It’s Halloween and the temptation to overeat or eat mindlessly is everywhere. Miniature Snicker bars and candy corn seem to be on every desk and counter, not to mention the stash you may have in your own cupboard…

Is the candy haunting you?

Whether they are treats that you love or ones that trigger childhood memories, odds are that it's easy to grab one or two or four without even thinking about whether you are hungry or whether it fits your goals.

We've entered the holiday treat season and NOW is a good time to ask yourself the following questions:

What’s your plan? How do you want to respond to all the treats you will encounter between now and January 1st?  “Don’t eat them” is not a plan. What strategies do you intend to use to avoid emotional eating, minimize temptation, stay in control of your choices and not feel deprived? Do you have the support and the tools that you need to be effective?

Where are your weak spots and how can you be proactive? Take a careful look at any patterns you see with overeating. Do you feel calm and on track until mid-afternoon or does the chocolate only call to you after dinner? What’s that about? If you’re REALLY feeling haunted and it feels impossible to resist (we’ve all been there), then this is about something more than hunger. What else is going on? Is this emotional eating—stress or comfort or even boredom eating—that you are experiencing? Respond to the situation or the emotion and the food will become less compelling.

What simple policies or structures can you put in place to limit your exposure and make life simpler? Of course you know to get rid of that leftover candy you don’t even like, but what next step could you take? What’s your plan for dealing with the treats?

Any tricks or brilliant strategies you’d care to share with the rest of us?

Take good care, 

Melissa McCreery

If you are like most busy women with too much on their plates, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to practice indulging—really indulging. Interestingly, most women who really need to indulge more will tell you that they believe they ought to be indulging less.

1.      Indulging is not about greed or sloth. Indulging isn’t about excess. It’s about allowing yourself something wonderful or special and allowing yourself to really experience and savor it–without guilt or shame. It’s not eating the whole box of cookies or bingeing on clothes at the mall. It’s about allowing yourself just the right amount of what you really crave and fully enjoying the experience. Indulging is not about gulping, it’s a melts-in-your-mouth experience.

2.      Indulging is not laziness Indulging is a way of feeding an important part of yourself and adding dimension to your life. Some women worry that if they start to indulge they’ll “lose control.” The truth is, when you really allow yourself to indulge, you tend to be more satisfied with less.

3.      Indulging does not have to be earned or “deserved.” Some women believe that they haven’t “worked hard enough” or “accomplished enough” to indulge. When you don’t allow yourself this kind of self-care, it’s easy to become caught in a cycle of working harder and harder and feeling more and more behind and burnt out. Again, indulging yourself is a way of refueling. It actually enhances your productivity.

4.      Indulging does not decrease your productivity or make you fat. I’ve already addressed this, but this is such a common myth, it’s important to restate. Allowing yourself truly indulgent experiences, ones where you are completely present and savoring the moment, satisfies you. Real indulgences don’t leave you hungry and craving more—they rejuvenate you and fuel you to be your best. What does leave you primed for a binge of food or laziness is the feeling that your special treat is forbidden or undeserved. The message that you are never going to be allowed to rest or feel like “enough” or eat chocolate again will almost certainly create a craving for the forbidden that can be almost impossible to resist.

Melissa McCreery

Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a day to share your feelings of love. For heaven’s sake, I hope you are being kind and loving to yourself as well.

If you struggle with emotional eating, overeating, or food in general, Valentine’s Day may seem like the ultimate challenge. Chocolate is EVERYWHERE.

What’s an emotional eater to do? Be present. Make choices. Be kind to yourself.

Savor.

The key is mindful eating and a mindful approach to food. Don’t panic and resist any urges to throw up your hands and go on an automatic-pilot-day-of-chocolate-feasting that will leave you feeling sick, tired, over-full, or nauseous. Auto-pilot overeating is a double whammy, because, not only are you out of touch with how much you eat, you also won’t even really taste or appreciate what is eaten. There’s a much better way. Take a step back from any treats you’ve discovered on your desk, your doorstep, or the break counter at work.

Breathe deeply. Speak kindly to yourself. And ask yourself a few questions.

Do you want chocolate?

Do you want chocolate right now, or would you and your body prefer to wait to indulge until you are: hungrier, less preoccupied and free to enjoy it, more relaxed, etc.? There is no right answer.

If you are going to eat a special treat, is the item before you: really a treat? The treat you desire? Life is too short for crappy candy.

Let’s assume the answer is yes—you’ve found a wonderful treat and you want to eat it.

How to eat chocolate without binging, feeling out of control, or not feeling satisfied:

Clear the way to savor.

