6 Major Differences Between Physical Hunger & Emotional Hunger

How do you improve your relationship with food?
Here’s a tool for you:
→    Food & Mood Journal

Let’s see how you can give it a try — just 6 simple steps.

1.    Grab your journal.
If you don’t have one, grab your phone or a piece of paper.

2.    Now stick with me.
Every day, for the next 7 days, write down everything you eat and drink.
Don’t worry if the food isn’t “healthy” — just write it down.
And also, write down the time you’re eating that food.
Like doing a classic food diary.
For example:
→    7:00 AM  –  Oatmeal
→    10:00 AM  –  Apple Smoothie
→    …

3.    Okay! Now, while you’re writing down what you eat, also do this:
→    Jot down what’s going through your head in that moment
Ask yourself:
→    How do I feel?
For example, beside the food you can write:
→    I feel sad   
→    I feel lonely 
→    I feel happy  
→    I feel stressed  
→    I feel deeply grateful  
Jot down any thoughts or emotions you notice.

4.    In addition to that, do this:
→    Rate your mood from 1 to 10 at different times of the day.
1 is super slow, 10 is really good.
For example:
→    7:00 AM –  5
→    10:00 AM –  7
→    1:00 PM –  3
→    4:00 PM –  5
→    7:00 PM –  8
→    10:00 PM  –  7

5.    Alright! Now let’s take a leap into the future.
It’s Sunday.
For the last 7 days you’ve kept the Journal.
First off, congrats.
Now what we have to do is look for any patterns.
Take a look back at your journal and ask yourself:
→    Do I see any patterns between “type of food”, “feelings” and “mood”?
For example you may notice this:
→    When you feel lonely, you eat gelato — and then your mood is 7.
→    When you’re stressed, you eat bad carbs — and then your mood is 5.
→    When you feel guilty for what you’ve eaten, you eat even more food  — and then your mood is 3.
These could be some patterns.

6.    Alright! Now you’ve got a pretty clear idea of your relationship with food.
Or better, the correlation between what you eat, your feelings, and your mood.
Now it’s time to set some baby goals.
Take a moment and ask yourself:
→    What’s the first baby goal I wanna set?
For example, based on your patterns, you might want to:
→    Find a way to reduce loneliness and stress
→    Or find something to do when you feel stressed so you don’t eat bad carbs.
For example you can decide this:
→    When I feel lonely, I wanna immediately call a friend
→    When I feel stressed, I wanna immediately go for a short nature walk
This way you’re turning your bad eating habit into something healthier.

This is how you can improve your relationship with food.
As we know, it’s all about:
→    Being aware of what’s happening
→    Turning that “non-healthy habit” into an “enjoyable healthy habit.”

Stewart Life Coaching
www.edwastewart.com

504.578.0006