Many people research on how to stop compulsive eating, but they miss the point. Food isn’t quite the same as other physical things that we do like taking a shower or doing the laundry – you have a relationship with food. That relationship needs to be nurtured, needs to be formed consciously and with a great deal of thought.

You have a relationship with food already, the real question is whether it’s a positive one in your life or one that’s not so positive.

This post was so popular that I created a free 1 page report on Eliminating emotional right here. 1 page PDF format easy to read and easy to post as a reminder.

How to Stop Compulsive Eating Stories

Does this story sound familiar to you? I know it’s familiar to many ladies in my online private community.

Ashley has a sudden craving for chocolate, so she decides to eat just two blocks from a chocolate bar. Without even realizing it, Ashley has devoured the whole bar in just a few minutes.

Or how about this one?

Sam’s been working all morning, and decides to take a quick break to grab a handful of chips out of the bag in the office cabinet. By the time lunch comes around, She realizes that she’s eaten the whole bag without even thinking.

Those stories sound familiar to a lot of us. Compulsive eating just seems to happen. But you can learn on how to control your eating habits, and you can move on to reach you goals beyond it!

Developing your relationship with food

Compulsive eating is all about that relationship. If you have a positive relationship with food, you’re going to have a much easier time dealing with compulsive eating.

Your relationship with food started back when you were just a baby. We are born with a nurturing relationship with food. You don’t know how to express your need for food, so you cry to get it, and you are comforted with food. The same happens when you’re a child, you’re rewarded with birthday cake and cookies. As an adult, it’s steak and wine. Nurturing with food is a part of our lives in a deep way.

With all of that, it’s no wonder we struggle with compulsive eating!

Solutions for Compulsive Eating

This isn’t a quick fix. There’s no magic pill to make compulsive eating stop – it takes diligent work that carries through over a long period of time.

The key to stopping compulsive eating lies in learning to listen to your body messages. Numbing with food doesn’t solve anything – your body is just going to keep on talking louder to you.

Cravings send your body a message, which drives your emotions that are out of control. It’s all connected.

The solution for how to stop compulsive eating is to start paying attention to your feelings. It’s the only way to get past those compulsive drives. A great too available to you is my online seminar ” Mastering Your Food Cravings” which will provide you with a comprehensive system to start paying attention to your feelings.

If you want to read more on this topic you can read this blog post “5 sign of emotional eating” and also “Solution to your food cravings“.

Food is love, or so we tend to think. And not just on the surface, it’s a deep down kind of drive. It’s not surprising why most people have no idea on how to stop food cravings.

To be able to stop food cravings can only happen if we learn to understand the emotional connection between our desire for chocolate. The causes of cravings are almost all emotional – almost! There is a physical side as well, and getting to the bottom of both is the way to success over food cravings.  

How to Stop Food Cravings: Empower Yourself

Becoming empowered to stop food cravings starts with getting to the bottom of the physical side of the equation. The physical side of food cravings can be boiled down to these things 

• Gut & microbiome

  There is great research lately that shows the connection between a lack of diversity of microbiomes in the gut with food cravings. To combat this, it’s so important to reduce carb intake and to add probiotics into the diet.

• Blood sugar dysregulation

  Radical highs and lows in blood sugar can cause cravings. Getting your blood sugar to a more stable place though improvements in your diet will result in a dramatic reduction in food cravings.

• Nutrient deficiencies

  A lack of the vitamins and minerals that you need to be healthy are a major cause of cravings. Chocolate means you’re craving magnesium. Bread means you’re craving b vitamins. Diversify your diet and increase its nutrient density in order to combat cravings.

Let Go of Judgement 

If you’ve been beating yourself up in silence about your cravings and about your relationship with food, then you’re only going to continue to cycle back around into those negative behaviors. You MUST let go of your self judgement! 

Trashing yourself, feeling that you are worthless because you can’t lose whatever weight it is that you feel you should be able to lose, it’s just not going to help you to move forward. All of that guilt and self-loathing isn’t serving you at all – it’s holding you back. So let it go! 

Next step

We want our cravings to just magically disappear, but that’s just not how things work. I truly wish it were, but then wishing doesn’t change anything. But you can learn how to stop food cravings! Knowledge is power, and so much more powerful than willpower that why I created The Crave Cure Guide a digital book that will teach the basics of my program, click here to download for free.

Wanna learn more about food cravings and how to stop it permanently? Click here!

Overcoming food cravings is one of the hardest but the most important part of any healing journey. What many people don’t realize is that there is a difference between physical and emotional food cravings. Like the women in my free and private community, you have likely been told that cravings were a bad thing and you just need more discipline to fight them.

