DoctorOz: Stop Worrying About Eating Less, Start Loving Food!

The key to building a healthy relationship with food may be to embrace emotional eating in order to break free from it. So Dr. May says, to change our mindset, we gotta stop worrying about eating less and start loving the food that you eat more. This seems to go in the face of a lot of advice often given to folks who are emotional eaters. Yeah, it's true, but here's the thing. When you make the foods that you love bad, you actually end up putting them up on a pedestal. You want them even more, so you think about them, you crave them, and when you eventually give in because of stress, you eat them and then you feel guilty, and so then guilt becomes another emotional trigger for overeating. That's that eat, repent, repeat cycle. So it becomes this vicious cycle that becomes really hard to break out of. The thing is that all foods can fit into a healthy diet. It's really about learning how to balance eating what you love and loving what you eat, balance eating for nourishment with eating for enjoyment. So, sounds so obvious, but it's hard to do, isn't it? Yes, it is. Come on over here. We're gonna walk you through steps that actually will take you down that path to success. The first little test is called the for really test, like four times really. What the heck does that mean? Well, so when you want a macaroon, instead of immediately reaching for it or feeling guilty or worrying about paying penance for it, ask yourself, do I really, really, really, really want the macaroon? If you really, really, really, really want the macaroon and you eat a rice cake, it's gonna take a lot of rice cakes to satisfy you, right? Yes. So you're better off having one or two macaroons that you really love and be done with it and not ruin it with guilt. Okay. But you gotta ask yourself four times. Really, really, really, really, okay. No matter how difficult the day was, no matter how much you hid your true pain, because whatever may have happened may have been displeasure to you, you've got to still ask those four questions. Okay. Next is to divide our cravings into two buckets. And these two buckets are? So think about your cravings as fuel and emotional needs. Okay. So these two different types of cravings that we get are really important. And it's important to be able to distinguish the difference. So if you're hungry or hangry and you take food, grab any food and go ahead and put it here into this fuel bucket. Not that you would eat a whole pepper, but go ahead, there you go. All right, good. So you're dumping this, and maybe you even want a cookie. Oh yeah. And you're hungry. Take two, take two. I'll have two. Put it in your fuel bucket. Okay. Now, when you come home from work and you're stressed out, maybe you're needing a little sweetness, a little pleasure, a little connection, a little comfort, and you begin to eat your favorite foods, go ahead, put them in there. Let's see what happens here. Actually. Yeah. Let's just break it out. Let's just go with the big boy here. Let's go, right. So here's the thing. It is really hard to- It's really good, isn't it? See, this is part of the problem, right? We love the food. So here's the thing. It doesn't matter how much you eat or what you eat. You can never fill your emotional needs- Empty. With food. You can never, never fill your emotional needs with food. Food is really for meeting your fuel needs, and it can be pleasurable. You can have the cookie or the macaroon or the cheesecake, but it's that, it's not leaving that big hole in that bucket. And finally, you want us to create a new ritual. You have a ritual. You're driving home. You're trying to soothe yourself. You're trying to practice self-care, but you're doing it in a way that's leaving you feeling worse. You said yourself, it leaves you unhappy. I feel guilty when I eat it. And guilt is a powerful trigger for more eating. So instead, when you're driving home and you're really thinking, I want cheesecake, go ahead, pull in and ask yourself, do I really, really, really, really want cheesecake? Get your favorite kind, but don't eat it in the car. You deserve better than that. Take it home and then sit and eat that cheesecake lovingly, wonderfully. And when you're done, you're done. When a craving doesn't come from hunger, eating will never satisfy it. So this is about meeting your needs for fuel and meeting your emotional needs better. Okay. I think it can save patients' lives and yours. Yes, we, yeah. I happen to, we diagnose everyone around us and we don't diagnose ourselves. That's right. And it's the problem. And we trust nurses the most. So be a role model for us. Okay. Good luck to you. Thanks, Michelle. Thank you so much. You can get the full plan and all the information of our Truth to Make First at DrRoz.com. Please make sure to check out Dr. Michelle May's book, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat. Now that we know it's okay to embrace emotional eating, what should we actually be snacking on? What to eat for every feeling when we come back.