5 Simple Tips to Overcome Compulsive/Emotional Eating and Eliminate the Self-Sabotage that Ensues

I came home Sunday afternoon starving!…

As soon as I walked in the door, sitting on my counter was a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I didn't want to “give in” to the immediate temptation because I had decided just 20 minutes prior to arriving home that I was going to start my day with a fresh pressed juice or smoothie to get back on track.

This past weekend was a bit hectic between work and social gatherings, and so my “diet” (I like to call it a Live-it) had been severely derailed. I had been eating a ton of sweets (mainly Edel’s legendary Banana Bread Foster, and delicious homemade Ezekiel bread pudding prepared by a very talented chef) and a lot of refined, processed white carbs (pasta upon pasta upon pasta). Because I had been eating so much of that stuff, naturally I was eating so little of all the other stuff- fruits and veggies!

Now, two things happen when you eat a lot of simple, white carbs (pastas, breads, cookies, cakes, chips):

1. You end up crowding out all of the other good, healthy stuff- the leafy greens; cruciferous veggies; anti-oxidant berries; sweet succulent apples; grounding, warming root veggies (sweet potato, squashes); the fibrous and protein packed whole grains (quinoa, kasha, millet, amaranth), the omega fatty, heart and brain healthy, super-foods (avocado, walnuts, wild caught salmon).

2. You crave more of the carbs and a lot of sugar too, because white carbs turn into sugar very quickly in the body, spiking blood sugar levels and then dropping them drastically, leaving you hungry again quickly and wanting more sugar. What you put into your body, your body- and taste buds- will crave.


So, this is what happened. I was starving, I hadn’t been eating nutritiously, so my body was craving the same stuff that I had been giving it; and I gave in. I ate not one cookie, but three. Then a handful (or two) of chocolate covered pretzels. Ahh… That instant gratification, that feeling of euphoria as the sugar instantaneously released seratonin, and then… Immediate disappointment in myself because I failed to stick to my commitment.

Can you relate to this? I’m sure you can. We’ll all been there. We say we’re going to do one thing, then somehow end up doing the complete opposite, and then we feel really bad about it...

But how long do you let yourself feel really bad about it?

Just as quickly as those feelings of instant gratification had fleeted to be replaced by the disappointment, so did that same self-inflicted disappointment. I was able to snap out of my self-sabotage rather quickly.

What has awarded me the power to do so is many years of practicing self-love (which is still- and always will be- a work in progress). I took a deep breath, allowing me to escape all of the negative self-talk in my mind and became present again (as opposed to the previous unconscious inhalation of sugar). I drank a huge glass of water and just Let It Go.

Here are 5 Simple Tips you can use to Overcome Compulsive/Emotional Eating, and Eliminate the Self-Sabotage that Ensues:

1. Sit down: HOW we eat is just as important as WHAT we eat. I find that if I am eating standing up, I am not pacing myself; I am shoveling and I am not relaxed. The most important part of eating is creating that relaxing space for yourself to thoroughly, slowly, and mindfully enjoy your food. When you add this how element to what you eat, your body is going to be able to digest properly, you will get fuller faster, and you will be less likely to crave seconds, as well as sweets afterward. You will have given your stomach ample time to send the signal to your brain that you are satisfied and no longer hungry.

2. Drink water: I didn’t have any water that day when I woke up (which is never like me, but it happens), and by the time I got home in the afternoon I was twice as hungry. If I had drank a glass of water before I put any food into my mouth, I guarantee I would not have been so inclined to grab the first thing I saw- the sweets. Water fills the belly. Most times when we think we are hungry, we are really very thirsty. Drinking water on an empty stomach allows your body to assimilate the hydration, stabilize blood sugar levels, and control appetite; consequently motivating you to make nutritious food choices.

Extra tip: It helps to have healthy food on hand, so if you do happen to be starving and reaching to grab the first thing you see, at least it will be one of these top 10 heathy staples.

3. Take a deep breath: Mind-body connection. Deep inhale in, deep exhale out. Repeat. Get present. Bring attention back into your body. I was out all morning running around, and all I needed when I got in the door was just to sit down, have a glass of water, and take a moment to relax and gather my thoughts. Had I done that instead of grabbing the sweets, I would have been more present in my body to make a healthier food choice.

4. Let it go: Don't let your mind linger too long with self-defeating thoughts. Speak to yourself the way you'd speak to a cherished person in your life, or the way you'd want a loved one to speak to you. Allow yourself to Let. It. Go. Tip #3 helps with being able to do that.

5. Remember the 80/20: Once you've mindfully and gracefully "let it go," recommit to the 80/20. Eighty percent of the time you stick to your “Live it”- engaging in health-enhancing behaviors and eating foods that energize you, make you feel good and look good. Then the other 20% is for the flexibility of life. There’s no reason why you should be holding yourself back from indulging in sweets and beer, or feeling bad if you've missed the gym. That 20% is built in for you to be OK with stuff like that, because you know that the other 80% you're doing great for yourself.

Rigidity won’t take you very far. It will only keep you stuck and in your own way. Be gentle on yourself. Life is meant to be lived and thoroughly enjoyed. Let yourself savor each step.

Can you relate? How does this resonate with you?

Which one of these tips can you begin to incorporate into your life today?

I'd love to hear from you.

Please share your comments in the space below.

Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

Everyone knows instinctively, when they stop worrying and obsessing over all the contradictory, conflicting information out there, what their body needs and wants not only nutritionally, but also emotionally, socially, physically, and spiritually. 

