“Why can’t I stop eating?” I would say this phrase several times a day! I felt like I was shoveling food into my mouth without any control. I knew that what I was choosing to eat wasn’t good for me. I knew that I wasn’t really hungry. And…it didn’t seem to matter. Those cheese puffs seemed to hit the spot.
I’m a recovering Emotional Eater. What does that mean? It means that in the past I ate my emotions without understanding why. As a recovering Emotional Eater I now fully understand WHY. And…sometimes I still use food to feel better. But…it’s no longer an everyday occurrence. I like to think that my brain has caught on to the game & is now IN on it. 🙂
Let’s do a deep dive & actually answer this question. “Why DO we eat? Why can’t we stop eating?” If I’m being totally honest with myself, I was asking myself this question without ever really wanting an answer. It was just a way for me to make myself feel better for doing something I knew wasn’t the best thing for me. I wanted to blame the fact that I was eating on something or someone else.
When I ask myself the question – “Why can’t I stop eating?” I’m putting the blame outside of myself. (Insert sarcastic voice) “I certainly am not the reason I’m eating this. NO WAY!! Something out there is the reason I’m doing this. I think I’ll just keep asking this question over & over again as if I’m a victim to it. As if this is happening TO ME without me having a choice!” Honestly, it was an unconscious thought. I didn’t know I was doing that in the beginning. But…it was the truth. (gulp) You see, if I actually took responsibility for my emotional eating, it means I’d have to do something about it. (BIGGER GULP!) And…it was much easier to just not do anything about it & keep feeding my emotions with food. After all, it was working!! The food made me feel better!!
Here’s the circumstance: I NEED TO EAT TO LIVE. (And so do you!)
Read that again.
Emotional Eating is an addiction. Just like alcoholics use alcohol to numb themselves, we use food to numb our feelings. Here’s the biggest difference between our addiction and all the others out there.
We must eat to survive. If we stop eating we die.
The answer to why we can’t stop eating is because WE NEED TO EAT TO SURVIVE!
This is why overcoming emotional eating is THE HARDEST to overcome in my opinion. We can’t just stop cold turkey & never look at food again. It’s in front of us ALL. DAY. LONG. Everyone around us is eating. If we’re mothers we’re cooking meals for our family. We’re shopping at the stores with food staring at us.
This is one of the first things we have to understand to overcome emotional eating: EATING IS NECESSARY.
If you ask yourself “Why am I eating?”
The simple answer is: “I need to eat to survive.” Period. No shame. No blame. Just facts.
Doesn’t that FEEL so much better? I just said it OUT LOUD & it immediately calms my fears of food.
FOOD IS NOURISHMENT.
FOOD IS NECESSARY.
FOOD IS NOT YOUR ENEMY.
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