Get yourself of our the “chaotic eating /non eating cycle” once and for all! Eating is an emotional experience – in a positive and negative light. Staying stuck in weight and poor eating and exercise patterns are all feeding you in certain ways – filling the void in most cases or squashing emotions down. For me personally, it pays to find ways to satisfy my soul, not fill up my stomach, because I know the cycle I can get myself into when I eat too much, get annoyed with myself, say ‘bugger it” and abandon all acts of self-care! Here are some ideas to get YOU started in soulful self-care, rather than pigging out in the pantry. How do I know this stuff? I got myself out of 11 years of that chaotic eating and non-eating myself and haven’t been back.
• Name the emotion or situation that leads you to your undesirable eating, drinking or “falling off the self-care wagon.” For many women, it is loneliness, anger, creative hibernation, feeling unsupported, resentment, exhaustion…What’s yours?
• Find an outlet to release emotions. Like with the coke bottle, when you continue shaking it up, it will eventually explode! In such cases, this explosion may end up in a massive food binge, an exercise “walk-out” rather than a workout, and other unhelpful behaviour. Recognise that emotion next time and immediately try out a different response.
• Stop dieting Diet is quite literally “die” plus a small cross on the end! When you limit and deprive yourself, at some stage you will kick, scream and rebel. Your body cries out “feed me” and your willpower tries to ignore it or overpower your body’s cries and such conflict can set up the “never-win-cycle” of yo-yo dieting, fluctuating weight and body dissatisfaction.
• Start listening to, and honouring your body’s physical hungers. How often do you override a stomach grumble, headache or other hunger-pang sign because “it’s not the right time to be eating, it’s not on the diet plan or I should wait for dinner mentality”? We have a built in system that tells us to feed ourselves, how much to eat, what to eat and when we are full. It lets us know what exercise makes us feel great. It tells us when to stop and rest. Listen!
• Create a soul nourishment menu and start “fulfilling up” on a daily basis. Draw a round circle on a piece of paper. Cut it into 8 equal parts. Sit in stillness for 5-10 minutes. Ask your soul what it needs to help you feel fulfilled. Slot those into the “8 pie-pieces”. Be as specific as possible. If it is music that soothes your soul, what type of music? When do you like to play it? Do you listen to music or do you play it? If it is being with people, who are they? Where do they like to meet? What are you doing with these people? If it is a creative outlet, what medium are you using? Is it solitary or in a group. Is it for work or pleasure?
• Remember how eating can be a pleasurable experience. Be fully “present” at mealtimes, rather than eating on the run. Sit together with your family. Turn off distractions. Cook something interesting. Eat slowly and taste the food. Set up a beautiful table. And as the French would say as they indulge in the pleasure of food, wine and good soul-nourishing company, “Bon Appetit!”