You’re about to have a treat. Isn’t the purpose to enjoy it? Truly savoring requires space and your full attention. No multitasking (that means not gulping chocolates at your desk while you read your email or this blog post). Take your treat, and if possible, put it on a plate. If that doesn’t work, a napkin will do.

Sit down.

It’s not quite time to eat it yet.

Breathe deeply and make sure you are really present and ready to savor. Are there any voices in your head that are blaming, judging, or telling you this is silly and you really ought to just swallow this thing and get it over with? Show them the door. This is your treat. The goal is one hundred percent, full body enjoyment.

The key to savoring is to engage all your senses and take your time.

Before you eat, look at your treat. Smell it. Hold it in your hand. Take a small bite. Don’t eat your chocolate all at once. Roll it around and let it melt in your mouth. Really taste it. Chew it. Enjoy it. Decide before you take your next bite whether you want it—and whether you want it right now. There is no right answer. The key to getting it “right” is to simply ask the question.

Focus on satisfaction.

How long can you savor, enjoy, and experience your sweet treat? Satisfaction is not usually about eating more, it’s about being fully present for the amount you do eat.

Not surprisingly, women who practice mindful eating eat less, are more aware of what they have eaten, and enjoy their eating more.

Too often, treats like Valentine’s Day candy are inhaled, with a guilt chaser, and the sweet candy that looked so good is barely even tasted. You deserve better—much better.

Savor.

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day,

Melissa McCreery

Are you experiencing a lot of stress? Are you feeling like your life has too many to-do lists and “shoulds?” I have a relatively painless stress related eating tip for you:

It turns out that maybe you could/should throw in a touch of chocolate.

A clinical trial reported in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Proteome Research found that eating an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in people who reported feeling highly stressed.

Growing evidence has suggested that dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions, and may reduce cravings for sweet, salty or high fat foods. The present study appears to be the first to show reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in those highly stressed subjects who ate dark chocolate (1.4 ounces) daily, for two weeks.

Enjoy!

Melissa McCreery

Another great reason to eat dark chocolate!

We already know (thank God!) that dark chocolate has health benefits, but it looks like the news might be even better. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen are reporting that dark chocolate is more filling than milk chocolate and may reduce cravings.

Male participants were required to fast for 12 hours and then were given 100g of either dark or milk chocolate to eat. Over the next five hours, they were asked to report their hunger levels and their cravings for certain foods. After eating dark chocolate, participants reported lower cravings for sweet, salty, or high fat food. Two and a half hours after eating the chocolate, participants were given pizza and instructed to eat until they were comfortably full. When subjects had eaten dark chocolate before hand, they ate 15% less pizza then when they had eaten milk chocolate before being offered the pizza.

No one is recommending dark chocolate as the latest weight loss tool, but isn’t it great to know it does good things?

Take good care,

Melissa

Read it yourself: University of Copenhagen (2008, December 23). Dark Chocolate Is More Filling Than Milk Chocolate And Lessens Cravings. ScienceDaily.

melissa

Do you turn to food when you feel stressed or overwhelmed? Does a bad day at work send you off track with your eating or exercise plan? Does an out-of-control to-do list leave you craving chocolate?

There are ways to avoid the stress eating/emotional eating trap. Here are three straightforward strategies you can try.

1. Know that you ARE a stress eater

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s an important tip. If you are someone who turns to stress in response to food, it’s an important fact to respect about yourself—because it allows you to understand what might be going on and once you understand and take it seriously, you can intervene. If you know that stress leaves you fantasizing about a trip to the office vending machine, then the next time that urge hits, you have the opportunity to work backwards. Instead of heading off, quarters in hand, on auto pilot, you can stop and examine what might be going on that is leaving you feeling–not really hungry–but stressed. As you get practice at asking yourself this question, you might even find that you start to refine the word “stress” even further. Over time, you might find yourself asking really specific questions like, “What feels out of control right now?” “Why am I feeling overwhelmed?” or “Is anything going on that would contribute to my feeling anxious?”

2. Put some other tools in your toolbox

The benefit of step one is that it allows you to ask different questions. Instead of asking yourself, “How can I stop eating these cookies?” you are able to target the real trigger for your hunger and ask yourself about what you really need to address the stress. For this, you are going to need a different set of tools. Emotional eaters use food as a strategy to cope with emotions. While this might work as a temporary band aid, eating never solves the real problem. Focusing on what and how much to eat doesn’t address the stress you are feeling at all.

As you get clearer on what the situations are that lead you to stress eating, you can begin to ask yourself what you can do instead of turning to food. Know that at times of overwhelm, our ability to problem solve is not at its best. Make a list in advance of as many strategies you can think of to help you with stress or overwhelm. Keep it handy. It’s one thing to know that you want to eat in response to stress. It’s another to have some ideas about what to do INSTEAD.

