Hey and welcome to feed me. Turo fitness podcast today, we are diving into a topic that so many people struggle with, and that's emotional eating. So if you have ever found yourself reaching for snacks when you are stressed, bored or sad, or if food has ever felt like your go to comfort. This episode is for you, and if you are first new listener. My name is Turo. I'm a fitness nutritional coach, and I have been helping people to with their fitness and health journey for the past decade, and especially I love working with people who have struggled with emotional eating, as so many of people are struggling with I myself. I used to struggle with it. I still sometimes partly struggle, especially with the board of meeting. And this is also for me, work in progress. It have improved drastically, but there is definitely still work to do, and as nobody's perfect, and that is that is my My motto is also like that I don't even aim to be perfect, that it's gone forever, but my goal is to improve every single day and see what I'm able to achieve with hard training, hard work, and when you are willing to try new, different things. And hopefully in this episode, these tactics, what and strategies, what I'm going to tell you, are going to help you. So in this episode, we are especially going to talk that, why we emotionally eat, and why it's not just about willpower, because so many people think that I just need willpower. I just need to stop it, and then it's gone for good. And so willpower that is never solution, and you will learn what to do instead, then rely on your willpower. And the second thing is that the real reason diets don't fix emotional eating. So if you think that you need to lose weight first and that then you are addressing those underlying issues like emotional eating, you are doing it wrong, and you will also learn how to recognize your triggers and rewire your habits. And that's I'm going to tell six practical strategies to stop emotional eating, including a fascinating approach called the one choice, choice challenge, what I have never talked before. So grab a coffee, go for a walk or just relax, and let's dive in. So first, why do we turn to food for comfort? So let's start with the that big question, and why do we eat when we are not hungry? So most of us, food is more more than just fuel, so it's how we celebrate. Think about like birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, and it's also how we cope. If you had a long day, you are eating always chocolate. If you had a breakup, it's going to be ice cream. So and it's also how we nump feelings we don't want to face. So it's a way to suppress your uncomfortable feelings. And the thing is, this is this isn't a discipline issue, but most people think that I just need more willpower. But emotional eating isn't about willpower. It's about emotions. Our brains are wired to see comfort and food is one of the fastest way ways to feel good. So if you if you have been caught in the cycle of stress, eat guilt, repeat. I want you to know you are not broke. You are human. So, but here's the good news, you can break this cycle, and I'm going to show you how. So, let's talk talk a little bit the mid of just stop eating junk food. So that is where most people go from. So most people think that if I'll just stop eating junk food and be more disciplined, but that's like telling an anxious person just to calm down. It doesn't work. So why it doesn't work? Because emotional eating is often driven by two different things. It's number one is emotions. So think all emotions you might have faced, most common ones are stress, loneliness, boredom or anxiety, and number two is restriction, so you are cutting out food, feeling deprived, and then you are pinching later. So this is why diets don't fix emotional eating. So if your only strategy is just don't eat it, you are missing the real issue. As I hear so many people either that I just need to stop eating chocolate. I just whatever your comfort food is. I just stop. Need to stop eating it. And that is that might work. Obviously, if you have a willpower and you are, you have tried to use this willpower method for longer time. You are probably able to do it for certain period of times. It depends on your amount of willpower. It's it might be couple days, couple hours, couple weeks, maybe even in the best case, is couple months. But that solution is not forever. And why is that? Because willpower, if you think it, it's there is a certain amount of willpower you have every single day. So if you have ever seen like how, like most successful people who have to make, like, 1000s of decisions every single day, and important decisions they are why they are wearing, for example, almost always like, okay, it's mostly men, but at least men, they wear always same clothes. I'm also one of them. Like, I don't, I don't use my willpower to decide what clothes I'm wearing. But for example, my wife, she loves it. She spends hours to decide what she's wearing, what kind of clothes she's going to have each day, and it makes her fun, and that's totally fine. But if you are, if you think that why you have certain amount of willpower, if you have to make all the time those difficult decisions, what you are eating, what you are wearing, there is, then you