So you’ve had a pretty good day. You have been very careful to eat whole foods and to stay on your eating plan. You are very proud of yourself. But it wasn’t so easy when you got home.
Your husband is short with you. He makes a comment about what you prepared for dinner. No mashed potatoes? No fried chicken? What, oven baked chicken again? You respond that you are trying to stay on plan and would appreciate it if he would support you in your efforts to lose weight.
Things go downhill from there. Icy silence watching TV. While he eats some cookies for dessert. In front of you.
What do you do? Miserable, you head back to where you have your secret stash of chocolate candy. And gobble 3-4 pieces. Then the guilt and shame set in.
Does this sound familiar? You stay on plan and then something upsetting happens and you reach for your comfort food. Or you just want to eat your sweet after dinner like him.
I would like to offer something to think about. Since what I teach is that every action you take comes from a thought and a feeling, the fact that you reached for the candy came from an emotion or feeling. Anger, sadness, frustration, what ever you are feeling in that moment. And just recognizing that can go a long way to move you forward on your weight loss journey.
Here is an example from my own life. I am not immune from emotional eating just because I am a weight loss coach. The other night the grandchildren were over and we were celebrating their completing the 4th grade. I always make gluten free chocolate chip cookies with my granddaughter and I usually make that my joy eat for the week. But, I had already had my joy for the week. I was feeling both excited for them (a feeling) and sorry for myself (an emotion), because I would be off plan if I ate some. What did I do? I ate some and the thought that I had was a little wouldn’t really matter and I should be able to celebrate, too.
The next day I was up in my weight, plus feeling guilty about not honoring my commitment to myself.
So I wrote down all the thoughts and feelings I was having in the moment the night before, recognizing that my feeling led to my going off plan.
So next time you go off plan, take a good look at what feelings you were having that led to up to it. Recognize that it’s fine for us to have a range of feelings. Just being aware of what feelings and emotions lead to sabotaging your weight loss plan, can help you the next time the difficult situation happens. Stop. Write down your feelings and thoughts. That’s the first step to not overeating in an emotional moment.
What’s the alternative? What do you do instead of emotional eating? I will share that next week…
Need help with losing weight and handling these kinds of difficult moments? Shoot me an email at jane@janespringer.com and we will have a strategy call to see how I can move you on down the road to a slimmer, happier you. You can do this!
Jane Springer is a certified Life, Wellness and Style Coach who assists women in taking care of themselves, in body, mind and spirit. She coaches women who want to lose weight, avoid diabetes, and feel great. She also helps them thrive after divorce. She also helps them to clear their closets of old clothes and outdated attitudes, so they can shine and feel confident.