#72 - Emotional Eating & Running
Have you ever noticed before the big event in which you should be eating healthy, you can't stop eating the wrong things? How were you feeling when you first opened that bag of chips? How surprised were you when you realized that you have finished the whole bag? We all have done it because we all have one thing in common. Stress! Stress causes even the best of us to emotionally eat. Many of us are unaware that we are turning to food for comfort. In this week’s blog/podcast we will discuss how emotional eating will affect your races. We will also discuss how we can make some simple changes by identifying what is the cause of our stress.
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On a run this week, I listened to Mel Robbins talk about Emotional Eating on her new series called Start Here on Audible. Sign up to audible on our site “Morning Motivation Read List”
In this post, I will break down my takeaways from her episode and give my perspective from a runner's standpoint.
Mel Robbins brought out that when we diet, we are focusing on the wrong problem. We eat due to emotional circumstances that have happened to us in our lives whether in the past or the present, such as today!
That’s the real problem. The symptom of the real problem is emotional eating. Perhaps it’s our boss causing us to be anxious. Homeschooling your children and working from home at the same time. Trying to figure out how to get your training runs in with the marathon coming up. If we are using food to distract us from the stress that we are dealing with, think about this phrase for a moment.
Mel says:
“Starve your distractions… Feed your focus!”
I love this. If my focus is to run my fastest 5k ever, then I will starve the distractions of eating at the drive-through. Starve the distraction of eating cold pizza for no reason.
Once again the true distraction is the emotions that caused you to grab the food in the first place. Bring mindfulness to emotions.
As a runner or anyone looking to get the best out of their health it is important to understand what causes you to emotionally eat.
Triggers:
Feeling Uncertain or out of control (uncertain about the future)
Emotional Void (Not getting emotional support from mates, lonely, hopeless, etc.)
Uncomfortable Feelings (shame, sadness, a party where we don’t know anyone, etc.)
Hating Your Body (Food is not your enemy, self-hate is the enemy)
If we do suppress our feelings, they will always be there. The phone could ring, you see a post on social media, or you see the person at the grocery store. Settle the unresolved issue quickly so that you can move on.
Mel broke down exactly what we can do to regain control.
How To Fix Emotional Eating:
Put Yourself On Pause/Address The Problem
Hide Food Out Of Sight (When chips are gone the problem still there)
Call Someone (Have Accountability/Seek Support)
Inside of a pause you get to release your pain.
Try This: Write down everything you eat for a week and your emotions that went along with what you ate! At the end of the week review your journal. Reviewing your journal you will start to see a pattern. With that knowledge, you can detect hidden triggers that you didn't know was a problem for you.
Other things we can do
Stop talking bad about yourself (You deserve to feel healthy) Self-talk will hurt or help you.
Donate your skinny jeans or hide them with the food (This could be a cause of stress)
Take a break from the scale (Focus on non-scale victories)
Retire the all or nothing mentality (It’s not about having one cookie, it’s about eating 16 cookies)
You Can Heal Your Pain:
Talk Therapy
Prayer
Exercise
Medication
When looking at this list of things we can do to heal our pain, I'm proud to say that is what our Run To The Best You program is all about.
My Next Level Coaching clients enjoy the talk therapy they receive from me during our coaching calls.
Our Run/Walk Programs help us add exercise to our weekly plan to reduce stress.
Our Online Accountability Group gives our members a place they can consistently go to for support.
Learning these tips can also help you if you emotionally spend or drink.
Coach Tadris Final Takeaway:
To be the best runner that you can be, keep your goals in front of you. Sit down and map out a year's goal. Take that year's goal and break it down into what you need to do this month. Take that month's goal and see what you need to do this week. This will help you make the best decisions for the day.
Eat according to your goals and not according to your feelings. Address feelings immediately so that it doesn't come back to bite you in the butt. Then you can’t run if your butt is gone.
I leave you with Mel’s final words on this.
BEFORE you take that bite……..Take A Pause!
The life you want, the health you want, and the body you desire, is all within that pause.
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Thank You!
Remember, we are just one run or walk away……
So Keep Calm And Run To The Best You My Friends!
-Coach Tadris
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