Do you feel like you have a challenging and frustrating relationship with food?
Well, Ann, one of our Mindful Nutrition Method
students, found that she was feeling this exact way. She was very frustrated with food and had a bad relationship with food. She realized that she had issues with binge eating and overeating, which was really starting to impact her life.
She experienced issues of self-confidence, low self-worth, and stress that really took a toll on her emotions, which then impacted her eating habits.
The good news is she’s now aware, empowered, and present around food fully to where she is more conscious of her eating habits which he’s her from overeating or binging. The level of awareness she built using tools inside the Mindful Nutrition Method, gave her clarity to connect emotions and her food habits so she could take the actions she wanted — to stop overeating or emotional eating.
You’re not alone if you’re feeling this way about food too.
Watch this video to hear from Ann all about her full journey to cultivating a more present and positive relationship with food!
The Challenge: Disconnected & Emotional Eating
Ann shared that it was frustrating to have a bad relationship with food where overeating, binge eating, and emotional eating were present in her experience.
She realized that her emotions were guiding a lot of her food choices in addition to feeling low confidence and self-worth.
“Before joining the method, I was frustrated with food and I had a very bad relationship with food.
I had issues with binge eating, so one thing the method has helped me with is understanding my personal and specific reasons why I would overeat and the connection between emotion and food.”
And Ann is not alone. Our food habits, such as binge eating and emotional eating, can come from so many other factors in our lives from the way we grew up, mindsets we’ve adopted over the years, diet culture, and just feeling disconnected from ourselves.
What Supported Ann To Stop Overeating
In order to get out of the diet cycle where emotional eating and overeating are present, you need to tap into your mindful muscle to start to be present around food. This then helps you discover a new relationship with food where you’re more connected to why certain actions take place.
This level of awareness and building the mindfulness muscle support all the choices you’re making around food. A balanced relationship like this allows you to tune into your body, feel confident in your own choices, and feel free from the stress of the scale.
Here are a few tools Ann used to help her cultivate a more present and positive relationship with food!
1. Becoming More Mindful and Present with Her Emotions
One of the primary concepts we focus on the inside of the Mindful Nutrition Method is listening to our body and being present around food, this includes the thoughts and emotions we have around food. Students learn to tune into their bodies and trust the messages it’s sending so they can feel confident about the choices they make for themselves.
This helps eliminate that feeling of constantly being stressed about food or letting emotions lead the way.
Learning this skill allowed Ann to look at her emotions in a different way. She began checking in and reflecting on her emotions — when she felt stressed what food did she eat? Angry? etc.
She worked with her emotions instead of working against them.
“But to break it down into what happened this week and how did that affect your eating, my eating, I think, has been really helpful…I could really tune into those moments when I was highly stressed about that, and frustrated, and angry, and how that translated into what I was eating, or in some cases, very happily, I could say, “Okay.” I know that these feelings are here and that’s not… I don’t have to connect that to eating…”
The check-in practices we teach inside of MNM guide you to tune into your body and understand why you choose to make certain food decisions over others. They allow you to bring awareness to the patterns you have with your eating habits. You then learn how to best align your actions with what works best for you.
This inner knowing makes it much easier to make changes. You’re no longer following what someone else is telling you to do. Instead, you’re using your own self-awareness to feel confident in what allows you to feel your best.
2. Shifting Her Focus to Self-Compassion & Flexibility
Another shift Ann experienced while using the Mindfuul Nutrition Method, was releasing the negative self-talk or critical talk to herself when she made a food choice that she didn’t intend to.
“…I’ve learned a lot about not beating myself up about it. If I am stressed or angry and I do eat something that I didn’t intend to or was not as healthy as I would have liked, it’s okay. Just let it go, it happened and move on. And the next thing I eat can be healthier or I can re-evaluate that emotion.”
This took away the pressure and frustration around the food she was previously feeling.
This self-compassion showed up in her food choices too by freeing herself from the good vs. bad food mentality.
“…You can have a milkshake sometimes. That’s not a bad thing.” And even you can have a milkshake sometimes if you’re having a bad day, and that’s going to make you feel better. But I think being conscious of that. Maybe that’s really it, the mindset… I think, what’s really shifted is that I’m just more conscious of what I’m doing and more present when I’m cooking.”
“What’s really shifted is that I’m more conscious of what I’m doing and more present and that’s had such a positive impact to stop overeating.”
Learn The Practices Ann Used To Stop Being So Stressed About Food
This is such a beautiful transformation from Ann. We’re so grateful to have been a part of her journey in making all of this possible for her!
Now you can learn exactly how Ann, along with so many other students, experienced that transformation with their eating habits using our Mindful Nutrition Method by watching our free masterclass.
You’ll learn about the #1 Habit That Keeps You Struggling With Your Weight and your Relationship With Food — And How To Break Free From The Diet And Food Obsession Starting Now.
You don’t need to stress and obsess about food. There is a better way and yes it’s possible to cultivate a positive relationship with food! Join this free balanced eating masterclass to learn how.
Watch The Free Masterclass
The post 3 Steps Ann Took to Stop Emotionally Eating appeared first on Nutrition Stripped®.
McKel (Hill) Kooienga
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