Conquer Emotional Eating - Start With Spring Cleaning!

Emotional eating can sabotage any diet or cause people to pile the pounds back on when they've reached their target weight. Does that donut have your name written on it? Is that last chocolate in the box the one that tastes the best? (And you'd know that because you've eaten all the others). Are you driven to eat when you are happy or sad or bored or angry? Do you feel a need to eat because you "deserve it"; you've had a tough day?

If so, you may recognise that you are eating because of emotional hunger, not physical hunger. There are many steps you can take to conquer emotional eating and the one I recommend you start with is spring cleaning.

Clearing out your life is sometimes essential if you are going to focus on success.

You may know the phrase "clear the decks". If you have ever been on board a ship you'll know how important it is to keep the decks clear. If you trip over something you won't just have a sore toe and a bruised ego, you could also end up overboard! If you are walking around the deck trying to avoid obstacles you'll be looking at your feet, not at where you are going.

If you clear the decks in your life you'll be able to see where you are going there too.

So what is cluttering up your life?

Is your work environment a mess? Even for someone like me (I'm a piler, not a filer) mess eventually gets to me. It wastes energy tiptoeing through the junk, it wastes time looking for stuff and it's difficult to keep the air clean and healthy with an accumulation of fluff. Negotiating the obstacles will slow you down and, hey, you need to move quickly for the exercise! Decluttering also makes you mentally clearer. Perhaps the mess has been distracting you from your feelings about food. Those feelings need to be out in the open if you want to conquer emotional eating.

Is your kitchen a mess? Go on, sort out the cupboards and get rid of the junk. Dried herbs that predate this century, ready meals that you have "just in case" and munchies that you keep "for the kids". Who are you kidding? Clear it all out. Believe me, if you are saving it because you hate waste you can be assured that keeping a load of barely edible foods in your house is not going the help the starving and will only end up on your hips.

Is your head a mess? Yes, you knew I'd get there eventually. Why are you losing weight anyway? Is it for you or someone else? Why does it matter? Unless you really know what weight loss means to you (other than the obvious that you'll look less chubby) you won't want to do it.

Many of my clients want to lose weight for the noblest of motives. It often has something to do with health - they want to stay healthy so they can look after their children or their parents. One person they don't seem to want to look after is themselves!

So clear the decks in your head by asking the following questions:

Who? Who am I doing this for? Myself? My family? My boss? My cat?

Subsidiary question - are they worth it? If you secretly feel they're not, you won't feel motivated to make changes.

If you are doing it for yourself it is essential that you believe you are worth it and if you don't feel this, you'll have some emotional work to do.

What? What are you trying to achieve? A particular weight or dress size? If you don't know what you are aiming for you will only hit the target by accident.

Be clear about your weight loss goals and visualise yourself at your target weight with all the feelings of success that go with it. Then you'll be moving towards your goal.

How? How can you best make small, easy changes that you can consistently follow? My experience of working with clients has shown me that weight loss is most successful when they can make changes that will fit into their lifestyle and that they will maintain long term. If you consistently eat smaller helpings or say no to puddings or increase your daily exercise by five minutes each week you will see long term changes and a new you.

What change can you make today and every day that will take you a step further towards your goal?

Clear the clutter in your life and give yourself space to look at the essentials. You owe it to your slim and gorgeous self to reorganise your life so you can focus on the fantastic you!nn(c) 2008 Liz Copeland