These are issues we all face - boredom eating, stress eating, and emotional eating.

However, we don’t have to deal with them for the rest of our lives - for REAL.

Here’s how to stop doing them for good.

My #1 recommendation…

Is to read the book Intuitive Eating by Resch and Tribole.

Intuitive Eating is a process where you’re able to listen to your body, eat when you’re hungry & stop when you’re full, and not eat out of boredom, stress, and emotional reasons.

They take you through the different types of eaters which are listed here. Can you identify yourself? You may be a combination!

The Chaotic Eater - eating style is haphazard, “gulp n’ go”
The Refuse-Not Eater - especially vulnerable to candy jars, food in meetings
The Waste-Not Eater - influenced by the value of the food dollar
The Emotional Eater - stress feelings trigger eating
The Careful Eater - appears to be the perfect eater but anguishes over each food morsel
The Professional Dieter - this person is perpetually dieting
The Unconscious Eater - often unaware that she is eating or how much she’s eaten

But the Intuitive Eater on the other hand (which is the goal of this book, to have you become an intuitive eater) makes food choices without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma. She honors her hunger, respects her fullness, and enjoys the pleasure of eating.

By reading this book, food loses its control over you - it puts you 100% in control of your life and what you’re eating.

It truly changed my life when I read it - and was critical in helping me get past all of my food issues (that I had had for 10+ years).

The core principles of Intuitive Eating are:

Reject the Diet Mentality
Honor Your Hunger
Make Peace with Food
Challenge the Food Police
Respect Your Fullness
Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food
Respect Your Body
Exercise–Feel the Difference
Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

Now, I am a very goal-oriented person - with myself and and with my incredible group of ladies.

For weight loss I do recommend tracking what you’re eating with an app like the LoseIt app (which is my fave app because it’s more accurate and less complicated than MyFitnessPal) to get a really good, accurate picture of what’s going on in your life and how you can make specific changes to feel so much better.

Therefore! I do find parts of Intuitive Eating to be confusing to people when they’re tracking - so these are the chapters of Intuitive Eating that I recommend reading or listening to (I always prefer to listen!).

Chapter 2: What Kind of Eater Are You (Chapter 4 on Audible)

Chapter 6: Principle 2: Honor Your Hunger (Chapter 8 on Audible; following chapters are sequential on Audible)
Chapter 7: Principle 3: Make Peace with Food
Chapter 8: Principle 4: Challenge the Food Police
Chapter 9: Principle 5: Feel Your Fullness
Chapter 10: Principle 6: Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Chapter 11: Principle 7: Cope with Your Emotions without Using Food
Chapter 12: Principle 8: Respect Your Body
Chapter 13: Exercise–Feel the Difference
Chapter 14: Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition

When reading Intuitive Eating, I recommend making big lists of:

Foods that you love (you should eat the foods you love every day - whether that’s pizza, ice cream, salad, you name it. Eating should always be an enjoyable experience).
Foods that you do NOT like - don’t waste your time & energy on these
Activities you can do that distract you and comfort you - whether it’s taking a bath, taking a walk, reading a magazine, you name it. Here is a good list of activities to start with.