My addiction to food messed up my relationships. Sometimes I was so hung over from bingeing I couldn’t get out of bed to be in time for meeting friends and couldn’t return calls. I was desperate to feel complete that I took more from friends than I gave. I was in a miserable state of affairs. I often pretended to be interested in others companies but really I had a deep empty hole inside of me and felt self absorbed and selfish.

I had no energy, my self esteem was missing. I just craved all day and night. The thing is it never occurred to me that I had an issue with food. I just thought I had an issue with life. Whenever I went anywhere or did anything the food was my main attraction and even at parties I would eat and eat but try to do it secretly by moving around the room and hiding junky foods under the healthy looking foods. By moving about and talking to lots of people I avoided anyone seeing exactly how much I was eating.

It was only when I came across an article about emotional eating that I realized I had an issue with food and not with life. I learnt about how food is physically addictive and thus can affect your mood that way but also through emotional addiction too. I was trapped and I would never have realized this without being lucky enough to stumble across the info.

I followed the advice on an online book called Combat Your Cravings. I ate properly and found my physical cravings diminished considerably. I felt I was able to function properly and didn’t eat a refined sugar fix as soon as I wok in the morning.

But my biggest properly was my emotional eating. Everyday after work I still found it impossible not to binge and overeat. It was only until I read Shrink Yourself and then enrolled in the online program that I was able to successfully become in charge of my life.

Both the books I mentioned have been my life savers without their information I don’t think I would have overcome my overeating.

If you overeat I highly recommend you read these articles and start working through your issues today!

Stop Overeating

Overcoming cravings can be as simple as erasing the physical causes (poor nutrition) of the cravings.  But usually there is an emotional craving attached also.  Emotional cravings are when an emotion triggers you to crave a food or feel hungry (Roger Gould calls this phantom hunger).

When we experience emotional cravings that are out of control, we need to start observing ourselves and seeing exactly what emotions are causing the triggers.  Maybe we eat out of boredom.  Maybe we eat because we are dissatisfied about our relationship.  Cravings – emotional cravings – are telling you something.  Instead of eating you need to listen.

A good start pointing when tackling this issue is to tackle our mindset first.  Negativity is something many people habitually part take in.  Our inner critic tells us we are not good enough and we constantly play the worse case scenario in any situation instead of weighing up all the facts.

Your weight loss outcomes can depend on many things but at the core of it all you need to believe in 3 things in order to successfully lose the battle with the bulge.

You need to believe:

1. POSSIBILITY: It is possible for you to overcome cravings.
2. ACHIEVEMENT: You are able to stop craving.
3. WORTHINESS: You deserve to stop craving and lose weight.

Possibility

Possibility is almost always mistaken for competence. We think that something isn’t possible, that we aren’t able to give up our favorite junk foods or stop craving when really we don’t know how to do it – we don’t have the knowledge or resources to be able to stop craving.

It is possible though, regardless of your situation. You can’t prove that it isn’t possible – you can only say that you haven’t achieved it yet.

Beliefs are not fact.

Beliefs are just our best guess at something and we often sell ourselves short. Do you think you have put a mental ceiling on your achievements? Do you think you have hindered your ability to stop craving through your beliefs about yourself?

Ability

Most of us tend to make others aware of our short comings, when we can’t do something. If you take a day out and observe people and what they say, you should notice how often people say they can’t do this or they can’t do that. We all think this is being modest, when in fact its not. Modesty is not boasting about what we can do, it isn’t boasting about what we can’t!

Once you become aware of yourself voicing your inability to give up chocolate/junk/sugar, you can stop yourself voicing it. If you continue to voice your inability to give it up, it will hold you back from achieving your lifestyle/weight loss goals. If you find it difficult to stop voicing your inability, a good alternative is to add the word “yet” to the end of your statements.

“I haven’t been able to give up chocolate…yet”

“I can’t stop craving…yet”.

It is also important not to make excuses for your craving failures. If you do not have the knowledge to prevent cravings, go out and get it.  Set tasks that you need to do in order to achieve your slimmer figure.

A general belief that you should try to hold is:

You have not yet reached the limit of what you are capable of.

