For many people, simply following a balanced diet and exercising is not enough to lose weight. Many find it impossible to stick to a diet and to control what they are eating, despite their best efforts. Maybe you are one of these people?

You already know how to lose weight – you know you must eat more nutritionally but you seem to slip up at every turn. So what is getting in your way?

The answer is most likely a mix of physical addiction to food and emotional eating. Emotional eating is the hardest part to overcome and is what I will discuss below (physical addiction will be discussed in a later blog post).

The thing I have found is that a lot of the information available out there (including diet programs) is that they do not addresss this issue and if they do, they just touch on it.

However this issue is a big one and can stand in the way of someone achieving the healthy lifestyle changes they want. Especially if you are following a diet that restricts you in anyway. For some this can lead to a blind panic and before you know it you will have just engulfed a large chocolate cheesecake and will still be wanting more.

Food is a security blanket for many and to be restricted can make us feel vulnerable and exposed, even if we aren’t completely aware of it (which we usually aren’t because by the time we have become rational again, after a good old binge, we are too numb to feel anything).

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating means to eat to satisfy emotional hunger. You eat food for comfort or a way to help you cope in life. You eat for reasons other than nutritional.

We all do this. Emotional eating is part of our culture. We use food to celebrate, to deal with upset, to deal with a hard day at work and even boredom (ever sit in front of the TV eating mindlessly?) It is a part of our culture. The problem with this is, it isn’t really seen as a problem in society, but it is one.

We spend so much time numbing ourselves, that when we do not have an opportunity to do so, we don’t know how best to deal with the emotions that arise in us. Food also has physically addictive properties within it that can affect our mood as well (I will discuss this later in a blog post) so everything can be very overwhelming. When we don’t live in the present moment and allow emotions to flow through us, but instead numb ourselves, we carry a lot of baggage around unknowingly. Sometimes this can surface in a bout of aggression or other form. The thing is, if we don’t face it, don’t learn to deal with our emotions then we just continue to live a life of numbing, of bingeing or craving. You miss out on the potential of life, of embracing emotions.

People suffering with this way of eating are driven to eat so they don’t have to face what is bothering them internally. They become addicted to the way they handle life. This is why dieting and calorie restriction doesn’t work. And since most diets do not teach you about emotional eating, we never become fully aware of it and think it is something wrong with us.

If others can do it, why can’t I?

Unless you learn to stop emotional eating and deal with your emotions in the present moment, you will find it impossible to lose weight and keep it off. Not to mention you will find it pretty hard to enjoy life fully if you are constantly battling with this issue with your weight loss.

If this resonates with you, then you are not alone and you can overcome it.

Kelly Aziz is an expert in the field of nutrition and addiction psychology. She is the author of the acclaimed “Free to Eat” Natural Weight Loss plan and Combat your Cravings ebook that helps you eat well and combat cravings for good.  For more information please visit: http://www.Eating-Naturally.com

For more information about emotional eating please visit www.ShrinkYourself.com

Do you feel utterly helpless around food and just don’t know how to stop yourself from eating or even buying your favorite junk foods? Do you eat too much or simply overindulge in the evenings and are desperate to get your overeating resolved?

It is possible to overcome overeating. You do not have to suffer constantly with food addiction. You can gain back control with the right nutrition and emotional healing.

There is a 2-step cure for overeating:

The first step to stop over eating is to eat the right foods. When you know what to eat to supply your body with all the nutrients you need, any physical cravings will disappear. Most people do not know how to supply this nutrition though.

The second step is to overcome emotional eating. To do this you have to observe yourself through the day and see if you eat when you are stressed, bored or on the brink of an emotional problem. Emotional eating is a tough cookie to crack but it can be done if you can become aware of your triggers, what emotion you are running from and what needs are going unmet and that you are trying to meet with the food.

To help you get started here are 3 tips on how to stop yourself from eating junk food and overeating on food.

1. Eat fruit before eating your meal.

If you want to stop yourself from overeating or reaching for junk food, eat a large portion of fruit before each meal. Eat as much as you desire and then a little more. Fruits will supple yourself with the nutrients it needs and also quick fuel. Usually the sweet part of your meal is dessert and comes last (it’s the extra something your body needs to feel satiated, but here you are giving your body exactly what it needs at the beginning of the meal ,but nutritious sugar as opposed to refined).

