Do you wish that you figure out why you can’t seem to stick with what you say you are going to eat each day?
Do you find yourself eating like a ‘normal’ person some of the time but then fall off the bandwagon, wondering what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I stick to what I said I would eat?
The thing is, there is nothing wrong with you. You are just not aware that there are different types of eating going on in your life that affect what and how much you eat.
What I found out along my 100 lb. weight loss journey is that there are four types of eating, and when I became aware of what was going on, I was then able to see where the extra overeating was coming from that was affecting my weight loss.
The more willing we are at taking a look at what type of eating we are engaging in, the easier it is to change what is not working. Remember, you right now don’t know any different, so begin with observation, compassion and acceptance.
So if you want to lose weight for the last time, you have to get a clearer perspective on your relationship with food and with yourself and that is what learning what the four types of eating will help you with.
The four types of eating are fuel eating, joy eating, fog eating and storm eating. Anytime you eat anything, you can put it into one of these categories.
Let me explain each of the types of eating for you.
#1 Fuel eating
Fuel eating is when we eat food that provides our body with the best fuel possible, which adds value to our body.
It is the type of foods that give us the best energy and nourishment required for our brains and bodies to perform at the highest level.
It is what we think of as healthy food.
What I want you to know is that you get to decide what’s healthy for you and your body. There is a ton of healthy food out there, but that doesn’t mean that it feels good to you when you eat it. It’s all about trying different foods and seeing how it affects your body and your weight loss.
You want to fuel eat 90% of the time.
Fuel eating is done using the hunger scale, which means you only eat when you are physically hungry and stop when you are satiated.
#2 Fun or Joy Eating
Fun or Joy eating has to be included because if you have to give up all your favorite foods that you have considered as not good for you, you will feel deprived and restricted, and you will end up overeating on these foods, you will feel deprived and restricted, and you will end up overeating on these foods.
So fun or joy eating is eating food that you enjoy or love to eat. They give you pleasure.
Foods like cake, candy, chocolate, cookies, ice cream, pizza, chips, or anything when you were dieting you were told you should never have.
They are foods that are not going to serve your body in any way or provide you with good energy or sustain you; they are only there for enjoyment.
You want to have Fun/Joy eats 10% of the time. Maybe it is once a day that you have a small amount or once a week? You get to choose what that looks like for you.
The one rule is that you have to taste it instead of inhaling it. You have to enjoy every bite, savor every bite, and stop eating it when you stop enjoying it. It is all about seeing what the foods you love really taste like.
My clients find that when they allow themselves to have their favorite foods and taste the food instead of inhaling it, they don’t want them as intensely or don’t find they are their favorite foods anymore.
#3 Fog Eating
Fog eating is eating without awareness. You are not paying attention, you don’t even realize that you are eating.
When you fog eat, you have no idea how much you are eating or how it feels in your body.
It is also called mindless eating; it’s you being checked out.
Here are some examples of fog eating;
When you are making supper, you are licking and tasting along the way and have no idea how much you have even eaten.
When there’s a bag of popcorn on your lap at the movies and at the end of the movie, you realize the bag is empty, and you don’t remember eating all of it.
When you have a bag of candy sitting on your desk at work and the next thing you know, it’s all gone, and you realize you didn’t even taste what you ate.
It is you cleaning off the table, eating the scraps left behind by your kids or husband.
So if any of you reached the bottom of a bag or jar of something and asked yourself how it happened, that is you fog eating. It’s eating without consciousness.
If you do find yourself fog eating, there is no beating yourself up. What you need to do is the moment you catch yourself, you stop eating.
You then write down what you did eat and get curious about what was happening or going on that had you eating what you did. Find your patterns so that you can change them.
#4 Storm Eating
It is what is called binge eating. It feels like out of control, like you have no control.
When you storm eat you aware that you are eating, but you can’t stop eating it. It feels like this an out of body experience, like something else is controlling you.
Storm eating usually happens when:
You have waited too long to eat, and you are so hungry that you feel like you are starving.
Or when there has been too much restriction or deprivation, so when you do have the food you love, there is no stopping you.
Or when you have an intense emotion that feels uncomfortable, and you don’t want to experience it, you want it to go away.
We often hide when we are storm eating because we don’t want anyone knowing or seeing what we are eating and the amount that we are consuming.
The real problem with storm eating is that it is followed by shame and regret. We beat ourselves up and think that there is something wrong with ourselves.
I want to tell you that the first step when you storm eat is stopping the beating yourself up afterwards. Instead, ask yourself, “Why did that happen?”
When asking yourself why it happened, you do it in a nonjudgemental way with love and compassion towards yourself. When you are not beating yourself up, you can be open to learning about yourself and why you are checking out of your life with food.
When you no longer beat yourself up and pay attention to the reason why you were storm eating, you come to understand that you did have control the entire time; it was only that you choose to check out.
So how much eating are you doing in each of these categories?
It will take time and practice to figure this all out, but you have to start with keeping a food journal and every time you eat, you write down what type of eating it was. When you write it all down, you then can look at all that happened and be curious. It is about understanding yourself more instead of eating on autopilot, less aware or checking out.
So as a recovering ice creamoholic, learning all this was huge! When the ice cream was no longer bad, when feeling sad was ok, that I could choose to continue eating or stop that was when I went from sitting and drowning myself in a whole bucket of ice cream to having some as a treat that I decided to have, and then I savored every bite.
When I work with my clients, we do detective work on what is driving the unwanted eating behaviours so that they can change what is not working.
If you are interested in working with me on learning how you can lose weight for the last time, book a free call here. On the call, we will find out what is holding you back, and we will then set up a plan so that you can get started in losing weight in a sustainable way.
You are worth it!
Karen
RN, Certified Weight, Emotional Eating and Confidence Coach
P. S. Join my Facebook group here, where I am there to support you and teach the tools to help you lose weight for the last time.