Keeping this in mind will help you to achieve your craving and weight loss goals.

Worthiness

Do you deserve to give up junk food/lose weight? Does it make you feel uncomfortable to say you deserve to? If it does, this should help you figure out any obstacles that are in your way to achieving your goal. List them and work out how you can overcome them.

e.g. I don’t have the correct knowledge to stop my sugar addiction – to overcome this I am going to do some research and find a suitable diet program or expert to help me.

Allow yourself to believe these 3 things and you will be on the right path to a positive mindset to help yourself overcome cravings.

Overcome Overeating

Click here for help with emotional eating

Previous Post: Binge Eating Disorder – What is Binge Eating Disorder?

Physical and emotional cravings to food can lead one on the path of desctruction.  Both can also hurt your weight loss efforts and most people who experience physical and emotional cravings are overweight anyway.  It can be like an neverending battle.  The first step to losing weight should be to tackle these issues.  Cravings will hurt your weight loss efforts more than anything else.  Why?  Because most of the time they are like a silent killer of dreams.  We don’t recognize cravings as something serious – we don’t recognize food addiction as anything for anyone to worry about.  It is just brushed off like it is something so so natural in the Western world.  However, for many cravings and/or emotional eating will stop you losing weight because instant gratification is more important at the time of craving.  Just like a heroin addict finds it difficult to give up heroin, so do some people find it difficult to give up certain foods or to stop intense cravings.  This is for two reasons.

1. Food is physically addictive.  Some foods, like chocolate trigger the same part of your brain as heroin does.

2. Emotional eating without paying much attention to it.  Some of us eat out of boredom without realizing – we snack, we indulge in lots of food to help us overcome a bad feeling, stress or even to celebrate!

To overcome the physical cravings with little effort, all one has to do is eat the right foods.  Eat healthy – eat plenty of fruit, eat nutritious WHOLE RAW foods regularly.  Also make sure you eat breakfast as this can have a condierable affect on your eating habits – it can either cause you to snack more, or decrease your snacking desires.

To overcome emotional eating you need to write down what triggers you to eat.  Observe yourself over a day and make a note of what triggers you.  Then come up with a list of things you can do instead of eat e.g. go for a walk, talk to a friend.  For some people though emotional eating is deeper and more intense then they can imagine.  After years of emotional eating, we may need more expert help or an intensive program to help us to overcome this pattern for good.

Tackle these two things and you will lose weight without dieting. Then you can work on improving your diet for health and prosperity without sabotaging yourself along the way.

Emotional Eating Link : http://www.ShrinkYourSelf.com

Stop Cravings Link

A quick article on the importance of eating breakfast and overcoming food cravings.  Taken from http://www.eating-naturally.com

I was talking to a friend just now about her craving issues and how she struggles a lot with keeping them under control. She revealed that she rarely ever gets breakfast in and ends up drinking coffee all morning, which doesn’t really help with her hunger.

I think that it is absolutely crucial to have breakfast. It is important to have a nutritious, filling breakfast in order to keep cravings at bay (including later in the day) and also to give you the energy required to get to lunch. Without a nutritious breakfast, you are making it much more difficult for yourself to be able to get over cravings especially intense ones.

If you want to lose weight and avoid intense cravings then you MUST make breakfast an important part of your day. I know that when I skip breakfast I am setting myself up for a very difficult day especially with cravings. By the time I get to lunch I find it very difficult to make the right food choices and it becomes a battle that is almost impossible to win. So I always make sure I have my breakfast. Currently I have a large fruit smoothie (4-5 bananas with some berries blended with some water). This keeps me going until lunch, keeps my energy and mood level and minimizes any cravings I have the potential of getting in the afternoon.

If you want to lose weight and avoid cravings, make breakfast an important part of your day. For me, it was the easiest part to get right about my diet and the most crucial part to get right for my weight loss and well being.

If you want to lose weight and avoid cravings – make breakfast an important part of your day. For me it was the easiest part to get right about my diet and also the most crucial part to get right for my weight loss and well being.

(article from http://www.eating-naturally.com)

Stop Food Cravings

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