2. Keep a journal.

Note down how you feel before, during and after any binges or meals. Note down whether they were triggered by emotions or not. You can also use the journal as a way to let yourself feel the emotion. If you feel stressed or angry, simply write how you feel down and hopefully this will help diminish the feelings and help you avoid reaching for food as a comforter/number.

3. Don’t diet.

When we hear the word diet, most of us think of restriction. If you are going to choose to eat healthier foods, choose that. Do not refer to it as a diet or that you are dieting. This gives you the mentality that you are depriving yourself of things you like. Ease yourself into a healthier way of eating to and whenever you choose not to eat a junk food don’t say its because you are on a diet or because you aren’t allowed, instead say you are CHOOSING not to eat it. Give yourself the power and you will find resisting temptations to be a lot easier and more rewarding.

For more information on how to overcome food cravings Cure for Overeating

Overeating is something we all do once in a while. Usually we blame it on the holiday season or the fact that we are on vacation and in these times we don’t see it as such a big deal. Other times of overeating are when our emotional needs are not met and we are trying to suppress emotions.

Those of us who overeat to numb feelings or are suffering from an overeating disorder have to make extra efforts to overcome our overeating. Here are 5 tips to overcome your issue with food.

1. Become aware of the problem – often we aren’t aware of when we eat or even why we eat. Not every time is about being hungry. If we become aware of our reasons for eating and start living in the present moment we can see exactly why we overeat and are better able to overcome it.

2. Regularly eating – overeating can be harder to overcome if we aren’t eating regularly or if we skip a meal. When we are consumed by hunger we can find it very difficult not to eat rapidly and pig out. Make sure you are eating regularly and nutritious food.

3. Drink plenty of water – most people often mistake thirst for hunger. So before eating drink plenty of water to make sure you aren’t just dehydrated.

4. Eat fruit! Make sure you are eating plenty of fruit. Eating lots of fruit before meals will give you the nutrition an water your body needs and will stop you overeating on other foods.

5. Get support. When we overeat it may just be emotions trying to get out. Instead, either sit and allow the feelings to wash over you and come out or find a friend you can talk with about how you are feeling.

For more information on cravings and overeating Overeating Help

For more information on emotional eating and overeating click here

If you binge eat, overeat and can’t help yourself you are not alone. Lots of people binge, overeat, put on weight and feel endlessly guilty about it. They can’t understand why they don’t have control, so hopefully this article will give you some insight.

Compulsive overeating is food addiction. Compulsive overeaters rely on food to comfort them in times of stress, depression and helplessness. It is often rooted in low self esteem and feelings can be so overwhelming that the compulsion to overeat is unstoppable.

The issue lies in the compulsive overeater’s inability to deal with emotion. When you have learnt to cope with life by eating, it can be very hard to break out of that habit.

Our society is all about repression of feelings. We hide behind masks because we don’t want others to know we are upset. We use food in celebration and mourning. It is just what we know. It seems harmless but when it consumes us on a daily basis then we need to take drastic action.

Most compulsive overeaters are overweight and are only aware they have an issue with food because of the extremity in which food is part of their everyday life. The only problem is, they do not know how to change this issue and do not know how to cope with emotions in a more beneficial way.

What makes compulsive overeating harder to manage is that it usually comes with a lot of shame and guilt. People who suffer from this usually have low self esteem and do not feel good enough, which makes the eating worse (it is a vicious circle). Food is how compulsive overeaters deal with their need for acceptance and love.

When we overeat to such a large extent it is because our emotional needs are not being met. In order to overcome compulsive overeating we need to take a good hard look ourselves and learn how to face our emotions.

The first step to any recovery plan is to nourish the body properly to eradicate physical cravings. This can allow us to focus on the emotional issues surrounding food. Usually with compulsive overeaters, journaling and support from friends may not be enough and professional help may be necessary. There is a great 12 week intensive online program for emotional eating that can be beneficial if direct one on one counselling isn’t possible and relying on journaling and friends isn’t enough for you to be able to overcome your eating issues.

It is hard; you should not beat yourself up over this. Emotional eating is something that you have to learn how to deal with by allowing yourself to feel. Once you begin feeling, you will find that feeling isn’t as scary as you thought. The initial process may be overwhelming (because your body has old bottled up feelings to release on top of the new present ones) but will make you feel great afterwards – satisfied and calm. This is something food will never be able to do for you.

Love yourself and stop loving the comfort food because comfort food will never love you the way you love it.

