Comfort Eating Tips

Our emotional eating expert, Sandy Newbigging, (Mind Detox Therapist and author of Life Changing Weight Loss) shares his tips on how to stay on track with your healthy living regime

• Keep a food and mood diary
  By logging your moods and your reactions to them you can identify your emotional triggers which lead to comfort eating.
  
  
• Examine your current beliefs about your body so you discover which beliefs are causing you overeat
  Write down all your body beliefs and score them out of 10. You’ll probably see a connection between the strongest beliefs and your daily feelings and actions. Reassess these core beliefs so you can change how you feel and behave during day to day life.
  
  
• Improve your self image
  By formulating a self image statement and repeating it to ourselves everyday we can become the person we are describing. For example, ‘I am a healthy, beautiful mother, lover and friend who loves myself and laughs’
  
  
• Make a physical change
  Your posture can help you to lift you mood in a matter of minutes. We tend to slouch when we are experiencing negative emotions. If you find yourself experiencing trigger emotions try pulling back your shoulders, standing tall, putting a big smile on your face and breathing in deeply. 
  
  
• Uncover emotional events
  Often significant events can be emotional trigger points. Plot the changes in your body against significant positive and negative events in your life to see if there is correlation between your weight and negative events.
  
  
• Breathe out stress
  Your body is designed to release stress naturally through your breathing. To breathe properly you need to fully expand you lungs which requires you to drop your diaphragm, causing your stomach to expand outwards. To check you are breathing properly make sure your stomach is moving outwards as you breathe in and inwards as you breathe out.
  
  
• Develop an attitude of gratitude
  Thoughts fuel feelings, so you can use your thoughts to help you feel good by thinking about the things you are grateful for. You can do this by reflecting on all the good things about your life. Get into the habit of writing down ten things you are grateful for each day. This practise will train your brain to make you consciously aware of all the good things in your life and you’ll notice your mood gradually improving day by day.
  
  
• Get away from it all
  If you can find time in the day, meditate for 10-20 minutes. Regular, short meditation will make it easier for you to maintain a relaxed, positive mindset, reduce your stress levels and help you tackle your comfort eating.
  
  
• Be easy on yourself
  There will be times when you have a ‘bad day’ and fall back into your old emotional eating habits and the most important thing you can do is be easy on yourself. Use the bad day as an opportunity to remind yourself of your motives and to reconnect with your goals.
  
  
• Often significant events can be emotional trigger points.
  Plot the changes in your body against significant positive and negative events in your life to see if there is correlation between your weight and negative events.

www.sandynewbigging.com