Step 1: Stop and Feel

Impose a 15-minute cooling-off period and ask yourself if this is a physical hunger signal or an emotional craving. If it is an emotional craving, you will need to be present with what is going on in your life. Physical hunger is different. Let’s dive in.

Physical vs. Emotional Hunger

The first step in overcoming food cravings is to first learn the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. The chart below should be of great help. I suggest that you print it and post it somewhere to refer to it quickly as you begin your journey to solve your food cravings. You must become really comfortable in distinguishing physical vs. emotional hunger.

Physical hunger progresses slowly and you can feel it in your stomach. You do not crave a specific food but rather food. When you eat because your body needs nourishment, you are more likely to be present and able to stop when you feel full.

Emotional hunger is the opposite of physical hunger. When emotional hunger strikes, it’s sudden and specific. You get focused on eating this “one” food and once you get to it you without being present rather thinking about what has happened or what is upsetting you. It is likely that emotional hunger will come after an emotional event.

Step 2: Remove the Temptation

This step is simple but effective! Remove yourself from the situation or location where food is located until you can wait out your 15-minute cooling off period. Find a quiet spot where you can be alone for 15 minutes.

Step 3: Breathe and Feel!

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Sit or lay down and close your eyes. Start breathing through your nose. Slowly breath in and out for about 3 seconds (3 seconds in and 3 seconds out). Scan your body. Feel your body. How does your body feel? What emotions are you feeling? Admitting to yourself what is happening is usually enough to relieve most cravings.

Step 4: Replace Fear with Love!

While you scan your body and observe your emotions, find relief in a positive and happy situation where you felt love, happiness, or joy. Attempt to feel that positive emotion deep in your heart and gut. Fill yourself up with that positive emotion. A negative and positive emotion cannot occupy the same place. You can also use affirmations such as “I forgive, I accept, and I trust myself.”

Tool for Overcoming Food Cravings

It is so important that we work to heal our appetites and not kill them so that we can stop food cravings permanently. The most effective method to reduce or eliminate your food cravings is to listen to your intuition or gut feeling, trust it, and then follow it!

To take the next step in your journey toward solving your food cravings you should download my Crave Cure Guide here.

Share your thoughts: Have you ever experienced emotional eating? What triggers food cravings for you?

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Have you ever eaten a big meal and still felt an urge for more food?

Have you ever consider emotional cravings maybe part of your life?

Have you ever kept eating when you know you’re not hungry?

Maybe you know or maybe you don’t, but there is this “hunger” that’s deep within. A hunger that you just can’t get rid of. Maybe the first thing that your soul does when it needs some filling…you crave food. These are classic telltale signs that you are emotionally eating.

I hear this story from many of my free and private community and the many people I talk with at events. Particularly women saying that they’re “emotional eaters” but they don’t know what to do about it. I know overcoming any obstacle requires our attention first. Then the knowledge behind why we do what we do (aka: A Knowing).

How can you tell the difference between emotional eating, or eating to satisfy a genuine physical hunger?

Emotional cravings- the 5 cardinal signs

1. You need to eat a very specific food

When something comes up in your life that causes uncertainty, fear, or lack of control, we often turn to food to help ground us and to feel comfortable. We turn to very specific foods on an individual basis that will bring comfort to us knowing we can be certain in one thing when all else seems out of our control.

2. You keep eating after you’ve eaten a meal

When we emotionally eat, we are often using food as a placeholder for something else in our lives. Whether we are lonely, disconnected spiritually, or searching for purpose in life, food can temporarily take the place of what’s missing. If you feel like you can never get full from a meal, you may be using food to fill up the areas in your life that need filling with something greater.

Update: This post was so popular that I created a free Quiz – Is it you or your diet? CLICK HERE

3. You eat fast

When we emotionally eat, we will often take our attention off the eating process and “numb out” during our meal. It’s uncomfortable for us to address certain stressors in our lives so the body turns to a very easy and comforting distraction…food. With turning to food for a distraction, the last thing the mind wants to do is pay attention to the very thing that is helping take our minds off that stress.

4. You eat immediately after an emotional event

If the first thing you want to do is eat after you’ve gone through an emotional event chance are you’re emotionally eating. Whether you’re celebrating a promotion, or grieving the loss of a loved one, the body will try to come back down to earth by turning to food. Food literally grounds us when we experience intense emotions.

