A QUICK and EASY TOOL FOR REDUCING COMFORT EATING

Have you ever wondered how to stop the thought processes that leads to your comfort eating? You know the ones, they start from a solitory negative thought triggered by something you hear or see and then they escalate. This leads to what I call a "Sticky Bun" story. Just like a sticky bun that attracts all the flies and insects to its sugary aroma, so the initial negative thought draws to it an ever increasing aray of negative thoughts and emotions. Within seconds your mind is racing with these thoughts and like a tornado it draws more and more of them into its vortex. At some point, each "Sticky Bun" story attracts to it a thought of food. Your mind begins to fill with the thoughts of what to eat. This, in turn, may attract more thoughts of guilt, shame, self-loathing or even rebellion. The more we allow our minds to ruminate in this way,the more intense the "Sticky Bun" story becomes and the more our desire for food is heightened. This is a trap created by the habitual way we so easily fall into the negative processes of each and every "Sticky Bun" story. There are always patterns to these unhealthy stories, mine revolve around... • Lonliness • Rejection • People Who Treat Me Badly • Injustice What do yours revolve around? The more we try and rationalise or problem solve these "Sticky Bun" stories the more we perpetualte their potency. You see, they can't be sorted, overcome or changed by using our thinking. Yes, I agree, that is the way we solve most problems but habitual negative thinking patterns flourish with the use of more thinking. Think about it. How impossible do you find it to stop yourself comfort eating when you are stuck in your destructive thinking? You may distract your mind from the patterns of a "Sticky Bun" story but when this distraction ends your mind so easily flips back into its predisposed state of negativity. What is going on? What are we missing? The difficulty we face is from the dieting game which keeps us trapped in a mindset where if we are not being 'Good', the negative emotions of gulit, shame and self-loathing kick in. Once the mind is triggered into these negative patterns there is only one way out.... 'Mindfulness' Natural instinct is to go further into thinking, when in actual fact what is needed is to clear the mind as much as possible. By doing this you inhibit the brains ability to link emotions and thoughts that continually raise your stress levels. The more you practice this skill of mindfulness, the more you train your brain away from cravings and an unhealthy relationship with food. So how is it done? You... Remeber that all food is fuel and some works better for your body than others. Don't ban foods. This only causes you to crave and then binge - a purely natural reaction linked to our deepest survival mechanisms. Notice when your mind is in negative nattering mode. Acknowledge the ruminations of your mind without judgement. Remove your focus from the thoughts and take it to your in and out breath - going somewhere quite and closing your eyes if you wish. Concentrate on the rise and fall of your belly or the flow of air through your nostrils. Let go of any thoughts that flow into your mind, as they will, and keep bringing your attention back to your breath for one minute Then spend a minute allowing the exte al noises to drift into your consciousness without forcing yourself to hear things or judging what you do hear. Just be with what you hear. Finally bring your attention to the feelings in your body. Spend a minute feel positive energy flowing through every part of you. Then listen to what your body is telling you about your hunger levels. Now you have a tool that you can use as many times a day as you wish. By reducing the destructive flow of thoughts and the negative feelings, your desire to comfort eating diminishes.