3. Be prepared

Too many of us take the ostrich approach to stress and overwhelm. Sticking our head in the sand, or “not thinking about it” never keeps the stress from happening. Practice identifying the potentially stressful situations before they hit. Make a note of upcoming events or times that have the potential to be difficult and spend some time on the front end strategizing about how to handle them. If you are truly facing a situation that is out of your control, identify some strategies (in advance) that you can use to comfort yourself, distract yourself, or to cope with the difficulty.

Take good care,

Melissa

PS: January Emotional Eating Toolbox(TM) Group Programs have just been posted here. You can pick up free tips and strategies for taking control of emotional eating and stress eating here.

melissa

Taking control of our relationship with food means understanding what drives us to eat, but sometimes it also means understanding more about what we are actually eating. I picked up two books this week and my two sons (who have no interest in learning about nutrition) have continued to browse through them and challenge each other with nutritional facts and information.

The books are Eat This Not That! and Eat This Not That For Kids! by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding.

These are great books for visual learners and browsers, but they also contain a fair amount of information. Opposing pages have pictures of “Eat this” and then “Not that,” with lots of brief explanations and quick facts. The book covers national restaurant chains such as Outback Steakhouse and Panera as well as fast food options and tells you what you need to know about what you are ordering. Turns out not all the healthy choices are as clear as I thought.

The adult version covers restaurants, menu decoding, the healthier option at the ball park, the mall, which holiday foods are best for you (even which chocolates the author’s recommend you eat on Valentine’s Day), grocery shopping choices, and beverages (among other topics).

The kid’s version includes sections on negotiating the school cafeteria and making healthy choices at home (including a quick lesson on reading labels).

These aren’t diet books and they certainly aren’t the final word on nutrition, but they both have a useful place. Too often, people really struggle to make healthier choices with their eating, unknowingly choosing something that isn’t as good for them as they thought it was. These books address eating choices in what are real situations for many Americans. It’s been almost a week and my spouse and kids are still checking nutrition labels, comparing, and making new choices. I’ve learned some things too–and it’s all been pretty painless

Take good care,

Melissa

melissa

The “M&Ms question” is one of the most common questions I hear. I believe it has been asked in every emotional eating group I have ever led.

“I’m not even hungry and I don’t want to eat them–but they call to me. And then I’m eating them. I can’t stop. What do I do about the blasted M&Ms?”

Here are three things you can do to avoid the M&M emotional eating trap. The bonus of these alternatives is that they all build skills that can help you take charge of emotional eating in the future.

1. Identify it and label it
Don’t allow yourself to be on auto-pilot. Don’t allow any part of yourself to deny what you know until “afterwards”. If you do, the M&Ms will win and you’ll end up feeling guilty and disappointed in yourself. Say it out loud, in a nonjudgmental way. “I’m not physically hungry and I’m dying for those M&Ms. I am experiencing something that is triggering me to think about eating even though I don’t need fuel right now.” Don’t skip this step. If you are sitting in your cubicle at work and you are embarrassed to say it out loud, pull out a pad of paper and write it down. While you are at it . . .

2. Explore it
Without judgment, try to be a detective and see if you can identify what this “M&M attack” is really about. Pull out a journal or type on your computer for a few minutes. If you can, you might want to go for a short walk while you think. Why is the candy suddenly so important? What was happening before you were thinking of it? What would you be thinking of if you weren’t thinking about the chocolate? What makes this hour different from one when the candy wasn’t calling quite so loudly or at all? If you figure anything out, be direct with yourself and say that out loud too. “I’m not hungry but I’m focusing on eating candy. I just realized it’s because I’m really stressed out about this report I need to get done and I’m worried about how people will respond when I turn in the report.” If you hit pay dirt here, you’ll now find you have a different problem. The problem isn’t really about M&Ms, it’s figuring out how to take care of yourself and the feelings or issues you identified.

3. Start a List
Take the information you gathered in step two and start a list NOW of everything you can think of that you could do to take care of that feeling in addition to eating M&Ms. Put it in your wallet or by your bed where you can add ideas as you think of them. Don’t censor your ideas for being unrealistic or impossible. Write down every possible thing (big or small) you can think of to do in response to worry or anxiety or tiredness or boredom (or whatever you have identified). Make a commitment to try two of those things, this week when the candy craving hits. Carry the list with you. Keep adding and experimenting.

Recovery from emotional eating is a process. It takes time, and it takes the right tools. If you allow yourself to stop, identify that emotional eating is happening, and explore the situation and your needs, you will find your way out of the M&M trap.

Take good care,

Melissa

melissa