5. You feel guilty about eating

After we emotionally eat, both the brain and the body are aware of what just happened, even if you don’t know what the trigger was. Feeling guilt or shame after you’ve eaten a meal is a red flag that you’re emotionally eating.

Please note that emotional eating is very common and is a collective issue. Seeking greater meaning in why you turn to food is the first step in channeling the energy that comes with emotional eating. Moving into other areas of life that may be lacking will be the next step.

The solution to emotional cravings

Do you want to take the next steps in your journey to eliminate emotional cravings?

Share your thoughts: Have you ever experience emotional eating? What are your cravings covering up?

https://youtu.be/RAIeL-qk-yE

Want to learn how to curb sugar cravings? You can start with these 5 foods that reduce food cravings! I recently had a livestream about these foods and have received so much positive feedback from my private and free online community. So I decided to publish the content of this livestream on my site so many more can benefit from the content.I hope you enjoy my visual presence while I talk directly to you on camera .

Below are the notes from the show.

NB: ***This content was first published in a lifestream format via the application Periscope. and was transferred to video on YouTube.***

—————————————————————————–

Here are the key 5 foods that will reduce food cravings:

What can we eat to reduce our cravings?

1 – Swap sugar or sweetener in your coffee for cream (heavy, if possible)
Fat will not release insulin in your body.
Insulin increases the production of serotonin which creates feeling of happiness.

2 – Swap your regular chocolate for 100% unsweetened dark chocolate
There is no sugar in unsweetened dark chocolate but you get the taste of chocolate.

3- Eat more veggies…
Nutritional deficiencies are a reason why you crave foods.
Veggies are the unsweetened vitamin and mineral carriers of nature
Eat 6 cups / day

4- Have some coconut butter instead of a sugary treat
Always keep a jar of coconut butter on hand

5-Keep FAT BOMBS in your fridge
Mix coconut oil, nut or seed butter or grass -fed butter and raw unsweetened cacao powder.
Fat will keep you full longer.

How to Curb Sugar Cravings: More Resources and Info

If this content is go an interest for you can also access a series of online seminars 

If you want to learn more about mastering your food cravings, download my free powerful guide, The Crave Cure.

Share you thoughts: What are your strategies to help with food cravings? Dis you know the reason why your cravings were present?

How do you know you’re an emotional eater?

Do you know and understand what emotional eating means?

Have you ever eaten a big meal and still felt an urge for more food?

Have you ever kept eating when you know you’re not hungry?

Maybe you know or maybe you don’t, but there is this “hunger” that’s deep within us – a hunger that you just can’t get rid of so you do the first thing that your body does when it needs some filling…you fill up with food. These are classic tell-tale signs that you are an emotional eater.

I hear many of my tribe members in my free and private community, and people I talk with say, “I’m an emotional eater,” but they don’t know what to do about it. I know overcoming any obstacle requires our attention first, and secondly the knowledge behind why we do what we do (aka knowing).

So how can you tell the difference between emotional eating, or eating to satisfy a genuine physical hunger?

Here are 5 signs that you might be emotionally eating:

You NEED to eat a very specific food

When something comes up in your life that causes uncertainty, fear, or lack of control, we often turn to food to help ground us and to feel comfortable. We turn to very specific foods on an individual basis that will bring us comfort (knowing we can be certain in one thing when all else seems out of our control).

You keep eating after you’ve eaten a meal

When we are emotional eating, we are often using food as a placeholder for something else in our lives. Whether we are lonely, disconnected spiritually, or searching for purpose in life, food can temporarily take the place of what’s missing. If you feel like you can never get full from a meal, you may be using food to fill up the areas in your life that need filling with something greater.

You eat fast

When we are emotional eating, we will often take our attention off the eating process and “numb out” during our meal. It’s uncomfortable for us to address certain stressors in our lives so the body turns to a very easy and comforting distraction…food. By turning to food for a distraction, the last thing the mind wants to do is pay attention to the very thing that is helping take our minds off of that stress.

You eat immediately after an emotional event

If the first thing you want to do is eat after you’ve gone through an emotional event, be it positive or negative, chances are you’re emotionally eating. Whether you’re celebrating a promotion, or grieving the loss of a loved one, the body will try to come back down to earth by turning to food. Food literally grounds us when we experience intense emotions.

Guilt after eating: A strong sign that you’re an emotional eater

After we emotionally eat, both the brain and the body are aware of what just happened, even if you don’t know what the trigger was. Feeling guilt or shame after you’ve eaten a meal is a red flag that you’re emotionally eating.

