Activity Three: Awareness - Where did it come from?
roojyrooroo
Posts: 25 Member
The third activity this week comes again from a free ebook by a doctor that works on emotional eating (available at skrinkyourself.com).
Please post answers to the below questions
Questions
1. Can you identify a time when you began to seek food for comfort? What was happening in your life at the time? If you can’t remember when you started using food for comfort, try to describe the time when this habit intensified or became more severe.
2. How would you feel if you had to give up the habit of eating when you’re upset emotionally? Describe what your life might feel like. Part of you probably says that you’ll be fine, but what does the other part say? What does the part of you that’s scared of giving up emotional eating say?
3. What part of your relationship with food are you in denial about? Which part would you rather not know about? How might you get this out in the open to yourself? What would happen if you did this?
4. Which of the 12 types of emotional hunger do you suffer from most (see below)? What are some ways you could begin to change your habit of eating when faced with emotional hunger like this?
Type 1. Dulling The Pain With The Food Trance.
If you get hungry when you feel angry, depressed, anxious, bored, or lonely, you suffer from Type 1 emotional hunger, and you use food to dull the pain that these emotions cause.
Type 2. Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones, But Cake Won’t Heal What Hurts You.
If you react by getting hungry when others talk down to you, take advantage of you, belittle you or take you for granted, then you suffer from Type 2 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid confrontation.
Type 3. A Full Heart Fills An Empty Belly.
If you crave food when you have tension in your close relationships, you suffer from Type 3 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid feeling the pain of rejection or anger.
Type 4. Hate Yourself, Love Your Munchies.
If you tend to become hypercritical of yourself, if you label yourself “stupid,” “lazy,” or “a loser,” you have Type 4 emotional hunger. You eat to “stuff down” your self-hatred.
Type 5. Secret Desires Have No Calories.
If your hunger gets activated because your intimate relationships don’t satisfy some basic need like trust or security, you suffer from Type 5 emotional hunger and you use food to try to fill the gap.
Type 6. Forty Million Big Gulps And The Well Is Still Empty.
If you stuff yourself to make up for the deprivation you experienced as a child, you have Type 6 emotional hun- ger
Type 7. It’s My Pastry, and I’ll Eat If I Want To.
If you eat to assert your independence because you don’t want anyone telling you what to do, you have Type 7 emotional hunger.
Type 8. I Can’t Come To Work Today-- I’m Too Fat.
If your appetite kicks in when you’re faced with new challenges--if you use food to avoid rising to the test, or to insulate yourself from the fear of failure--you have Type 8 emotional hunger.
Type 9. Aroused by Aromas, Not by the Chef.
If you eat in order to avoid your sexuality-either to stay fat so that nobody desires you or to hide from intimate encounters--you suffer from Type 9 emotional eating.
Type 10. I’ll Beat You With this Eclair.
Type 10 emotional eaters stuff themselves to pay back those who have hurt them, often in the distant past. They use their bodies as battlegrounds for working out old resentments.
Type 11. Peter Pan and the Peanut Butter Cookie.
If you eat to make yourself feel carefree, like a child, you have Type 11 emotional hunger. You eat to keep your- self from facing the challenges of growing up.
Type 12. That Stranger In Lycra Wearing Your Face.
If you overeat because you fear getting thin, either consciously or unconsciously, you have Type 12 emotional hunger.
Please post answers to the below questions
Questions
1. Can you identify a time when you began to seek food for comfort? What was happening in your life at the time? If you can’t remember when you started using food for comfort, try to describe the time when this habit intensified or became more severe.
2. How would you feel if you had to give up the habit of eating when you’re upset emotionally? Describe what your life might feel like. Part of you probably says that you’ll be fine, but what does the other part say? What does the part of you that’s scared of giving up emotional eating say?
3. What part of your relationship with food are you in denial about? Which part would you rather not know about? How might you get this out in the open to yourself? What would happen if you did this?
4. Which of the 12 types of emotional hunger do you suffer from most (see below)? What are some ways you could begin to change your habit of eating when faced with emotional hunger like this?
Type 1. Dulling The Pain With The Food Trance.
