What are you Hungry For?

Do you ever find yourself looking into the pantry or fridge, searching for something to eat – even though you just finished eating 20 minutes ago? A great question to ask yourself before reaching for the sweet chocolate or the salty chips is “Am I truly hungry?” To dig deeper into that question, one of my favorite tools is the Hunger Scale. This tool enables you to distinguish between physical and emotional hunger.

The ideal time to eat is when you are at a 3-4 on the hunger scale and to stop at a 5-6, or when you are about 80% full. If you find that you are not at 4 or below on the hunger scale, yet still looking in the cabinet or fridge for something salty or sweet, you might be eating to soothe an emotional issue rather than a physical need to eat. When this happens, stop and assess how you are feeling. Are you feeling sad, lonely, frustrated, bored or angry? Is food going to resolve your issue or just provide temporary comfort?

When you notice this behavior happening repeatedly, a great tool to understand your emotions is to journal. If you don’t have a journal, pull out a piece of paper and do a brain dump of how you are feeling.  Then reflect on the emotion(s) and see if there is a non-food alternative to will comfort you.

Some of my favorite ways to combat emotional eating are:

– take a brisk walk outside

– phone a friend

– listen to a favorite song on Spotify and dance along

– do 50 jumping jacks or 20 pushups

– listen to a short guided meditation on HeadSpace or Stop Breathe & Think

– do some breathing exercises

– watch a funny video on YouTube

Determine what non-food strategies would be useful to help you deal with your emotions and avoid emotional eating? It’s best to have a strategy in mind, so when the trigger hits, you have a plan!

What are your favorite strategies to manage emotional eating? Please share below!

If you struggle with emotional eating, I would love to help you dive deeper. Stay tuned, as I will be announcing a new interactive program, beginning February 18^th. The program is an interactive, 6-week mindful eating and healthy weight management program which will change your relationship with food forever.

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UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Monday, Feb 11^th at 12PM, Summit YMCA: The Art of Chocolate

Join me for a fun, interactive presentation that focuses on all things chocolate. There will be plenty of “melt in your mouth” mindful tasting of different qualities and types of chocolate.

FREE WEBINAR: FOCUS ON YOUR BEST SELF

February 11 @8PM EST/5PM PST or

February 13 @12PM EST/9AM PST

FOCUS on HEALTHY EATING AND MINDSET – starts February 18, 2019 – more details coming soon!