don't have any more repower when it comes to food. And that is, that is why it's not that restriction. And if you tell that just that I rely on my V power, I just can't have it. So we power system doesn't fix emotional eating and and that that's that's why we are going to I'm going to give you some other strategies to fix your emotional eating without relying on your willpower. So step number one is always where I love to start, is identifying your emotional eating triggers. So this is, this is where I love to get started, like and, and you have to understand your triggers. So next time, when you find yourself reaching for food when you are not hungry, ask. Ask yourself, What am I feeling right now? What happened today that's making me want this? If this hunger, is this hunger, or is this something else? Because one of my favorite tool is food and mood journal. So it's not, it's a it's a different it's not the tracking your food or tracking your calories, but to track why you eat. So just for one week, I don't you. You always this kind of challenges. If it's tracking for tracking food, tracking your emotions, don't this is not this doesn't mean that you have to do it the rest of your life. It's just mostly it helps, even if you do it only for a couple days. So what I recommend for you is just for one week. Every time when you emotionally eat, write down what you were feeling beforehand. So I will guarantee that you will start to see some patterns. So maybe you eat when you are stressed, maybe you eat when you when you are bored, at night or at weekend. Maybe you eat because you skipped lunch and now you are ravish and once you understand why, why it happens, you can start making real changes. Then step number two is the one choice challenge a game changer for food freedom. So let's talk about that method that that you that can rewire your relationship with food. So this is a method. What I haven't talked I actually learned it from other quotes my good friend Jared Hamilton, who was actually in my podcast also, and he has his own podcast episode and and I, I learned it from him, I gotta say, so this is this, is this? This made me think Jared is amazing coach and providing. So check him out. I think real Hamilton is his, it handle. So make sure you check him out, but that this is, this is one of his lessons, what I learned from him, and because most people are stuck into emotional eating, they do one of the one of these two things is number one, either you feel out of control around certain foods, so they avoid them completely, or number two, they Try to eat them in moderation, but end up pinching. So you get that, you get caught into that kind of pinch restrict cycle. So either you are, you try to say that I never eat that. Then you remove all that food, what, what you are usually pinching, and then you are kind of, of course, what even the ultimate goal is to bring those foods back in moderation. But that has never worked, because if you soon as you have that, your to go binge food or emotional eating food or comfort food at home, you are not able to once you get started. You can't stop yourself, you can't control yourself and you can't have that kind of moderation. What is the ultimate goal? So this strategy is exactly for you, if you have been trying this, to do this two things. So this is, this is here's how that one choice challenge works. So step number one is that you are going to remove those pinch foods from your home temporarily. And now you might be thinking that you just said that this. I have already tried it, and of course, it works when I don't have access to that food, and that, that's the that's the thing. But that is step number one. And this is not as a restriction, but to reset your environment. So then step number two, where it comes, when we are starting to bring that food back. And step number two is that every day for 3045, days, you must go to store and buy one single serving of that food. So just one, it could be a mini bag of chips, small cookie, a piece of chocolate, and you, step number three is that you bring it at home, you eat it mindfully, and you you while you are eating, and you don't have any distractions. You are not rushing, you don't have any guilt. And you step number four is that you have to do it for a month. So why this is so important. So first of all, little bit about that. You have to bring it to home. So you don't. You are not allowed to eat it in a car or on a way home or right after you have bought it, but, but when you bring it home, enjoy it, your brain is starting to think that, oh, man, she's eating a cookie. We are going to eat the whole package. Wait, she didn't eat the whole thing. I thought she was addicted and uncontrolled, and you can't. But as you see that you can pin some things what's not in your house, so you can't fail, and that your subs but, but your subconscious mind doesn't know the whole package isn't there to pinch on, so it assists the old story. Once I start, I can't stop. May have new evidence that so it's not true. So your brain start to realize that, wait, I can actually eat this without losing control, and that what is then happening? You are proving that you have control. And over this time, this breaks that pins, pins, restrict cycle, and teaches you how