How not to snack

Image from parisperfect.com

Any list of French people habits includes the fact that they don’t snack.  They eat three meals a day and maybe an afternoon tea or drink around 4pm and that’s it.  Doesn’t it just sound so easy in practice?

At various times in the past I have been a champion snacker.  Snacking is fun, it makes me feel better, it helps a boring day along, so many reasons why I’d snack…  I class snacking as any unnecessary food and of course it is always processed/ convenience foods.  It’s not like I’d snack on apples all afternoon is it?

A library book I’m loving at the moment is You Can Be Thin by Marisa Peer.  She’s a UK hypnotherapist and so much of what she says in her book I can relate to.  She talks about emotional eating.  Of course by its very name, emotional eating is not rational.  I can say I’m going to be French and chic all I like but that’s my rational thought.  Emotional eating comes up from behind you and takes you by surprise.

One thing that has often derailed my chic eating habits in the past is emotional eating.  Eating when I’m bored or feeling insecure, eating to recreate good times in the past - they are all habits that don’t do me any favours.  But when something’s in your mind, it’s in your mind and it’s a tough thing to over-rule.

Here is a passage from You Can Be Thin that has changed the way I think about emotional eating:

Overeating generally stems from an inner feeling of lacking something and emptiness.  One of my clients described it to me as a feeling of being hollow inside.  Therefore we need more food and more material things to compensate for the lack we feel and to fill the void within us.

Instead of filling that void with food and purchases you need to understand that the void exists only in your mind and you have the power to close it.

When you know and believe you are enough you don’t need more.

When you feel and believe you are not enough you will always want more.

Those words really stunned me with their simplicity.  That empty feeling is all in my mind! 

Marisa went on to say that telling yourself ‘I am enough’ and any variations on a similar theme such as ‘I am always enough’, ‘I am more than enough’, ‘I have enough’ and ‘I have had enough’ have really helped her curtail unnecessary eating.

I know, I know, it sounds a bit new age, but it really works for me, and for that I am grateful.  If you can get Marisa’s book out of the library and see if it works well to change your mind, I would recommend it.  There is a cd in the back of the book too which is a hypnotherapy session on being slim.  I’ve been listening to it every day and love the messages she puts across.

Are you a snacker?  Find it hard to stick to three meals a day?  I am quite envious of those who don’t eat between meals, it’s always been a struggle for me.

Let’s say it all together now – I am enough!