Let’s start with what is an emotional eater?
It is someone who is eating not from physical hunger but for comfort because they are looking to suppress or soothe what they are feeling.
So if you are an emotional eater, I want you to know that you are not alone, and there is nothing wrong with you!
I was an emotional eater for 30 years. It started when I was eight years old. When I felt sad or upset, there was my mom offering me her wonderful baking. All she wanted was for me to feel better!
Sitting there, eating those warm Cinnamon Buns took all that I was feeling away.
BUT it also led me to gain weight, a lot of weight!
I learned how to stop emotional eating, and after that, I shed the weight! I lost 100 lbs 12 years ago and have kept it off ever since.
So if you are anything like I was, you don’t even realize you go on autopilot when you experience a negative emotion. Why this happens is because you have repeatedly in the past turned to food to feel better when experiencing negative emotions. You don’t even realize what is happening, other than you feel hungry, so you eat.
So if you want to stop the emotional eating, you have to understand what has you running to the fridge.
Emotional eating doesn’t just happen to us; it starts with a thought that we have about a situation that has occurred, and our thought is what creates the feeling.
Those feelings, mostly negative ones, are what drive us to eat. Those negative feelings don’t feel good to us, so our actions are to find something, anything to distract us from that feeling and our old stand by is food!
That is what emotional eating is; you turn to food instead of allowing yourself to experience the feeling.
Our feelings or you can call them emotions, drive our overeating!
Remember, we have trained ourselves to do whatever it takes to stop the discomfort, which was to eat.
So if you want to stop emotional eating, you have to learn how to allow whatever feeling you are experiencing.
Learning how to feel all your feelings, the positive and the negative, is the key to ending your emotional eating. How we do that is understanding that a feeling is just a vibration in the body.
Yup, you heard me correctly!
Knowing that they are only a vibration, when you have a negative feeling present, allow it to be there AND realize it will not harm you.
Yes, it may not feel very comfortable (for me, I thought I would die at times), but it will not do anything to you!
I know this sounds crazy, and I understand! I used to be right where you are right now!
So if you feel stressed, sad, tired, bored, or even lonely, find yourself heading to the kitchen to grab some good old comfort food, STOP and BREATHE!
Pausing allows you to tap into:
Where is that feeling in your body? Is it in your chest? Arms? Back?
What does it feel like? Is it tingly, prickly, sharp, dull?
What does it look like, or what color is it? Dark, black.
Then ask yourself, “What is it I really need right now?”
When you allow yourself to be with whatever you feel and take a look at what you do need instead of eating, then you will take your power back. You will no longer have that strong desire to find something to eat.
Give this a try and see how it goes. If this is something you know you need help with then, book a FREE call with me here. Be prepared to spend an hour with me. At the end of that hour, you will have at least one actionable item that will get you started on ending your emotional eating!
You are worth it!
Karen
RN, Certified Weight, Emotional Eating and Confidence Coach
P. S. Join my Facebook group here, where I am there to support you and teach the tools to help you lose weight for the last time.
