5 Quick Ways To Boost Your Mood Without Food

Weight loss surgery is a powerful tool to help you reduce your weight - the physical changes in your body make it much more difficult to overeat eat food and can also reduce your hunger by lowering hunger-triggering hormones, depending on what type of surgery you’ve had.  The problem however is that today we don’t always eat just to satisfy our physical hunger, we also often turn to food to change the way that we’re feeling - for example to reduce feelings of stress or tiredness, or to relieve boredom, anger or frustration or as a source of comfort and security. 

So even though you may not be able to eat the same amount after your surgery, you may find that many of the same food cravings that you had before your surgery are still there or may start to come back over time. You may even end up with some new cravings. This can mean that over time you start to eat foods that you know aren’t good for you or to overeat even when you’re feeling full but you can’t seem to help it despite your surgery. This is emotional eating - where you're using food to make yourself feel better rather than eating for nutritional reasons.  

So how else can we shift our emotional state and feel better without eating? Today we'll look at 5 quick, powerful ways to boost your mood that don't involve food. They're simple to use and really do change how you're feeling, in a much more resourceful way - where you feel good afterwards rather than guilty.

1. Conscious Breathing

The first quick strategy to boost your mood without food is to spend a few minutes focussing on taking deep slow breaths. Breathing slow, deep oxygenated breaths can dramatically shift the physiology of your body and can completely change the state that you're in. There are many different breathing techniques to use and the simplest one to do is to just sit down, close your eyes and then count your breaths from 1 to 10. Breathe in through your nose and as you breathe out, count 1 in your mind. Then breath in through your nose again and as you breath out count 2. Repeat this until you reach 10 and then start again at 1. As soon as you notice that you're distracted and have stopped counting your breaths, just return to counting them again.  Ideally you would want to do this for 10 minutes to get the full benefit but even just a few minutes doing this can have a dramatic impact on the way that you're feeling. Feel free to use our 10 minute breathwork audio to support you with this. Practising conscious breathing is a very basic form of meditation and if you enjoy it and would like to explore this more, we'd highly recommend going to headspace.com (the No 1 app for meditation).

2. Movement

Another quick, powerful way to boost your mood without food is to simply move your body in an enjoyable way. Most of us spend long periods of time sitting down in slumped postures, and this usually leaves us feeling sluggish and tired. By simply moving our bodies we increase blood flow, taking oxygen and nutrients to and removing waste products from our cells. It doesn't need to be intense physical exercise to work - simply doing easy, rhythmical movement can have a dramatic impact on the way we're feeling. Great options include walking, easy cycling or easy swimming.  If you can't do these activities because of time constraints or other limitations, even just standing tall and stretching or even doing a very gentle dance can shift your mood for the better, almost instantly.

3. Music And Audio

One of the quickest ways to boost your mood without food is to listen to some great music. Next time you find yourself craving a 'treat', try putting on some of your favourite feel-good songs first. Create your own playlist of inspiring music, sit back or stand up and enjoy the experience. Music can help you feel uplifted and energised or relaxed and carefree. Another great option is to listen to an audio to change your state. There are so many options out there -  Audible.com has thousands of autobiographies and self-help audio books and iTunes has free podcasts on pretty much any topic you can think of. If you're looking for an audio to recharge with then try our free Relax and Revive Audio resource. 

4. Spend Time Connecting With Nature

Another powerful way to boost your mood without food is to spend time connecting with nature. Countless research studies have shown a clear link between connecting with nature and a reduction in stress and anxiety and an increase in feelings of happiness and wellbeing. Humans evolved in the wild, and your brain benefits from a journey back to nature.  If you have access to a park or a natural setting then try heading there the next time you experience strong cravings for temptation foods. If you don't have easy access then try listening to birds, sitting under a tree or tending some pot plants. 

5. Gratitude 

Our final strategy to help boost your mood without food is to practice gratitude. When we're feeling stressed or bored or angry or lonely, we're often ignoring the positive side to life and instead focusing on the problems. In every situation, no matter how challenging it is, there's always something to be grateful for - whether it's having a roof over our heads to keep us dry, or the support of a friend in times of need or the ability to find information at the touch of a button - there is always something to be grateful for. Try keeping a gratitude diary beside your bed and each night, write down 5 things to be grateful for. When we focus on gratitude, we begin to notice more and more things to be grateful for and this can shift us in to a much more empowered state. 

So, the next time you find yourself heading towards the fridge or the pantry when you know you're looking to change your state - give one of these strategies a go. You can also combine a number of these strategies to make them even more effective, for example, go for a walk, listening to a podcast and focus on deep breathing, or write down a list of things to be grateful for whilst listening to some inspiring music.

The more you practice these simple strategies, the more likely they are to become habits and replacing emotional eating with these more-empowering strategies will stack up over time to create a big impact in your long-term results, and your overall health and happiness.