I think there’s a misconception out there. (Ya think?!!)
Have you heard this before? “Emotional Eaters are really just lazy, fat slobs that lie around thinking of food all day long.” (Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but work with me here.)
If I’m an emotional eater, I must be thinking about EATING all day long. I mean, at any given moment, I have emotions running through my head which means all my emotions are triggering me to eat. Right?
I think I speak for the vast majority of Emotional Eaters when I say this: I’m actually not thinking about EATING. I’m actually battling with my brain NON-STOP about why I shouldn’t have eaten what I did.
Most of the time I mindlessly ate without even thinking of what I was eating. (Can I get an AMEN?!) I just wanted to feel better in the moment so I grabbed a food that I know calms those uncomfortable feelings & like clock work – I FEEL BETTER! My brain is happy for a few more hours.
It’s AFTERWARD that’s the problem.
I’m beating myself up over what I ate & asking myself why I keep doing this to myself. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s very similar to anyone who has an addiction. Interview an alcoholic. Yep. Same story.
Here’s the truth…
The many, many emotional eaters that I know are hard working, busy people who have learned to cope with stress & problems in their life and are actually more like super heroes!
The problem? We are experts at stuffing our emotions. The uncomfortable parts of our lives that we don’t want to deal with we avoid like the plague. And, we’ve learned that food is pretty darn good at making us feel good…for awhile.
Here’s the mind games we play over & over:
We are uncomfortable about something in our life. We eat. We feel better.
We then feel bad about eating and beat ourselves up for doing it. We eat. We feel better.
The “feel good” food feeling ends and we’re uncomfortable again. We eat. We feel better.
We learn that it’s the food that makes us feel better!! After doing this cycle over & over for YEARS, we have a pretty good pattern going on.
And, it works!
Except…we’re overweight. And emotionally unhealthy. And, many times physically unhealthy.
I lived this way for over 35 FREAKIN’ years! (Yes, I said freakin. LOL! It’s a thing…)
Trying to break a pattern after doing it THAT LONG was painful. Grueling. It was a marathon on my brain. All those old neuropathways were dug in very deep in my brain. And they DID. NOT. WANT. TO. BUDGE!
My brain still struggles but I’m happy to say, I’ve dug some new neural pathways in my brain! (TA-DA! I’m awesome. HARDEST THING I’VE EVER DONE!!)
Let’s set the record straight.
Emotional Eaters are freakin’ miracle workers. We deal with HARD ISSUES in our lives. We put others first before ourselves. We live & love fiercely. We have learned to cope. And, we need a whole lot of compassion for ourselves and less criticism.
Now, give yourself a big hug. I just did. 🙂