The 20 minute window

Hello Guys,

Hope you all had a good weekend? It was the Fit 4 Force Christmas Party on Saturday..........another great night out with the crazy bunch! Hope you all enjjoyed it as much as I did!

Last week I read an article on Emotional appetite V's True hunger. It was very interesting read, especially the emotional eating side to it. Now there can be many reasons why we eat when we are not 'really' hungry........if we are happy, sad, bored, angry, excitement, stres, exhaustion, dehydration.....plus many many more.

Now I am sure there are times when we can all realate to eating because of how we feel rather than because we need to through true hunger. On friday for instance I had had a bad day, I was tired, exhausted and emotionally upset. For those who saw me at bootcamp on Friday I apologise for my face as I looked like what can only be descibed as a 'bag of shite'. So in my upset state after bootcamp I called at my friends and then on my way home I bought a bar of chocolate........now it was dark chocolate which I have a couple of squares once a week. However on Friday I bough a 'large' bar and ate the whole lot! So after the initial enjoyment of the chocolate I felt sick as a dog and a greedy bitch for eating it all.........this just made my emotional state worse not better! Food is not a permament elastoplast for our feelings.........you can cover it up for a while, put once it is ripped off the raw emotion is still hidden underneath, just like magic knickers, they might suck you in for a while, but as soon as you take them off the fat hangs loose lol!

Anyway in this article it gave a few tips on how to combat emotional eating. One tip I did like was to be stubborn with yourself......make your physical and mental health your priority. This is something I am going to take into the new year with me. Anyway who knows me, will know that I am quite stubborn so if I tell myself to stick to something I normally do. I challenge you to be the same! Make the decision to eat healthy and stick to it!

Give yourself a 20 minute window. If you fancy something nice to eat, don't give in. Give yourself 20 minutes have a drink of water then more likely than not after 20 minutes the urgh to eat crap will have passed.

Set kitchen hours and stick to them.........so if your day starts at 7.00am and dinner at say 8pm don't allow yourself to go into the kicthen after this time (other than to maybe wash up). This will eliminate the late night snacking.

Strength in numbers, make a pact with a friend, family member or online community group (I know a good one lol) if you are accountable to someone or share the same goals as someone then it is easier to stick to your healthy eating plan. It can also create some friendly competition which is always great!

Andrea (stubborn bugger) Springthorpe