Structuring Meals & Managing Intrusive Thoughts About Food

Structuring Meals & Managing Intrusive Thoughts About Food Many people are struggling with losing or maintaining weight. As eating becomes a coping mechanism, you might find yourself turning to food whenever stressed, sad, upset, tired, overwhelmed, angry, or bored. The truth is, you cannot satisfy your emotional hunger with eating because it is a different type of hunger. Even if you strictly follow a diet, you will soon return to your unhealthy eating patterns. In this episode, I share my knowledge about structured meal plans and the nature of intrusive thoughts. I explain why dieting fails and why eating disorders are an addiction. Finally, I discuss how you can detach from your intrusive thoughts about food. Tune in if you want to learn how you can stop eating mindlessly. I am now offering a 10-week virtual class! The class will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, membership in a Facebook community, and weekly private group sessions.  If you would prefer more individualized help, contact me so we can schedule a private virtual session.  To sign up for the class or to get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website. Here are the three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: How do you add structure to your meals to recover from unhealthy eating patterns or behaviors? How can you reboot your perspective about health and wellness? How can you overcome challenges to become healthy? Resources Dieting: A Dry Drunk by Becky Lou Jackson Follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram. Episode Highlights Why Dieting Fails Many people live their lives on a yo-yo diet - going on a diet, and then leaving it. That's why diets will inevitably fail. They're unsustainable and you will eventually default to old behaviors. The dieting mentality is a thinking pattern that does not work. Eating Disorder is an Addiction There can be an addiction to a pattern of cravings showing up in your mind since the cravings are a way to distract from what might seem unmanageable or overwhelming in life. In a related way, there is an addiction to caving in to the craving and addiction to dieting. We can treat an eating disorder like an addiction and create a meal structure to manage it. Focusing on Nutrition Some people can eat intuitively all the time, listening to hunger and fullness and eating accordingly. Many people need to stay with structure before they learn to trust the body’s cues. A gentle structure can help some people stay in balance. The structure you create should consider your specific nutritional needs and include 3 to 4 specific eating times a day. Treats and fun foods can be incorporated into this. There is a biological sequence event happening which relates to insulin spikes, and this can cause cravings. Planning helps you manage these events. It's best to abstain from unplanned eating which can fuel obsessive thinking. Instead, the ideal approach will be learning how to practice intuitive eating in combination with specific planned meals. Intuitive eating is the practice of listening to your body. Thoughts About Eating Disorders If you have an eating disorder, it doesn't mean you are flawed as a person. Think of your compulsion with eating not as an addiction, but as a solution to a problem. The real problem is generally the fear of being overwhelmed by trying to manage your emotions. Tips for Preparing a Meal Have a structured amount of food each day and try to develop the ability to choose portion sizes that will keep you going until your next meal. In terms of food quality, you need to include protein, healthy fats, and fiber, with at least three food groups per meal. Refined carbohydrates can be triggering for some people, and allowing only a moderate amount of them at meals is ideal. Becky Lou Jackson, the author of the book Dieting: A Dry Drunk, recommends that you have no snacks between meals, but I would say that you can have one snack per day if you are hungry. Attachment to Weight Loss You also need to understand how your brain might trick you. If you're attached to the idea of weight loss, it will create more internal stress, which can lead to food addiction. Emotion plays a pivotal role in food addiction, so learning how to be curious, mindful, and aware will be an essential skill to build.  The Thought Stream of Fear You have a fear thought stream that will try to hold your attention. Acknowledge it, perhaps thank it for what it needs you to know, and then put up a boundary. Don't stay stuck in it! You are more than just your thoughts. In fact, your thoughts are frequently exaggerated, confused, and untrue remnants of your past.  Challenges of Meal Planning You might experience some difficulties while trying to follow structured eating, and it can be tempting to return to unplanned eating. It can be hard to determine the difference between true physical hunger and emotional hunger. In a structured way of eating you will decide to wait until the next meal time even though there might be some hunger. The goal is to try to match quantities of food at each meal with physical hunger. A little bit of hunger can be beneficial because it gives your body a little bit of fasting glucose. In the case of two much hunger, you will want to have a protein-rich snack rather than waiting hours for the next meal, and use this as a learning opportunity for planning just the right amount of food that your body needs next time.  It might also be challenging to follow your meal plan when in social settings and the expectations people might have of you. You can work with this by planning ahead and taking social eating into account in your meal plan. The Mental Storm You may experience internal conflicts about food, but everything will pass, just like a storm. Gently detach yourself from the mental thought stream of fear. Your brain might try to distract you from your negative thoughts by using food. If you can detach yourself, you can always find your blue sky. 5 Powerful Quotes from this Episode "So what we're talking about is we need to be abstinent from random eating and unplanned times. But, we really need to be abstinent from our disordered body image obsessive thinking." "You have always just done the best you could. How could you not have? You only did what your brain told you to do, and you didn't ask for thoughts to be there." "So, you don't want to set up yourself to fail. You want to put lots of nutritious foods and lots of proteins and everywhere you want to plan ahead. You want to pack and plan your meals and you want to put some time into this." "So you have this thought that you didn't ask for, but there it is, you attach to it, because it matters. And in your attachment, you can't help but resist it because you don't want it [...] It is really important for you to realize these thoughts are not important. These thoughts are not important." "There's nothing wrong with you. You're just a person in a storm. And, somewhere that blue sky is there. It's always there. It never leaves." If you listened to the podcast and enjoyed it, please share and post a review! Have any questions or want to schedule an appointment? You can email me at [email protected] or visit my website. To making peace with eating, Betsy