Eating for the sake of it!

23^rd October 2018

Celebrate what’s working, address what’s not!

Well by gosh I think I’m better! FINALLY, Two weeks of yak but apart from a lingering cough which I can live with, I finally feel well again, I won’t lie though, bed is my favourite place at the moment, the alarm just gave me a startle, 5am in October is not a pleasant time of day when you’re still a little tired, it’s dark and cold, it’ll be darker next week when the clocks go back.

A pint of water, followed by a big mug of tea and I’ll be good.  Today’s coaching question has me a bit stumped; “When did you last do something which scared you a bit?”  My life is pretty routine these days with mom, so I’m struggling with this one, it’s been a good while since I did something that scared me, although walking in the house after work most days has that effect on me, I never know what version I’m going to get of mom with Alzheimer’s, also occasionally when mom doesn’t

wake at her usual time, I worry she may not wake, I know that day will come but it’s still going to be horrible when it does.

Anyway let’s focus on something good! My lunch yesterday was good, eggy bread, nice, I threw in some spring onions and it was delicious, I’m going to make something with chicken today, thinking probably using the jar of honey and mustard chicken tonight sauce, nice simple meal, could even throw it in the slow cooker before I go out.  That with some packet mash, oooo nice.  There was a time I wouldn’t have considered that sauce, 24SP a jar!  However when you think that chicken breast is zero, that’s only 6SP a portion, then 5SP for a portion of rice or potatoes, it’s a delicious meal once you’ve thrown some veggies on it.  I have a cauliflower I might add to it the sauce will cover that well, although we’ll need some green to balance out all that white food.

Eating for the sake of it!  That was a topic in my group last night after I’d gone to bed.  Why do we do it, we overeat, feel sick, so carry on overeating, then we feel miserable, realise there’s only so many weeks left of the year and we’ve wasted the weeks we’ve already had, then we feel totally rubbish. 

What to do? 

There are practical things you can do that will help but also I think everyone’s reasons are different and we have to address them.  Emotional eating is common, eating hits a pleasure signal in the brain. A cycle of overeating is similar to a cycle of drinking too much alcohol, over use of a drug, etc.

It’s tough because unlike drink, fags and alcohol we still have to eat we can’t cut food completely out of our life and move forward.   

When we’re overeating, we disconnect and forget the consequences until we’re finished, could we have a mantra or affirmation of some sort to remind us or maybe a question, using your WHY as a base to form that mantra/question.  Remember why you joined WW, why you want to lose weight and use that information to question yourself or to remind yourself before you start the binging.

Practical things you could do include; smaller plates to give the illusion of clearing your plate, remember the first bit is always the best so try to reduce your portions.  Actually start tasting the food and acknowledge it’s not tasting as great as your believing and the after effects won’t certainly be worth it.

Be aware of your actions, if you’re eating and you’re not hungry but you’re ignoring that, acknowledge it, say it out loud, “I’m not hungry but I’m going to eat it anyway!

Try filling up on good stuff, the more of that you eat, the less you’re likely to eat of the stuff that’s going to cause the weight gain.

It takes 20 minutes for you to digest your food and for your brain to realise it’s full, try eating slower, make it harder, use chop sticks, eat with your opposite hand – still with the knife and fork of course!

The one thing I believe will help is asking yourself the question ‘what’s really bothering me? What am I really hungry for?”   Start identifying the emotions, this is what we covered in my meetings last week and I felt that members got a lot from talking to each other about it, realising it’s not just them and looking for solutions that would help them, because remember no two of us are the same, we have to find our own ways of changing.

Stop expecting yourself to be ‘okay’ all the time, when life changes and challenges are thrown at us, we aren’t going to instantly handle everything and cope, we have to adjust and sometimes we turn to food as a comfort, acknowledge that’s what you’re doing and go from there.

Now I’m off to have a shower, followed by some breakfast, I’m thinking eggs, ain’t had a runny egg for a good few days, I’ll be having withdrawal!

Here’s to having a stress free day and if we don’t to being okay with that and handling it without the aid of food!