Help- I'm Struggling with Emotional Eating!
Emotional eating, or eating in response to uncomfortable feelings such as stress, has been a hot topic in response to recent events. COVID-19 has turned our routines upside down. We are social distancing, working from home, trying to stay well, and wondering when things will get back to normal. We are stressed out.
The thing is, it is OKAY to turn to food for comfort. Let’s break this down further. Food is in fact comforting. It’s not just sustenance, it is memories, pleasure, distraction, expressive, and soothing. Emotional eating is a coping mechanism that has been villainized by diet culture. There are far worse methods of coping and distracting, so please give yourself some grace if you have been turning to food.
If food is your main or only source of comfort, or you are using food to numb yourself out, then maybe your relationship with food could use a little work. If this sounds like you, ask yourself, am I restricting my food in any way? Dieting or food restriction can look different to everyone; it can be calorie counting, cutting out foods or food groups, or even mental restriction (i.e. I shouldn’t have this, I am so bad for eating this, the diet starts tomorrow...). Science shows us time and time again that restriction leads to fixation. That is eating less food, or the mere thought of eating less food, makes us think about food way more than we normally would.
So, if you find yourself eating in a way that you would label “emotional eating,” first examine if restriction might be at play. I highly suggest working with a trained Intuitive Eating Counselor to assist you in ditching the diet mentality and finding new useful coping mechanisms. In my own experience, when we are not obsessing over food, and we eat based on our physical hunger cues, the urge to eat to push away feelings dissipates.
If you are thinking, well, I still want to stop emotional eating- even if it’s not the evil I thought it was. I hear you loud and clear! If you feel as though you are about to eat emotionally- these questions might be helpful for you:
1. Am I hungry? If yes- then by all means eat! If no- maybe there is another coping mechanism that would make you feel better than eating would (or maybe not- and that’s ok!)
2. What am I feeling? Labeling emotions is hard, but try to be mindful and describe what you are feeling, maybe write it out if you like journaling.
3. Where in my body am I feeling these emotions? Bonus points for extra description (color, shape, size)! This can be a helpful follow-up question to become more mindful of our emotions.
4. What do I need right now? Do you need to vent to a close friend? Go for a walk? Take a nap? Watch a funny dog video?
Having a list of coping mechanisms that sound doable to you is a great way to prepare for inevitable stressful moments. What I don’t recommend is eating or exercising in a way to “make up for” your emotional eating. This is just priming you to have this out of control feeling around eating and perpetuate the restriction cycle.
Remember to take care of yourself. These times are undeniably tough. You may need to ramp up the self-care routine, utilize coping skills, and ask for help. We are in this together and if there is any way I can help don’t hesitate to reach out.
