How to STOP Emotional Eating

**Just a heads up, this client gave me permission to use this story**

So, I have this nutrition client who I’m in constant contact with. She’d hired me a couple of months ago on referral from her friend (another client of mine), and wanted more accountability and guidance with her nutrition. Happily, I obliged :-)

We started up right around Thanksgiving, and needless to say, with the holiday season quickly approaching, it wasn’t an easy time for her to stay on track. However, with the New Year, I was guaranteed more focus and dedication than we’d had through the first month and a half of our program.

Unfortunately, that’s not how things had been going since January 1st…

Despite there being no typical excuse like the holidays, her eating was getting WORSE than it had beeb during that period! Obviously, it was at this point that I knew there was more to things than met the eye.

We texted for about an hour this afternoon, and came to two conclusions: 1) She has a physical addiction to sugar, and 2) There are some deep-rooted emotional ties to the poor food choices she’d been making. These ties may not have been completely obvious, but it was important to figure out what they were.

Why?

Because when you have a physical addiction, the addiction is caused by an overconsumption of the substance or act in response to an emotional trigger. This trigger can be many things, ranging from animosity between yourself and someone close to you, or lack of fulfillment in your career.

These weren’t her specific examples, but are just two common ones most people suffer from. I wanted to give you some more context before continuing the story :-)

Anyhoo, since I’m not with her 24/7, and I don’t know everything that’s going on in her life, I asked her a series of questions to help her figure this out for herself. The emotional ties just weren’t coming to her without these questions.

You can use these questions, in this very order, to assist in your discovery of the trigger (often a person or a place), and then how to prevent it from continuing to negatively affect you.

1. Where do you most often make your poor food choices?

2. How do you normally feel in this location?

3. Is there anybody that currently shares (or used to share) this location with you that you have some pent-up animosity or anxiety towards?

4. What is this pent-up animosity or anxiety about?

5. Can this be remedied with a simple conversation, or new choice of venue?

6. Are you going to let this situation continue to sabotage you?

So simple, and yet, within seconds of my asking each question, I got a response that led to an emotional trigger of her’s at work.

For her, this was the location she struggled staying ‘good’ the most, and from the second it became clear to her, she told me, and I quote, ‘You’re right. I think I have an idea of what the trigger is, so let’s start getting serious right now.’

While she’d admitted that some of her food choices weren’t the best, I had to be the motivator to try to get her back on track. This time, she took the initiative, and it’s because she realized what her trigger was, and how to remedy the situation.

When you’re looking to lose weight and get healthy, the mind game is just as, if not MORE important, than the physical one. Simply going through the motions without the proper motivation or mindset is just offsetting the inevitable, which is nothing good!

If you suffer from emotional eating, I implore you to walk yourself through the questions highlighted above, and begin coming to terms with what’s causing you to break down and turn to these poor food choices.

I believe in you! :-)

Sincerely,

Coach Pete

pete@weightlossbypete.com

P.S. To keep you building positive momentum, here are the five steps that I personally used (and continue to use!) to lose 100 lbs and keep the weight off!

www.weightlossbypete.com/5strategies

Until tomorrow!