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Mind Full of Eating

"If you eat less you'll feel better," is a common piece of advice well-meaning friends and family give to people struggling with overeating. Their meaning is that the aforesaid individual will feel more healthy by improving their food choices. But to the food dependent individual, overeating has become a management strategy to manage distress experiences and "feel better."

Mindful Eating is a popular approach in psychology and counseling to help people move to a more intentional way of nourishing their bodies. However, to transition to this concept, skills and strategies must be developed to get people away from a "Mind Full of Eating."

Like other dependencies, food addiction develops over a period of time when people turn to eating to manage distressful emotions that can occur through everyday experiences and relationships.  As a result, the body's natural mechanisms for controlling food intake become damaged and physiologically the brain and digestive system lose their natural synchronicity.

Great Life Gifts and Zia Consulting recently offered a series of group sessions for people who expressed a desire to stop their mind full of eating approach in navigating their stressful experiences. The sessions addressed a range of topics of the mind-body connection in food choices and emotion management and included: 

• Strategies for reducing distressful feelings and maximizing tolerance for experiencing them without turning to food;

• Understanding the role of nutritious food in maintaining good health;

• Learning the benefits and consequences of relying on artificial sweeteners and other food supplements;

• The benefits of exercise for managing stress;

• Tools to help individuals track their time and food intake;

• Ways to break through weight plateaus;

• Focus on automatic thoughts which influence feelings and consequently choices in food; and

• Community support groups, such as Overeater's Anonymous, Weight Watchers, fitness clubs, individual counseling/coaching and other venues offering ongoing support.

Our country's food season is nearly here with the beginning of it starting at Halloween and extending through Valentine's Day. With the emphasis on food for the next several months at holidays, partys, and other events, it may seem impossible to have nothing but a "Mind Full of Eating." But with the right support, tools, and motivation, individuals can transform to a more "Mindful Eating" way of life.