Emotional Eating!

17^th October 2018

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows but a good amount of it actually is!

Oh my days, last night I heard so much ‘my job is driving me mad, I’m stressed and miserable’ and other stuff like that.  It appears these days workplaces are making it harder for people and people are struggling with the stresses of life for one reason or another.  No wonder we have a national weight issue, food is one thing that ‘legally’ gives pleasure.  It’s seriously addictive too, so it’s understandable people overeat when they’re unhappy or stressed.

How do we deal with that?  Weill that’s the discussion in my workshops this week, we’re talking emotional eating, something we all do at some point.   It’s a mistake to believe it’s due to a lack of self-control, if it was that simply a lack of discipline we could find it without beating ourselves up and obsessing about food and eating.

We can even be unaware of doing it, unconscious eating is when we’re done with our meal but continue to pick at eat, eating what’s left even though we didn’t need it.  Or eating something that’s in front of you just because it’s there.  Being mindful helps here, keeping a food journal helps.  I hear people say ‘I don’t want to have to write down everything I eat, it’s tedious, it’s boring’, well you know what, being overweight is causing those same people pain or misery so pick what you don’t want more and do that, write it or eat it, get your eating under control and lose some weight or don’t and stay overweight – it really is that simple and I’m talking to myself here too!

Another reason we struggle to stop is the belief, “food is my only pleasure”, at the end of a crappy day it’s something to look forward to!  Food soothes us, experts reckon eating sugar and / or fat oh or the combo of the two together, now you’re talking, well this releases opiods in our brains, a legal way to relax the body and even relieve pain (physical or emotional), that’s why it’s as difficult to control as kicking a drug habit.  What else could we do to relax and soothe our pain?  Will having a soak in the bath be the same as eating a lot of food, no but the results of resisting and seeing yourself get slimmer and healthier might help towards feeling good about yourself and feeling better after a crappy day at work.

Oh the only thing we’ve got to start doing is avoiding our emotions, there isn’t an emotion you haven’t survived so far in your life, yes they’re uncomfortable, but until you sit in that feeling and let it pass, you’ll just keep trying to distract from it with food.  Sit in your pain, feel mad, bad or sad, be bored.  Yeah feeling angry might not change the situation but it will stop you from overeating, it’s okay to be angry, it’s not okay to punch someone – remember the difference please.

Did you know hating your body is one of the main reasons for emotionally eating?  Stop with the self-hate, it’s a vicious cycle, you won’t take care of anything you don’t love.  There is no simple answer to this one, but start by giving yourself a break, try to see yourself as someone else, if that makes sense, look at a friend or loved one who is also overweight and ask if their size makes a difference to how you feel about them?  If you’re one of my members do you feel differently about me since I’ve gained some weight than you did before when I was at goal, if you do, that’s okay, I don’t, I acknowledge I’ve gained weight, I’d rather not have, I’m doing what I can with the life I have right now, I’ll never stop trying to take care of myself to the best of my ability and if I have to ‘start again’ every morning, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

And lastly, don’t starve yourself, or let yourself get too tired because that will most definitely end up with emotional eating, you’re leaving yourself in a very vulnerable place when you’re hungry or tired, your body will tell your brain it needs to feed, you’re not going to be feeling your best self and that will leave you less likely to be able to resist temptation.   The answer here is obviously to get the sleep you need and eat regular meals – you saying ‘I WISH’ here, you know what, if you want to lose weight, you need to make time to take care of yourself, you’re most likely not happy at work and/or home anyway so let’s get you in good health to enable you to cope with the things that life throws at you.

Life will always through stuff at you, illness, deaths, and so much more but that is the cycle of life, eating emotionally will not make that person better or bring them back to life, a man in my street was murdered this week, nothing is bringing him back or rectifying that situation, no one knows what tomorrow will bring, so just for today, take care of you and yours and talk about your problems, don’t eat them xx

Today's coaching question;

What could you change to make your situation more positive?  I'm going to think about my answer, what about you BeYOUtiful?