Do you think about food all the time? Tend to overeat when you are stressed? Can’t control your appetite?
Then I’m writing this blog for YOU. You may be wondering – what would a psychic know about emotional eating? Well – lots actually. Just as I struggled to accept my psychic gifts, I’ve battled over- and under-eating since my teens. I’ve also talked to people about nutrition for years. So I know the impact emotional eating has on your health and what can alleviate the pain.
Here are my top 10 tips for healing your fixation with food!
Please do your own research as well – I’ve included links and authors below.
1) Recognise that your relationship with food is your relationship with love. If you eat erratically perhaps you feel you don’t deserve love. If you eat too much you may believe the world owes you love. Either way, you’ve probably forgotten the fact that you ARE love. (I mean – you are what you eat right? So if food is love, and you eat food, then you must be love!)
Until you see yourself as 100% love you’ll keep looking for it in other places (like your pantry). This is the basis of Don Miguel Ruiz’s wonderful book The Mastery of Love.To get back to a state of self-love, satisfy your hunger for life by going on a rollercoaster, planning an overseas trip or doing something scary. Each time you conquer something new you’ll remind yourself that you’re here to eat life, not be eaten (or beaten) by life. As Anais Nin said ‘Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage’.
2) Understand that your food habits may be inherited. Many of us have relatives who perished or suffered during wartime. Their style of ‘panic eating’ or ‘leaving nothing on the plate’ can lead to us feeling guilty as adults if we say No to food. We learn to eat what we’re given in life rather than picking and choosing what’s good for our body. This is when counselling techniques such as Family Constellations can be helpful. Also see here.
3) Learn about your body and digestive system so you feel more connected to it. Just as you have to learn to care for a pet, there are principles to feeding yourself well. For example, your digestive tract takes up to 20 minutes to warm up before it can process food. That’s why cooking at home is great, because your body has time to ‘set its internal table’. Eating on the run (especially eating cold food on the run) is a recipe for gas, bloating and fatigue…imagine trying to refuel your car while it’s still moving and you’ll get the idea. If you want to make the most of the $$ you spend on food then it’s also imperative that you sit down to eat.
4) Many of us use food to ‘wash our words down’ when we feel scared to speak up or have no one to listen to us. Next time you reach for junk food ask yourself ‘what do I really need right now?’ Look into your cravings (see Doreen Virtue’s book) and write down what’s bothering you or talk it out with a friend or counsellor.
5) Don’t try to fool your body. We have eyes for a reason. You need to eat food that looks like food, especially fruit and veggies. If you eat out of a packet, tin or jar you will never feel full. We’re programmed to eat wholefoods, and that’s why raw food is so filling, because it’s full of nutrition.
6) Learn to feed yourself in other ways, not just with food. Feed your eyes with beautiful photos, vision boards or outdoor walks. When we have something to look forward to (or even to look at) we don’t feel so compelled to distract ourselves with food.
Feed your ears with silence and positive music (rather than radio) so you don’t have to use food to ‘shut the voices off in your head’. A couple of minutes of quiet time at the start and end of your day can save you from a lot of unconscious behaviours including overeating. Feed your nose by chewing the first three mouthfuls of each meal until they are liquid before swallowing. This releases the yummy aromas and lets your body know you’re eating.
Spray essential oils around the house and add fragrant flowers to your work place to relieve boredom. It’s amazing how many people eat just to ‘feel alive’ again. Fulfil your need for touch with baths, massages, hugs and time with kids or pets. Babies lose their will to live without cuddles and adults are no different. My fellow psychic Paul Fenton-Smith believes that some people overeat because they want to feel ‘touched’ on the inside – to feel ‘something’ rather than the void of aloneness.
7) Have your basic medical checks. If you constantly think about food, you may actually be malnourished – ask your doctor for a blood test or see a naturopath, who can help you to analyse your diet. Sometimes we are not eating enough protein, carbs or essential fatty acids, so our bodies stay hungry. Similarly, a loss of appetite could be linked to a thyroid issue.8) Accept that your relationship with food may be a lifelong journey of forgiveness. Don Miguel Ruiz says that true love or justice punishes only once for each mistake.
If you fall off the healthy eating bandwagon, it’s kinder to ask yourself ‘what am I going to do now?’ rather than ‘why did this happen?’ If it happened, it happened – it’s better to fix the broken leg than to curse the ladder you fell off 🙂
Maybe you are meant to be skinnier or larger than other people. Our bodies are like batteries – some are AAA sized while others are D cells – it just depends on how much energy you need right now to power your life. Note to self – delegating tasks to other people ALWAYS helps with weight management 🙂
9) Look at the big picture. As our weight changes, we uncover artifacts from our past that need to be healed. For example, if your weight drops from 70kg to 65kg and the last time you were that weight you had a relationship break up, old emotions may resurface as a ‘gift’ (kind of like pass the parcel). This is why peoples’ weight loss efforts stall – because they focus on ‘getting rid of themselves’ rather than healing what they buried. Holistic counselling can be a great help.
10) Finally, keep drinking filtered water – see my article on the benefits of hydration. We need water to process our feelings and have healthy emotions (especially the ability to let go of the past). Many people eat when they are actually thirsty. Perhaps you are one of them.
