Emotions are difficult seas to navigate. It can sometimes feel like just when you have a grasp over something in your life, something else comes up and makes you feel a loss of control. Anger, sadness, confusion, shame, loneliness…are all emotions that we usually feel on a regular basis. It’s easy to cover these emotions with anything else but compassion. However, once you start approaching these big emotions with kindness and compassion, you learn to navigate themwithout smothering them or hiding them.
When you are in that moment, where emotion is high and you are essentially feeding the emotion with food, the single most important thing you can do is: recognize it. Recognize exactly what you are doing in that current moment. Simply tell yourself out loud or in your head what you are currently doing in this present moment. It may sound like ‘I am sitting on the couch eating this pint of ice cream feeling very lonely’ or ‘I am eating handfuls of chips as I am trying to focus on writing this paper’. Whatever you are doing, just simply recognize it.
When you are emotionally eating, you are rarely aware that you are even doing it. When you begin to practice recognizing it and telling yourself what you are doing, it gives your mind a few seconds to slow down and assess. It’s in these few seconds that you have the chance to stop. If you have the chance, take a deep breath as soon as you recognize it. This will help ground you and guide your next moves. Without recognition, you don’t have the chance to stop the action. Try practicing simply recognizing what you are doing. It’s okay if you don’t stop at first, it takes time to build that strength. Over time, you may find that you start recognizing the behavior before you even start the eating process.
Try watching these 2 videos that describe how to overcome emotional eating:
https://youtu.be/OFfmCSF14NU
https://youtu.be/usSoEab_w2A
It can be tough to navigate this alone, so feel free to reach out for guidance at https://healbytheword.com/contact/
Here’s to peaceful eating,
Tracy and team
My husband has decided I will diet. I just can’t argue any longer. I am fat. But I never thought I’d diet. People use faults to control you. My mom wanted me to diet as a teenager. She had an eating disorder. I HATE that I will suddenly be a “wonderful person” if I lose weight. I’d rather beat up the horrible fat phobic people and stay me.