How To Combat Over Eating

Cravings. Would you agree that they creep up at the worst time? Seriously. When you’re at your weakest point, there they are whispering sweet nothings and toying with your emotions. It’s a chemical thing – your brain has pleasure and reward centers that literally CRAVE certain foods.

Before you know it, a few indulgences later and you feel like you’ve taken ten steps back on all your progress. Thankfully, we’ve been there and we can help. But more importantly, we’d like to remind you that ten steps back doesn’t mean you can’t LEAP FROG forward, either! In other words, don’t despair over progress lost. With enough grit and determination, you can make big changes in record time and get back to doing your triumphant happy dance.

We work through the mental clutter like this in our Get Fit Challenge (including our Cleanse30 nutrition reset). Shameless plug: we’ve got literally just 3 spots left. WHOA! We’ve never sold out this fast. We are pretty dang excited to inspire lives this season and beyond. If you struggle with things like overeating, motivation, and lack of structure – this challenge is for you, hands down. We sold out this season, but you can get on the waiting list for next season by going here.

Now, let’s scroll down for some awesome tips to enhance your life and beat overeating for good!

Tip: Eating out? Put 1/2 of it away in a to-go box before starting your meal. 

It’s no secret that most restaurants serve two, three, four times the amount of food in a normal serving. Once you dive in it’s easy to lose track of how much food is really on your plate and to feel overly stuffed in no time. The solution? Before starting your meal, politely ask for a to-go box. Once it’s served, put 1/2 of your plate in the box and enjoy your meal. Your digestive system will be a much happier camper, as will you.

Tip: Six meals per day is a myth. 

How many times have you heard that for an efficient metabolism you need to eat six times per day? In theory, it makes surface level sense. But when you dive into the deeper science, you’re never really giving your digestive system a break. Plus, maybe you’re not the grazing type and you’re forcing yourself to eat throughout the day when that doesn’t work for you personally. The key is to find a system that will A) Help you feel satiated and energetic throughout the day and B) Not lead to overeating. For example, some people that have tried the six meals per day thing found they were going overboard and obsessing about food. Not a good place to be. For some, six meals a day works. For others, maybe it’s intermittent fasting or the standard breakfast + lunch + dinner and a couple snacks. The bottom line is, find out what works for you and stick to it! If you feel good and feeding your body nutrient dense foods, you’re on the right track.

Tip: Learn the difference between boredom and true hunger. 

Show of hands: how many times have you reached for food because of pure boredom? Don’t be shy. You’re not alone – we’re over here exuberantly raising our hands, too! Boredom eating is a common issue even more so now that we are always plugged in. We toggle between different apps and electronics because we can no longer STAND to be bored and we’re trying to fill that imaginary void. And wouldn’t you know, there’s some random food you probably don’t really want, looking mighty appealing. The next time you suspect boredom as the true source of your “hunger”, follow this protocol:

• Drink 16 ounces of water. 
• Go for a walk, read 10 pages of a book or just do anything that keeps you occupied for around 10-20 minutes.  
• Have some delicious herbal tea. 

Then, reassess: are you still feeling hunger? If so, EAT! If not, move on.

Tip: Out of sight, out of mind. 

Let’s keep it real. If there’s a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer, you’re going to eat it. If scrumptious processed carbs (think crackers and chips) are nestled in the cupboard, they’re going be devoured. If you keep certain trigger foods in the house, you’re going to eat them eventually. Period. And it’s usually more on the binge spectrum than a little here and there. The solution? Don’t keep them in the house! Make it inconvenient to indulge in the unnecessary craving, then get to work on not craving it at all (we touch on the emotional aspect of food in the Get Fit challenge).

Tip: Stomach shrinkage? It’s a thing. 

When you go from mindless overeating to conscious food consumption, a key shift takes place internally. As you naturally reduce the amount of food you’re eating, your stomach starts to shrink! What does this mean? Eventually you’ll need less food to fill up. The road there can be tricky (and full of mood swings) but trust that change is a-comin’.

Tip: Figure out your triggers. 

When do you find that you’re most likely to overeat? Something stressful happens at work? A long day and your willpower is diminished (because willpower DOES get depleted throughout the day)? Once you start to understand your patterns, you can work around them. For example, if big dinners are your jam, go on with your bad self. Just be mindful throughout the day so you can enjoy that big dinner without guilting yourself (an extremely harmful emotion when it comes to food and overeating). In other words, know thyself.

Tip: MEAL PREP!!!!!

See all those exclamation marks? That’s us, screaming from the rooftops that you NEED to meal prep. Okay so it takes two, MAYBE three hours. You know what takes longer? The daily mental struggle of “What will I have to eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner?” and then choosing where you will go, getting in your car and taking time to drive over there, waiting in line, shelling out unnecessary money … you catch our drift? You spend WAY more than 2-3 hours per week eating out when you don’t meal prep, hands down! It doesn’t feel this way in the moment because of something called the compound effect, but it all adds up. And if your solution is to eat a bunch of processed store bought nonsense, well you already know how we feel about that ? (HINT: not a good idea).

So there you have it. Our top tips for stopping the overeating cycle. In our Get Fit challenge, we dive more into the emotions behind it and overcoming those roadblocks. If you’re ready to change it up and enjoy the structure and accountability of a program that’s all mapped out for you, we’d love to see you get on the waiting list for next season join us and snag one of the 3 remaining spots.

Cheers to your health,

Sham & Christina

About Inspired Wellness
We are a wellness movement aimed at cultivating greatness in all areas of life. We believe that everything is connected and that having the body of your dreams shouldn’t come at the price of your mental and emotional health. You CAN have it all; you just need some determination, grit and the desire to truly change your life!

Catch us locally in sunny Sacramento CA inspiring lives at our wellness center with fitness, nutrition and lifestyle programs, or online doing the same thing with our new online training site + community coming soon!

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