Weight loss coach Coach Emmie explains the relationship between binge eating and diets

Do you want to release weight but emotional eating sabotages your healthy intentions?Are you scared to feel and therefore eat to feel better instead?

Do you find yourself thinking: 

“I don’t know how I’d get through the week if I didn’t have treats to make me feel better?”

Today, I am giving you another stepping stone that will guide you on the path to breaking free. These are the very concepts that have worked for me as well as hundreds of my clients. I know that you want to lose weight. I know that you want to end emotional eating. And I know that the drive to use food is strong and many times just seems to overpower your weight-loss intentions.

Sometimes just thinking about the food not being there as you contemplate a weight-loss plan can trigger you into a panic… “I want to lose weight, but I don’t want to give up comfort foods!”

Then all of a sudden you may have a strong overtaking or hankering for your favorite binge foods. If just the thought of not having food to cope sends you into a downward spiral, I want you to know that you are not alone. YES you too, CAN have the transformation you want!

Let’s look at some questions to understand why you are holding onto comfort foods:

  • Are you overly stressed and not taking time for you?
  • Are you over-committing and saying yes to things you really want to say no to?
  • Do you find yourself feeling deprived?
  • What are you starving for in your life?

If these questions hit a chord in you, you are at the right place to discovering the problem.

You are you operating from an empty bucket.

Imagine your life is a bucket. When the bucket is full, your life is full of friendship, health, connection, happiness and life balance. When your bucket is empty, your life is stressful, chaotic and unfulfilling. When operating from an empty bucket emotional eating is a way you may use to try to fill up that bucket of emotional needs. But it just leaves you feeling empty and shameful about the seemingly uncontrollable behavior, so much so that you may even hide your emotional eating from others.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Feelings come up you don’t want to address, so you stuff them down with your comfort foods and the feeling is numbed out. But only temporarily. The feelings come back up and again you stuff them down, once again you feel tranquilized or numbed out for a short time. This happens over and over again while your weight goes up and up. You may know that the truth is there is not enough food in the world to fill the void that you are feeling… the way out of these feelings you are trying to avoid is through. Feeling is healing.

Start by NOT setting an expectation of yourself to deal with all the emotions that come up right now if you are not ready. You don’t have to do it ALL right now, just some. The great news is there is a way for you to overeat less, AND yes, release weight through the process of feeling to heal!

In order to use less food we start with increasing the strength of your ability to cope without food by building up your own self-care.

Permission to BINGE!

Going on a diet requires that you first take away. Take away all the bad foods, take away the comfort that you get from emotional eating, take away the pleasure of disassociating from the emotions you don’ t want to feel.

The problem with this is that you are already operating from an empty bucket! Going on a diet for an emotional eater is like punching a hole in your life-fulfillment bucket. Now you not only have an empty bucket, you have an empty bucket with a hole that no matter how much you fill it, (emotional eating) it will always remain empty… until you fix the hole.

When you go on a weight-loss plan without ADDING in enjoyment first, you are punching holes in your bucket and the drive to use food will return with a vengeance! This is called the “Diet Binge Backlash” that you may be very familiar with.

This is why in my coaching I stress the importance of ADDING in first, not taking away. We need to mend the hole by adding in more joy, fun and excitement in your life so that you can let go of the need to use food. And the great thing is that IT WORKS!

So, today I invite you to ADD in Self-Care.

100 Acts of Self-Care in 20 days!

What are you thinking…?

  • “What!?! No, I will do nice things for myself when I lose some weight.”
  • “If I take time for me it will take away from others and they will get upset.”
  • “I don’t deserve to get my nails done until I lose some weight.”
  • “Holy cow that is another thing to do with everything I already have going on in my life. I can’t do that.”
  • “Being critical of myself is the only thing that is keeping me from NOT going even more hog wild!”

You are not alone, so many of my clients share the same concerns. ADDING in self-care may scare you. It may feel awkward or you may feel undeserving until you ‘ do better’ or lose some weight. I understand your fear and hesitation in this. It’s ok to take care of you now. You are wonderful just as you are! At the same time you are not going to stay here, stuck in emotional eating. You deserve a better life!

Letting go of self-hatred will not lead you into an unstoppable binge, it will actually provide you the relief that you need to start letting go of the drive to emotionally eat to meet your needs that you are starving for.

Denying yourself the kindness of self-care is withholding love and acceptance for yourself, which creates that empty bucket, the hole in the empty bucket and leads to emotional eating. Letting go of self-hatred will not lead you into an unstoppable binge, instead it will actually provide you the relief that you need to start letting go of the drive to emotionally eat because your needs are fulfilled.

You are worthy to do something as simple as putting on lipstick because it makes you feel pretty today. Just as you are today, you are worthy of self-acceptance and love.

Put yourself back on the priority list!

Indulge yourself in your own unconditional love. Let go of the expectation to feel it all right now and trust that by being full of self-acceptance and self-love that your bucket will be mended so that you can start filling it up! Doing soul nurturing activities starts the path to being able to use less food and release the weight for good.

Are you committed to your Self-Care Binge?

What are your 5 Acts of Self-Care that you will do over the next 20 days?

Here are some ideas to help get you started:

  • Put on lipstick
  • Buy new underwear! (When was the last time you bought new underwear?)
  • Guilt-free relaxing in silence
  • Get a massage
  • Sleep in
  • Slow down and enjoy a nice cup of tea
  • Buy a new beautiful pen to write with
  • Buy some new fluffy slippers
  • Have a long talk with a good friend
  • Listen to your favorite song
  • Enjoy a new pair of socks. (I love the softness of new socks!)

Here is your Anchor Statement:

“JUST for TODAY I am deciding to be kind to myself and appreciate this body I have. I am grateful that I have another day to live, to love those in my life–including myself! Just for today I am deciding to start with doing five acts of self-care each day so that I mend and fill up my bucket with a rich soul nurturing feeling. I know that when I take care of me, I FEEL loved and positive and then I want to make healthier choices which creates my weight-loss transformation!”

Wishing you a Blissfully Healthy day today!

With Love Always,
Emmie

Motivational Speaker, Blogger & Certified Women’s Weight Loss Coach
Blissfully Healthy Women’s Weight-Loss Center

Are you thinking about if weight loss coaching is right for you?

Feel free to ask me questions, share your struggles and come up with solutions together.  Schedule a FREE Discovery Session. 

Together we can discover if coaching is the right fit for you to achieve a Blissfully Healthy Life. With personalized coaching from a women’s-only coach and community–who understands the same challenges you do–you can be free! Release the extra weight and the emotional eating. Finally find something that you can stick with and achieve real results!  You don’t have to do this alone.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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