Emotional Eating is an interesting Topic & one I have looked into in more recent times....this has been a relatively new area of my life worthy of exploration, as I have never really considered, that sometimes, I am an emotional eater........ during many years of my life I have stuffed down my emotions as a habitual way of coping! I actually have any number of tools in my coping kit, unhealthy eating or over eating being just two of them. I still experience old habits resurfacing when I am unwilling to "feel my emotions", & in my resistance to "feel" what's going on, can choose food or a hot drink instead! This has become a journey towards, not necessarily a destination, at this point....
This picture doesn't look too apertising but gives us an image we may relate to!
Have you ever felt compelled to keep stuffing yourself to the point of discomfort? Maybe you’ve found yourself reaching for a bag, packet or box of anything sweet when you’re home alone, tired and lonely? Perhaps it’s even healthy foods you’ve overeaten, such as a whole packet of cashews in one sitting! If so, you are one of many who have eaten for emotional reasons. I believe it to be the number one sabotaging factor & certainly doesn't support "love of self"! It's one of the habits that prevents our body from achieving its perfect weight.
Emotional eating patterns can wreak havoc on our mental, emotional and physical health if left
un-addressed; the massive amount of time and energy it takes up, leaving us much less able to focus on what really matters in our life – our dreams, our passions, our desires, our relationships, our contribution.
un-addressed; the massive amount of time and energy it takes up, leaving us much less able to focus on what really matters in our life – our dreams, our passions, our desires, our relationships, our contribution.
Despite what our logic and intelligence tells us to do (i.e. give up the emotional eating), we are unable to stop ourselves from doing it yet again.
Emotional eating can be a very challenging habit to release. In fact, it is typically the single biggest reason that people fail to lose the weight they’d like to. 95-98% of diets fail, and emotional eating is a key contributor to this discouraging statistic.
HERE'S WHY :
* It can be a deeply ingrained behavior in many of us.
* Perhaps we have been doing it for a very long time both consciously and unconsciously, starting in childhood. Eating patterns are established at such an early age & it is frightening to believe that in many cases, these patterns are still continuing unabated 50+ years later! In my experience, I was rewarded with food for being a "good" little girl & it was used to comfort me in times of distress. My mother had a belief that a "tubby" baby was a healthy one, & that it also reflected "a good mother" at the helm!
* It can suddenly be frightening to consider our life when we don’t numb ourselves with food, even if it is a conscious choice we are making.
* Processed foods and junk foods are highly addictive so even without the emotional component, they can be extremely hard to give up. Look at all the adds on our Television & the Supermarket, the trans fats, salt & sugar components to make processed foods addictive & even the peer pressure ( particularly at school) to eat these foods....did any of you ever swap your apple or healthy lunch for a jam white bread sandwich or a packet of chips? ! My emotional eating habits kicked in when I felt the odd one out, different from, and the tendency to avoid these feelings became embedded in my DNA, (as I like to think now!) I knew nothing of what was really happening at this age, the decision to just eat the food that I could swap, was a very attractive alternative to my apple!
* We are initially floundering at how to start identifying and serving our emotional needs; excessive
food intake to satisfy the longing within us to just "feel good" has become a means of coping with life.
food intake to satisfy the longing within us to just "feel good" has become a means of coping with life.
* Up to this point we haven’t cemented effective ways of addressing our emotions.
What is needed to break the cycle of emotional eating and its consequences for health & happiness is a safe space of no judgment, where we can identify our emotions, release our fears and what our real needs are, and then put in place, a toolbox of strategies and methods to satisfy our emotional needs in a way that does not require reaching for a chocolate bar. I have found that it's really just as simple as "Feeling the Feelings" & asking "where do these unresolved emotions come from, every single time? If we are having difficulty in understanding where these patterns originate from, I personally find praying & asking with a strong desire to know, most helpful. I believe we can all find out, one way or another, if we really want to know.
With consistent application of these tools we can all move from a damaged, painful relationship with food and our body, to a joyful & liberated one.
When any of us have been living in a heavy, toxic body with un-addressed, toxic emotions, achieving freedom and lightness in mind and body, is truly priceless.
When any of us have been living in a heavy, toxic body with un-addressed, toxic emotions, achieving freedom and lightness in mind and body, is truly priceless.
