Hypnosis for Emotional Eating

Emotional Eating

In my previous experience as a weight loss practitioner, emotional eating is quite often the ONE thing that holds people back from achieving their health and weight loss goals.

The term "emotional eating" may conjure up images of crying alone in your pyjamas while eating a half melted tub of chocolate chip ice cream but it is actually much more in-depth than that!

Emotional eating can present itself in many different ways, for example, feeling stressed at work may lead you to grab one too many biscuits at morning tea, feeling anxious, tired or frustrated may lead to a little late afternoon binge and feeling bored, lonely or depressed may lead to sweet cravings at night.

Emotions and stress also affects our ability to make long term dietary and lifestyle changes, quite often we feel too tired, overwhelmed and worn out to make any positive changes at all.

This is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about, we have all had the best intentions to start our diet on Monday and found by Monday afternoon it's all too hard!!

If only it wasn't so and so's birthday this weekend, if only I had more time to make a healthy breakfast, if only I wasn't so tired and stressed to think about what I'm going to eat... right?

So how do we build resilience and overcome the emotional hurdles which hold us back from achieving our goals?

Mindfulness!

Mindfulness is a fantastic practice that will allow you to understand yourself and your triggers better – once we understand what causes the emotional eating we are able to stop it.

Sounds simple huh?

Quite often, once the triggers are revealed, I can guide you towards a simple intervention which can be put in place and the issue can be healed.

If this fails and nothing seems to work it can be because the triggers have much deeper roots and require further attention – this is where hypnosis can help!

For most people, stress is a feeling experienced on a daily basis. Once upon a time, the only events that triggered our stress response was when we were getting chased by a bear and were running for our lives!!!
Now, something as simple as getting cut off in traffic or having a unexpected work deadline can trigger us to feel the same intense stress.

How can this be?

Well, when we are exposed to prolonged periods of stress or when we experience a traumatic event, for example, a death in the family, major surgery or a relationship ending our stress threshold drops.

For most healthy, emotionally balanced people, the stress threshold sits at around 8 – meaning only severely stressful events (like those mentioned above) trigger a stress response – for chronically stressed people, or for someone who has undergone a traumatic life event the threshold drops down to about a 2 or 3 meaning even mildly stressful situations can cause the same stress response that is felt when highly stressful events occur. See the image below.

This response can lead to “adrenal burnout” a topic that will be covered in another blog but it is also the main driver behind emotional eating.

Every time an event causes us to breach our threshold we look for a way to self soothe.

For some people it might result in an emotional outburst, for others they may smoke a cigarette or indulge in drugs or alcohol, but for most, the easiest and most socially acceptable way to silently self soothe is to reach for food.

One of the reasons why foods like chocolate and sweet carbohydrates are the preferred choice during times of stress is because the body knows that these foods actually trigger a small release of serotonin when consumed. Serotonin can provide us with relief from anxiety, sadness and stress and the body knows that eating these foods will help us to feel momentarily good again.

In order to eliminate these cravings for good, we must heal the underlying drivers.

This is where hypnotherapy can help!

Hypnosis can help to bring that stress threshold back into balance. It clears the negative accumulation of stressful or traumatic events that have been experienced over time and allows us to lay a clean foundation for positive suggestions to be embedded upon.

During a session you can have the opportunity to “rehearse” certain situations to assist you in acting it out successfully in real life. You can also work on eliminating self-limiting beliefs or any other thoughts, feelings or emotions that may be holding you back for achieving your goals.

Ultimately, hypnosis is a highly effective tool that can empower you to take back control of your life! You will feel positive and confident again, like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you will be equipped with the knowledge to ensure this positive change is for life.

For more information about how hypnosis can help you to reduce stress and achieve freedom from emotional eating, contact me any time using the form below and we can schedule a FREE phone consultation today.