Overcoming emotional eating stop emotional eating for good
We all partake in emotional eating. Whether we are celebrating someone’s birthday or mourning the loss of a loved one – food is rarely ever uninvolved. Comfort foods remind us of when we were young and even just the smell can make us feel safe and secure because it is a reminder of our childhood. We often crave these comfort foods most when life gets challenging or stressful.

For most of us we don’t realize we are an emotional eater or we don’t think it is that serious. For some of us emotional eating doesn’t lead to feelings of guilt or weight gain. For some of us we can comfort eat and think its no big deal, but it really is. For others, emotional eating is out of control and something that can rule our lives on a daily basis. This can seem like overwhelming cravings or hunger, but really it is the emotions that we feel making us feel hunger, desperate and adding to our weight.

Comfort food gives us instant gratification and takes away our ability to feel. Digestion and feeling both take up a lot of energy and therefore the body cannot do both. Comfort eating allows us to not have to deal with the emotion as we overload our digestive system with toxic rubbish.

When we feel emotional, it can be normal for us to feel a big empty hole inside of us like we are hungry. Instead of facing what this means – i.e. our emotions, we stuff it down. In society it seems as though we have become scared to feel so much so we don’t even realize that we are hiding from our emotions most of the time.

When we don’t allow ourselves to feel, we repress it. When you learn and begin to allow yourself to feel the emotion or emotions that arise and stop stuffing down you can feel very overwhelmed. This is because your body will be releasing past pent up emotions and thus it can hit you very hard. This is why it can be hard to let go of emotional eating, because we have to get past that first initial “scare” in order to move on and start learning to appreciate emotions for what they are. Being in the present moment, allowing a feeling to wash over us is wonderful and should be appreciated. The more you allow yourself to be in the present moment and feel, the less emotions will consume you and the less scared you will be of them. The intensity of the emotion will also drop. You will become stronger mentally and physically. You will feel so much better once it’s off your chest, instead of suppressing it with food.

Of course getting to this point isn’t necessarily simple. Some people can break their emotional eating by nourishing their body properly to get rid of physical cravings and getting support from others when they feel stress or emotional. Essentially replacing the comfort with a person instead of using food.

If you want to break emotional eating, you need to become aware of how and why you eat. Take a day out to observe yourself and what triggers you to eat. Are you eating out of true hunger? Most people don’t even have an understanding of true hunger!

If you find yourself eating for emotional reasons, can you stop yourself? Instead of eating can you sit and allow the emotion to wash over you – give yourself time to feel it and move pass it? Or can you turn to someone to talk about how you are feeling?

Don’t be hard on yourself. Emotional eating is probably something you have done from a very early age and so is a part of your make up. It is a learnt habit and it is how you have learnt to cope with the world. To undo something so ingrained in you will take time, so if you find yourself eating out of emotion – if you slip up – learn from it, don’t feel bad about it just move on. The first step is recognition. Once you know that you are eating out of comfort, you are able to overcome it.

Journaling can also help you pinpoint patterns in your eating. Write down how you feel before, during and after a meal. What triggered your eating – was it genuine hunger?

If you start doing this, you should, within time, be able to overcome your emotional eating and be able to feel and look after yourself properly. If you find it too hard or daunting to battle emotional eating yourself, you could try seeing a counsellor or there is a great program online that can help.

Overeating and cravings are common in the Western world and are often not given the proper attention they deserve. They are seen as something that individuals really should be able to control and if you can’t control them then apparently you don’t have enough willpower and are weak.Overeating can stem from two things cravings and emotional eating.

The word “craving” seems harmless and is just a nicer way, in most cases, to say addiction. Craving is almost an acceptable addiction because we don’t place much importance on its seriousness and we find it harmless. But cravings are not harmless – they are a symptom of underlying issues and can result in you overeating on foods you really wish you wouldn’t!

Most people think addiction is a strong word to use but that is in most cases what the issue is when it comes to cravings and overeating.

So in order to overcome overeating we must address the physical addictiveness of food or our cravings. Cravings are a sign of physical addiction, emotional addiction and also can be a result of not getting enough of a certain nutrient possibly.

The first step to eliminate physical cravings is to supply the body with the nutrients it requires. Most people don’t do this, don’t know what is right for adequate nutrition and just accept cravings as part and parcel of life. They don’t have to be! When you provide your body with the right nutrients you can eliminate physical cravings completely.

