by Feeling Great | Aug 10, 2023 | Body, Mind
How to Overcome Emotional Eating – 4 Tips To Let It Go For Good
Emotional eating can begin in childhood when food becomes your parents’ favourite tools of distraction and reward, wielded in response to various emotions and behaviours that you exhibited. As a baby, they silenced your cries with a bottle. As a child, they rewarded your good behaviour with candy, snacks, ice cream and various sugary desserts. As an adult, you may find yourself eating certain junk foods just because it reminds you of some happy childhood memory. – Huffpost
- Do you eat more when you are feeling stressed?
- Do you eat when you are not hungry or feeling full?
- Do you eat to feel better? To soothe & calm yourself when sad, bored, etc?
- Do you reward yourself with food often?
- Do you feel powerless or out of control around food?
How to Overcome Emotional Eating – Difference Between Emotional Hunger and Physical Hunger
Physical Hunger
- comes on gradually
- can wait
- is open to options – lots of things sound good
- stops when you are full
- eating to satisfy this hunger doesn’t make you feel bad
Emotional Hunger
- comes on suddenly
- feels like it needs to be satisfied instantly
- craves specific comfort foods
- isn’t satisfied with a full stomach
- triggers feelings of guilt, powerlessness and shame
How to Overcome Emotional Eating – Causes of Emotional Eating
- Stress – cortisol (stress hormone) triggers cravings for salty, sweet and high-fat foods – giving you a burst of energy and pleasure.
- Silencing uncomfortable emotions – numbing yourself with food so you can avoid feelings you would rather not have – anger, resentment, anxious, sad, lonely, shame.
- Boredom or emptiness – Fills a void for a short period of time.
- Childhood habit – rewards, nostalgia these can carry over to adult life.
- Social – overeat just because it’s there.
What To Do?
1.How to Overcome Emotional Eating – Identify Your Triggers – Keep a food and mood diary to track these. Identify them then backtrack.
What you ate or wanted to eat? What happened to set this up? How did you feel before you ate? What you felt as you were eating? How did you feel afterwards?
2. Find Other Ways To Feed Your Feelings – beyond food to meet your emotional needs. The keys to success are moving (dance, bike, swim, walk…), changing your focus (outside of yourself with music, friend, helping others, etc) and engaging in gratitude (get optimistic) are some universal tools.
Ideas are – Exhausted –> take a hot bath or spa, allow self to have quick nap, lay in sun outdoors & listen to nature; Lonely or down –> ring a fun friend, go for a walk with a friend or your dog, watch a comedy movie, crank up fun music; Anxious –> dance to your favourite song, go for a walk, do 15 minutes of yoga, take it out with a friend.
3. Pause When Cravings Hit – Take 5 before you mindlessly part-take – go outside and skip for 5 minutes, dance like a maniac to your favourite song, drink 2 glasses water, 30 sit-ups. This will interrupt your mindless pattern so you can exert your option to choose.
Remember it is key to learn to accept your feelings even the bad ones and remember you have control over your emotions…..a choice in each and every moment. An emotion lasts for 45 seconds you can choose to let it pass or hold onto it for 1 hour, 1 day, 1 year, a lifetime.
Allow yourself to feel uncomfortable emotions they can be scary but in reality, when we don’t obsess or suppress them, even the most difficult feeling subside relatively quickly and lose their power to control our attention.
Instead, opt for being present in the moment – feel it, smell it, hear it, see it. In opening up to our emotions, our lives become richer as they help us discover our deepest desires, fears, frustrations and the things that make us fulfilled and happy.
4. Prevention With Healthy Habits – Being physically strong, relaxed, well rested enables you to better handle what life throws at you. Living in overwhelm and exhaustion will send you straight to the fridge or pantry.
• Daily exercise – reduces stress, enhances mood, boosts energy levels, increases fitness
• Daily relaxation – schedule in 30 mins each day to relax, decompress, unwind. Recharge your batteries, break from responsibilities
• Connect with other – social activities, close relationships are essential to protect you from the negative effects of stress.
• Get at least 8 hours sleep – lack of sleep is linked to consuming more food and reduced satiety signals, plus increased stress levels.
If you like it, share it.
If you would like further information or help to formulate a diet plan which will reduce the urge to Emotional Eating BOOK HERE
by Feeling Great | Jul 26, 2023 | Mind, Spirit
Holistic Life Coach Mornington – 10 Steps To Creating Life Balance
How to weigh up priorities to find peace and harmony.
1. BECOME AWARE
Draw a pie chart and section off the areas of your life: work, home, play, family, relaxation, meditation/exercise. Create a chart of how much time you’d like to give these areas. How unbalanced are these two versions?
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by Feeling Great | May 25, 2023 | Body, Mind
How to Stop Eating Junk Food and Lose Weight – 10 WAYS TO CURB CRAVINGS FOR BAD FOODS
Junk food is a term used to describe foods with little nutritional value. Foods that have a high sugar or salt content can also be described as junk food, as they may be harmful to health. Examples of junk foods include salty snacks, candy, many sugar laden desserts and fried fast food. These foods are low in vitamins, minerals and proteins. For this reason, the calories provided by them are often termed “empty calories”. – Livestrong
On Thursday I posted a colourful little diagram on Facebook on How to Control your Food cravings & thought……..
ohhhh a couple of people may be interested in this.

