Is Watching The News Triggering Your Emotional Eating?
There is no doubt about it, watching the news right now is causing a lot of anxiety and stress for everyone. We all want to stay up to date and stay informed, but we also need to look after our mental health and physical health.
Watching too much news will bring our mood down and we need to remain positive right now. And too much emotional eating will make us feel unhealthy and we need a good immune system right now.
Here are 2 decisions that you can make today to take control and feel better…
{1} LIMIT YOUR TIME WATCHING THE NEWS
DECISION ONE: Decide when you will watch the news.
I have decided to watch the news once a day at 5pm everyday as that is when the latest updates are coming out. This means I focus on my work and kids during the day, and then when I do watch the news I am getting the latest updates.
Once you get updated turn the news off. If you keep watching the news you will keep hearing the same thing over and over and over again and it will really bring your mood down and bring feelings of anxiety up.
Be informed, but don’t don’t overwhelm yourself with it.
Another thing to be careful of is not watching the news with the kids in the room. Make sure they are in bed, or playing in another room. We want to keep our homes feeling safe and positive for our children.
{2} LOOK AFTER YOURSELF WITHOUT TURNING TO FOOD
DECISION TWO: Decide what you are going to replace emotional eating with.
First of all, it is very common to want to crave sugar or other processed foods when you feel stressed out. This isn’t so bad if you feel stressed out occasionally, but we are probably facing many months of dealing with stress.
If we keep turning to food to comfort us, then not only will be facing a world health crisis, but we could be facing a personal health crisis too.
A lot of people are at home now social distancing (or solo gangstering, – check out my blog post about the benefits of this for your diet.)
Everyone has full cupboards as the UK has spent an extra ONE BILLION on food in the last 3 weeks! It is sooo easy when you are at home all day to fall into the trap of watching too much news, and feeling stressed out and depressed. Then turning to food to feel better as we process what is going on in the world.
Don’t feel bad if you have been doing this the last week or so, we are adapting to a lot of change at the moment. The key thing is to try and get control of this soon so it doesn’t start to make you unhealthy and spiral out of control.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR EMOTIONAL STRESS EATING
STEP ONE: REALISE THAT YOU ARE FEELING ANXIOUS BECAUSE YOU ARE PROCESSING THE NEWS
When you feel like comfort eating – PAUSE – and realise that you are feeling anxious over what is happening in the news.
STEP TWO: DECIDE TO SOOTHE YOURSELF BY LOOKING AFTER YOURSELF
Decide not to comfort eat, and choose an alternative response to soothe your anxiety. Something that will make you feel better and not damage your health.
That handful of biscuits or box of chocolates will make you feel better for a few minutes, and then you will feel worse after. And over the space of weeks or months, it can really cause you to gain a lot of weight.
I have started making a cup of coffee and just going into the garden and breathing in some fresh air.
What could you do?
In our Secret Slimmers group I just asked this question and some of the responses are;
- Have a bath
- Play with my kids
- Enjoy having extra time cross stitching
- Stretching & Breathing
- Going online to do an exercise class.
- Reading a motivational book
COME AND JOIN OUR SECRET SLIMMERS GROUP ON FACEBOOK
If you have found your groove with total food replacement, then you might feel excited and empowered to know that you can use this time of social distancing to really focus on your health. In a few months time you could be a few stone lighter.
ARE YOU READY TO TAKE CONTROL?
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN OUR WEIGHT LOSS COMMUNITY WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU WITH US.
We are much more than a diet community, we are a group of people who are all compassionate to each other and we are all wanting to make it to the other side of this time of social distancing feeling healthier.
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Take Care,
Love Julz x
