I typically move through my day – from waking up to right after dinner time – without being driven to seek out food to soothe or numb. I am not bingeing but I am eating sugar-laden or salty and greasy foods in a way that is not intuitive and in quantities that are more than what my body needs to be physically full. It feels impulsive and mindless instead of mindful but there is sometimes a streak of anger about striking back at what I expect of myself or a retreat from the world, particularly if I didn’t do “enough” during the day.
ANSWER
A great place to begin is to understand that all of our behaviours, called Action in the self-coaching model are created by an emotion (or feeling). Our emotions are created by our thoughts.
So if you are wondering how to change a behaviour, the first place to start is to investigate what thoughts create the current behaviours (action) so that you can create new thoughts that will produce new behaviours.
When I read your question, I see a few thoughts:
“Sugar-laden food”
“greasy food”
“I’m eating in a non-intuitive way.”
“I eat more then what my body needs to be physically full.”
I didn’t do enough.”
These are thoughts not facts. Thoughts are opinions and judgement, qualificative that are created by yourself.
So let’s put this into a self-coaching model:
C: Nighttime eating
TD:
The food I eat are sugar-laden food.
The food I eat are greasy food.
I’m eating in a non-intuitive way.
I eat more than what my body needs to be physically full.
T: The food I eat are greasy food
F: Disappointment
A: I eat quickly to avoid, I eat mindlessly, so I’m not present to my disappointment
R: I eat mindlessly, therefore more than I feel hungry for.
What if the thought that food is greasy wasn’t there? What if you didn’t label food as greasy or not? What if food was food?
That’s what intuitive eating is centered around—removing food labels, so we no longer attach value to our food choices and therefore avoid all numbing or rebuttal actions.
I would suggest you also do a self-coaching model around what seems to be your thought around your productivity as it appears that you were having unproductive thoughts about it as well, which creates the emotion of anger. It looks like anger produces an action of isolation, aka retreat from the world.
In would also recommend listening to Podcast 211 – The Gift of Emotional Eating. Night time eating is great example of emotional eating.
ANSWER
A great place to begin is to understand that all of our behaviours, called Action in the self-coaching model are created by an emotion (or feeling). Our emotions are created by our thoughts.
So if you are wondering how to change a behaviour, the first place to start is to investigate what thoughts create the current behaviours (action) so that you can create new thoughts that will produce new behaviours.
When I read your question, I see a few thoughts:
“Sugar-laden food”
“greasy food”
“I’m eating in a non-intuitive way.”
“I eat more then what my body needs to be physically full.”
I didn’t do enough.”
These are thoughts not facts. Thoughts are opinions and judgement, qualificative that are created by yourself.
So let’s put this into a self-coaching model:
C: Nighttime eating
TD:
The food I eat are sugar-laden food.
The food I eat are greasy food.
I’m eating in a non-intuitive way.
I eat more than what my body needs to be physically full.
T: The food I eat are greasy food
F: Disappointment
A: I eat quickly to avoid, I eat mindlessly, so I’m not present to my disappointment
R: I eat mindlessly, therefore more than I feel hungry for.
What if the thought that food is greasy wasn’t there? What if you didn’t label food as greasy or not? What if food was food?
That’s what intuitive eating is centered around—removing food labels, so we no longer attach value to our food choices and therefore avoid all numbing or rebuttal actions.
I would suggest you also do a self-coaching model around what seems to be your thought around your productivity as it appears that you were having unproductive thoughts about it as well, which creates the emotion of anger. It looks like anger produces an action of isolation, aka retreat from the world.
In would also recommend listening to Podcast 211 – The Gift of Emotional Eating. Night time eating is great example of emotional eating.