to coexist with your trigger foods. So this is important. Go to think what is remove everything. What makes you what is your comfort phone that you comfort food that you don't have it. Your job is to go to store, buy single Portsmouth, bring it home, eat it at home, and do it for 30 days, even the days that you don't want it. You don't feel like it, but it says, rewires your brain and your sub subconscious mind that you are actually you are in control, you are able to do it, and there is nothing wrong with you. So you are starting to develop new habits for your brain. And this is, this is one of the, one of the best things, best things I have, I have learned and that this is this. This is a strategy. What could actually, what could actually help you to overcome that fruit freedom. So then step number, number three is the boss strategy. So that is that is that you stop emotional eating in the moment when it feels that it's happening. So it's a simple but very powerful trick, and also one of my favorite strategies. So next time you are about to emotionally eat both for five minutes. So you are never going to tell to yourself that I'm not going to eat, but you are. You are going to say that I just delayed for five minutes and check in with yourself after five minutes. And if you can, what I love to use is to set the timer like a visible timer. You can use your phone, you can watch some other words, but set it for exactly five minutes, and when that five minutes have passed, you make another decision, if either you are going to eat it, or either you are not going to eat it. So there is no right there is no wrong decision. It's just pausing that decision goes more often than not. It won't work. I i Currently it won't work every single time. But if it works, let's say one out of 10, it's a progress. It's a step forward and and that's that's a very powerful, powerful trick, and in those five minutes, you can ask it, am I actually hungry, or am I feeling something else? You can also write those, if you, if you, if you, if you are thinking at home, I might be hungry. I'm not quite sure you could write that your journal, what you are actually feeling. Did you have a hard day at work? Was there somebody some your boss was screaming to you, is there is how is your kids? What is going on with your kids? Was Was Was there some emotion? Am I bored? Am I anxious? So what ever you might be feeling. Just write it down. And then next question, what you can ask yourself that, what do I really need right now? And even even you eat it, that's totally okay, and but maybe you start to realize that you actually need a need to sleep, you actually need a walk, or you just actually need a call a friend, or that tiny pause is the first step of debating that kind of autopilot reaction. What is often is that we are suppressing those uncomfortable feelings. And great start is to start it with the five, five minutes, and then step number five is to replace emotional eating with new coping mechanisms. So here is the truth, that you can just stop emotional eating. You have to replace it. And some powerful alternatives are that you are going either you are going for a walk, so movement, usually it helps to regulate your emotions. Other option is to writing a journal, so get your thoughts out of your brain before eating. Third option is to call a friend so you are having actual emotional connection, not food, so you can talk about those emotions for somebody else. Tip number four could be that you are drinking glass of water waiting for 10 minutes. Because many people are actually, if you are actually if you're hungry or thirsty. It's very difficult to actually recognize if it's if you are thirsty or if you are hungry. And then fifth tip is to practice deep breathing. And deep breathing is something that I I love to use it for my athletes and everything goes it's kind of that it's you tell to your nervous system that it's you are in a calm, calm place. And for athletes, for example, after a hard workout, it's a sign for your body that you can start to recover, and how you can do it deep breathing. It's very simple. It can take some quiet place for two minutes. Just try to close everything you can listen some relaxing music or something, but just try to be in a as quiet place as possible that you don't have distractions. You try to like your mind is most likely, trying to go into all kind of different places, but try to focus only for your breathing, and that's for simply as this, to start with the two minutes you can keep going for five if you are able to, but at least for two minutes. So take a deep breath through your nose, three to four seconds, like deep breathe, and then calmly, six to eight seconds, breathe out through your nose and just focus on your breathing. So these are these. These habits are easy, and make them as easy as easy eating food. So keep your journal table, have water bottle nearby, make it effortless. So that it's it doesn't feel like that. Oh, I It's so much easier to grab that food. But it says that it's everywhere that you are ready. You have those new ways to when you start to have that urge, have that feeling that you are doing it. And don't get me wrong, I know that it will still happen. It will happen most likely, at some point, that