How To Stop Overeating (7 Easy Ways To Get Back In Control) | Ronan Oliveira

You know, what really sucks about overeating is that most of the advice don't work. And, you know, you're told to journal about your emotions, but to say, hey, I'm just like freaking hungry all the time, that doesn't work. And the reason is not because those advices or pieces of advice are bad. It's just because there are different reasons why the behavior of overeating show up and the strategy that you apply needs to match this type. And what I want to show you is what the different reasons are and how to deal with each one of them. The interesting point here is something that Marisa Peer always makes this point that she says that overeating is something that is not hardwired in us. You know, a baby doesn't overeat. It finishes eating when it's full. So these are all behaviors that we learned and they can be unlearned. The main thing here is knowing what the root cause is and then addressing something that matches that. There are a couple of different types of overeaters, let's say, and I want to see which one that resonates with you the most. The first one is that what I call the, I don't know, eater. That is when you're overeating, but you don't know. You know, this is the case that you make yourself a very nice healthy meal and you make yourself a salad, and then you cut some avocado, and then you add a lot of olive oil, and then you top with some nuts and say, healthy meal, amazing. And then you eat that. It is a healthy meal, but it's all the avocado and the olive oil and the nuts, they're also very dense in calories. And if you are trying to decrease the amount of calories because you are trying to reduce weight or something like this, then you see that even though this meal is healthy, it's not weight loss. What you can do about this is, you know, when you have a meal, look at the ingredients of that meal and then look for the calorie density of each one of them. You see a couple of charts online. They show that foods that have a tiny volume in high amount of calories. This is a food that is high caloric dense. And they have the opposite foods that have a big volume and a low amount of calories, that it's what happens with vegetables, with fruit, with some starches even. And these are the ones that if you have more of them, they also reduce the amount of calories and reduce the chances for overeating. So that's number one. The second type is the mindless eater. You know when you eat and you are there, you're scrolling on your phone, having lunch and you're watching YouTube or you're doing this in the car while you're driving to work, or you know when you open the fridge and you eat from the Tupperware while you're looking for things to eat, all of those things that are, they bypass the brain's perception that you actually have in a meal. And there are even some studies that got people meals to have as a proper meal, sitting on a table with a plate and things like that. And other people have had the same food, but was out of a plastic container and they were standing and it was labeled as a snack. The next meal that they had, the people who ate standing out of a plastic container and thinking it was a snack or on the go, they had 30% more calories than the people who had the same food but sitting down, because the brain doesn't register that as a meal and so it feels not satiated. And the next meal goes over of what it needs to go. So the way that I like to address this is, have you heard that idea that the body is the temple of your soul? If it is the temple of your soul, food should be a offering that you give with reverence instead of something that you do own. The goal in the middle of all the activities, you know, put the phone aside, have a meal and concentrate on that experience. Eat like a food critic. Pay attention to the taste, to the textures, to the experience of eating. It's not only a better experience as it also decreases the chance for overeating. The next type of overeater is the I'm always hungry eater. And that happens sometimes. You know, I eat food and it's like I feel like I have this bottomless hole and what's happening. And it's usually due to the types of food that you are having that are not satiating enough. So I can have a lot of food that gives me nutrients, but they don't give me the feeling of fullness. And that usually happens either because I'm having too much of the processed carbohydrates and the processed sugar, that there is some blood sugar oscillation. And when blood sugar spikes and then goes down when zero at the bottom, it tells your body to eat more, it makes you hungry so you can normalize your blood sugar. Or because my meals have too little protein, we know that protein is the most satiating macronutrient If I'm having a lot of most carbohydrates and fats, but not too much protein, there is still that feeling of hunger that I want to eat more. So if I increase the amount of protein and decrease the processed sugar, put more of the whole real foods on my plate, I will see that I'll feel satiated with less food. Next overeating pattern is the I can't stop thinking of food eater. Sometimes you don't feel hungry, but something in your mind is asking for you to open the fridge and get something to eat. And that happens for two reasons. Whether because you are sleep deprived or because you are in a daily pattern that has high stress levels. Both these conditions, they trigger some defense mechanisms of the body that tells you that whatever you are facing needs you to have more energy. Back in the day when we were sleep deprived, it was usually because you're running away from a predator. So the brain makes you crave food because you're gonna need food to recover from that event, or because you are trying to find food but you couldn't. And then the brain goes like, I'm gonna make you crave food. So maybe get more creative and more effective into finding something. And so even if you're having protein, if you're having whole foods, but you're thinking of food all the time, think about whether you're being sleep deprived or if your stress levels are too high. And maybe these are the things that you want to address first. Then there is also the case of something that is a deviation of that. That is, it's just a bad