Eating when you’re not hungry is typically about emotional eating, which is a common issue for people who are overweight. I’m going to describe a short technique for you today that I cover as part of my virtual gastric band procedure in my practice, and which will help you overcome the urge to eat when you don’t need to.
The method I’ll describe uses EFT tapping. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique and is an alternative psychotherapy that utilizes tapping on acupuncture points. Now if you had a knee-jerk reaction on reading the term acupuncture then stay with me for a few minutes.
EFT is a controversial subject at the moment because, like acupuncture, the scientific community is struggling to verify how its proponents describe it works.
But the theory of EFT is less important than the outcome it produces, so I’m not going to delve into energy field explanations but describe the technique and the reason why it seems to work for my clients.
The Technique:
This short version of the technique I teach to clients should get you going.
First, think of a really pleasant experience – the kind that makes your heart smile whenever you recall it. Keep it simple but recall something you can see clearly in your mind easily and instantly. As you recall it tap the fleshy side of your hand on the pinky side of the hand – think of doing a gentle karate chop.
Now take a deep breath in, hold it for a count of 4 then release for a count of 6 as you continue to tap and recall that happy memory/thing you like to do (just not eating food). Repeat 4-5 times until you’ve regained composure/bad feeling/craving gone away.
As you can see this simple technique can be used to resist other urges such as anger, and I even teach it to my stop smoking clients to help them overcome cravings to smoke after stopping.
So why does this technique work in overcoming the urge to eat when you’re not hungry? The name of the game is distraction. The focus and concentration demanded on performing the exercise is enough to distract the original urge of needing food to satisfy an emotional feeling rather than hunger.
It may take you awhile to get EFT tapping down to a second-nature response to urges, but once you do it’s another tool in your arsenal of weapons to aid you in continued weight loss until you get to your right size.
EFT tapping is a technique I use in my stop smoking and weight loss hypnosis sessions with clients to help with cravings and urges. If you need help in implementing a weight loss program then check out my hypnosis service for losing weight.
Erika Slater
Director
Free At Last Hypnosis