“When I am feeling sad or stressed, eating is the only thing that consoles me. In fact, when I am really stressed, food is my only comfort.” – one of my clients shared recently.
Food can distract you from your pain, but food cannot take away your pain. In fact, overeating the wrong foods can create more pain.
The truth is – emotional eaters are eaters of emotion.
They have difficulty identifying and communicating their feelings and tend to eat in response to emotions.
This behaviour tends to happen automatically. It’s easier to eat rather than talk about feelings or sit still with an uncomfortable feeling.
Infact,most of us don’t know how to listen to our emotions – because when we do the feelings are too uncomfortable and we don’t know how to deal with them.
But what you need isn’t in the fridge- food is fuel for your body not a therapist for your emotions.
So, what can you do?
Turning to food is simply one way to improve mood – it’s important to see it as one tool, and BUT it’s not the only one.
There are so many things to fill your life with.
Here are 3 Ways to Kick the Comfort Food Habit:
#1- Clear Out Your Emotional Pantry
I believe that our feelings are a lot like our pantries – we want to feel the pleasant ones and keep them upfront and we tend to hide the uncomfortable feelings we don’t want to experience in the back.
Here are some steps to help you get in touch with what you are feeling:
- Pick something to go without this week. For example, watching T.V (The upside is you will have all this extra time to do some meaningful things that perhaps you have been putting off.)
- Allow your uncomfortable feelings to come up and sit quietly with them for 90 seconds. (Don’t send them away, just allow them. Watch this video– “How to Use Urge Surfing Technique to Cope with Urges” to help you.)
- As your week progresses, note down what feelings come up and what they may mean to you.
- Celebrate your success at the end of the week by doing or buying something you like.
# 2–Reduce The Stress
Is stress eating your daily work out?
When you’re stressed, your cortisol shoots up. This will drive up your hunger and can fuel comfort food cravings.
If stress is the root cause of your emotional eating, then it’s time to “Lighten your load “and create more time for self-care.
Adding time for self-care — whether it’s a walk, swim or meditation session — can make all the difference, because you have many resources you can turn to besides food.
Here are some steps to help you:
- Slow down intentionally and commit to less
- Focus on one task at a time- this is the opposite of multitasking, which creates more stress
- Take frequent breaks during the day
- Start by identifying all the things that you don’t have to manage and do and let them go
- Take walks in nature
#3–Create Comfort Strategies
At the end of the day, food doesn’t actually bring you the comfort you want.
I suggest discovering other options to calm down and relax.
Start by putting aside some-time to create your list of possible comfort strategies.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What do I need in those moments when I want to eat?
- What can I have on my list that is within my reach and doesn’t require much energy?
And lastly when we choose to feel our feelings, we are taking giant steps towards becoming our authentic selves and building our resilience muscle.
Allowing yourself to experience the uncomfortable feelings is a courageous path to take and it’s totally worth it!
Now I would love to hear from you…
- What are you hungry for?
Please comment below, I would love to hear your story.❤️❤️
Irena Geller
🍓Food & Mood 😃 Coach
BSc (Biomed), Cert IV (PT), Wellness Coach (Level 3))
I coach busy women to put down their fork and pick up their life.
If you want to eat well consistently and lose weight effortlessly book free 30-minute-coaching session with me and I’ll show you how to add years to your life and live those years to the fullest, looking amazing and feeling confident!
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