Eat Without Guilt » Emotional Eating

How to Avoid Overeating During the Holidays

Dinneen — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:17:58 +0000

As someone who helps women with their eating, I surprise people all the time when I’m at a holiday party. They see me eating the brie with soft crusty bread (and she’s going back for more!), then later headed to the dessert table for a few holiday cookies (how could she?!). They can’t help wonder how on earth I do it — keep my weight in check and help other women do the same. The trick is to avoid all the typical holiday diet “advice” — avoid certain foods, eat before the party, only take one serving. Instead, you need to approach the holidays (and frankly, ALL year) with an easier and softer approach for both body and mind. Here are some of my favorite suggestions: 1) Make every bite count. Do you want to fill up on all the appetizers and then not have room for dessert? When you… Read more

Afraid of Overindulging in Candy this Halloween?

Dinneen — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:46:18 +0000

With Halloween approaching, I know this can be a difficult time for many people ~ especially emotional eaters. With all of the candy around, it’s tough to not overindulge in chocolate, feel ‘bad’ or guilty for eating so much of it — and then get into the spiral of eating MORE of the candy, or having it for breakfast on Nov 1st (okay, maybe that was me years ago). Though I have written about how to conquer your candy cravings at Halloween in the past, and the tips and advice I gave I still stand by today. But as I’m constantly learning, becoming more aware, and after working with and helping hundreds of women — my insight is deeper & more profound. As many of my readers are emotional eaters (and let’s face it — there’s a lot of emotion attached to food, so who hasn’t eaten for emotional reasons at some… Read more

Halloween: 9 Tips to Conquer Your Candy Cravings

Dinneen — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:54:26 +0000

Remember being a kid and getting all excited about Halloween? Deciding on who or what you wanted to dress up as, creating a costume, and being able to get all of that candy!! Yet now as an adult, thoughts of all that candy is the scariest part of Halloween. There’s just too much of it around and you don’t know how to conquer your candy cravings. So here are some tips to help you tackle the holiday and manage all of those treats: 1) Wait to buy the candy until the day of Halloween. Especially if candy is one of your trigger foods. Know yourself. If keeping it around is going to be just too tempting, then wait until buying it. 2) Don’t purchase your favorite candy. I know for me, it’s Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (and Kit Kat, and M&M’s, and….okay…there’s a lot I do like!) So… Read more

What Is Your Food Legacy?

Dinneen — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:53:40 +0000

Though at first it might be hard to believe, but your thoughts, feelings and attitudes toward food began a long time ago. Probably when you were a child. “But wait,” you might be thinking. ”I ate normally as a child. I didn’t have any problems with food back then!” On that point, you may or may not be right. Maybe you were overweight as a child. Maybe you weren’t. But that’s not the (main) point here. You see, attitudes toward food begin at home. The environment in which you were raised has subtly but powerfully influenced your current attitudes toward food. They became part of you whether consciously, or unconsciously….but how your parents and your family viewed food is probably still with you today. For example: Did your parents ever tell you to finish your plate, even if you were full? Was your mother, father, or sibling ever on a… Read more

Have Your Pizza and Eat It Too

Dinneen — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:44:36 +0000

The other evening I went out to dinner with my husband when something really struck me that I wanted to share with you… I looked over at the next table and saw a young girl who had a piece of pizza on the plate in front of her. I saw the mother trying to coax her to eat, but the girl was just too interested in looking around, saying hi to other people in the restaurant, and she even got up to check out flowers in the restaurant. Then she went back to her seat, started talking to her brother, and then finally (after about 5 minutes) she took her first bite of pizza. And then it hit me — that’s what Intuitive Eating (also called mindful eating) is all about. About getting back to that place where *life* is more interesting and fulfilling that food isn’t so important anymore.… Read more

Will Work For Food

Dinneen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:30:53 +0000

A few weeks ago I had a bit on an epiphany. It was after lunch. I had eaten a small lunch so a few hours later was hungry and decided to have some of the nuts my husband had bought. But these weren’t a can or container of nuts. These were “real” nuts. You know, the kind with the shell still on them? There were Brazil nuts, almonds, and walnuts. So I took a handful and started opening them one-by-one with a nutcracker (let me remind you I haven’t done this in years). As I was doing this I realized I was putting effort into eating. In other words, I had to WORK to get my food. And anyone who has opened nuts with a nutcracker knows that it takes time. With the time and effort it took, after about five minutes I had eaten about only 7 or 8… Read more

When Food Becomes the Enemy

Dinneen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:11:11 +0000

Note: This article I originally wrote for the blog of Miz Fit Online as a guest post last year (you can read the original post here). But it’s message and usefulness has not changed, so I wanted to share it with you this week. -Dinneen As a weight loss coach and mentor, I help many women lose weight, look better AND feel better, and I’m constantly meeting women who struggle with food and their weight. And I get it, as I’ve been there myself. For years I struggled to lose weight, and even when I was finally “thin,” I spent many more years eating low-fat, low-calorie, and low-tasting foods. Food and eating was not an enjoyment for me. Any food I ate that was remotely decadent or a “bad” food, left me feeling guilty and eventually lead me to overeat. And so started a vicious cycle of dieting, losing weight,… Read more

Do You Know How to Listen to Your Hunger?

Dinneen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:25:13 +0000

You’ve probably heard over and over again “eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.” Good advice, but often people tell me that they don’t even know what hungry feels like. They either feel hungry all to time, or can’t decipher if their “hunger” is true hunger or emotional hunger. Many people on their weight-loss journey have lost their ability to even know what real (ie biological) hunger feels like. And it’s more common than you think. The Clock Strikes 12 For some people it’s simply because they’ve never allowed themselves to be hungry. They eat all the time. Or they eat simply because it’s meal-time. The clock say’s 12 noon so they just eat. They’re not really hungry, but they’ve been eating at this time for so long they actually think they’re hungry. But their body isn’t giving them the signals. They have just been on… Read more

A Powerful First Step to Ending Comfort Eating

Dinneen — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:45:23 +0000

Many of us at one time or another have eaten for comfort. It’s common to reach for food when we are bored, stressed, unhappy with life, upset, or depressed. So we eat in an attempt to feel better, get rid of the boredom, de-stress, or cheer up. Yet while we reach to the food for comfort, in the end it does the exact opposite. When you eat for comfort you don’t eat for pleasure and savor the taste, smell and texture of the food. Instead, you eat mindlessly and afterwards are more likely to feel miserable and guilty about overeating. In fact, you probably end up feeling worse after the comfort eating than you did before! Most of the time, eating fails to provide you with the comfort you seek. If you have relied too much on comfort eating to get rid of stress or cheer you up, you… Read more

Are You On the Roller Coaster Ride of Eating?

Dinneen — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:49:28 +0000

As I get many questions from readers, I’ve decided to start answering some here on my blog. Here’s one from this week: Q: I feel like my day is a constant roller coaster ride of eating based on EMOTIONS, so I feel it’s hard for me to listen to my body like I so often hear we should do. A: Let me tell you, I used to be first in line on the roller coaster ride! I’ve had almost every emotion imaginable when it comes to food. It seemed my day would be a “good” day or “bad” day based upon what I ate. Think about it, basing your day solely what you eat should not be how we live our lives. But I did that. Even within a day I would have these highs & lows around food — so I get that. A few months… Read more