Emotional Eating
It starts innocently enough with a little twinge.
Hmm, discomfort, loneliness, anxiety?
You dismiss those thoughts because your familiar with this discomfort and you know how to solve it.
A little snack will cure this and then right back to focusing on what needs to get done. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The little snack turns into finishing a box of crackers, eating something a little sweet, and a peak to see what's in the freezer.
Then it hits you, you weren't hungry and you sure don't want to eat the pizza you just popped in the oven.
We have all experienced emotional eating at some point in our lives.
It may have been due to stress, anxiety or even a family celebration.
Research indicates that 75% of our eating is emotionally driven.
WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING
Emotional eating is eating as a way to suppress or soothe negative emotions, such as stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness and loneliness.
Major life events or, more commonly, the hassles of daily life can trigger negative emotions that lead to emotional eating and disrupt your weight-loss efforts.
As an emotional eater and one who sought food to feed my soul I can tell you the only thing I found seeking solace in food was regret.
It may have been a quick fix for my discomfort to head to the kitchen, hit the drive-through or innocently stop at my favorite donut shop. But I would always end up feeling worse after the reality of the emotional eating binge set in.⠀
I had once again sabotaged my healthy eating, falling down the trap of filling the void with bad choices. In return for my emotional eating binges I would feel uncomfortable and guilty for avoiding the unresolved issues.
5 SIGNS OF EMOTIONAL EATING
The signs of emotional eating can be different for everyone. These are 5 common signs of emotional eating.
Using food as a reward
It may show up as thoughts like:
I deserve a piece of cake after my hard day at work.
I nailed my presentation let’s get ice cream.
Food is used to avoid the task at hand
You are sitting at your desk with a looming deadline when the sudden urge strikes you to eat something.
Before you even question if you are hungry, you find yourself looking for something “good” to eat.
Foraging on food has become an easy way to procrastinate.
It is also a way to calm your nerves.
Since carbohydrates are thought to increase the amount of serotonin in your brain, which has a calming effect this makes sense.
Mindless eating even when full
You can’t possibly still be hungry after a frozen pizza, chips and those leftover Christmas cookies you found in the freezer.
Yet, you still don’t feel satisfied and look for something else to eat.
Research from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center suggests that ghrelin, the hormone your body secretes when you are hungry, might also act on the brain influencing the pleasurable sensations of eating.
The result is that we continue to eat foods even when we are no longer hungry.
Feeling guilty after eating too much
Once the high of the emotional eating binge wears off you are overcome with guilt and regret for what you just ate.
You feel both physically and emotionally uncomfortable at the food choices and the amount of food that was consumed.
Coping mechanism for difficult feelings
When life feels especially difficult you might search for a quick fix to avoid painful feelings.
Since 75% of eating stems from an emotional response it is easy to see how one would turn to food when life feels hard.
The food becomes a distraction and an escape from feelings you are not willing to discuss, deal with or learn to manage.
On my personal journey with emotional and binge eating I learned food is not the answer when discomfort sneaks into my life, the void in my heart feels like it has been gashed wide open, my anxiety kicks into overdrive or I am procrastinating.
To feel better I had to stop the cycle of my self-sabotaging behavior and understand the reasons I found myself mindlessly eating.
I had to overcome my negative thinking and refocus my thoughts and energy on something positive.
I created a guide based on my own needs that provides a repeatable framework to help refocus thoughts from negative to something that feels better.
You can download the Nix Negative Thinking guide for free here.
I also read an incredible book that helped me immensely with my emotional eating and the way I viewed it.
The book written by Samantha Skelly is called Hungry for Happiness – Stop Emotional Eating and Start Loving Yourself.
The book encompasses personal stories, as well as actionable tools to use to help overcome your personal struggle with emotional eating.
Just as everyone’s journey and experience with emotional eating is different your path to resolution will be unique to you.
I encourage you to love yourself enough to understand your drivers for emotional eating and find the resources and support that work for you.
You may enjoy this blog post on 5 Reasons Why Loving Yourself is Important.
Disclaimer: This article is based on my personal experience and is not intended to supplement professional guidance of a medical doctor and/or licensed therapist.