The first step to acknowledging that you have an issue with food is to understand what type of eater you are. There are 6 main types -
1. The Busy Body
This type of eater spends much of their life rushing around with work, or family or both and they believe that there is no time to think about food. For many of us modern life is full of stress and strain and this can impact hugely on you eating behaviour. Some may not have time to plan meals, or to shop for food or prepare meals, or perhaps actually run out of time to eat, which is clearly detrimental to our wellbeing.
Some may think that by not eating, we’ll weigh less. Well, this is a misconception and you’re more likely to burn muscle tissue rather than fat. Your body goes into starvation mode and it will need stored energy and so holds on to the spare fat.
A ‘Busy Body’ eater would typically eat on the go, grab sugary snacks as and when, rely on coffee and energy drinks, skip meals, go all day without food and binge in the evening.
But it is possible to put new routines in place and help manage your relationship with food so that you will create healthier habits.
2. The Super Snacker
This group knows how to eat a good balanced diet, but struggles to understand why weight has crept on. Often, a few unhelpful habits are at the root of the problem, and have become so ingrained in their normal routine, that they become unaware of what they are doing!
There’s generally a pattern of after dinner snacking, when you settle down in front of the TV after a hard day’s work and relax. It’s very easy not to notice how much you are eating whilst engrossed in what you are watching on the TV and so the pounds pile on, unnoticed. It is called ‘unconscious eating’ and can easily become a routine habit.
It is possible to reconnect you eating with you conscious mind and take back conscious control and get rid of these bad habits for good.
3. The Emotional Eater
This group of eaters use food as a comfort mechanism, to help themselves feel better. Food can be used as a stress reliever or a way to deal with difficult emotions. Hunger has nothing to do with the eating process for an emotional eater.
Negative emotions such as sadness, loneliness, grief, anger, fear or boredom can trigger cravings in some to eat to soothe themselves, raise their spirits, calm them down or just make them feel better in some way. Often, it’s those danger foods such as sweets, cake, pizza, ice-cream etc that tempt us and it can lead us to feel guilty or shameful after binging on them.
But it is possible to identify triggers, reset your responses and put you back in control of what and how you eat.
4. The Comfort Zoner
This category generally falls in to the middle aged band of eaters. This group has fallen into comfortable routines that don’t get challenged. This group tends to eat out socially with family or business or may host dinner parties. They are very likely to consume large portions of rich, high-calorie food.
It is easy to fall into the belief that as we age, weight gain is unavoidable and that there’s nothing that can be done about it! But it is possible to shake up your malaise, challenge some of your routines and start shaping your body back to the size you want it to be.
5. The Super Size Me
In this group of eaters, portion control has gone out of the window, but it’s easy to understand why, when we compare the size of crockery now to what it was. There has been a growing fashion to manufacture plates, bowls and wine glass larger than when we were children and, coupled with the old adage ‘finish everything on your plate’, which many of us were conditioned, it is not hard to see what’s happening.
Unlike many diets, hypnotherapy can quickly help you get your portion problems back under your control and start to see the weight drop off.
6. The Sedentary Scoffer
It is common sense that there is a direct link between a lack of physical activity and being overweight. If the calories going in are greater than the calories going out, the weight will begin to pile on.
Lots of people may not be aware of how inactive they actually have become or lack the motivation to get up and make a start. Some people don’t like becoming sweaty and some may be so over weight that a workout could be dangerous and so they become unsure of how to introduce safe levels of activity into their lives.
But it is possible to help you rekindle an enthusiasm for activity as well as identifying and tackling any underlying eating issues.
By understanding which type you most closely identify with can help you to begin addressing your eating issues and the unconscious habits and routines that have taken root.
Whichever group you fall into, my Weight-Loss Programs are an effective way to help you to achieve your individual goals. Find out more
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