Overeating and Awareness

Overeating can be a real struggle that many people face, as we turn to food as a source of comfort during stressful times.  But what if there were a way to manage these emotional triggers without our dependence on food?  It is possible to get to a place of having much more awareness and have a healthier relationship with food.  At Support to Stop Overeating (STSO) in Brisbane, we believe in the power of developing your awareness as a practical tool to meet your emotional overeating in friendship.

Understanding Presence

By developing a deep sense of awareness and some Intuitive Eating skills, we can be more present during our meals.  This approach involves paying close attention to the taste, texture, and aroma of food, as well as recognizing our hunger and fullness signals.  By cultivating awareness around the act of eating, we can learn to better understand our relationship with food, identifying any emotional triggers and we won’t need to do so much overeating.

Why Intuitive Eating Works

Developing some more presence with our eating can be instrumental in changing our behaviours around overeating. Challenging feelings often lead us to seek comfort in food.  By developing a greater sense of presence and throwing in some really effective grounding routines, we can learn to feel confident as we name our feelings and needs as they arise.

This practise allows us to externalise our feelings and needs directly without turning to food for that old trip down Comfort Lane.  It may be comfy when we numb our feelings with food, but there really is little awareness of what we’re doing.  And where there is a lack of awareness, there is not much chance that we can change our own behaviour.

Steps to Creating More Awareness

• Set the Stage: Create a calm dining environment free from distractions.  Turn off devices and focus solely on the food in front of you.  You’ll even be helping your digestive system be ready to receive nutritious food by doing this.
• Engage your Senses: Before taking your first bite, notice your food’s sight, smell, and texture.  Consider each bite an experience that can be savoured.
• Recognise Your Hunger Signals: Learn to distinguish between your physical hunger and your emotional hunger. Emotional hunger can come on instantly, even if we had just eaten a huge and filling meal, where as physical hunger comes on slowly and we’re able to gradually plan ahead to thinking about the kind of ‘healthy’ food we might like to eat.
• Chew Thoroughly: Take your time with each delectable bite, chewing slowly (but not labouring over it) and focusing on all the flavours and textures of your meal.  That thing your grandmother said was true: It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that you are adequately satisfied, that’s why we need to take our time.
• Reflect on your Feelings: After any incident of overeating, it’s a great idea to keep a Feelings Diary (not a food diary) and write down anything you were aware of that you were feeling before you ate more than you wanted to.  If you’re aware of it, you can also add in anything you noticed that you needed (but didn’t have at the time).

Building a Support System

At STSO, we recognize how important it is that you feel supported as you move through your overeating journey.  You can learn from our podcast topics, and explore other resources available on our website.  Be assured that it is absolutely possible to grow a greater sense of self-awareness, self-reliance, trust in yourself, and compassion for your inner child.

Conclusion

Eating with more awareness and presence can transform the way you relate to food, and help you reclaim control over eating habits driven by emotions.  By practicing Mind-Full Eating, you develop tools for managing emotional overeating in a nurturing and compassionate way.  Join us at STSO as we head towards healing and resilience, one delicious bite at a time.