1. IDENTIFY WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON
If we eat without being truly hungry, we are emotionally eating. Depression, boredom, loneliness, anger, anxiety, stress, poor self esteem, fear & grief can be just some of the emotions lingering in the background waiting to pop up at any given moment! Over eating to feed a feeling results in eating a large quantity of food in one sitting, usually choosing "comfort" or junk foods. This must be terrible for our body & only temporarily numbs the feeling until the next crisis or trigger hits.
Yet most people with this issue don’t stop for long enough to really see what emotion they are actually feeling before they stuff it down with food. I gently suggest we consider training ourselves to stop when we have the urge to overeat and ask...... “am I really hungry?” If the answer is no, ask......“what emotion am I really feeling here?” This alone can bring so much awareness that it can start to make small shifts as we recognize that there is much more going on than just an uncontrollable urge to eat, and that we can not actually meet that emotional need, with food. I found this was not easy to do initially but it becomes much easier with practice & I can only recommend the importance of having a desire to know where these feelings & fears originate from.
2. FIND A SAFE PLACE
To heal our relationship with food it greatly assists us when we safely express ourselves and release the emotion we feel. A safe place will allow us to do this. There can be a lot of shame and embarrassment around overeating & carrying too much weight so a safe space to release these feelings becomes very important, along with a knowledge that there will be no interruptions.
To heal our relationship with food it greatly assists us when we safely express ourselves and release the emotion we feel. A safe place will allow us to do this. There can be a lot of shame and embarrassment around overeating & carrying too much weight so a safe space to release these feelings becomes very important, along with a knowledge that there will be no interruptions.
Journaling can work for many where you can write about whatever you are feeling with no talk back, criticism or judgment. This clears confusion, before releasing the feelings for some people .
Create or find a space where you can go to be quiet, think, rage, shake, cry, laugh, journal, pray, hug yourself or whatever feels helpful to you. Having a space for yourself that you can always go to will give you a sense of comfort, nourishment, and familiarity; a haven as you heal.
3. UNDERSTAND & APPRECIATE WHAT FOOD GIVES US
For many people who suffer from disordered eating patterns, food is the enemy. It is the thing we stuff ourselves with, or even starve ourselves from, and can consequently make us sick by living these patterns. It is the thing that traps us into eating copious quantities until we feel heavy, tired, & unwell & our uncomfortable emotions are killed off & replaced with an uncomfortable body! Others may want to punish themselves by starving the body of food, this is the other extreme. It is these habits that add undesirable weight one way or take it off,the other, causing an unhealthy body image; this contributes to us despising, even hating our bodies, further adding to the emotional components. Food is what some of us decide to avoid at all costs to stay painfully thin because that’s what we see as beautiful & worthy of admiration or our way of maintaining a sense of control in our life.......others just give up, feeling helpless, powerless , angry & judgmental of our weakness around choosing unhealthy foods, but never truly addressing the reasons why our bodies are carrying excess weight.
Nourishing ourselves with high quality whole foods that are not filled with chemicals, refined sugar, salts and unhealthy fats, and learning how they act in our body to produce health and energy, can change our view of food as the enemy. Respect builds for the role whole living foods play in us living a healthy life and in turn respect for what these foods do for our body, grows. Health is definitely...Wealth. We are the Greatest of God's Creation but are we treating ourselves as such........Sadly, I certainly haven't, for most of my life but I have also now recognized that it is never too late to start!
4. UNLEASH OUR CREATIVITY & DO SOMETHING WE LOVE EVERY DAY
We have endless creativity and passion within us, although it may be suppressed right now. When we don’t allow ourselves to authentically express, create and be, we end up suppressing our Soul. Suppression leads to out of control binges on food or avoidance of eating a sustained diet, as a temporary way to numb those unhealed emotions. Finding a way to build in some time every day to do something we love, gives us a creative outlet for self expression, and that allows us to be exactly who we are, without the facade of wanting others to believe we have everything in our life, under control! When I am honoring my needs and desires by actually acting on them every day, when I am humble & am willing to feel every emotion, I know for sure that I am far less likely to look for the answer in a piece of cake. I am beginning to understand that self-satisfaction and happiness comes with nourishing & loving our whole being – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually – consistently.
It’s not just recipes and menu plans we need to succeed, but a total change of mindset, strategies to overcome emotional eating, consistent and long term accountability of our choices & a willingness to ask "why", when our choices are out of harmony with God's Laws for a healthy body.
Without the drain of emotional eating, think about how much time will be freed up to focus on what is really important in life! It's an exciting prospect & I believe from my own ongoing experience, completely achievable.
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