I have absolutely loved your techniques. I've been working on it for three weeks now (not every day, even) and I have to say that my life has changed drastically in the food department. My emotional eating habits are gone. I am making the best food decisions of my life! .... . In the last three weeks, I haven't eaten a single thing in my car.
Emily Simmons
(Comfort Eating AUdio COurse Feedback)
Hi Anne,
Thanks for your ... how to stop eating for your emotions which I have listened to in the audio format many times now. I am a registered nurse and health and wellness coach and work with people on weight loss. I recommend you ... to most of my clients.
I will continue to follow your valuable contribution to the field of health coaching.
Best in health to you,
Joyce
Joyce Strong, Lic. DFA Practitioner, RN, BSN, CWC at Diabetes Free America
I've been using this for a few months now and can honestly say it has made me think about the food that I eat. (it) …. consists of theory and written exercises which works by making you assess the implications of your actions and considering the positive outcomes you can achieve by succeeding in your quest. To keep the momentum up you have to keep listening ….. to reinforce your positive goals and diminish the negative ones. Definitely worth buying, particularly after the Christmas excesses!
Anon
Weight Loss
Many people want to reduce their weight. Perhaps for health reasons or because they feel uncomfortable with the weight they carry.
A lot of clients who come to me for help have a long history of yo-yo dieting and have now come to think of foods as 'good' or 'bad' foods. And they think they are being 'good' when they are dieting. There are many types of dieting programmes, ranging from passing fads to others, like Slimmers World or Weight Watchers, that have been around for many, many years. These programmes can work for some people, often though people put on weight again once they stop going to meetings.
Weight reduction is often more complicated than just eat less and exercise more, though those things can help.
The problem for many people is that they can be 'good' for a while or they reach a stage when they have reduced their weight to a point where they feel a bit better and then they start to relax and go back to old habits. Unfortunately, often people put on more weight than they had in the first place.
When working with clients for weight reduction we don't, necessarily, start with the habits. We look at the underlying beliefs around food and themselves, as well as reviewing current eating patterns. We do look at the foods you like to eat, portion size, speed of eating and so forth. Once we've established those we'll start to help you change those habits and your attitude to food, to help you make the changes you want to make.
You might find my Simply Weight Loss MP3 helpful.
Eating Issues
There are different types of eating issues, including binge eating disorder, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. I have worked with clients who have these issues, however, depending how severe they are, I may suggest they work with an eating disorder specialist.
Comfort or Emotional Eating
When you hear the term comfort or emotional eating many people assume that it is only triggered by negative emotions. It is true that many people will turn to food to help themselves feel better. However, people can also turn to food when they feel happy or good.
I remember a client who ate, in her words, "junk food" when she felt good and she wanted to stop. We eventually linked her feeling good and junk food to when she was young and she would go to football matches with her dad. They would get "junk food" at the match and it became linked in her mind with feeling happy.
More often than not, your comfort eating reaction will be unconscious and will happen before you realise it. Sometimes though, people realise they 'feel' bad or low or stressed and know that they just have to have some chocolate or sweets or crisps. If it only happens occasionally then that isn't likely to cause a problem. If, however, food is your 'go to' option when you experience these unpleasant thoughts or emotions, and you weigh more than you'd like to, then you might want some help.
One way I work with emotional eating is using cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy. It combines Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and hypnosis. It helps to identify the underlying issues that are creating the uncomfortable 'feelings'. Working to change those and the repetitive thoughts and unhelpful beliefs that keep the unhealthy habit in place, you learn how to respond differently to your old triggers. The good thing is having learned these skills you can apply them to all areas of your life.
You may also find my comprehensive audio course How to Stop Comfort Eating helpful, if you can't work with me face to face, on line or in person.