Jennifer talked about emotional eating.

This week, Jennifer led a discussion about emotional eating and how to overcome triggers. Often, we connect memories with eating. Jennifer shared that she connects summertime memories with popcorn jelly beans. Patty added that having after school snacks while growing up sometimes led to her eating without being hungry.

We don’t have to be a slave to our emotions.

Trigger #1: Stress

Another cause of emotional eating is stress. While sometimes, we can’t avoid stressful situations, there are strategies we can use to combat eating because of stress. Here are some examples: deep breathing, music, and time management.

Trigger #2: Sadness and Loneliness

Sadness and loneliness often lead to a depression-eating cycle. To combat these emotions, we can exercise, play with a pet (yours or someone else’s), stay connected with friends, and volunteer.

Trigger #3: Boredom

Boredom is a big trigger for many.  When grazing, we often eat mindlessly and don’t pay attention to portion sizes, calories, etc. Some ideas to avoid eating because of boredom include the following: don’t eat in front of the TV, develop a new hobby, read or join a book club, and play a game.

Whatever your trigger, remember: emotional eating can be overcome. Planning a strategy is key.

The Troll in Lelia’s Life

At our Oct. 3, 2013 meeting, Lelia talked about her “troll,” which sits on her shoulder and encourages her to do things that are not in her best interest. Some of us imagine a little devil, some call it a gremlin, but Lelia used a troll to describe that little voice that everyone has inside his or her head and sabotages our good intentions.

Lelia encouraged us to beat our “troll” at the Oct. 3 2013 meeting.

Get Back into My Pocket and Shut Up!

To combat this nasty little troll, Lelia got a troll doll with flaming orange hair. Thus, when her “troll” voice whispered in her ear, she had a tangential object to help put it back in its place. We can talk to the troll, stand up to it, and yes, beat it!

Beat the Troll

Since it’s football season, Lelia’s discussion of many of the rest of the year’s weight hazards came with grid iron strategy. As pictured above, you can see that the end of year penalty flags can come from Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas–just to name a few. We need to push the troll back deep into its own territory.

The troll can’t take away control of our game unless we give it to him.

Halloween

We discussed several strategies to push the troll back at Halloween. The troll encourages us to buy Halloween candy early and buy plenty. We suspect that the troll may not intend all the candy go to trick-o-treaters. The troll also encourages us to buy candy for our friends and co-workers, and to eat all of the leftovers. Here are some responses we have for the troll:

Linda: They are old and diabetic and shouldn’t have any, anyway.

Patty: Dump leftovers in the last trick-o-treater’s bag.

Darcy: Take it to work

Gayle: My troll has lost its voice

Tailgating

Tammy: Tell the troll to shut up or I’ll stick this carrot censored.

Lelia: I don’t have to eat high calorie food; no one will notice what I eat.

Thanksgiving/Christmas

The troll tells that we must eat some of what everyone brought, that we hate for people to go home with an empty dish, we want to try it for the recipe, and we can blow it now and try again at the first of the year. Here is what we tell the troll:

Jana: Go ahead and fill your entire plate, but don’t let any food touch.

Ali: If everyone else jumped off a bridge…

Tammy: Throw the troll off the bridge

Give leftovers to hungry people (Patty) or throw them in the trash (Ali).

Betty M.: Make lower calorie dishes

Darcy: Plan ahead

Patty: Duct tape the troll’s mouth

Darcy: Put the troll in the trunk of the car

Betty M.: [Tell the troll that] one will be enough

Lelia: I want to lose weight more than I want the fudge

As we reach the beginning of the end of year food hazards, remember: We control our own game!

GO TOPS!