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5 Holiday Tips for Emotional Eaters

Dec17

Here are 5 tips to help make your holiday indulgences a little healthier.

1. Use Sea Salt instead of regular table salt to season your food. It is very well balanced with vitamins and trace minerals, which your body needs to maintain a healthy balance.

2. Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day to help keep you hydrated. It will wash away some of the fats from those delicious holiday goodies and can even be good for your blood pressure.

3. Eat 4 stalks of celery per day. Celery acts as a diuretic that promotes the flow of urine through the kidneys. It also relaxes the arteries to reduce blood flow resistance. Great for the blood pressure.

4. Eat half a cup of cranberry sauce a day. Cranberries prevent the oxidation of cholesterol, which as we know increases blood pressure.  The cranberry is a powerful antioxidant and great for your blood pressure.

5. Eat almonds, 25-30 a day. The best choice would be the organic variety. Get the whole ones since most foods begin to decompose once they are cut into. Almonds contain magnesium which relaxes the blood vessels and helps blood pressure return to normal.

Most people experience a lot of stress over the holidays. These are foods you’re going to have around anyway–nuts, cranberry sauce, celery for dips and dressing, and of course water.

Use them to help calm your blood pressure and make your holiday more enjoyable. Most emotional eaters don’t eat when they’re happy and calm. Like food addicts, they  eat when emotions are negative and stress reigns.

Add to your joy this holiday season by honoring yourself and your body. Affirm that you only eat foods that nourish your body. Repeat the affirmation with each bite. It will help you eat well without condemning yourself and your food.

Fewer Additives Reduce Food Addictions

Dec16

You’ve probably heard that processed foods contain additives that are believed to have addictive properties. Both nutrition experts and scientists have expressed concern over this, giving food addicts one more thing to worry about.

One way to tackle the situation is to reduce additives in food. How can you control additives in food? Easy. Cook it yourself from scratch so you know exactly what’s in the food you’re eating.

There is plenty of time to prepare a meal for yourself or your family. The problem is that we’ve gotten lazy with so many modern conveniences and a home-cooked meal seems like too much work now.

Why cook when you can pick up something at Wal-Mart for a few bucks, pop it in the microwave, and then have time to talk on your cell phone for two hours?

Sorry if that sounds rough, but if you can remember how great a fresh, healthy meal tastes, you know I’m right.

It’s still a good idea to read labels, but you don’t have to give up the flavor of the foods you enjoy. Getting past your food addiction does require some lifestyle changes.  Make your food user-friendly so you can enjoy it more.

Let me share with you one of my secret formulas for creating healthy, great tasting food.  Vigo Balsalmic Vinegar. That’s it. Here’s how it works.

Meats are acid foods. Spaghetti sauce and anything with a tomato base is acidic. They’re not the only acid foods but let’s start with them because so many people eat them.

Acid-forming foods create mucus in the body and slime up your system. It sounds gross because it is. They form gas and cause bloating.

When you fry meats or fish in grease or oil, the fat changes composition at very high temperatures. Is it any wonder you have heartburn after you eat?

So here is how I use my secret remedy. When I cook spaghetti sauce, I add a quarter of a cup of balsamic vinegar to the sauce.

Instead of frying peppers, I bake them at 350 degrees soaked in balsamic vinegar.  Did you know that there is an acidic oil in peppers? I found out only recently from the Poison Control Center.

When you pour balsamic vinegar over peppers and pop them into the oven, they get a sweet taste as if they’ve been cooked in a sauce. You can eat every one of them without developing heartburn.

Baking chicken, pot roast, pork roast, or fish drenched in balsamic vinegar and adding Mrs. Dash or herb salt, fresh ground pepper or your favorite seasoning gives it that “special sauce” taste. Add some fresh lemon juice to the fish while it’s baking and the sauce it creates is incredible.

Marinate hamburgers in balsamic vinegar before grilling them and you can add mustard, catsup, and onions and enjoy them without gas or a bloated feeling.

Here’s the best part. Even though you are using the same base formula for these dishes, each of them will have its own unique taste. And because you are using your own healthful seasonings, you won’t have to worry about artificial ingredients, dyes, MSG and other additives.

It’s a win-win situation all around. Using balsamic vinegar in this way is a simple, inexpensive way to create delicious meals and start stepping back from your food addictions.

Your List of Addictive Foods Can Change

Dec13

Just because you’ve felt an addiction to a particular food doesn’t mean that it will always affect you in the same way.

In fact, foods that once comforted you in times of emotional crisis can lose their appeal and you may never crave them again.

This happened to me with frozen yogurt. When things felt bumpy, I craved something smooth. What worked best was Publix Blackjack Cherry frozen yogurt. When I traveled, I actually worried about what I would do if I had some emotional crisis when I was on the road.

Publix is a Florida company and I traveled outside the state. Can you imagine frozen yogurt being that much of a priority on a road trip? And you know what? It was never an issue, because when I was on a training assignment, I was doing something that fulfilled me.

When I got home though, it was a different story. All the paperwork and getting ready to leave town in two days–it was overwhelming.

I’d stop at Publix on my way back from the airport and pick up half a gallon of Blackjack Cherry. I’d eat the whole carton and then go to bed.

It became a ritual. That food topped my list of addictive foods for years and finally last year I lost my taste for it. I didn’t do anything. It just happened.

Some people think that once you’re addicted to a particular food, you never get over it. But you do. One day you just don’t want it anymore. You don’t really give it up. It’s more like it leaves you.

So don’t be too hard on yourself when you give in to your food addiction or go on an emotional eating binge. Adding guilt won’t make you feel any better.

Just know that everything has a life span, even food addiction. Never give up on yourself. Just keep working on letting go of things that no longer serve you.

Food Addiction and Chili Peppers

Dec11

I was meticulously washing what I had been told at the fresh market were mild peppers. I was planning to bake them in balsamic vinegar and have them for dinner. Not a particularly interesting evening, at least not at the start.

Little did I know that things were going to heat up. I thought nothing of washing the peppers  with my bare hands. After about 15 peppers I began to feel very uncomfortable. Suddenly I began craving my comfort foods.

Trying to ignore my food addiction cravings, the discomfort continued. As I prepared the rest of my meal and put the peppers in the oven, I suddenly recognized the source of my discomfort. My hands were burning.

My cravings soon took a second seat to the pain and then they disappeared completely. After an hour of running cool water over my hands I was forced to call 911.

Determined not to go to the emergency room, I opted for assistance from Poison Control and convinced the 911 operator not to send an ambulance. All this for a few peppers that were definitely not mild.

Four hours later, after following the Poison Control protocol for treating chemical burns and taking what I’m sure was too much Tylenol, I fell asleep with an ice cube in each hand.

I’ve often thought about the power of foods but not in this sense. Usually it’s their connection with some emotional dilemma that relates to a food addiction. Yet here I was at the painful mercy of two dozen chili peppers.

Looking on the bright side, most of the feeling has returned to my hands although my fingertips still have a ways to go. It was actually a frightening experience.

One thing is for sure. Chili peppers will NEVER belong in my addictive food groups.