Stop Food Addiction

Do you intend on taking a scoop of ice cream but finish the container?

Can you eat large bag of chips and zone out when you’re were doing it?

Do you keep certain foods out of the house, because you know you’ll be tempted?

If I am talking to you, most likely you are an emotional eater.

Can you relate to this video?

Why is this an addiction?

On a positive note, you can overcome this compulsive behavior and these These 10 Tips can help

1) Know the trigger foods:These are the foods that you can’t stop eating. For some it’s salty, for others it’s sweets. Beware of them or avoid them altogether.

2) Emotions: get in touch with your feelings. Ask yourself what’s really going on. Are you bored? Angry? Frustrated? Once you acknowledge your feelings you can stop escaping them and take the appropriate action. Ex. Bored? Do something – exercise, call a friend, play video games etc.

3) Danger Zones: When are you most vulnerable to overeat? After work? Lunch time? Take necessary precautions and make a healthy eating plan

4) No Guilt: Guilt serves no purpose other than to make you feel miserable and hopeless. If you feel hopeless, why even try to end your eating obsession Instead, acknowledge that you’re an emotional eater, and get on with taking care of yourself.

5) Snacks: Don’t allow yourself to be hungry. Take healthy snacks from home, and here are more healthy eating tips

6) Say ‘No’: Stand up for yourself. Much like the alcoholic must refuse a drink when it’s offered, a food addict also has to refuse what will trigger a binge. Be polite, but say ‘no’.

7) ‘Diet Foods’: Beware of low cal cookies, sugar free stuff, and ‘diet food’. Two diet cookies may be 40 calories, but a food addict doesn’t only eat two. Breaking that sugar addiction often takes time, patience and a few new helpful dietary changes to aid you on your road back to healthy eating habits.

8) Punishment: If you’ve eaten too much don’t punish yourself by letting yourself go and eat more ‘bad food’. What’s done is done. Get back on track.

9) Eat: This can sound like conflicting advice, but it’s not. When you’ve eaten too much many addicts compensate by skipping meals. This doesn’t work. It will only lead to hunger, binging and an eating disorder

10) Take Power: When you have this obsession you feel that food controls you – not true. Because you have a brain, you have the power to stop, but when there is emotional eating, eating is temporarily preventing you from dealing with other issues. You do not have to continue to suffer. You can get professional help.

Try a 30 minute coaching session for free to assess if you're really an emotional eater and set you on the right track.

Don't be embarrassed to reach out. Join a weight loss group or Overeaters Anonymous. Help is available, however, if you're an emotional eater, you should understand that food is a symptom, not a cause.

Stay Positive

If you tell yourself ‘you can’t do it’, you won’t make it.

I know it's hard to stay positive, when you've tried so many times and failed, but when you accept that eating has become an obsessive behavior -- an addiction -- and you get help with it, you can Have a question? Here's where to ask change the way you think and take control of your life

From Stop Food Addiction to Stop being Addicted