Breaking Free from Emotional Eating: Transforming Your Relationship with Food and Emotions

I’ve been an emotional eater since I was ten. I remember exactly when it started. I was in fourth grade and I broke my leg jumping off the stage in my school’s gym. I had a cast up to my groin for four weeks. And I was a very active kid. I loved to ride my bike, play with my friends, go to the park, the pool, and all the other usual kiddo activities.

Well 99.9% of those things are out the window when you have a cast that big. I was home a lot. Bored a lot. Had tons of FOMO. Did I say bored? There was only so much I could do to entertain myself in 1984 with no cable or ATARI while my friends were out having fun.

So I turned to food for entertainment, comfort, companionship, and solace. It became my go-to for trying to meet my needs.

Fast forward to middle school, high school and college, and it was a full-blown food addiction including a 12-step group and a sponsor. I’m grateful to say I’m way past that but I know the pain and obsession an addiction entails.

After college, with the help of better coping skills, my emotional eating looked like many of my friends’ eating. We’d use food to celebrate or deal with a break-up, death or any negative emotion we didn’t want to feel.

That’s how I define emotional eating. Turning to food to cope or avoid negative emotions or circumstances. And it’s totally accepted in our society. The same thing can be said for alcohol.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t find pleasure in our food. What I’m saying is that we get into trouble when food becomes the main joy in our lives. When you have a bad day or an argument with our spouse, do you head for the cookies or ice cream, instead of working through your emotions? Most of us answer yes to that question until we decide we want more than that in our lives.

We decide we’re only living life half-way and not how we’re meant to. Somewhere inside you, you know you were born to shine, be expansive, go for “it,” and not play small.

Emotional eating keeps us small and dims the crap out of our essence. The amazing thing is we have the power to turn this ship around. Slowly but surely, getting comfortable with your emotions and allowing them, is the key to ending emotional eating. This may sound like a tall order or not even remotely possible for you. That’s just a lie your brain is telling you to keep you “safe!”

I’ve thought the same thing a million times in the past and I’m proving my brain wrong every day. I don’t try or claim to be perfect at this because that’s not a real thing and I’m human.

We aren’t meant to live with our fog lights on! We’re meant to live with our brights on. And I know your soul knows that!

I can help you take kitten steps to make this your reality too. Come join me, it’s such a beautiful way to live!

Interested in seeing if coaching would be a good fit for you? Click here to schedule a discovery call.