As I teach in Claim Your Food Freedom program emotional eating is very common and is a collective issue. Seeking greater meaning in why you turn to food is the first step in channeling the energy that comes from emotional eating into other areas of life that may be lacking.

In my 4 step process to eliminate food cravings report, I guide you through times of emotional eating and tips to help you overcome the moments when you feel insatiable.

Get you your guide to eliminate emotional eating and food cravings for free by clicking the button below.

Now over to you…what food do you crave when you have an emotional moment? What do you do to about it? I want to hear from you either right here in the comment section up to you, but let’s chat.

As part of my free and online community, you get trained in the 4 step process to eliminate emotional eating as a solution to food cravings. It’s an essential part of the Going Beyond The Food Method.

My education about food cravings comes from my own journey with obesity and my education in the psychology of nutrition. Up until a few years ago, I believed the same as you regarding food cravings – that it’s all about self-discipline and determination. I thought it was all about killing my appetite…does this sound familiar? Little did I know, food cravings had nothing to do with discipline but rather it was all about emotions.

Update: This post was so popular that I created a free quiz – Is it you or your diet? CLICK HERE

Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the process that the body goes through to maintain a comfortable and healthy balance in both the body and the mind. Simply said – our body is wired/programmed to be in a state of balance. An example of homeostasis is the body shivering at night when it’s too cold, makes you yawn at night when its time to go to sleep or makes you thirsty when you are dehydrated.

The same situation will occur when you lose your peace of mind. Your body directs you to take action to correct your state of mind otherwise you may experience depression. Your appetite delivers you a food cravinchocolateocolate. This means you need to correct your emotional state of mind of insecurity which needs to be balanced.

Physical versus emotional hunger

The first step in the solution to your food cravings is to first learn the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. The chart below should be of great help. I suggest that you print it and post it somewhere to quickly refer to it as you begin your journey to solve your food cravings.

You must become really comfortable in distinguishing physical versus emotional hunger. Here’s my quick way: physical hunger is in your stomach and you can feel it. Emotional eating is sudden, in your head and most of the time associated with guilt and shame.

Why do you crave chocolate instead of chips?

Scientific studies have demonstrated the link between a specific food want and the need for certain micronutrients. These micronutrients are used by the body to regulate our emotions, mood or physical conditions. Chocolate contains the chemical called phenylethylamine (PEA) which is the same chemical that our brain creates when we are feeling the emotion of romantic love.

PEA is so powerful in altering moods that it was a prescribed as a medication up until the 1980’s when it was declared illegal but now can be found on the street as drug name “Ecstasy”.

The craving for chocolate is an actual cry for love, intimacy and romance. Most people will say “It’s not true! I’m happy”. It’s difficult to admit that our love life is not fulfilling and with an admission comes a need to make a change. We all naturally resist change out of fear that our life may get worse. Instead of making changes, we repress our emotions and medicate ourselves with food.

Chips have always been my craving which I now understand represents my emotion of stress and anxiety. The hormone cortisol is produced when we feel the emotions of stress, anxiety or anger, it not only helps the body prepare for stressful situations but also affects the level of sodium in the body hence why I crave salty chips.

Solution to food cravings: The 4 step process

1. Impose a 15 minute cooling off period. Ask yourself if this is an actual real physical hunger signal or an emotional craving. In most cases, it will be an emotional craving so you will need to be present to what is going on in your life. If you still crave it after the 15 minutes cooling off period, go for it.
2. Get away from food. Simple but effective. If you are driving home from work and crave chips, do not stop at the corner store. Drink water as sometimes the need for water gets confused with hunger.
3. Breath and feel.Take time to breathe deeply during the cooling off period and feel what is going on in your life, gut and heart. Ask yourself what emotions are being triggered. Admit to yourself what is happening and that admittance is usually enough to relieve most cravings.
4. Replace the negative emotion (fear) with love. Remind yourself of a happy situation where you felt love, happiness or joy and attempt to feel the positive emotion in your gut. Fill yourself up with the positive emotion. A negative and positive emotion cannot occupy the same place. You can also use an affirmation such as “ I forgive, accept and trust myself”.

Update: This post was so popular that I created a free quiz – Is it you or your diet? CLICK HERE

Get started today!

To get started on this journey I would suggest you review the first in the Going Beyond The Food Method – Claim Your Food Freedom Program. This is our 21 days program that will guide you to understand the connection between your emotions and your cravings.

If you would like to read more about food cravings you can read my fascinating article 5 signs that you are emotionally eating.

Share your thoughts: Do you have a different perspective on your food cravings? Do you believe you can use the 4-step process in your life?