Tips to Prevent Impulse Eating

September 21, 2012 By 1 Comment

Impulse eating is described as eating in reaction to an emotion or a situation. It happens quickly, sometimes feeling almost violent and is often very mindless. Impulse eating can be in any amount and happen at any time. You may end up in a full blown binge, or just realize you finished an entire box of crackers without noticing.

You might be an impulsive eater if you’ve ever experienced something similar to one of these situations:

  • You’re on the phone with someone who is upsetting you or stressing you out and before you know it you’re head first in the refrigerator looking for something to eat.
  • You just received a stressful email and immediately head to the break room or office candy bowl to get something to eat.
  • You’ve responded to bad news by turning in to a fast food drive through or 7-11 (or yet again head for the fridge).
  • You’re disappointed by someone or some thing and without thinking grab the nearest food item you can find.

These situations may be described as or even sound like hunger to your brain if you don’t take a few moments to pause and figure out what’s going on. Here are some tips I use for how to decrease the frequency or the volume of impulse eating:

  • Recognize your most vulnerable times: do you impulse eat when you’re tired? At work? Perhaps it happens when you encounter a certain person or environment.
  • Set yourself up for success in advance by taking a minute to think about how you want to react in your most vulnerable times. When you’re feeling neutral, think about how you plan to respond when work gets stressful or the next time you’re upset by someone in a way that doesn’t require you to use food to cope.
  • If you’re trying to change your relationship with food or trying to decrease your impulse eating, consider joining the Intuitive Eating Online Community for support and more information. It’s free to join and is “a safe and nurturing place, free from “diet talk”, “fat talk” and body-bashing.

To get started with personalized counseling contact me today. I can work with you in-person in the LA area or via Skype. Don’t wait or try another diet hoping it will be your magic answer. Real change requires tools, support and practice.

Filed Under: Body Image, Eating Disorders, Featured, Obesity

Can You Hear Your Happiness GPS?

June 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Happiness GPS and Weight LossThe other day during a carpool, I was having a conversation with a colleague about why so many people in America are struggling with finding a healthy weight. If you watched  the recent documentary”Weight of the Nation” you saw that the rise in obesity over the last 30 years was a sharp climb, rather than a gradual one. It’s still climbing.  It is my profession, to talk to people about this very personally, and about where their struggles are rooted. I see often, not only in my practice, but in the “real world” with friends, family, acquaintances and even strangers, that our country’s people (or at least the parts of it I’m exposed to) are rather unhappy. I believe it would be an interesting observation to study the relationship between feelings of general unhappiness in life, and weight.  Now, I certainly am not saying that weight determines happiness, for I believe you can be happy at any weight. What I am suggesting, is that unhappiness can be detrimental to health in many ways, including the risk factor of obesity.

My hypothesis: If a generally unhappy person can find and learn ways to feel generally happy, they will have improved likelihood to live at a weight that is healthful for their unique self.  Can you test this hypothesis on yourself? I say “Go for it”!

So – what creates happiness? How does a person find happiness?  Try to start by listening to your Happiness GPS. (If you don’t have time to, or don’t want to read the entire article… at least read the beginning and the end.) I think it’s worth a 5 minute read. Learning to find your happiness is worth all the time in the world. This is not a race, but you’ve got to start somewhere, now, don’t you?

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Filed Under: Eating Disorders, Featured, Obesity Tagged With: ,

Damage and the Stigma of Being Fat

May 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I came across this refreshing article on Twitter today which was posted by a fellow Tweeter @VoiceInRecovery.  Every time I read credible information, evincing how you don’t have to be thin to be healthy, I am reassured that my professional work to help people learn about Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size, and respecting your body is the right approach. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Obesity