Welcome back everyone. I'm going to actually start a 4-part series with you on Eating with Intention. You know, this is very dear and near to my heart, having pushed through sugar addiction and working through those emotional things, the mental stuff that goes with that, all of that.

I feel like this series was really important and that you would like it. So, how many times, if you're like me, have you grabbed a pint of ice cream, you're wanting to watch a sappy movie and have a good cry, like they just, those things seem to go well together, right? We've all experienced comfort foods at some point, especially being Southern here in Louisiana, we are famous for our Southern foods, right? Using food to meet emotional needs as opposed to nourishing physical hunger is emotional eating. So if you're like, I don't really, I don't really emotionally eat, maybe, maybe not. Maybe you just don't have a problem with emotional eating, but emotional eating just means using food to meet an emotional need. It's a problem if it's constant or day after day.

There are several ways to train yourself to combat these emotions. So here are 5 tips to help you move forward with your food freedom and enjoy your relationship with food.

So, learning about food freedom and your motivations behind wellness is going to be really the key here to your success. So you can find new ways to manage your stress without food, check in with yourself before you eat and ask, am I truly physically hungry? So for me, one way that I do it is, can I eat a chicken breast right now? And I'm like, eh, not really feeling that, but can I have, you know, a bag of chips? Yeah. I want a bag of chips.That's not physical hunger. All right. If you're physically hungry, you should be able to sit down with chicken and broccoli and eat that. All right.

The third thing is find new ways to kick boredom without food. I sit at my desk all day long. It's very easy to just have something, just grabbing it, easy to get in that habit. Trust me. I've done it.

The fourth thing is take away temptation by having a kitchen stocked with healthy food. So if you're like standing there gazing into the pantry and there's nothing but healthy foods, you know, you can overeat healthy foods. I understand that. But at least if the junk isn't there, you're not going to be like moving all the healthy stuff around to get to the things that you hid in the back.

Tip number five is to have healthy snacks on hand to avoid running through the drive-thru for convenience. So this would have to do with being on the go. I'm not a huge, huge advocate of snacks. I do think there are some place for them, but this is more about being on the run and getting stuck like you're in traffic or what have you and you cannot get to food in your 4 to 6 hour window. 

Let's just get really honest though. What are your motivations for wanting to have better health and what fuels your fire? You have to remember these things, because just saying like, I want to eat better. It's not sustainable. It's not really helpful. So what desires do you have for your life? Is what you're doing now going to get you there? I have to remind myself of this a lot. These motivations are your why. So the reason that you're on a journey to change is understanding your why and knowing your why, this is the incredible motivator that will help you to reach your goals. So keeping these motivations close to you during your journey is going to be a constant reminder of that end goal. So, a healthy relationship with food, breaking chains that keep you from reaching those goals, all of those are good anchors for you. 

So here are some tools that you can implement, some action steps, some homework, if you will. Think about this. I like you to get a pen and paper out, pause the video, do whatever you need to do. Rewatch this, however you want to work this, but get a journal out for the next 4 weeks. You're going to be having homework and questions. Okay. So what are 1 to 3 ways that you can manage your stress in a healthy way? 

All right. So write that I can manage health. I mean, let me start over. I can manage stress in a healthy way, one, two, three. Write those things down, whatever that means for you. What are 1 to 3 ways you can combat boredom in a healthy way? I can combat boredom in a healthy way, one, two, three, write out your answers. 

Second step of this, remembering why. So dig deep, I want you to list 5 things that motivate your reasons to change your health. Remember I talked about, you have to be anchored to your why, or all of this stuff. As soon as you're hungry, you're sad, you're bored, you're upset. Something happened with your kids. Something happened with your husband or your wife. And you're like, forget it. I just want comfort food. You have to have these things. You have to have these roots down in established before so that you're not just going to and fro, you know, you're not just moved by everything that comes to you. So 5 things that motivate you to change. 5 things for why you're wanting to change.

After this is complete, I want you to go into listing how your life will be changed when that goal is reached. So let me give an example. I'm completely making this up. So I want to be eating a diet with sugar that will help to keep me stable. Let me rephrase that. I want to keep my sugar habits intact because I don't want to get Type 2 Diabetes. All right. If I am able to keep my blood sugar intact and not get Type 2 Diabetes, I will have more energy to spend with my children. I will have more brain power to be able to get out the work and the information that I want to do, and I will be able to sleep better at night and I will also have less anxiety. All right. So what is your reason for doing it? What is it going to give you, 5 things? 

The last step is being prepared. What are 3 healthy snacks that you can have on hand that you don't resort to your old habits or your quick fixes? All right. So list all of those in your journal, I will see you again next week for week 2 on Eating with Intention. See you guys in the Facebook group. Bye.