3 Strategies to Manage Emotional Eating During the Holiday Season

 

If you are one of the many people who struggle with emotional and stress eating, then you may be dreading the holiday season. Whether because the holidays themselves are stressful or just the addition of holiday treats being everywhere all the time is stressful—or both, stress and emotional eating can become especially rampant this time of year.

It starts with the Halloween candy. You might think to yourself, “I’ll have just one piece---you know---as a treat.” The next thing you know you have an empty bag of Reese’s Cups and you are at the store purchasing two more bags of Reese’s—because now they’re on sale, 2-for-1! 

This triggers an attitude of, “forget it, I’ll just start over in the New Year”—an attitude of eat whatever, whenever. In the back of your mind, you know this is NOT what you want. You really want to END this cycle of gaining and losing the same amount of weight every year. You want to stop this negative, damaging cycle of emotional eating. But the leftover Halloween candy is just the beginning, enter Thanksgiving…

Now, there’s pumpkin pie, apple pie, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole and more to contend with! We essentially dive into a sea of sugary foods from Halloween all the way through December! By January you may have put on some weight and feel frustrated and down on yourself. You may feel overwhelmed by how to start all over—yet again…

You do not have to spend another holiday season fighting yourself! Here are three simple and highly useful strategies to help you manage your sugar intake, be more mindful with your choices, and make it through this holiday season feeling empowered, healthy and strong rather than disappointed, frustrated and hopeless.

1. Give Yourself a Sugar Quota

According to the American Heart Association, women should have no more than 24 grams of added sugar per day and men no more than 36 grams of added sugar per day. For example, a Pumpkin Latte from a certain coffee spot has 49 grams of sugar! When you begin to pay attention to how many grams of sugar are in certain foods, you can make more empowered decisions about what to eat and how to “spend” your sugar grams each day.

During the holiday season you might choose to increase your daily sugar quota by a bit more than 24 grams, or you might make certain days exceptions, but just not every single day—which is where the trouble lies during this season! When you predetermine how much sugar you will take in daily, you are more likely to pay attention to the amount of sugar in foods and more likely to make informed decisions. This allows to you to feel strong and in control rather than weak, shameful and deprived. 

2. Make Choices Based on How You Want to Feel

When you make decisions based on how you want to feel, you are more likely to make an empowered and positive choice in the moment. Start each day with asking yourself “How do I want to feel today?” If you want to feel strong, ask yourself with each decision you make around food and in general, “does this choice support how I want to feel?”  If not, you have an opportunity to make an empowered choice to say NO to that particular food while choosing to say YES to yourself, YES to how you want to feel. There is no better feeling than showing up for yourself and making empowered choices!  This stops the feeling of deprivation and builds inner strength.

3. Focus on Vegetables

At holiday meals, (and all throughout the year!) aim for at least 50% of your plate to be loaded with vegetables. When you do this, you are not only getting in the nutrition you need, the fiber in vegetables helps to fill you up and create a feeling of satiation. This leaves less space for the sugary foods—both on your plate and in your belly! Vegetables are where “it is at” nutritionally! When you are taking in more nutrients you feel better. This sets you up to manage your stress more effectively, which helps you curb the stress-eating! When you are well nourished you tend to have fewer cravings which allows you to resist the second helping of pie at the holiday table!

Use these three strategies during this holiday season and notice how they impact your choices, your ability to manage your craving and how you feel about yourself. When you try these strategies, let me know how they work for you! 



Beginning Your Wellness Journey

Wellness has become something of a buzzword these days. When this happens, it can cause a word to lose its power. The definition of wellness is: the state of being in good health, especially as an actively pursued goal. Good health as a concept is quite broad as well, but I like to think of in this way: if I am in good health, I am mentally, physically, emotionally, energetically and spiritually grounded and feel an overall sense of contentment and peace. This is a true state of good health and wellness.

Isn’t this how we all want to feel? To feel well, be well and live well? But what does that actually look like from day to day? Creating your own definition of wellness and engaging in the practices that move you forward along your own wellness journey is a deeply personal process.

Creating a state of wellness requires having your health as a priority. To be in a state of good health and actively pursuing goals implies action, forward projection and the opportunity for growth and change. When you think of wellness as taking action, it opens up the concept of health and creates a more well-rounded approach to the journey.

When you consider what wellness looks like to you, it may look quite different than what wellness looks like for your friends, your family, or the people you follow on social media. Crafting a personalized wellness routine in order to make strides along your path to feeling healthy and whole is necessary in order to create the opportunity for you to take consistent action.

Wellness practices include elements that guide you forward towards a balanced life and creating the healthiest version of yourself. Wellness addresses you as a whole person and may include nutrition, exercise, relaxation techniques, self-care, social outlets, relationships, spirituality, spending time in nature, creativity and how you integrate each of these into your many daily responsibilities!

For so many of us, our wellness is unfortunately not always our top priority. It is hard to create new routines and patterns and then to integrate these wellness practices consistently in a way that creates the healthy life you may desire. Consider this integration and change as making a commitment to yourself. When you go about setting a specific wellness goal, choose just ONE thing to focus on to begin. 

Often, when we are feeling unhealthy or out of alignment with our vision of wellness, we feel as though we need a complete overhaul. This is not the case! It is best to begin by implementing one change at a time until that specific change is well integrated into your life. This means that you no longer have to over-think getting it done! Once that occurs, you can consider adding in another. Moving slowly and deliberately offers change over time and is ultimately far more sustainable for long-term change.