you are just eating without even noticing. You are kind of in that autopilot. You are driving from home and home, and before you even realize that you have something in your mouth or you are eating something, and then you recognize it only after so this will most likely still happen, and that's totally fine, but it says that when you remember, when you know those, your next time is your next chance, and it's the goal is never to be perfect. It says to improve, and if you remember to use these strategies, what, what we were talking what I'm talking here, it's not about that you every single time that you are going to use one of them, but just maybe pick one two things and try to remember to do it as often as possible. As this is all practicing. It's all about rewiring your brain. And if you what I recommend is that you start that one challenge, one snack challenge that you are going to for supermarket and do it for 30 days, so you kind of get that feeling that you are in control. And then last step is is to stop feeling guilty about emotional eating. So I want to wrap this up with something important. You don't need to feel guilty if you emotionally eat sometimes. So food is part of life. It's meant to be enjoyed, and the goal isn't perfection, it's awareness. So if you emotionally eat once in a while, that's okay. If you pinch less than before, that's progress. If you are becoming more mindful. You are winning so small changes, they add up over time. And this is, this is the hardest thing like that for most people, that we are so hard on ourselves, that we are, we are not like you don't remember that you were. You were able to actually improve something. If you say that last 10 times out 10 out of 10 situations you were eating emotionally, and now you have made what is amazing progress. You have made it amazing progress. Now three out of 10 you are not eating for emotions, so you are finding some other solution, other coping mechanism. And that is amazing progress. The amazing progress is not perfection. That you will 10 times out of 10. You will never eat emotionally. Progress is that you start with the three times. Maybe you keep doing that. You remember to do it three out of 10. Then maybe next month, you are able to do it four out of 10. Next month, it's five out of them, so it's all the time becoming a little bit less. And that is a progress. And never forget that, because most of us, like myself is I'm kind of perfectionist. My myself too. But when you start to understand that it's all about progress, all about those small steps, and you should be actually happy and make yourself proud of those wins, but and not those, no, those kind of setbacks or things when it went as before. And this is the same thing when we talk, when I talk with my clients, about working out workouts. So it's like, I'm also kind of person that if I set the goal to work out three times a week, and I'm able to work out two times, and I'm I'm not happy that I did two times. I'm more peaceful for myself that I missed that one workout. So this is, and this is the hardest part to be kind of kind for ourselves when, when the goal is, goal is to actually improve, get something better. So if it's that's why like setting those kind of goals, like I talk now about workouts little bit, because it's so easy to relate. But when you are deciding, like I personally, I decided every Sunday for the next week, I look my schedule, how many times I'm going to do it, and my I set the goal how many times I'm going to get started. And it doesn't. I never set the goal that I have to finish everything. Even that is, of course, it's ultimate goal, but it's what is the simplest, easiest step, and if the week is looking like really busy, then I say that, okay, this week, realistically, it's one time, or it's two times, especially with the strength training, what I naturally don't enjoy. So it could be two times, it could be one time, it could be five minutes session. It could be 10 minutes one exercise. It doesn't matter, because consistency beats that perfection every single time, and that you are keeping your promises what you make to yourself. So hopefully, with this emotional eating triggers and strategies, you are able to start using at least one of these strategies for the next week. And like I said, first step is that understanding when it happens, why it happens, what are your triggers? And once you know that, you become more aware, and then you can start to implement those other strategies we talk but start keeping journal, mood, journal, take it, take a call, do it for seven days. And I hope this episode gave you some new perspective on emotional eating, and if this resonates with you, I would love to hear your thoughts. Dim me in my instagram at personal trainer, underline Turo and tell me what's your biggest struggle with emotional eating. And if you find this helpful, do me a favor. Subscribe, share it with one friend who you, who you know that is also struggling with this episode could be help, helpful. And of course, those reviews, I can't stop episode without reminding how important and thanking for all those who have left written review, they are helping so much that so more people can find it, find this podcast. So, thank you for listening, and talk to you soon.