Today my video covers the importance of recognizing and challenging 'magical thinking' that clients can have about food and eating. There are some very common magical thoughts that clients can have, which inadvertently create food scarcity for themselves, which in turn can trigger unhelpful eating.
I am also sharing very practical strategies to help clients develop a more realistic and healthier relationship with food and themselves, including the first, often radical step of accepting that we must eat every day!
Often clients with long standing emotional or binge eating, and clients who are stuck in a cycle of yo-yo weight loss and gain do not realise the power of certain magical thoughts that they have. These magical thoughts are often drivers of unhelpful eating! By taking these thoughts out of the client's mind and into the room, we can safely dismantle them and replace them with practical actions that clients can take to better support themselves when it comes to food and eating.
Obviously a key practical part of our work with clients who struggle with long standing emotional eating or binge eating disorder is to spend time on their actual food and eating. We help clients take steps to ensure good and regular food availability, acknowledge that hunger is a significant trigger for binge eating and and help clients to let go of thoughts that restrict their own food availability.
Although I spend a lot of time saying 'it's not about food, it's about feelings', the truth is as part of resolving long standing emotional or binge eating, there is a significant element of nutritional rehabilitation that has to happen. Both our program for clients and training for professionals incorporate the correct nutritional input this particular client group needs - which is often the opposite of what is regularly advised.
I hope you enjoy this video - it's about 12 minutes long, ideal for a coffee break!
