Video and Lesson

Now that we have walked through the steps to overcome emotional eating, we would like to give you some practical tips to continue the journey.

1. Plan and be prepared to have healthy snacks in your pantry and fridge. You can find several healthy suggestions for snacks on our website, linked below, as well as healthy meals, sides, and desserts. We’ve asked you to journal the foods you are turning to when you feel emotions and get rid of those foods from your house if they are unhealthy. Really, give them away or throw them away.

2. Exercise each day. Any form of exercise can relieve stress or anxiety. Get up and move your body to increase your endorphins, which will improve your emotional well-being. As you begin to regularly remove stress through daily physical activity, you will find more energy and optimism to help you stay calm, clear, and focused in everything you do. Check out the link below to find several workouts that range from chair work to high-impact options.

3. Boredom is a big issue with overeating that can easily be overcome by having a list of choices that you can pull from to find an activity to keep your mind busy and avoid turning back to eating. Go for a walk, call an old friend, write a card to someone who could use some love.

4. Don’t deprive yourself with a diet that cuts virtually everything out of your diet. If you are so restricted on what you eat, you will be vulnerable in this weakened state and be set up for failure. Unhappiness from deprivation will cause you to give up. Instead, eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Moderation is important, and breaking from unhealthy foods, especially sugar, is the key to success. Again, you can find many healthy and great-tasting options for healthy foods on the website linked below.

5. Finally, cut guilt and shame out of your self-talk. Guilt sets in when you feel you have deviated from the ridiculous set of restrictive food standards that you have applied to your “diet”. If you eat one bite of a cookie, guilt washes over you, and you decide to give up. Then the shame comes on when a person who has cheated feels they lack the strength to succeed. Make the decision right after that one bite of cookie to remember your identity as a healthy eater and make wise choices at the next opportunity. Do not wait until tomorrow, next Monday, or next year. Decide immediately that you will lean on God and be successful!

I love this quote from Mary Pickford, “If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

Each day we have a fresh start. God makes ALL things new!

Enjoy this final video to give you the courage to finally find freedom from guilt and emotional eating.