Well…..that is 5,778 people to be exact.
So I am guessing this is what you would like to hear more about.
Well here it is….
How to Stop Eating Junk Food and Lose Weight – 10 Ways to curb bad food cravings?
1. Get rid of the junk food out of your house
Cakes, doughnuts, soft drink, fried foods, lollies, white bread, pasta, chips, artificial sweeteners, white flour baked products.
2. Eat more fibre from fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and wholegrains (quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, millet)
Fibre keeps you fuller for longer & kills all your sugar cravings.
Munch on a carrot, nibble on an apple.
It also helps you lose weight faster by filling up your stomach quicker so making you eat less.

3. Make sure 30% of your diet is protein
This includes eggs, nuts, chicken, fish, seeds, tofu, legumes (chickpea, borlotti beans, lentils, etc), kangaroo, lamb, beef, tempeh.
Like fibre, protein keeps you satisfied for longer because ……
Protein helps regulate your blood sugar & it makes your body release appetite suppressing hormones (cholecystokinin, GLP-1).
4. Drink more water
When you get dehydrated you will get very hungry in an attempt to get more water to re-hydrate itself.
Drinking 1 large glass of water 15 minutes before meals will reduce or appetite or make you eat less. Give it a try!
5. You can drink a glass of vegetable juice before meals
Studies have shown that drinking vegetable juice before meals suppresses your appetite by making you eat 565 less kilojoules at each meal.
6. Get fibre, protein and water at every meal to …
Regulate your blood sugar because when your blood sugar is out of whack you’ll crave for more food.
So you will eat more and gain more weight.
For example, if you eat some almonds & veggies for fibre, and some tuna or chicken for protein and if you wash it down with water before or a little during the meal. You won’t have any food cravings for at least 3-5 hours.
The water helps the undigested fibre in your stomach expand to make you feel fuller for longer.
7. Don’t get stressed out – relax more.
When you get stressed out you usually overeat because your body releases cortisol that makes you hungry.
8. Use this phrase to stop cravings – “I DON’T EAT THAT!”
9. Eat after a workout
If working out increases your appetite then you can quickly and easily get rid of those cravings by eating within 1-2 hours of finishing your workout.
Look at tip #6 above for an idea of what to eat after your workout to keep you satisfied for longer.
10. Understand why you go on a binge & plan appropriately

I hope this helps to demystify the subject just a little.
Let me know if it proves to be useful.
Would love to hear your story.
Just send me an email or comment on my Facebook page.
by Feeling Great | Nov 28, 2016 | Body, Mind
5 Sneaky Relaxation Techniques For The Silly Season
Love it or loathe it, the frantic energy of month of December is almost upon us. A time of celebration, family, deadlines, busyness, a super long to do list and much more. Overall, mostly a cheerful time, however, your stress levels can step up a notch. For some getting amongst extended family is a tough time. Gremlins can raise their heads at a time when the nerves are already frayed. So, here are some sneaky reset strategies to incorporate into the day over the coming month or ideally long term. Read on for some Relaxation Techniques.
Why not commit to testing one or all of the Relaxation Techniques options below over the coming month to keep you sane, wise and chilled. Simple is often the best and repeat often.
Simple tips to reset:
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by Feeling Great | Jun 10, 2014 | Mind
Stressed out because you have too much to do? You’re not alone. A busy calendar is one of the biggest contributors to stress. When we have a lot on our plates, we end up hurrying through our day and multitasking, which will only exacerbate stress levels.
Time management is all about making the most effective use of your time and working smarter, not harder. It requires planning, and then sticking to the plan – and that takes discipline. – Career FAQ
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