Everything you need to know about emotional eating

Are you struggling with emotional eating? 

Let's break down exactly what emotional eating is and how you can stop emotional eating for good...

(Listen to the full podcast episode on emotional eating here)

Huge misconception = all emotional eating is bad and should be prevented

Emotional eating = self-regulation strategy

We eat not because we are physically hungry but because we are trying to use food to soothe or shift our internal state.

This means eating when we are:

• Angry, upset, sad, depressed, lonely, unhappy, confused, stressed, or in a state of discomfort - eating becomes a way of avoiding having to feel something you don’t want to feel
• As a celebration or reward or for the pleasure or joy of eating

Emotional eating is not inherently bad. In fact, it is impossible to remove emotions from food altogether. It is totally okay to sometimes reach for some chocolate or ice cream when you're having a bad day. It is when numbing your emotions with food becomes your only way to self-soothe that emotional eating becomes a problem- even still I want to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with you using food to cope- its actually a very smart strategy, the body does what it needs to do to self soothe and regulate. However, this does not make emotional eating beneficial and in the long run emotional eating or numbing out your emotions with food and/or other substances keeps you stuck.

So when does emotional eating become a problem?

• When you feel out of control
• When emotional eating is your only strategy for coping with emotions
• When you feel trapped in a guilt and shame cycle

What causes emotional eating? 

• Stress- Emotional eating takes us from a stress state – sympathetic nervous system dominance –  to a relaxation state – parasympathetic nervous system dominance.
• Anxiety
• Being overwhelmed
• Feeling emotions or states that you don’t want to feel
• Modeling- we learned from a young age to numb our emotions with food by watching our parents or caretakers 

 How to stop emotional eating?

• Realize that emotions and sensations of pleasure will always be attached to food and that is not necessarily a bad thing & determine if you are actually emotionally eating to the point that it is having negative outcomes in your life

• Learning to be able to sit with discomfort or uncomfortable emotions
• Learning how to self-soothe and regulate emotional states without food- therapy- music, walking in nature, “putting off the food” for a few minutes, crying, running, etc. 
• Realize that the relief experienced from numbing out is always temporary
• Be patient and have compassion
• Get curious, what are you avoiding or numbing out by emotional eating?

And most importantly, remember that emotional eating is a symptom, not the problem itself. It is not something to fight, shame, or attack. It is an opportunity to look deeper at our relationship with ourselves and our emotions. It is an opportunity to learn and grow.  

We need to approach emotional eating with compassion and curiosity rather than shame and guilt.

Ready to heal your relationship with food and your body? 

The Unbounded Body Program is an 8-module self-paced course designed to help you blend psychology & mindfulness with nutrition, fitness, & wellness to free you from cyclical dieting, self-sabotage, food worries, & frustration so that you can spend less time obsessing over food & your body & more time focusing on being present in your life & making your own unique impact on the world.