Are you stuffing your feelings down with food? In other words, when you get stressed, frustrated, angry or depressed do you find yourself eating rather than dealing with the circumstances that are causing you to feel a certain way? Don't beat yourself up if you are doing this. You're certainly not alone. Not only are millions of people doing the same thing, but I've been there too. Challenge We don't start out in life eating for emotional reasons. It's actually something we learn. As we grow up we learn not to trust our body to tell us when to eat. Emotional eating is usually taught by our parents or other authority figures. What happened when you fell down and hurt yourself? Did you get a cookie "to make it better"? In our society, we also associate holidays, birthdays, and almost any event with food. We eat for almost any reason - stress, anger, sadness, boredom, happiness, excitement, just about anything but physical hunger. Do you ever crave "comfort food"? This is usually a sign that you are experiencing some kind of intense emotion. You may not even realize this if you often engage in emotional overeating. Comfort food allows us to "stuff down" those feelings and "numb out" temporarily from the feeling. Food is a distraction and when you overeat so much that you feel sick, this creates an even bigger distraction. If you can relate to this, don't beat yourself up. Like me, this is how you learned to take care of yourself, it's a protective measure. You could have learned to use drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, or any other destructive habit instead of using food. Solution There is good and bad news. First, the bad news - you will have to feel your feelings. The good news is as you truly allow yourself to feel your feelings, they will lower in intensity and so will the desire for comfort food. Of course there is a good chance you won't know what you are feeling. This is because food is usually the response to any intense feeling. So first, you need to be aware of when you are going for food. If you find you really aren't physically hungry, ask yourself what you're feeling. This isn't always so simple, especially when you do not want to face the truth of the issue. Run through a list of emotions - anxious, lonely, bored, tired, angry, hurt, embarrassed? If you can't identify the feeling, that's ok. Keep trying and practicing as feelings come up. Journaling thoughts and feelings is very helpful for some people to identify what emotion is going on. If you can determine the feeling, ask yourself, "Am I going to die if I sit with this feeling for five minutes?" All you have to do is sit and feel. It may not feel very good, but notice how it gets less intense as you allow yourself to feel it. As you practice this more and more, you will find it easier to deal with emotions and find yourself less drawn to food to solve your problems. This article has been excerpted from the special report, "6 Simple Steps to Guilt-Free Eating" available for download at www.healthieroutcomes.com. |
