Whatever your problem is… the answer is NOT in the fridge.
Are you an emotional eater? Do you turn to food to deal with stress?
Join us on Wednesday, February 1st at 6:45 pm for our Emotional Eating Seminar!
Learn how to break the cycle of emotional eating and build a positive relationship with food.
This event is open to Ascend members, family, and friends.
Led by Kayla Van Egdom, our Eating Psychology Coach.
This seminar is free- to register, sign up below:

 
Here are Kayla’s 3 conclusions of emotional eating:

“When I (Kayla) speak to Ascend clients or look back on my own journey with health, a few obstacles pop up on a regular basis. These are:
-Lack of time
-Stress
-Emotional eating
I’d like to talk a bit more about emotional eating in this post because it can be a massive barrier when it comes to creating a healthier, fitter body and lifestyle. Even the best intentions and energizing meal plans can crumble under the weight of a tendency to eat emotionally.
Geneen Roth calls emotional eating “the tendency to leave ourselves when things get hard”. Eating the right combination of foods (often rich, chocolaty, sugary or salty foods) is an accessible, socially-accepted way of outrunning feelings. However, eating this way on a regular basis will drain people of their energy and hold them back from realizing their health and fitness goals.
I’ve re-discovered what a challenge emotional eating is for me is in the last few weeks. After the passing of a relative, I found myself returning to less than ideal eating habits. I find it quite easy to stay on track with my food when things are going well, but in times of upheaval, it still takes conscious effort to avoid turning to food.
My default reaction to feelings is to pretend they aren’t there and do what I can do avoid them. Food has always been the easiest avoidance tactic for me.
I’ve reached a few conclusions about emotional eating that I would like to share:
1. The more a person resists pain or tries to escape it through eating, shopping or working, the more the pain tends to get stuck and fester in the body. The only way to break the cycle of emotional eating is to feel the feelings that your mind is going out of its way to avoid feeling.
2. It’s important to evaluate our perceptions about emotions and emotional eating itself. Often, when someone is called ’emotional’, it’s said with a negative connotation. Changing our view on emotions themselves can make it easier to feel emotions in the first place. We all have emotions; it’s part of what makes us human. There is nothing wrong with them.
3. When the urge to emotional eat surfaces, it helps to approach the urge with curiosity rather than judgement. Ask yourself ‘what emotion am I trying to avoid?’ Then ask ‘what is the worst thing that will happen if I let myself feel this emotion?’ Chances are, feeling a particular emotion won’t result in the world coming to an end.
These are just a few points to consider in your journey towards a more present, healthy relationship to food, and in your journey away from the desire to leave yourself by eating. I will giving a presentation on this topic on Wednesday, February 1st for those who’d like to hear more.”