day eater. You know, it's when you associate the habit of eating to a specific emotion. And this can be different emotions for different people. And it all depends on what type of emotions we experienced back in our early years that we attached to a habit of eating. For some people, it's when they feel sad, and when they felt sad, someone gave them, maybe parents or friends gave them some nice piece of cake to kind of, you know, brush that off. For some other people is when they feel very angry and because of, you know, they got sugar to decrease the cortisol levels. Or some people, when they feel super joyful and happy, whatever it is, we learned that to associate a couple of emotions with the habit of eating. And the habit of eating is not really giving our body what it needs. And so if that is the case, this is the case that you journey about the feelings. This is when that action actually works. It's when you address that emotion with a different strategy. That fulfills what you want to experience with something else than food. So journaling about this is one of the ways to observe those feelings without needing to brush them off or fill them up with food. The next type of overeating pattern is what I call the situational ether. That is, I'm not feeling hungry. I'm not triggered by emotions. I'm just very busy. And I have breakfast with business partners or business dinners all the time. Or I have a lot of social commitments. And I meet friends and family every weekday and every week. And all those things, they happen around food. And so it's because of the situations of my routine, I just am led to eat more. And if that is the case, if it is a social commitment, if you're always hanging out with friends, and that always happens in restaurants. There are two things that I like to do. One of them is, is I take my friends for a walk. You know, sometimes people say, all right, let's meet tomorrow. Where do we go for dinner? And I tell them, what if we go for a walk? And sometimes it's even better experience because you are in different environment and always becomes a different way of connection. And if it is about food, another thing that I like to do is I invite people over and I cook for them. So I don't need to go to their restaurant and get the burrito because it's the only option that I have. And. But I actually have a couple of recipes that I learned that are healthy, that fit what I like, fit what other people like, and is more presentable. And it's even better for the social interaction than going to a restaurant and just ordering some junk food. And if it is a business thing and you go to a restaurant for lunch, breakfast, or whatnot, then think in advance what are the types of food that you would. That you would like having. You know, if you want to avoid a couple of things, think in advance of the menu and say, okay, if I go there, I get some grilled meat over here or a salad over there, or these things that already make this decision in advance. So you don't need to make that decision on the go while you're busy, and you don't fall into the temptation of getting something from a impulsive decision. Finally, the last type is the one that is also more complicated. That is when I lost control. Eater. This is when the behavior can turn into a disorder. Eating, like binge eating. This happens when you arrive at home, for example, and you're not hungry or not anything, and you just eat something and then you just cannot stop because, you know, feeling full already, you're already feeling bad about that, but just can't stop. And that go goes into huge amounts of different types of food. That is a pattern that continues for a long time. What I've seen from cases that I've seen this happening, usually they are whether because your way of approaching nutrition is in conflict with something that. With a core value that you have, there's something that is important to you, or because you've been restricting yourself for way too long. And the origin of this is usually on body, body image issues. And solving that is also a process that takes a bit more care and time. The best thing to do at the moment is to end restrictions. You know, if the restrictions are leading to that obsessive behavior because you want to lose weight, it may be a good time to take a break from that goal and to not try to lose weight for a couple of weeks or months and therefore restrict less so that you can heal your body and heal that the whole situation and remove the psychological fatigue from this. And if you are saying, but I'm afraid of ending the restriction because I can gain weight, and that troubles me, one thing that you can do is go to something like intermittent fasting protocol that you do 16 hours of fasting per day, eight hours that you eat during the day. But these eight hours, they are not restricted. You eat the things that you want to eat, and you do this for a couple of times and address the body image and address the issues that are underlying this until you feel that you're ready to continue that journey from a motivation that is more solid and aligned with your core value. What I want to ask you at this time is which one of these overeating archetypes resonate with you more? There's also the eighth one that is the all of the above eater. You know, there's sometimes you have a little bit. Each or some of them are more dominant. And what I want to know is what is it that speaks louder to you? And if there's one pattern that I didn't mention that happens to you, let me know in the comments as well, because it'll be very interesting to address that. Now, there's something else that I want to ask you. I know that if you stayed until the end of this video with me is because you are very engaged and I want to know who you are. Normally on YouTube videos, a lot of people drop in the beginning, but if you are here, I want to invite you to go to the comment section and just type, I cannot believe I saw this. All the people who don't stay until the end of the video, if you're a little confused, I think it'll be a funny joke and I will know who are the people who stay with me until the end. I want to know who you are. I'll talk to you in the comment section and I see you in the next video. Stop overeating. Don't eat. Done. See you in the next video.