Second one needs to address any emotional relationship they have with food. Do you crave when you are bored, stressed or feeling? Take a day out to be completely self aware and note down when you crave and whether it’s as a result of having skipped a meal or because of an emotional need. Self-awareness in general is very helpful to you and good to continue to do as much as possible. Being in the present moment and practising being in the moment (as opposed to daydreaming or thinking about the past etc) will allow you to overcome your overeating triggers.

If your overeating is more emotionally related then the best thing can be to get support for from a friend or familiy member who can almost take the place of the food in comforting you. Who can allow tyou to feel your emotions with them if its too difficult for you to do alone. There is also a great step by step intensive program online you can follow over 12 weeks, if becoming self aware and facing your emotional demons is too difficult.

So provide your body with the right nutrition and face your emotions. This is the only way to truly overcome the overeating that is ruining your weight loss goals and life!

For more information about how to overcome overeating: Overcoming Overeating

To visit the Shrink Yourself website click here (12 week intensive program)

Previous Post: Overcoming Overeating & Emotional Eating with the Shrink Yourself  Program

Many food cravings and overeating issues can be eliminated when one provides the right nutrition for their body. However, not all overeating is a result of physical addiction to food or because one isn’t being a healthy eater.  Sometimes it isn’t as simple as this.

As a society that uses food for celebration, mourning and for social interaction – the emotional element to food cravings and overeating cannot be ignored. For many people their emotional eating issues can be addressed with some self awareness and journaling, but many need more guidance and can’t overcome it alone.

It can be difficult, very difficult to overcome our attachment to food – the comfort it gives us, but it IS possible.

If you find that becoming self aware – finding your emotional eating triggers, getting support from others and nourishing your body to decrease physical cravings isn’t enough to stop you overeating, then ShrinkYourself.com’s step by step, 12 week online program may very well be the solution to your emotional eating.

ShrinkYourself.com offers a 12 week program that teaches you how to overcome the bad feelings and emotions that cause you to overeat. It has been developed from a proven program used in hospitals to help individuals overcome overeating. What the program will teach you , step by step, is how to become mentally stronger, to question your emotions and overcome bad feelings for good.

ShrinkYourself.com is also a wealth of information on emotional eating and overeating. It has many free interactive tools to help you become more aware of your patterns of eating and also has many articles on the subject. If you are struggling it is a great resource, whether or not you feel the 12 week program is for you.

Click Here to Visit ShrinkYourself.com

Previous Post: How To Beat Cravings For Good

Cravings can be the hardest problem to solve when you are trying to eat healthier to feel better about yourself and lose weight. They can literally make or break your weight loss goals and make you spiral out of control.

Most people do not think cravings are serious and feel that their lack of will power is to blame in preventing themselves from overcoming cravings and staying on a healthy diet.

But what most people don’t realize that is food is just as addictive as smoking and drugs. Junk foods contain opiod peptides that are highly addictive and keep you hooked, making it extremely difficult to give up.

On top of this, in the Western world food is very much entwined into our culture and becomes part and parcel of how we socialize, how we celebrate and how we mourn. There is no escaping the emotional tie that our society has created with food and emotional/comfort eating can become a big problem for us also.

So it isn’t as simple as just cravings (that word is just used too lightly!). There are physical and psychological reasons for cravings. Psychological because of our emotional tie to food, physical because of the addictive properties in some foods and also because we don’t provide our bodies with the right foods to nourish us adequately.

In order to help you overcome cravings, first you must nourish your body properly. Most people do not know how to supply their body with the right foods because we aren’t told how to.

Second you must acknowledge and become aware of your relationship with food and if you use it emotionally. Physical addiction can be eradicated quite easily with proper nutrition but emotional addiction takes much more work and won’t disappear just because your body is nourished properly.

Master these 2 things and cravings will no longer be a problem for you.

Learn how to stop cravings now

Previous Post: Emotional Eating: What Is Emotional Eating

For many people, simply following a balanced diet and exercising is not enough to lose weight. Many find it impossible to stick to a diet and to control what they are eating, despite their best efforts. Maybe you are one of these people?

You already know how to lose weight – you know you must eat more nutritionally but you seem to slip up at every turn. So what is getting in your way?

The answer is most likely a mix of physical addiction to food and emotional eating. Emotional eating is the hardest part to overcome and is what I will discuss below (physical addiction will be discussed in a later blog post).

The thing I have found is that a lot of the information available out there (including diet programs) is that they do not addresss this issue and if they do, they just touch on it.

