hungry

Unraveling Emotional Cravings

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Natural Migraine Relief

Anxiety. Self-doubt. Sadness. Loneliness. Frustration. Boredom.

These emotions are can be quite uncomfortable. When they make an appearance it is a natural inclination to push them away- with food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, excessive exercise. I’ve done it all, but for many years my most reliable self-medicating drug of choice was sugar. With that sublime hit of dopamine, sugar temporarily softened the edge of anxiety and self-doubt. The problem was that the post sugar-fix trough was even more unbearable than the initial uncomfortable emotion.

I gave up sugar a year ago; as a result I needed a new strategy to deal with my emotional cravings. Here are a few tips based on my experience (I believe the same strategies can be utilized to deal with emotional cravings for drugs, alcohol, shopping, etc.):

Address cravings directly by asking questions:

• Am I craving this because I am hungry? If not, what is going on? Am I looking for a hit of dopamine?

• Am I hoping to numb an unpleasant feeling by eating this item? If so, can I sit with this feeling for a bit?

• Where is this feeling stemming from? Is the feeling irrational?

• Is there something else I can do to address this feeling?

Make a list of things you love to do. When you recognize an emotional craving commit to trying one (or more) of these activities. For example:

• take a walk
• listen to a podcast
• cuddle with a partner/pet
• call a friend
• do yoga
• paint/draw/journal
• listen to a favorite song
• read a book or a magazine

Understand that freedom from emotional cravings is a process.

Don’t sink into self-loathing if you have a bit of a backslide. Forgive yourself and move on. You can choose to learn from the experience and be better equipped to deal with the next emotional craving.

The ability to understand the process is transformative. I am NOT cured of emotional eating. Just the other day I was experiencing a mental block while working on a big project and frustration was creeping in. I could feel the frustration transitioning to anxiety and suddenly I was daydreaming about almond butter. I could clearly envision sliding open the silverware drawer, grabbing a spoon, opening the fridge and reaching for the jar. How enjoyable a fat scoop of almond butter would be! But because I’ve been practicing, I was able to pull back and became an observer of my thoughts. It was interesting that the uncomfortable feelings led to the almond butter jar. I asked myself a few questions: Was I hungry? Nope. Was I experiencing an emotional craving? Yep.  

I turned to my tried and true anxiety remedy: I went outside. I took a hike in the woods. I stopped to notice the new buds forming on the plants and trees, to appreciate the bright green ferns poking out of the layer of decayed fall leaves. I watched the birds and listened to them calling to one another. The walk was refreshing and renewed a deep sense of appreciation in my soul. But when I returned and tried to sit once again with my project the frustration came rushing back. I clearly wasn’t done with my mental break yet.

So I played one of my favorite inspirational podcasts and cleaned out a cupboard. And you know what? The podcast happened to be about the very issue with which I was seeking guidance! I gratefully received the inspiration I had been craving, I felt accomplished about my tidy cabinet, and I had subsequent success with my project. All without almond butter!

If you are dealing with emotional cravings, they can feel impossible to resolve. Know that you have all the tools you need to start the unraveling process: awareness, a plan, and self-compassion!

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Blog by Guest Author:

Katie HarrisonKatie Harrison

I am a teacher, a Primal Health Coach, and a resident of a tiny Alaskan town. My husband and I live in a 384 square foot wood-heated cabin without running water. We love to play outside, catch fish, and forage for wild plants.

You can find me on my website, Awaken Your Glow, and Instagram.

https://www.awakenyourglow.com/

https://www.instagram.com/awakenyourglow/

Master The Psychology of the Supermarket

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This information is courtesy of bon appetit and the research they have put together from a massive study on how we buy food.

Here, we summarize the most interesting pieces of information discovered about how supermarkets are designed, how and why we buy what we choose, and how it’s all a trap!!

I want you to be aware of these things the next time you go to the grocery store so you can be mindful about why you’re walking the direction you are, what you are choosing to put in your cart (with which hand!) and how many items you are walking past to get to what you actually wanted in the first place!

The five experts who contributed to the original study are:

• BA senior food editor Dawn Perry
• Environmental psychologist Paco Underhill and author of What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping
• Architect and supermarket designer Kevin Kelley, of the firm Shook Kelley
• The director of the graduate nutrition program at the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University, Sharon Akabas
• Efficiency expert Gwynnae Byrd

• “Upward of 50 percent of what we buy in a supermarket we had no intention of buying as we walked in the door,” psychologist Underhill says.

• The average supermarket has 64,000 products (you’d have to eat or use more than 175 different products every day for a year before you tried everything once).

• There are too many choices!! With this vast array of options, our brains overload and instead of the two items on our list, we come out with 20! Marketers are really good at getting us to buy stuff we don’t need.

• The primary goal of supermarkets is to subtly convince shoppers to spend more time inside, to give products more opportunities to fly into your cart!

• Very similar to casinos, it is rare to see many indicators of the time, like clocks, skylights, or even windows.

• Dairy is generally in the back corner—the deepest section of the store, because virtually everyone who walks in has some dairy product on their list. (aka stop buying dairy!! check out this blog for the reasons why!)

• About nine in ten people are right-handed, and a counterclockwise route through the store makes it easier for right-handed people to put stuff in their carts. (really!! can you imagine who studied and realized this!)

• Most stores work better with a counterclockwise circulation pattern because you tend to push your cart with your left hand and pick things up with your right hand.

• Of every ten people who walk through the entrance, only one will go down the soda aisle, so supermarkets hijack shoppers’ subconscious to linger in these aisles, often by literally slowing them down with bumpier or tackier floor surfaces. (or giant bins in the centre of the aisle that need stop lights to navigate)

• It is not a coincidence that brightly coloured, sugar-laden cereals with the new kiddie-cartoon craze is on the shelf at knee level – it’s in the perfect line of sight for a six-year-old kid.

• The point of those bite-sized food samples is not only to get you to buy a particular product. It’s to trick your body into thinking it’s hungry. And we all know what happens when we shop hungry!!

These are really interesting points to consider when you are navigating your grocery store. Be aware of these subconscious tricks to get us to buy more, eat more, spend more and consume more and be sure you are only buying what you set out to buy! (Stay in the produce section as much as possible!)

With Sources From:

http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/supermarket-psychology