Isabelle Huot - Stop Eating Your Emotions How to Live Healthy and Eat Happy

Contents

Contents

Tell me what you eat, Ill tell you who you are.

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Imagine that youre alone: no one is looking at you; youre having a quiet moment in the car, at home, outdoorswherever you are. How are you treating yourself? What kind of conversation are you having with yourself? Are you being generous, gentle, encouraging, and optimistic? Or have you been comparing yourself to others and always finding yourself inadequate, undervaluing yourself, and not really taking care of yourself? Whatever your background, your difficulties, and your personal journey, theres still plenty of time to learn to love yourself and respect yourself. Better late than never.

Just like physical activity and well-balanced sleep, diet is a major part of a healthy lifestyle and well-informed self-care. There are many foods we can easily find that nourish our brain, support our immune system, and help regulate our hormones and our sleep. This book teaches you simple ways to improve your health, your quality of life, and your longevity. Once we begin to eat better and exercise, the rest follows, too. Were energized, positive, and better prepared to overcome lifes obstacles, large and small.

Taking care of ourselves is the best gift of all. Lets be honest with ourselves, respectful toward ourselves, and give our bodies the very best. Lets make sure our children have nutritional knowledge that will serve them well throughout their lives. Lets use what Mother Nature offers us to help shape the well-being of our generation and those to come.

Healthy eating isnt rocket sciencewith your body, heart, and mind you can change the world!

To your health and the health of all your loved ones!

Sophie

A word from Isabelle

Ive always been interested in eating behaviour disorders. I studied psychology first and then went into nutrition, wanting to help people in a holistic way. Later, I did my internships in anorexia-bulimia both at Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine in Montreal and CHU in Geneva, where I completed part of my studies. When I started my clinical practice 25 years ago, my childhood friend Nancy, a member of Overeaters Anonymous, referred many people to me, all suffering from compulsive eating. This became my specialty. Seeing my clients feel better by improving their relationship with food, changing their body image, and regaining pleasure in eating makes me happy! Compulsive eating is a complex disorder, and I soon understood that having a psychologist at Kilo Solution would guarantee greater long-term success. So I approached Catherine, the founder of the CHANGE psychology clinics, to work alongside my team of nutritionists. For years, we have collaborated to provide support to people in difficulty and help them on their journey toward healing. This book would not have been the same without the crucial psychological input Catherine and her writing have supplied. I hope with all my heart that our advice will help you make peace with food and your body.

A word from Catherine

Before I had even turned 20, while I was doing my BA in psychology, I began to volunteer by facilitating groups for Anorexia and Bulimia Quebec (ANEB). For me, treating eating disorders was a passion right from the start. I discovered a group of people I cared about whose problems presented challenges that few professionals specialized in. Later, for my doctorate in psychology, I wrote my dissertation on detecting eating disorders in children, and I did my internships with adults in the Eating Disorders Program at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and the Royal Victoria Hospital. After founding the CHANGE clinics, I realized just how few specialized services were available to people with binge eating disorder. When Isabelle approached me several years ago, I discovered a professional and diligent nutritionist who makes sure her team detects eating disorders. Isabelle has shown unflagging confidence in my team and me, and our collaboration, based on a passion for treating eating disorders, gave rise to this book. I encourage you to take the time to do the exercises weve included. Pausing to take care of ourselves is the best gift we can give ourselves. I sincerely hope this will lead you ever closer to your happiness and well-being.

Youve controlled yourself today: fruit yogurt for breakfast, a salad at noon... until the time comes to leave work. You feel like eating something, and you struggle not to stop at the corner store on the way home. In the end you manage to make it through your front door, telling yourself you can hold on. Once youre in the kitchen, though, you cant control yourself any longer. You take out crackers first, then cheeseand then on it goes. Too bad. But tomorrow youll get a hold of yourself and start from square one. Again...

Or maybe youre the type who eats normally at supper with your children or your partner, but then in the evening, when the house quiets down, certain thoughts start buzzing at you nonstop like an irritating insect. The urge for chocolate or chips, for example. You know theyre bad for your weight or your health, but you cant control the impulses...

Do these scenarios sound familiar? Do you recognize yourself in them? Youre not alone, you know. Many people have a love-hate relationship with food that monopolizes their thoughts and considerably affects their quality of life.

Developing a healthy relationship with food isnt easy in a society where food is often identified as good or bad, restrictive diets are more popular than ever, and value is placed on thinness. Yet sometimes we just need a few tools to improve our relationship with food and begin to eat naturally again, guilt-free. If the problem is more serious and an eating behaviour disorder is diagnosed, the road ahead will be longer, and youll no doubt need help from experts or a support group. Well come back to this topic a little later on.

First, lets pinpoint the problem

Is there anyone who has never eaten a whole bag of chips or cookies? Is scarfing down the whole bag the sign of an eating behaviour disorder? Not necessarily, since all of us sometimes eat when were not hungry. But when we lose control frequently, over and over again, when these episodes are linked to specific emotions and interfere with our physical or mental health, then we need help.

A typical example...

Manon has been on various diets in her life. Her weight regularly fluctuates about 30 pounds. Shes tried every diet: powdered protein, laxatives, food combining, cabbage soup, the grape cure... Yet shes never managed to maintain her weight loss. Highly emotional and private, Manon never wants to let her family or her boss down. Shes always given a lot to other people and at 45, shed like to think a little more about herself and improve her own health. She came to see us to learn how to eat in a healthy way again, especially how to better manage her emotions, which cause her to lose control several times a week. Food is so comforting after a tough day...

Manons case isnt unique; its actually common. What strategies will be effective in guiding her toward a stable weight and an improved relationship with food? This book explores several approaches to point Manonand you, dear readerin the right direction.

Kinds of loss of control

Overeating

When I lose control, I eat desserts and a big bag of chips fast. I feel like I cant stop, and I feel guilty afterward. I hate my body when Ive eaten compulsively.

Emotional eating

Sometimes, when Im stressed, I go to the corner caf and buy two pastries, when instead I could do a breathing exercise to calm myself down. I dont feel guilty for having eaten them, but I worry about the effects on my weight and my health, and Id like to manage my emotions differently.