HOW TO BE DONE WITH CRAVINGS & EMOTIONAL EATING FOR GOOD
Cravings & emotional eating. Such a juicy topic. Something so many women struggle with!
So you’re on track with your nutrition all week, and then you get a hankering for something in particular. You just can’t stop thinking about it! WHY?? You know you’re not actually hungry, you know you don’t physiologically NEED it. But something tells you that you CANNOT REST until you get your hands on it.
And you’d be right in saying that. Your cravings are not chemically driven. It’s highly unlikely that your body is actually so deprived of a particular micronutrient that you need to eat that certain food right at this very second
They’re emotionally driven. They’re tied to memories, trauma, happy times, social culture, habitual patterns.
See - our brains are efficient little buggers. They want us to follow the beaten paths that we’ve travelled in the past. For example: You come to a door - you see the door handle - you turn it - you go through the door. But imagine if every time you came to a door you had to learn how to re-open it? Do you push the handle? Pull it? Turn it? Hit it? No - that would be incredibly inefficient and the human race would come to a screaming halt as nothing would get done.
So when it comes to every situation, our brain immediately looks in it’s catalogue of what we’ve done in the past, and tries to replicate that pattern of behaviour.
So q) How does this apply to cravings? a) exactly the same way
Let’s say you’re about to get your period, and all you can think about is CHOCOLATE. I NEED THE CHOCOLATE. I THINK I MIGHT DIE WITHOUT CHOCOLATE
That’s simply your brain responding to a cue or a trigger - because in the past chocolate has given you a moment of temporary relief or instant gratification in the past, and because you’re feeling emotional AF because our hormones go a bit crazy in the last week of our cycle (the week prior to our period) you’re feeling pretty uncomfortable
Your brain is just looking to past experience to find a way to cope with those uncomfortable feelings
So we think that chocolate is the problem. If we could just stay away from chocolate, we won’t have the craving for it, right?
Wrong.
TRUTHBOMB - Craving’s have absolutely nothing to do with food.
It’s the fact that we’re unwilling to look at what is making us feel emotional/stressed/uncomfortable
Those pesky feelings, long term conditioning and how we see our worth within our world.
Another example is if you’re feeling anxiety, stress or procrastination, youll probably crave things that occupy your mind (and your mouth) because you are uncomfortable with feelings you’re having.
Do we look at the food being the problem?
No
It’s the lack of awareness about what’s bringing you anxiety, stress or procrastination, and your brain is on autopilot doing something that has relieved that feeling in the past.
So what are you truly searching for?
Here are my top 5 questions when you’re experiencing a craving:
What has happened within the past 3hrs that has made me feel emotional/stressed or excited?
Is there someone i can talk to about how i’m feeling? (usually letting whatever is bothering us out is hugely impactful to letting it pass)
What is the story I'm telling myself about that situation as truth? Am i saying “I’m a failure” or “he doesn’t listen to me” or “I wish i was like her”? Whatever it is, write it down and look at it. Question - is this fact or a story i’ve created to justify how i’m feeling?
Move your body. When we change our physiology (meaning we physically move) it has a huge impact on the way our brain is functioning. Get up, leave the room or place that you’re in and move your body somehow. Even if it's a 10 minute walk or 10 star jumps. Move first, then see how you feel
If you truly cannot stop thinking about the food you’re craving, have some. Get a small portion, sit quietly and enjoy it. Eat it slowly and taste it. Chew it and take not of how it feels in your mouth. If you barely taste it the craving won’t go away. Be mindful and grateful of how delicious it is, and tell yourself that it’s truly hitting the spot. Then get on with your day, don’t let it go any further than that.
Once you pinpoint it, then you can break free from overeating, snacking, stress eating, binging and all of these things that don’t serve you because you’re finally clear on what’s driving your feelings of unease.
It could be a hug, some love, getting outside, saying yes, saying no, doing something new & exciting, getting recognition, doing something that challenges you.
Whatever it is, go get some of that.
Then you can FINALLY stop shaming yourself thinking you just “don’t have enough will power” or “can’t have chocolate in the house”
It’s like being free from a prison we’ve created for ourselves…and then we can finally stop feeling fearful around food.
And THAT is freedom.
If you’d like to talk more about how to absolutely revolutionize your relationship with food & be free from the disempowering cycles of binge eating, stress eating & yo-yo dieting, click here to book your FREE 45 minute transformation coaching session. When we are free from the rules & behavioural emotional patterns that we’ve had in place for the past 10/20/30/40 years, we can truly transform for good.
Kate xx
