We hosted an Emotional Eating Seminar this past weekend. The session was led by Holley Porter-Wright, who is a certified Health Coach and accomplished yoga instructor at Yoga Hom.
For the people who attended it was a wonderful and mind opening experience. One of the biggest things they got out of the class was that they are not alone in their struggles with food. Everyone there had very similar hold ups and sticking points with food.
Below are some of the tidbits I picked up and thought you might benefit from reading:
- A big step to conquering emotional eating is when you can distinguish from being physically hungry or just mentally hungry
-Emotional eating occurs because we are not meeting our needs
-Ask the question, "What do I need?" from the following areas of your life:
1. Body
2. Mind
3. Emotions
4. Higher Self
-You can't eat compulsively if you are aware of your food and if you are enjoying your food
-Sit down when you eat (very important)
-Have you ever made a lasting change from berating yourself? Probably not. Long term change comes from having self compassion.
-There are no forbidden foods
-Emotional eaters tend to be huge givers who take of everyone but themselves
-Food is not a place for moral judgements. You aren't good because you ate good that day and you aren't bad because you had an off day
-Have built-in strategies that are non-food related in place to be ready when emotional eating starts. (Exercise, reading, music, dancing, etc...)
-Try to stay away from "I'll be happy when _____." statements. That is the carrot on the stick that you will never reach.
-An exercise to try and slow your eating down and improve your digestion is to chew your food 50 times before swallowing.
-If it's a matter of will power, it's only a matter of time until you give in.
That is just a few of the insights she gave us. The main theme Holley really drove home, is that you should listen to the signals your body is giving you. If you would like to get in touch with Holley and learn more about her health coaching or yoga services, her e-mail address is holleypwyoga@gmail.com