Managing Christmas Stress Eating

Christmas is a time when it is easy to pile on weight from all the food and drink that is always so nearby. Hypnotherapy can help you stay calm and in control around food and with managing Christmas stress eating.

Emotional and stress eating can happen at any time of year. Yet, during the bubble of Christmas, everything can feel magnified and intensified. There’s the planning, socialising, expectation and rush to get everything done and to please everyone. As I’ve covered in previous articles, this time of year can bring holiday social anxiety, December sleep anxiety and festive exhaustion and overwhelm. Your stress builds and that’s when stress eating can kick in.

I’ve helped many people throughout the year who use food to manage how they feel. You feel stressed, angry, low, happy or any other feeling or emotion. You then habitually reach for food irrespective of whether you are hungry. You eat too much and your weight and well-being suffer. With emotional and stress eating it will usually be unhealthy things and too much of them. You can get a sugar hit that may make you feel a little better for a bit. Yet it never lasts and you probably feel worse from having eaten the junk and added to your waist line.

Using external means to manage internal feelings can happen in any number of ways. When food is how you routinely manage feelings, this time of year can become challenging. There will be more food, particularly sweet treats and calorie loaded snacks, that make Christmas stress eating something that can get out of hand. Add in the extra stress and pressure of Christmas, and you really do need to be prepared for managing Christmas stress eating. You can enjoy food but you don’t want to reach January feeling despondent with your weight.

If you find yourself reaching for food to cope with festive tension, then hypnotherapy can help you to break the cycle and feel healthier, calmer and more in control throughout the season.

 

Christmas Emotional Eating

When you feel more stressed, your body releases cortisol and this leads to an increased appetite and cravings for sugary, fatty and high-calorie foods. You reach for these less healthy things, over eat them and strengthen the stress eating habit. The next time you feel stressed you find yourself doing the same thing all over again. It’s a self perpetuating habitual response.

Whilst stress can happen all the year around, Christmas triggers stress eating. There are endless to do lists, financial pressures. social events, busy days and family expectations. The pressure builds as you try to make sure everything will go perfectly. There is just so much to try and get done on time. There are also more sugary and fatty foods around than at any other time in the year. Your willpower only takes you so far and then you crack. And once you start, it can be difficult to reign it back in.

You can find yourself eating ion autopilot, snacking late into the evening, turning to food for comfort and eating it just because it is there and everyone else seems to be doing it. Afterwards, you can feel stressed, frustrated and guilty about your overeating and comfort eating. For many people, it can feel like it is the food that is in control over what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat.

Hypnotherapy can help you to reduce stress eating and take back control over your eating habits.

 

Common Christmas Stress Eating Triggers

I work with a lot of weight loss hypnotherapy clients through December. They don’t want the festive period to ruin their waistline, leave them feeling bloated and having to start the New Year heavier than they were before Christmas.

Some of the most frequently mentioned stress eating triggers include:

• Feeling rushed, overwhelmed and too busy
• Tension with family members
• Overthinking gift buying, preparations and planning
• End of year work pressure and deadlines
• Anxiety, loneliness or a dip in mood
• Feeling they have to eat food when offered to them
• Eating just because it is there at home, events or gatherings

 

Hypnotherapy can help you to feel calmer and more in control. You can respond to any triggers in a calm, healthy and empowered way. You may want to take a look at my range of hypnosis downloads that can help you to accomplish just that: Hypnosis Downloads

Hypnotherapy can be particularly effective at this time of year because it helps you:

• Stay calm under pressure: you can feel more mentally calm and physically relaxed and so less likely to reach for food to cope
• You can change automatic eating habits: Instead of just reaching for food when stressed you can pause, think and make healthier decisions
• Reduce cravings and emotional triggers: You learn how to manage your relationship with food without being automatically pulled towards certain foods
• Build healthier responses to stress: You learn how to feel more calm and in control, without relying on food
• Strengthen your sense of control: You feel calmer and make better choices, even when the festive chaos is in full swing

 

Managing Christmas Stress Eating

Alongside hypnotherapy, there are practical steps you can take to support yourself this Christmas.

• Take small breathing breaks: Pausing and breathing for a minute can reduce stress driven cravings
• Make food a conscious choice: Before eating decisions, ask yourself whether it is hunger, habit or stress eating
• Keep routines where possible: Regular meals, stay hydrated and keep active to keep stress levels lower
• Prioritise rest: Tiredness increases cravings, especially for sugary foods
• Eat slowly and mindfully: Pay attention to your food and savour it
• Be kind to yourself: Encountering a difficulty or challenge doesn’t mean you failed. Reset and choose again.

 

Christmas doesn’t have to mean battling stress eating, feeling out of control or excessive eating. Hypnotherapy can help you be calm, confident and in control over your eating habits and choices. You can learn how to manage stress more constructively and build a long term healthy relationship with food and your body. Even on the busiest of days, with the right mindset and control, you can enjoy this festive season fully, without turning to food to cope. You can arrive at January feeling good in yourself and ready for a healthy, rewarding and positive year.

To your health and happiness, 

Dan Regan

Weight Loss Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

 

Struggling with weight loss, controlling eating habits, emotional eating or over-eating habits and need some help? Find out how I can help with a Complimentary Hypnotherapy Strategy Session. Learn more here: Appointments

Find out what dozens of other people have said after their hypnotherapy for weight loss sessions with Dan: Hypnotherapy Testimonials

And check out these powerful hypnosis downloads that can start helping you right away with controlling eating habits, focus, motivation and more: Hypnosis Downloads

 

You may also be interested in these articles about weight loss hypnotherapy and how to control eating habits:

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Nutritional Wisdom and Food Choices – Weight Loss Hypnotherapy 

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