Last week was the 5th edition of The Brunch Club; Breaking up with Emotional Eating

We spent a perfect morning in the beautiful space at Herstreet Geneva.

STARTING WITH THE CREDITS…

As always, the event simply would not have been possible without the support of all the collaborators, sponsors and helping hands.

A big thank you to our panelists Daniela & Oksana, to Lara’s Brunch for the delicious brunch buffet, to The Goodlife for the coffee, to SIRADIS for giving us all goodies to bring home, to Camille for the pictures, to Herstreet for the space, and every single one of you for coming!

Now onto the event recap…

WE BEGAN WITH A YIN & YANG YOGA FLOW

THEN WAS THE DISCUSSION

This Brunch Club event was around the topic of Breaking Up with Emotional Eating. In order to dive deep into this subject with experts on the topic, we welcomed Holistic Health Coach Daniela Laverde and Nutrition & Life Coach Oksana Petersen. Despite it being such a personal and delicate subject, within a few minutes the group was raising their hands, sharing personal experiences and asking questions to our panel.

If you happened to miss this edition of The Brunch Club, here’s a brief recap of some of their main points…

When we asked our experts: “What was one of the main mistakes people when it comes to eating habits and mindset around food?”

Both of our speakers brought up the notion of “control” and how many have the belief that eating well includes following strict rules; with certain foods being “bad”, others being “good”.
Daniela mentioned how the “no pain, no gain” mentality is one she sees with many of her clients, where they believe that without serious struggle, they’ll never reach their goals.
Both are strong believers in balance, in the notion of “choice” over “control” and understanding the underlying reasons for emotional eating, rather than simply setting tighter and tighter food rules.

Some of the triggers for Emotional Eating both these experts noticed in their clients…

Daniela spoke about emotional instability, and how when we make eating habits our coping mechanism (whether that’s over or under eating), any small annoyance can cause the person to revert back to food to deal with it. The issue in this case in not the annoyance in itself, but the habit of turning to food to cope.
Oksana’s previous Emotional Eating struggles were very stress related, and this is something she sees in her clients as well. She mentioned how even “happy stress” like excitement around Christmas or a special occasion can cause us to eat unmindfully. In these cases, she mentioned that the biggest issue is actually when these mindless eating moments are followed by guilt. During these happy occasions, the food isn’t the problem, it’s a reoccurring feeling on guilt that indicates a larger issue.

When we asked Daniela why she think we’re hearing about more and more people dealing with eating disorders these days…

She started by saying it’s actually a rather positive shift, since there is much more understanding around eating disorders nowadays, and there is more awareness on how to both recognize and treat eating disorders.
Daniela also mentioned however how the internet and social media has made it a lot easier for people to compare themselves to one another - but on the plus side, social media especially has created a platform to spread messages of positive body image and put forth people of all shapes and sizes, which we’re seeing more and more of these days as well.
Her last point was around confusing food labels both on actual food packaging (everything seems to be “gluten-free”, “low sugar”, “high protein” etc.) - but also the food labels we put on ourselves in order to put ourselves in a box (are you paleo? Keto? Vegan?). These can cause confusion, and can be a way of once again, putting unnecessary and unhealthy amount of control on exactly what we allow ourselves to eat.

When we asked Oksana how changes in our modern-day life might be affecting stress levels and in turn affecting our relationship with stress…

Her first point was also a positive one, saying how there is much more awareness around stress these days, and how it seems our way of “glorifying” stress is starting to be replaced with knowledge of the risks of stress.
She did mention however that the stress we put on ourselves to eat perfectly is definitely fuelling the issue. Despite having good intentions to eat well and take care of ourselves, this comes back to notion of control. The stress you put on yourself worrying about following certain “food rules”, can negate the benefit of eating well in the first place.

We ended asking our speakers specific tips on how they help their clients break-up with Emotional Eating…

Daniela:

Focus on the Primary foods (awakening awareness & self-discovery) - when you have a greater sense of self-connection, you can really understand what your body wants and needs, and being aware if you’re eating simply to deal with your emotions or not.
Her favourite tools include: having an accountability buddy, meditating & journaling.
When it comes to Secondary Foods (food we eat), she works with the idea of “crowding out” - meaning focus on adding good stuff to your plate without worrying about taking anything out. The more good stuff you bring in, there will slowly be less and less space for the rest.

Oksana:

Her process for dealing with Emotional Eating begins by simply asking yourself “Am I actually hungry right now?” If not, remember: “if you’re not hungry, what you’re looking for is not in the kitchen.”
When it comes to dealing with the emotions that are making you reach for food, Oksana suggests having a plan ready. Have a list of people you can call next time you feel sad or lonely, have a list of things you can do if you’re feeling stressed or anxious (like take a bath, go for a walk) or even a list of things to do when you’re bored.
If you’ve pinpointed that you’re actually not hungry and you’re simply reaching for food out of emotion, pin point which emotion it is, and follow your “If I feel X I will Y” list.