I asked about the biggest eating problem you wish you could solve, and based on your responses, it’s clear that most are caused by a combination of restrictive eating (aka dieting) and eating for emotional and other reasons. (Read more about that here.) So, the obvious question is, what do you do about it? In this post, I’ll cover the three essential phases for solving these eating problems, so you’ll finally have food freedom.
1. Relearn to listen to your body wisdom
A common theme among people who struggle with food is a disconnect between the desire to eat and their body’s needs. In other words, you often eat (or continue to eat) when your body doesn’t need food.
That’s why the first phase of resolving your eating problems is learning to recognize, listen to, and trust your body’s signals of hunger and fullness. It sounds simple, but it’s admittedly not easy if you’ve forgotten how!
The good news is that you were born with this instinctive ability and it can be relearned! And the best news is that when you do, you’ll:
- be able to tell the difference between physical hunger and “head hunger.”
- respond when you feel like eating due to boredom, stress, and other triggers.
- stop thinking about food all the time.
- “undo” invisible outdated messages, like “clean your plate” that sabotage you.
- stop eating when you’ve had enough (even when it’s delicious!).
2. Eat what you love without guilt or loss of control
If you’re like many people I work with, you may not realize how past dieting has fed into your eating problems. (Yes, pun intended.) In fact, you might even be afraid to let go of diet rules because you’re afraid you’ll lose control.
But don’t you lose control anyway?
That’s the irony… the harder you try to control your eating (calories, carbs, portion sizes, and so on), the more difficult it becomes to eat in a way that is satisfying and effortless over the long run. Sure you can do it for a while (hours, weeks, sometimes years), but eventually stress, hunger, food noise, deprivation, and cravings win out.
By learning how to eat “fearlessly” without restriction or guilt, you’ll finally:
- break-up with toxic diet culture and take the power back from food.
- feel more in charge of your eating decisions.
- stop thinking of foods as “good” or “bad” (or yourself as good or bad depending on what you ate).
- stop the food noise.
- eat in a more balanced, consistent way.
- consider nutrition information without feeling overwhelmed.
3. Master Your Triggers for Emotional Eating
The third essential phase of food freedom is to identify and manage your eating triggers, like stress, boredom, celebrations, and many more.
This is the most challenging phase for most people – but it’s also the most freeing. This is because when you learn to care for yourself better than food can, you free up your energy to live your life more fully. (And then, food just becomes a great way to add more pleasure to your life.)
During this phase, you’ll:
- identify, name, and manage stress and other emotions.
- calm and comfort yourself when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed.
- banish shame and stop eating secretly.
- make connections between your triggers, beliefs, and habits that create your results.
- write a “script” for determining your true needs.
- deconstruct an Overeating Cycle to figure out what happened – and what you’ll do differently next time.
- cultivate curiosity and self-compassion for lasting change.
What’s your next step?
Join me, Dr. Michelle May, for the Eat Mindfully Live Vibrantly Program! Learn more here.