1) Recognise that your relationship with food is your relationship with love. If you eat erratically perhaps you feel you don’t deserve love. If you eat too much you may believe the world owes you love. Either way, you’ve probably forgotten the fact that you ARE love. (I mean – you are what you eat right? So if food is love, and you eat food, then you must be love!)
Until you see yourself as 100% love you’ll keep looking for it in other places (like your pantry). This is the basis of Don Miguel Ruiz’s wonderful book The Mastery of Love.To get back to a state of self-love, satisfy your hunger for life by going on a rollercoaster, planning an overseas trip or doing something scary. Each time you conquer something new you’ll remind yourself that you’re here to eat life, not be eaten (or beaten) by life. As Anais Nin said ‘Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage’.
2) Understand that your food habits may be inherited. Many of us have relatives who perished or suffered during wartime. Their style of ‘panic eating’ or ‘leaving nothing on the plate’ can lead to us feeling guilty as adults if we say No to food. We learn to eat what we’re given in life rather than picking and choosing what’s good for our body. This is when counselling techniques such as Family Constellations can be helpful. Also see here.
3) Learn about your body and digestive system so you feel more connected to it. Just as you have to learn to care for a pet, there are principles to feeding yourself well. For example, your digestive tract takes up to 20 minutes to warm up before it can process food. That’s why cooking at home is great, because your body has time to ‘set its internal table’. Eating on the run (especially eating cold food on the run) is a recipe for gas, bloating and fatigue…imagine trying to refuel your car while it’s still moving and you’ll get the idea. If you want to make the most of the $$ you spend on food then it’s also imperative that you sit down to eat.
4) Many of us use food to ‘wash our words down’ when we feel scared to speak up or have no one to listen to us. Next time you reach for junk food ask yourself ‘what do I really need right now?’ Look into your cravings (see Doreen Virtue’s book) and write down what’s bothering you or talk it out with a friend or counsellor.
5) Don’t try to fool your body. We have eyes for a reason. You need to eat food that looks like food, especially fruit and veggies. If you eat out of a packet, tin or jar you will never feel full. We’re programmed to eat wholefoods, and that’s why raw food is so filling, because it’s full of nutrition.
6) Learn to feed yourself in other ways, not just with food. Feed your eyes with beautiful photos, vision boards or outdoor walks. When we have something to look forward to (or even to look at) we don’t feel so compelled to distract ourselves with food.
Feed your ears with silence and positive music (rather than radio) so you don’t have to use food to ‘shut the voices off in your head’. A couple of minutes of quiet time at the start and end of your day can save you from a lot of unconscious behaviours including overeating. Feed your nose by chewing the first three mouthfuls of each meal until they are liquid before swallowing. This releases the yummy aromas and lets your body know you’re eating.
Spray essential oils around the house and add fragrant flowers to your work place to relieve boredom. It’s amazing how many people eat just to ‘feel alive’ again. Fulfil your need for touch with baths, massages, hugs and time with kids or pets. Babies lose their will to live without cuddles and adults are no different. My fellow psychic Paul Fenton-Smith believes that some people overeat because they want to feel ‘touched’ on the inside – to feel ‘something’ rather than the void of aloneness.
7) Have your basic medical checks. If you constantly think about food, you may actually be malnourished – ask your doctor for a blood test or see a naturopath, who can help you to analyse your diet. Sometimes we are not eating enough protein, carbs or essential fatty acids, so our bodies stay hungry. Similarly, a loss of appetite could be linked to a thyroid issue.8) Accept that your relationship with food may be a lifelong journey of forgiveness. Don Miguel Ruiz says that true love or justice punishes only once for each mistake.
If you fall off the healthy eating bandwagon, it’s kinder to ask yourself ‘what am I going to do now?’ rather than ‘why did this happen?’ If it happened, it happened – it’s better to fix the broken leg than to curse the ladder you fell off 🙂
Maybe you are meant to be skinnier or larger than other people. Our bodies are like batteries – some are AAA sized while others are D cells – it just depends on how much energy you need right now to power your life. Note to self – delegating tasks to other people ALWAYS helps with weight management 🙂
9) Look at the big picture. As our weight changes, we uncover artifacts from our past that need to be healed. For example, if your weight drops from 70kg to 65kg and the last time you were that weight you had a relationship break up, old emotions may resurface as a ‘gift’ (kind of like pass the parcel). This is why peoples’ weight loss efforts stall – because they focus on ‘getting rid of themselves’ rather than healing what they buried. Holistic counselling can be a great help.
10) Finally, keep drinking filtered water – see my article on the benefits of hydration. We need water to process our feelings and have healthy emotions (especially the ability to let go of the past). Many people eat when they are actually thirsty. Perhaps you are one of them.
Recommended Links
Finding Spiritual Relief from Anorexia
Orthorexia and Starseeds
The Secret to Skyrocketing Intuition – Water and Your Third Eye Chakra
Finding Spiritual Relief from Anorexia
Orthorexia and Starseeds
The Secret to Skyrocketing Intuition – Water and Your Third Eye Chakra
Feedback
Mike Donald on Saturday, 2 November 2013 12:34 AM
Hi Sarah, I really like the way you shared your views and thoughts on controlling overweight issues. I ought to follow strictly to shed 30 kgs. Hahahah
Reply to comment
Sarah Yip – Thanks Mike, appreciate your feedback, best wishes
