with Him, and to our Greater Purpose for which we were designed.

“Your words were found and I ate them and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16)

LIVE in the Spirit of Joy for life. LIVE in the Spirit of true fulfillment by consuming God’s love more abundantly than food.

“So I say to you, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of your sinful nature.” (Galatians 5:16)

I hope my article and these scripture verses help to bring awareness and conviction for our depth of need in this area of food and the nature of our cravings. I hope it also points out that if you are a person that emotionally struggles with food, you are not alone!! It might surprise you that there are so many references to FOOD in the Bible, I know it surprised me! If it’s in the Bible, it means it’s been a real struggle for human for centuries! But more than that I hope this gives you some hope that with these passages are the answers to our problems. The Bible tells us where we can take our emotional struggle with Food and how we can use it to grow closer with God.

But, I know that often times after reading the Bible, I need an idea of how to take the scriptural context to my real life . I’m a person that needs some practical application to fixing this need in our souls and help find our paths to true health of Body, Mind and Soul.

Therefore….

Look for Part 2 tomorrow on some ideas of practical implementation and affecting real change in your life.