Welcome to my blog
“I Can’t Have Joy, But I Can Have Chocolate”
You are good enough for love, you can heal the reasons you don't have comfort, and you can find joy again. But it doesn't feel like that, when we're in this space.
You Can Learn to Listen to Your Body’s Signals
At first, learning to eat based on your body’s signals can feel like painting with a blindfold on. However, it is a type of sensitivity and a skill that you can learn.
Why Changing Eating Without Emotions is Pointless
Trying to change habits without examining them emotionally is pretty pointless because it won’t last. However, experimenting with changing the behaviors you’re drawn to and feeling about them emotionally can produce lasting change.
Our Eating “Habits” Are Emotionally-Driven
Do you feel like your food choices have just become a habit? Just a thing you do because, well, it’s familiar now? In this blog post I share what’s really going on with our eating habits.
“My Parents Did Their Best” Will Prevent Healing
Telling yourself that your parents did the best they could have will prevent you from healing compulsive eating. The true causes of our relationship with food originate in our childhood experience.
Overeating Isn’t Really About Food
Overeating isn’t really about your relationship with food, it’s about your relationship with emotions. Overeating is like the last domino in a domino chain. It's an effect and a symptom of a deeper underlying cause.
How to Break the Habit of the "Clean Plate Club"
Do you have the habit from your childhood around the “clean plate club”? Do you feel you have to finish everything on your plate? Do you get anxiety around waste or around the money you associate with food left uneaten? Here are 5 tips to break this habit.
Food Addiction and Emotions You’re Afraid Of
Your emotions that you’re afraid you won’t survive are the very ones that, if you feel them, will heal your overeating. It's the feelings where you think "I can't go there" or "I can't handle those ones" which are the very ones you most need to go into to heal.
The Manipulation of the “Clean Plate Club”
The "clean plate club" and the "children are starving elsewhere" tactics are ones many people grew up with, and they were very damaging. Some parents shame their children by saying that children who are starving to death would love to have this food.
Intuitive Eating and Your Breath
If you're a compulsive eater, you probably inhale your food. You likely don't breathe much. Changing the pattern of how we eat can really help us to heal overeating. When we slow down, breathe, chew, and are present with ourselves, it's a way to show love to ourselves.
Eliminating Foods from Self-Hate vs. Self-Love
Should you stop eating sugar? Should you reduce gluten Should you put parameters around your diet? Can you heal from binge eating if you have any parameters? What about your physical health, don't we need to limit certain things?
When I Looked Up “Hunger” in the Dictionary
When I was a teenager, I looked up the word "hunger" in a dictionary. I had realized that I wasn't sure I ever let myself get hungry, and I was hoping the dictionary might hold a description of what it felt like.
When We Distrust Our Bodies’ Hunger Signals
Often we grew up eating because it was technically mealtime according to the clock, or because our parents said so, or for any reason, really: it was a special occasion, there was a new item at the supermarket, you're at a party.
Do You Try to Eliminate “Temptations”?
When we are worried about overeating we often ask your partner or children to not bring certain foods into the house because we feel powerless when they're in front of us. But is this necessary?
Is Your Overeating Triggered by Junk Food Rather than Emotions?
Many people hear about the physically addictive nature of many junk foods, such as sugar or heavily salted and fried foods, and then wonder if their overeating can be fully explained by this.
Resist Judging Your Overeating
When you overeat, resist the temptation to spiral in shame, self-judgment and fear. Self-judgment only makes binge eating worse.
How to Know When to Eat and How Much to Eat
We need to get back to basics. When we eat and how much we eat should be determined by our physical sensations of hunger and fullness, rather than an external system.
Food Addiction Does Not Indicate a Weak Will
Food addiction does not indicate that you are weak-willed, pathetic, or shameful. Food addiction DOES indicate that you’ve been treated badly and are avoiding feeling emotions.
Compulsive Eating and Suppressing Feelings
Questions you can ask yourself when you want to eat compulsively: What am I feeling emotionally right now? Am I trying to get a feeling from this food/drink? Am I trying to suppress a feeling with this food/drink?
Interviews on Healing Emotional Eating
Recently I was invited to a couple of podcasts and interviews on healing emotional eating. You can listen or watch them via these links.