5 ways to enjoy Easter while feeling more in control around food

It’s Easter, the weather is warming up, and we get a nice two-week break from school and, if you’re lucky, work. The only problem is Easter eggs. It is a problem when you know you overeat chocolate, and once you start, you know you can’t stop. It is a problem when you are surrounded by eggs, and you keep picking on them until they are gone. In an ideal world, it would be nice to know the chocolate is in the house and you can take it or leave it, but you do not feel compelled to eat it. 

Having Easter eggs around the house can make it difficult to know what to do and how to handle them.

You could ban chocolate from the house, but that’s not the solution for everyone, and it avoids the feeling of being in control when you do want some chocolate. You could try some more practical tips, like hiding the chocolate so that only you know it’s there, but still, temptation can get you. You could put it in a difficult place to reach; only that is a great short-term solution, not a long-term one.

So, how can you get to a place where you can have chocolate in the house and be able to control your eating around it? The solution is to do some inner work. This is mindset work to change your relationship and behaviours around chocolate.  

I wonder what your ideal relationship with chocolate might look like? And what would it mean for you to be able to enjoy Easter without worrying about your eating?

Become aware

So often our behaviours are on autopilot. We go to make a cup of tea, and before we know it, we have chocolate in our mouths without realising how it got there. Or we might know what we are doing, but just can’t stop. Or, we might not know why we do it or how we end up doing it. The beginning of breaking any behaviour is awareness. You have to break everything down into small steps to understand how one thought, action or emotion leads to another. 

A way to become aware is by looking at the whole pattern of behaviour, including when it starts and finishes. For example, let's say you eat chocolate with your cup of tea in the evening. Notice the point where you reach into the cupboard to get the chocolate. Notice when the thought first comes to eat some chocolate – it may well come in way before you even go near the kitchen.

This is the point at which the whole pattern starts. Then notice how one action follows another, and at each point, notice what your thoughts and emotions are with each small action. When you notice your thoughts and feelings, you can start to notice what emotional need the chocolate is fulfilling.

A hypnotherapist will help guide you through the process. They will ask questions to help you become aware of each step. They will also help you find out what is called the secondary gain, which is the emotional benefit of a maladaptive behaviour. The purpose of knowing the secondary gain emotion is to be able to recreate that emotion without the chocolate, thus you are breaking the association between chocolate and the secondary gain behaviour.

Reward yourself

Quite often, the chocolate is a reward. We allow ourselves a little treat. Notice what the reward is for. What other ways could you reward yourself? Find other ways, such as saying well done to yourself for every small accomplishment, treating yourself by reading a book for 20 minutes, doing a jigsaw, or doing something you love. We are finding a way to feel good and reward ourselves without the chocolate, so the brain learns to stop the association between chocolate and reward.

A hypnotherapist can help you to find alternative ways to reward yourself and help you feel good by giving you positive suggestions. You can record a hypnotherapist whilst in a session, or you could listen to pre-recorded audios of positive suggestions to help you feel rewarded without the need for chocolate.

Don’t deny yourself

In a bid to be able to control ourselves, sometimes we do not allow ourselves to have any Easter eggs or chocolate. We deny ourselves something that we love. In turn, this can make us feel miserable. What we don’t see is that denying ourselves chocolate secretly makes us want it more, which can sometimes lead us to eat a large amount of it. After that comes another set of complicated emotions, which can include guilt or shame, rather than denying, allow yourself to have a little bit, if that works for you.

A hypnotherapist with experience of eating disorders would be able to help you escape the cycle of restricting then bingeing. A hypnotherapist can help you look at the causes and contributing factors. It is often complex, but understanding it and working on the causes does heal that behaviour.

Relax

Chocolate and relaxing go well together. We may pair it with tea at the end of an evening, and it can enhance our sense of relaxation. The issue here is not the chocolate itself, but what the chocolate is being used for, which is a tool to help us to wind down and relax. We often lead busy lives, work hard, and are rushing around, so we need to find a tool to help us to relax. You could find ways to take small, relaxing breaks during the day, or you could learn to relax by bringing in breath and body practises like meditation and yoga.

Hypnotherapy is a fantastic way to aid relaxation. By using it on a regular basis, you are teaching the brain how to relax, so you are able to destress and relax.

Have fun

When your relationship with food feels challenging, life can feel very serious. Times like Easter can be filled with dread and a heaviness 

What can sometimes be missing is a sense of lightness or enjoyment in life. While it’s not always easy, bringing in small moments of joy or fun can help support your overall well-being. This isn’t about replacing one behaviour with another, but about reconnecting with things that help you feel calmer, lighter, or more fulfilled.

Over time, this may reduce the need to reach for chocolate to fulfil that feeling. What small ways could you begin to bring more enjoyment into your life? A hypnotherapist can help you to bring in the feelings of joy and fun, and it can feel freeing and lighter to be able to enjoy life a lot more. 

Hypnotherapy helps to relax the logical, argumentative side of your brain that can want change, yet at the same time will find ways to sabotage the changes we want. It leaves our brain open to positive suggestion, and this is how we can bring in the changes we want to see. 

Finding a hypnotherapist that you trust and is knowledgeable can help you to change your relationship with chocolate, so you can enjoy Easter while feeling more in control.