Oh boy. It’s happening again – that craving for your favorite comfort food.

Even when you’re eating in a healthy way you enjoy, comfort food cravings may hit out of nowhere, especially when you’re stressed, exhausted, or anxious.

What the heck is going on??

It’s actually pretty simple: You’re worked up in some way, and you don’t want to feel it.

So you turn to comfort foods to numb those feelings.

See, digestion takes two-thirds of your body’s energy, which means when you’re digesting food, your body–temporarily–has fewer resources to spend on feeling your feelings.

Eating is a way to get relief from emotions you don’t wanna feel. It could be anything from stress, to anxiety, to depression, to anger, to not feeling safe.

From the time we’re born and given either our mother’s milk or formula, we’re taught to find comfort in food.

So when life gets challenging–which it always does–and we haven’t developed healthy non-food ways to deal with those challenges, food is a convenient go-to we use to comfort ourselves.

Comfort foods, in particular, are tempting, because they give you that “heavy,” relaxed feeling you crave to offset the stress, anxiety, and hype you often experience.

Staying on track with your weight loss, sooner or later, involves getting better at feeling your feelings, and processing them in healthy, non-food ways.

It’s really important to get good at healthy non-food ways of dealing with stress, trauma, anxiety, and other emotions that inspire you to reach for comfort foods…both so you can stay on track, and because it’s better for your mental and physical health than eating crap, getting drunk, smoking, doing drugs, and other vices lots of people use to cope.

What you do depends on what works best for you, but involving your body is a great option. Get a massage, take an epsom salt bath, go on a relaxing walk, or do some gentle yoga. (NOT to lose weight – to process emotion and calm yourself without the use of comfort foods.)

Return to a hobby, like sketching, coloring, crocheting, jewelry-making, or whatever it is, and let that comfort you.

I don’t have the patience for meditation, but there are people who do, and maybe you’re one of them. Give it a try and see if it helps. There are plenty of apps with soothing music and sounds you can listen to.

If you’re spiritual, pray, study your Bible, and listen to sermons from people you like, in person, online, or both. (I enjoy Joyce Meyer.)

Bottom line: Craving comfort foods is your body wanting relief from being hyped up.

Consistently give your body healthy non-food ways to de-hype and eliminate as much of what’s hyping you up as you can, and cravings for comfort foods back off.

Have you created your free Code Red Lifestyle™ network account yet? If not, here’s how to get your account!

1) On your computer, create your account at www.CodeRedLifestyle.com/App.

2) If you want the network on a mobile device, go to the App Store or Google Play Store and search for Code Red Lifestyle.