As a child, the holidays probably made you think of presents and Santa Claus. Now that you are an adult, the first two things that come to mind are most likely to be ‘food’ and ‘stress’. Though the holidays are meant to be a joyous time, this particular combination of stress and food can, unfortunately, be quite disastrous for your mental and physical health.

During this Holiday Season, you might be wondering how to prevent Stress Eating. Today, let me walk you through some straightforward tips that will help you gain control over this destructive habit.

Know Your Signs of Stress

By first understanding how stress causes us to overeat, we can protect ourselves from binge eating during this demanding time of year. This understanding begins with knowing your signs of stress.

When things get hectic at work, do you start making more frequent trips to the coffeemaker or vending machine for some junk food or a fix of caffeine? If the answer is “yes”, then try to become aware of these signs that stress is beginning to take its toll on you.

Next, understand where such habits and cravings are coming from. Having low energy is a physical sign of stress, which explains why it’s so common to crave sugar when we are anxious. The good news is that by becoming aware of such stress habits, you are already on your way to overcoming them!

Learn Effective Stress Management

Once you have identified your stress habits, you can create an effective stress management plan. If your goal is to reduce stress eating (or drinking), think of a way to replace this bad habit with a good one.

One option is to plan ahead by having healthy, stress-relieving snacks on hand. That way, when you catch yourself reaching for a sugary snack to calm your frazzled nerves, you can go for something healthier instead. Snacking on a handful of nuts or a cup of yogurt will have a far better effect on your body and your mental state.

However, if you want to focus on cutting calories, you will need to decrease the overall amount you consume—something that takes quite a lot of willpower. Simply replacing an unhealthy snack with a healthy one isn’t going to stop you from overeating when anxiety kicks in.

Can you imagine yourself going for a run during the mid-day slump, instead of walking to the coffee shop for a Frappuccino to boost your energy levels? Perhaps this doesn’t seem possible now, but I’d like to tell you that you can actually achieve these goals. In fact, hypnosis is a wonderful way to help!

Are you ready for something new? With hypnosis, you can tap into your subconscious and rewire the way you think from the inside out. If you were never able to picture yourself as the type of person who stayed fit and active, well you can change that, and hypnosis might be your answer.

We offer a free screening to every client to ensure that hypnosis can work for them. Give us a call at (647) 210-8842 to find out what hypnosis can do for you!