Jessica Zupan, a Registered Dietitian at a Family Health Team, recently became re-certified and shared how she has been using many of the Craving Change® concepts and resources during her diabetes education sessions.
The iceberg analogy is a great way for me to introduce CBT because it is simple and does not take much time. Being in a diabetes centre I do not always have as much time to have elaborate conversations about food and emotions if blood sugars and insulin need to be adjusted. The iceberg activity has made CBT more accessible to myself and my patients.
I often use the food emotional journal to help clients with diabetes understand their emotions and feelings that may trigger cravings (associated with eating large quantities of sweets at night resulting in high fasting blood sugars). If a client is new to the idea of ’emotional eating’ or the idea of eating for reasons other than being hungry, I use the ‘Which Type of Hunger Are You?’ handout. If they notice there are lots of ‘heart hunger’ episodes, we will then explore the hearts further (i.e. using Emotional/ Circumstantial journal and activities provided by Craving Change®).
I also use the concepts in the “What I noticed about my learned environment/My learned eating behaviours” to open the idea of why their “inner rebel” may be craving carbohydrates and sweets upon being newly diagnosed with diabetes. We also use both self-affirmation and “stop negative self-talk” worksheets, to work on helping clients to stop these thoughts and replace them with more rational and helpful self-talk.
Super ideas Jessica!