However this issue is a big one and can stand in the way of someone achieving the healthy lifestyle changes they want. Especially if you are following a diet that restricts you in anyway. For some this can lead to a blind panic and before you know it you will have just engulfed a large chocolate cheesecake and will still be wanting more.

Food is a security blanket for many and to be restricted can make us feel vulnerable and exposed, even if we aren’t completely aware of it (which we usually aren’t because by the time we have become rational again, after a good old binge, we are too numb to feel anything).

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating means to eat to satisfy emotional hunger. You eat food for comfort or a way to help you cope in life. You eat for reasons other than nutritional.

We all do this. Emotional eating is part of our culture. We use food to celebrate, to deal with upset, to deal with a hard day at work and even boredom (ever sit in front of the TV eating mindlessly?) It is a part of our culture. The problem with this is, it isn’t really seen as a problem in society, but it is one.

We spend so much time numbing ourselves, that when we do not have an opportunity to do so, we don’t know how best to deal with the emotions that arise in us. Food also has physically addictive properties within it that can affect our mood as well (I will discuss this later in a blog post) so everything can be very overwhelming. When we don’t live in the present moment and allow emotions to flow through us, but instead numb ourselves, we carry a lot of baggage around unknowingly. Sometimes this can surface in a bout of aggression or other form. The thing is, if we don’t face it, don’t learn to deal with our emotions then we just continue to live a life of numbing, of bingeing or craving. You miss out on the potential of life, of embracing emotions.

People suffering with this way of eating are driven to eat so they don’t have to face what is bothering them internally. They become addicted to the way they handle life. This is why dieting and calorie restriction doesn’t work. And since most diets do not teach you about emotional eating, we never become fully aware of it and think it is something wrong with us.

If others can do it, why can’t I?

Unless you learn to stop emotional eating and deal with your emotions in the present moment, you will find it impossible to lose weight and keep it off. Not to mention you will find it pretty hard to enjoy life fully if you are constantly battling with this issue with your weight loss.

If this resonates with you, then you are not alone and you can overcome it.

For more information about emotional eating please visit www.Eating-Naturally.com
Kelly Aziz is an expert in the field of nutrition and addiction psychology. She is the author of the acclaimed “Free to Eat” Natural Weight Loss plan that helps you eat well and combat cravings for good. For more information please visit: Combat Your Cravings

Do you eat until your stomach is bursting and you are in pain? Do you eat in private or hide food from others? Have you tried diets with little success, gaining every inch back because you can’t stop binge eating?

Here are 3 tips to help you stop binge eating once and for all.

1. Start observing yourself – take a few days to just observe your eating patterns. Keep a journal to record how you feel before, during and after bingeing. Write down whether an emotion is attached to your eating e.g. you are bored so you grab a bag of chips. By taking the time to observe you will be able to see when and why you use food other than for nutritional purposes or true hunger. This is the first step in being able to overcome binge eating – by being aware of your triggers and feelings.

2. Feel your feelings – if your binges revolve around emotions then you need to start learning how to feel your feelings. . Both digestion and feeling emotion are two energy-consuming activities, so the body can only do one at a time. Eating therefore is a great way to numb yourself but isn’t good for your health.

When you start to allow yourself to feel, at first you may have a rush of heavy emotion flood out of you. This will not happen every time and the more you practice being in the present moment with your feelings, the easier they become to manage and the less frightening or intense they will be. Letting go can be quite daunting but remember the feeling will pass and it will only last a short period of time. The relief and feelings of satisfaction and calm you get after allowing yourself to feel is amazing. Don’t be afraid of emotion. If you find it too much of a challenge to feeling emotions there is a great 12 week program by ShrinkYourself.com that can help you address your underlying concerns and aid you in overcoming your fear of emotions.

3. Exercise. Exercise has many benefits including:

• A great stress reliever (stress is a major contributor to binge eating – if you don’t exercise you may resort to eating to cope with stress)

• Makes you more productive – you will find exercise will give you more energy and keep you more positive. I always feel really good after exercise, not as hungry and just overall feel healthy.

• Weight loss – of course exercise is helpful in losing weight.

If you implement these 3 tips, you will find that you have more control over your binges and they may happen less often. If you know exactly what causes you to binge, why you do it and how you feel before, during and after – you are well on your way to stop binge eating.

Conclusion: Know Your Enemy!

Previous Post: How To Beat Food Cravings with Free to Eat’s Combat Your Cravings Ebook