It is encoded within our DNA, as our ability to survive and seek pleasure. We know when we're thirsty, when we're hungry, the lungs know how to breathe, the heart knows how to pump blood through the body, our eye lids know how to blink to keep the eyes lubricated and functioning properly. So why is it that when it comes to food, we are so confused? This fundamental human instinct of nutritionally supporting our bodies with food has become so difficult for so many people to do. For so many reasons. 

Here is where Health Coach Steph comes in. I help you tune out all of the other shit- all of the confusing information, fad diets, quick cleanses; and I help you get in touch deeply with what your body, mind, and soul is truly desiring when it comes to food choices, lifestyle choices, and social-relationship choices. Because I've been there. On and off crash diets, on and off binges, food disorders, body image dysmorphic syndrome, compulsive-emotional eating. Food was my outlet. It was the only control I had in my life- or so I thought at a young age. Then over the last 10 years, I've become empowered, educated, and thus passionate about helping others heal and move through these difficult obstacles.

Now, I help guide my clients in determining what is positively serving their life and what isn't; and how to remove what's not, and increase what is. I empower you to trust your instincts when it comes to not only nutritionally supporting your body, but physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually supporting your life. Because believe it or not all of these areas are interconnected and they all impact each other. This is what I call Primary Food- all the stuff that feeds our soul and drives us to enjoy the life we live. Then comes Secondary Food- the food that we put onto our plates.

You see, we are 99% the same and 1% different. But that 1% difference is huge and it's what bio-individuality is all about. What works for one person isn't going to work for another. A "diet" your friend is on may not necessarily be what your body needs. Every single body is different in what it requires to thrive at any given time. I have a dear friend; she can put down a 16oz steak in one sitting, and I think to myself how the hell can you do that? Her body just does very well with meat and she feels good eating it. My body, on the other hand does not require that at all and I'd feel like shit if I ate that.

Now that we're on the topic of meat, let's talk about BACON.

Years ago, if you put bacon in front of me, I’d feel repulsed. I’d be angry watching you cook it and eat it. It would seriously bother me. I hated it, believed it to be the most unhealthy thing you could put into your body. I had a serious moral discrepancy about it because I felt really bad for the piggies. I still do. (That's another topic for conversation for another time.)

However, fast forward a couple years, all of a sudden one day, I had the weirdest craving for BACON! I was like what the hell is this? So, I did what any Health Coach would do. I acknowledged the craving, dissected it a bit, and came to the conclusion that perhaps that craving was because I needed a little more salt in my diet, or some more protein. So I started adding more vegan sources of protein to my meals- beans wherever I could, more hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, more quinoa and kasha, walnuts, almonds, lentils, eggs, goat cheese!

But the cravings for bacon didn’t subside. 

It wasn’t beef, or chicken, or pork. It was specifically bacon. I hadn't eaten bacon since I was about 10, and now all of a sudden my body was relentlessly urging me to just EAT BACON! So I went to Trader Joe, and picked up Nitrate-free, hormone-free, humanely (as humane as slaughtering animals can possibly be, right) raised bacon. I went home (this was about a year ago) and put a pan on, but realized I had never even cooked bacon before. Needless to say, I fried that shit up, took one bite of that crispy bacon, and everything around me just stopped. It was absolutely delicious. My taste buds were having a happy dance party in my mouth. I stood still for a good 5 minutes, inhaling the smell of this delectable bacon, and enjoying every single bite I took. I savored that shit, like I’ve never savored anything else in my life. And thought to myself, "What the f%^* have I been missing all this time?!"

The moral of this story is:

1. Bacon is amazing.

2. Tune into what your body craves and desires.

I had to understand that what had once worked for me (not eating bacon), just didn't work for me anymore. You see, what works for your body at one time in your life, will not necessarily work for your body for all of your life. Our bodies are constantly changing and our minds are constantly changing, because life is continually happening; and as long as we are continually growing, we will require different things at different times. Especially when it comes to food.

Being able to get in touch with that is key. Knowing where your body is at at different stages of your life in imperative. This is an example of tuning in.. 

I still don’t have a high meat diet, but once in a while, my body will crave bacon, and I will acknowledge that craving and honor it, as mindfully and as wakefully as possible. Because that works for me now. And I don't feel bad about it, or beat myself up about it, mentally. Because the thoughts we have about eating something “bad” physiologically does more damage than the actual the food we put into our bodies. It’s the science of epigenetics. Our thoughts are pretty powerful.

And plus, new science has now shown, contrary to the belief of saturated fat being the cause of heart disease, it is now, in fact, sugar and carbohydrates which contribute greatly to heart disease and clogged arteries. The field of nutrition is amazing. It is constantly changing, with new information constantly emerging, debunking old ideas, supporting once debunked ideas, contradicting two things in the same study, confusing the shit out us, putting us into a place of paralysis where we don't know what the hell to eat. Believe me, I've been there. Hence the battle of anorexia and food disorders in my teens. 


This is more so of a reason to understand the utmost importance of tuning into your own unique body. This takes precedence over any fad diet, crash diet, paleo diet, vegan diet, whatever diet. Doesn't matter. Just listen to what your body needs and wants, and honor it. 

Now, as a Health Coach I'm able to teach people how to do this. I empower women to get in touch with their bodies from the inside-out, re-establish a healthy relationship to food and to themselves, and find their self-love, self-worth, and confidence; and thus start living their most desired life. It's truly incredible. 

How does this resonate with you?

How can you begin to tune into your body and develop a deeper relationship to what you truly need and desire?

Let’s talk.

I can help you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.