Emotional Eating

[Jazzy]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, because I have been doing much better with my eating. I have made big changes to my diet, which my brother has not been able to do yet.

The reason I mention my brother is because he is a professional chef who has also studied nutrition. He knows so much more than I do about food, nutrition, and diet. He is also more talented and skilled at preparing food.

Like many other things, I believe this to be a case of emotion overpowering logic. One of my brother's biggest challenges is to control the amount of sweets he eats. As has been mentioned here previously, it is important to find other ways to comfort ourselves, which we can then use to slowly replace (or at least reduce) eating sweets.

I believe another key point is to learn to listen to the small whispers our body tells us. Recently I have learned that feeling hungry and feeling full are both unhealthy, at least for me. When I feel hungry, I am suffering from a lack of nutrition. When I feel full, I am suffering from over-eating.

At this point, I eat 6-8 times snack or small meals per day. I'm not sure how well known it is to do this, although it is not a secret. I think the "official recommendation" is to eat 5-6 times per day.

How do you actually do that though? It's a really big change, especially when complicated by emotional turmoil. First I had to do a lot of work on my emotions, then it was the same as everything else.

Like all big changes, it is easier to break this down in to smaller, more manageable steps. One small step at a time, with lots of encouragement.

I certainly didn't start out eating 7-8 times per day, and I don't expect anyone else to either. I started by eating just a bit less dinner, than a bit of a snack later. Perhaps this isn't best for everyone, but whatever your one small step is, will be great! 

In this case specifically, one thing that was very helpful for me was to understand that it takes time for the digestive system to start to work, and for the mind to process how much food I have eaten. It takes a few minutes, it doesn't happen as soon as the food hits my stomach.

What I did, is this: Eat a very small amount, around 1/3 of the portion I would take previously, then wait 5 minutes after I finished. If I was still hungry, I would take another 1/3 sized serving. If not, I would eat later. 

Every few hours I would have a small snack, usually a piece of fruit, then wait 5 minutes. Again, if I was still hungry, I would repeat this, otherwise wait.

I have been taught so many unhealthy things. What is important for me is to find out what is healthy for my own body. I realize that since I need to re-learn things like how to sit, stand, walk, sleep, and physically eat, then I likely need to re-learn habits like when to eat and when to sleep.

UPDATE: I've found that stress is the biggest factor that stands in the way of me making changes like this in my life. I think most people know that stress is bad, but I'm not sure how many people realize how toxic it is. Stress interferes with the way my mind works, and stops me from improving my life.

Metaphorically, I consider hope to be the oxygen of the mind, and stress the carbon monoxide. Like in the physical world, I cannot avoid 100% of carbon monoxide (stress), but it is of utmost priority to limit the amount I take in as much as possible, and understand the impact it has on me.

This is a reminder I have written for myself in my phone. It is marked at the highest priority, and gets reviewed 3 or 4 times per day:

Stress is extremely toxic and must only be tolerated in small doses, like carbon monoxide or cyanide.

This has been extremely helpful for me. I hope it is helpful for others as well! 

Jazzy <3

[Jazzy]

Adding an extremely important point I forgot in my exhaustion last night:

I've found that stress is the biggest factor that stands in the way of me making changes like this in my life. I think most people know that stress is bad, but I'm not sure how many people realize how toxic it is. Stress interferes with the way my mind works, and stops me from improving my life.

Metaphorically, I consider hope to be the oxygen of the mind, and stress the carbon monoxide. Like in the physical world, I cannot avoid 100% of carbon monoxide, but it is of utmost priority to limit the amount I take in as much as possible, and understand the impact it has on me.

This is a reminder I have written for myself in my phone. It is marked at the highest priority, and gets reviewed 3 or 4 times per day:

Stress is extremely toxic and must only be tolerated in small doses, like carbon monoxide or cyanide.

Jazzy <3

[Jazzy]

Further update:

Like all big changes, it is easier to break this down in to smaller, more manageable steps. One small step at a time, with lots of encouragement.

I certainly didn't start out eating 7-8 times per day, and I don't expect anyone else to either. I started by eating just a bit less dinner, than a bit of a snack later. Perhaps this isn't best for everyone, but whatever your one small step is, will be great! 

Jazzy <3