Guilt and Overeating

Guilt is the feeling that so many feel because over overeating on Thanksgiving and during the holidays. It’s the time of year when many people overeat. One reason this happens is that these foods are only available during THIS time of year! It’s the same reason you overeat when you label foods as “bad” and try not to eat them the rest of the year. 

If you are still feeling bad about your weight and secretly hope that the weight will go away, your brain knows that you have negative feelings about your body. Those guilty feelings cause STRESS. And stress alone can alter your metabolism and effect your weight!

If you make a purchase of an article of clothing because it’s a smaller size than your regular size, you have a diet mentality. If you avoid getting into those Thanksgiving photos because you don’t like what you look like, you have diet mentality. If you overexercise on Friday after Thanksgiving you have diet mentality.

Dieting Mentality Causes Overeating

When you allow yourself to eat ANY food, it is no longer the food you binge on when your inhibitions are lowered. Have you ever heard of anyone binging on broccoli? It doesn’t happen! Broccoli is delicious (with olive oil, garlic and lemon). But no matter how great it tastes you won’t over eat it because it’s a “good food”. You will never feeling guilty if you overeat salad or vegetables.

I Love Chocolate

Like most women, I LOVE chocolate. But because I allowed myself to eat it whenever I want, I don’t overeat it. But when I eat chocolate I don’t do anything else. I let it melt in my mouth, swirl it around and really eat it mindfully. It's like a meditation. I make it last. And it does last and I don’t overdo it! And the important thing is: I never feel guilty about eating chocolate.Because after all you eat chocolate because you love the taste. 

One time I too a piece of chocolate and I was going to another room to do some ironing. When I arrived in the room I realized that I had just eaten the chocolate, but because I was thinking about what I had to iron I realized that I didn't even taste it!  It was wasted! 

It was like when you're listening to someone talk to you in the car, and you arrive at your destination and don't even realize how you got there! Your brain can only think about one thing at a time. That's why you have to really eat mindfully to taste and enjoy your food. And you must eat mindfully to realize that you're full and to stop eating! Otherwise you'll just eat everything on your plate without even enjoying it!

Have you ever watched someone who is really savoring a meal? They close their eyes. They chew slowly. They really focus on the taste and experience of eating! But people who have a diet mindset often hide eating from others. They are ashamed of "indulging" instead of eating and enjoying their food. That is NOT a way to live! 

Feeling Guilty About Overeating

This is the real evidence about whether you are still in diet mind or diet mentality: feeling guilty - and even sneaking or hiding certain foods.

Do you feel guilty if you are thirsty and drink a lot of water? Of COURSE NOT! But if you’ve been a dieter, or if you are unhappy with your body, guilt is an emotion you live with when it comes to food. It’s probably the hardest emotion to extinguish permanently. It’s because females have been conditioned from the time we started eating solid food as babies about not getting pudgy or plump or GOD FORBID- FAT!! All that guilt causes chronic stress in your body. You probably have negative thoughts about your body and your weight many times a day!

Only YOU know the truth. Answer yourself in your head and heart. If you feel guilty after eating, you need to change your stressful mindset. If you feel that you couldn’t eat ANYTHING in front of ANYONE, that is because of shame. This is such a hard emotion to overcome.

Tap Away Guilt of Eating

When you have a strong emotion, a very effective method of releasing and overcoming those negative feelings is by using EFT Tapping. That stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It’s a tool that you use on yourself by tapping on acupuncture points on your head and body. The important thing is to be feeing the emotion as you are doing this process and tapping on these points.

EFT tapping points for Emotional Freedom Technique on the head and body of a outline drawing of woman

EFT tapping is really an amazing method of releasing the negative emotions and lowering your stress levels. So often people eat from stress. It’s the way we were nurtured and shown love when we were just newborns. It’s the original conditioning that we received and it stays with us our entire lives.

The mistake many people make it thinking that they will tap one time and the stressful feelings will go away. For some lucky people that may be the way it works, but for most people, especially when you’re had these feelings for decades, it will take longer to turn them off. You may feel an improvement quickly, or you may have to continue to practice whenever the guilty or stressful feeling arise.

Awareness of Your Emotions

Become aware of your emotions is the most important first step. Pay attention and describe your feelings so you can then “tap” on them and lessen the effect. If you are around other people and don’t want them to see you tapping, you can tap on your hand!

Make sure to subscribe this site, because I’ll be adding new instructions for guilt about overeating shortly! Help is on the way! Learn to jettison that diet mentality of guilt and forgive yourself. When you lower your guilty feelings and your stress levels go down, your life will be so much better! You deserve it…. and who knows, for some people just lowering stress levels will help their weight management.

Love yourself the way your dog loves you! Young or old; tall or short; thin or heavy - Accept yourself the way you are and stop concerning yourself about what others think of you. Be even better to yourself than your own best friend!

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binging, mindful eating, Self-acceptance

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