Reduce Stress, and change your life!

I have been working with people to really uncover the correlation between what they eat, why they eat it, and how it affects their wellness for the last few years. I help people stop stress eating and form new supportive habits! This all started with my own journey back to wellness. In 2015 my health was in a pretty poor state. I was the heaviest that I had ever been, I was suffering from anxiety and depression, and I didn’t have any energy. My life felt as if it had been sucked dry of the joy that I knew was possible.

I decided to make a change and dove deep into a path of healing and recovery. I was able to lose the weight, gained energy, and fixed so many things in my life. I had started following a very strict eating plan and I noticed a pattern pop up like never before. I had been a self-proclaimed emotional eater in my life, but due to the restrictive nature of the plan (and my inner rebellious child) I started eating emotionally and choosing to consume large quantities of these “off limits foods”.

The impacts were devastating. I didn’t gain the weight back, but I became accustomed to an ache in my belly as it would overextend itself. The guilt, shame, and restriction during the week followed by insanity on the weekend… In public, I was known as a “clean eater” so I had to keep my secret of overeating these off-limits foods to myself. There was so much secrecy and isolation in the way I had started eating. It wasn’t until I removed the barriers to the shame and guilt, and started truly meeting my own emotional needs that the stress eating started to fall away. What I learned became the foundation of my total transformation and is what I now use to help other people stop stress eating.

This is not a problem that was mine alone. the contrary, many adults admit to eating against their own best interest while in stressful situations, and unlike drugs and alcohol, it is very socially acceptable to indulge. We need food in order to survive, which makes it very easy for us to justify indulging in every sugar-coated whim that comes our way.

The truth is the current food structure is set up in a way that encourages failure. Food companies intentionally create combinations of foods that are highly palatable and light up the addictive centers in our brains. Foods containing equal parts of sugar and fat are extremely difficult to put down. Because of what they do to our brain, they are even harder to stay away from once we have become accustomed to them.

Food is often used in the beginning as a cheap replacement for meeting an emotional need, but over time the pathways in the brain are built that have us reaching for the food without even remembering the initial connection. When eating in this way becomes an ingrained habit, people must really look for some support to get out of that loop. Living with this type of disordered relationship with food leads to many problems. These include but are not limited to:

*weakened digestion
*increased stress
*weight gain
*onset of preventable disease
*mood swings
*emotional dysregulation
These things have devastating long-term impacts on the body and overall health. Typically dieting, unfortunately, does nothing to address this issue, and in fact, makes it worse. Most mainstream diets encourage restricting portions, cutting out specific food groups, and depriving the body of certain things. Putting anything in an off-limits category is extremely dangerous and leads rebellion and overindulgence in the long run.

Luckily there is a way to start to heal your relationship with food, and your body, and be able to stop stress eating once and for all. The way I work with clients is by helping them uncover the patterns that created the stress eating in the first place, and moving on to form new and supportive habits in their lives so that stress eating isn’t even an option for them anymore. They don’t have to remember to be different, they just start showing up differently in their lives!

If you are ready to heal your relationship with food and stop the stress eating madness, I have some tools that you can implement!

1)Have Healthy Food On Hand: It would be great to think that we would make enough time in our busy lives to stop and prepare meals, and would never let ourselves get too hungry, but that just isn’t the case. Often times we get to a point that we are so famished that we grab whatever is quick and easy. By making what is quick and easy choices that are also healthy and nourishing, we can be sure to make better choices more often. This could include hummus and pre-cut veggies, rice cakes with peanut butter and a banana, or a few hard boiled eggs with nuts and fruit. Keep simple go-to’s on hand!

2)Breathe Before You Eat: Regardless of what you are about to eat, your body will not gain much from the food if you are eating in a stress response. Stress actually turns off your digestion and reduces your metabolic power. Taking 10 deep breaths each time before you eat anything (meal or snack) will help reduce the stress response and help you eat more mindfully. It will also help you pay attention to your bodies signals letting you know when you have had enough to eat.

3)Keep a Food Journal: Journaling about what you are eating, and the way that food makes you feel energetically is a great way to start to create new and healthy habits. When we can see the correlation between what we are eating and how it is truly making us feel it is easier to return to the foods that are health-giving to us. This is not about judgment but rather curiosity! Be honest and really take this as a chance to examine your habits!

Interested in learning more? Check us out on www.fullyalignedcoaching.com or on Instagram @alyxthefullyalignedcoach