Any forward movement is movement no matter how small! However, becoming stuck can perpetuate negative thoughts and feelings and derail your momentum and progress. This is why starting small and using mindset, intention and action to create movement and build motivation is the most effective place to begin.

What is one area of your health that you can commit to begin taking decisive action on today? What is ONE goal you can set? Where do you want to start along your personal journey to wellness? Write it down. Take time right now to schedule in your calendar exactly when you will take this action.

Schedule weekly and monthly reviews for yourself to check in and evaluate your progress. When you commit to yourself you create motivation. When you commit to your health, really choose your health and wellness as a priority in your life, you are making a powerful commitment to yourself as well as to those you care about while creating inspiration for others.

If you are struggling with where to begin, reach out! I offer a variety of ways to support you when you are ready to invest in yourself and your future health and wellness. Investing in yourself allows you to move forward along your personal wellness journey towards your greatest health, healing and well-being. I am dedicated to helping you be well, feel well and live well by supporting the process of making a commitment to yourself and to your personal wellness journey.

Where are you along your path to wellness? I’d love to hear the wellness practices you will begin to use in order to focus on your future health as you continue to move forward along your personal wellness journey!

How to Reset Your Mindset in 5 Days

Remember those plans you had to improve your health? Remember the desire to exercise more, eat more vegetables and drink more water? Remember how you were going to get more sleep, spend more time doing something creative or practice more self-care? The difficult thing with creating a new goal is sticking with it. This is where mindset is vitally important. When you have something well prepared in your mindset, you are far more likely to make it happen than if you don’t. Are you ready to reset your mindset but you aren’t sure as to where to begin? Here’s a plan to create a healthy mindset reset in just five days.

Mindset is focusing on what you want with determination and making each and every choice based on what you want. You decide to choose your desired outcome. This is a commitment to yourself and your future goal. To begin, get your calendar out and mark in it right now where you will devote 15-20 minutes to this practice for five days to reset your mindset.

Now that you have decided, planned and prepared for the reset, commit to following this plan for the next five days.

Day 1: What Do You Want?

What is the health-related goal that you have been meaning to do, you have been putting off or fantasizing about but have not yet made it happen? Ask yourself if there is a reason for this? Now, set a timer for 5 minutes and bring to mind what you want. Visualize it and stay with the imagery for the full 5 minutes. When the timer goes off, use this affirmation: “Today, I will focus my mindset on what I want.” Spend a few minutes reflectively journaling about your experience.

Day 2: Strengthening Your Desire

Day 2 day is about expanding and internalizing and strengthening your desire. Begin by visualizing what you want and while it is becoming stronger in your mindset, allow it to sink into your heart. Ask yourself: why do I want this? Allow yourself to tune into your inner desire and allow it to rest in your heart. Set a timer for 5 minutes and focus on how it feels to hold what you want in your heart center. Breathe and stay as focused as possible on your heart. Once the timer goes off, use this affirmation: “My mindset is becoming stronger with the strength of my desire in my heart.” Spend a few minutes reflectively journaling about your experience.

Day 3: Make it Happen!

Now that you have established what you want, you have felt the desire for what you want, now believe that you have the ability to make it happen. For the meditation, visualize yourself actively doing or achieving your goals. Set a timer for 5 minutes and hold this belief within yourself that you will maintain action towards your goals. You will make this commitment to yourself and believe in your ability to follow through. Once the timer goes off, use the affirmation: “I believe in my ability to achieve my goals.” Spend a few minutes reflectively journaling about your experience.

Day 4: Take Consistent Action

Action is the difference between wanting and creating. Action can cure any fears you have surrounding achieving your goals. Today, choose to take decisive action towards you goal. What you have in your mindset is focusing on action and the mindful meditation will be reflecting on the action you did take today. As you are ready for the meditation, reflect on the action you did take towards your goals. How does this reflection on your action make you feel emotionally, physically, energetically? Set your timer for 5 minutes and reflect on how it felt to take decisive action. Once the timer goes off, use the affirmation: “I create what I want through taking consistent, decisive action.” Spend time reflectively journaling about your experience.

Day 5: Maintaining a Focused Mindset

When you focus more on what you have accomplished and less on what you haven’t, you are more likely to feel accomplished and motivated. When you only focus on what you haven’t accomplished, it depletes your energy and will cause your mindset to waiver. Stay focused on what you want! Any time your mindset begins to waiver, check in with yourself. Remind yourself of what you want, reflect on your commitment to yourself daily. Set a timer for 5 minutes and visualize yourself pushing through any obstacle or challenge to achieving what you want. Notice how it feels to remain focused and to maintain this mindset of determination and overcoming obstacles. Once the timer goes off, use the affirmation, “I am committed to myself and what I want.” Spend time reflectively journaling about your experience.  

Shifting your mindset is difficult. Often, we get stuck in old patterns and habits and can be hard to change. When you create a daily practice with devoted time to reflect and search inward, you will bring what you want into focus. When you are focused, you are more likely to maintain the positive yet challenging journey to continue the hard work. Showing up for yourself, showing up for your life, your experiences and choosing to keep your focus on what you want will help you maintain the ability to consistently make the decision to choose what you want. Set your mindset daily, take decisive action and you will find that what you want it on its way.

Want a guided support to reset your mindset? I created a 7-day guided mindset reset practice to help do just that, you can find it HERE!