If you get hungry when you feel angry, depressed, anxious, bored, or lonely, you suffer from Type 1 emotional hunger, and you use food to dull the pain that these emotions cause.
Type 2. Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones, But Cake Won’t Heal What Hurts You.
If you react by getting hungry when others talk down to you, take advantage of you, belittle you or take you for granted, then you suffer from Type 2 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid confrontation.
Type 3. A Full Heart Fills An Empty Belly.
If you crave food when you have tension in your close relationships, you suffer from Type 3 emotional hunger. You eat to avoid feeling the pain of rejection or anger.
Type 4. Hate Yourself, Love Your Munchies.
If you tend to become hypercritical of yourself, if you label yourself “stupid,” “lazy,” or “a loser,” you have Type 4 emotional hunger. You eat to “stuff down” your self-hatred.
Type 5. Secret Desires Have No Calories.
If your hunger gets activated because your intimate relationships don’t satisfy some basic need like trust or security, you suffer from Type 5 emotional hunger and you use food to try to fill the gap.
Type 6. Forty Million Big Gulps And The Well Is Still Empty.
If you stuff yourself to make up for the deprivation you experienced as a child, you have Type 6 emotional hun- ger
Type 7. It’s My Pastry, and I’ll Eat If I Want To.
If you eat to assert your independence because you don’t want anyone telling you what to do, you have Type 7 emotional hunger.
Type 8. I Can’t Come To Work Today-- I’m Too Fat.
If your appetite kicks in when you’re faced with new challenges--if you use food to avoid rising to the test, or to insulate yourself from the fear of failure--you have Type 8 emotional hunger.
Type 9. Aroused by Aromas, Not by the Chef.
If you eat in order to avoid your sexuality-either to stay fat so that nobody desires you or to hide from intimate encounters--you suffer from Type 9 emotional eating.
Type 10. I’ll Beat You With this Eclair.
Type 10 emotional eaters stuff themselves to pay back those who have hurt them, often in the distant past. They use their bodies as battlegrounds for working out old resentments.
Type 11. Peter Pan and the Peanut Butter Cookie.
If you eat to make yourself feel carefree, like a child, you have Type 11 emotional hunger. You eat to keep your- self from facing the challenges of growing up.
Type 12. That Stranger In Lycra Wearing Your Face.
If you overeat because you fear getting thin, either consciously or unconsciously, you have Type 12 emotional hunger.
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Replies
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Questions
1. Can you identify a time when you began to seek food for comfort? What was happening in your life at the time? If you can’t remember when you started using food for comfort, try to describe the time when this habit intensified or became more severe.
food has always been a huge part of my family life - so it was only natural thats what i turned too after a personnal life experience and its all been downhill since then and now its a constant ache of wanting food even when i am not hungry
2. How would you feel if you had to give up the habit of eating when you’re upset emotionally? Describe what your life might feel like. Part of you probably says that you’ll be fine, but what does the other part say? What does the part of you that’s scared of giving up emotional eating say?
I always wonder if i would find something else unhealthy to replace the sad time but i need to be stronger in myself and realise that i can do this and get on with my life. i think if i could do it i would be happy
3. What part of your relationship with food are you in denial about? Which part would you rather not know about? How might you get this out in the open to yourself? What would happen if you did this?
i dont feel i am denial about any of it - i know when its happening and i know i need to change
4. Which of the 12 types of emotional hunger do you suffer from most (see below)? What are some ways you could begin to change your habit of eating when faced with emotional hunger like this?
i am a type 1 eater - i eat when any mood is really effecting me - i think i need to talk about my feelings more and combat the boredom with other activites
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I find it hard to believe that at such an early age I was already eating emotionally, but by the time I was 4-5 years old I was climbing up and getting chocolate Exlax out of the medicine cabinet and eating it, as well as anything I could sneak from the cupboard my mom kept her baking supplies in (chocolate chips, marshmallows, maraschino cherries, etc.) In first grade I started stealing candy or money to buy candy. Emotional? I always had to compete with my sisters and brothers for any attention from our parents, who expressed their love by "keeping food on the table and a roof over our heads", not by hugs or saying "I love you". Maybe that's where I picked up that I had to do something (help?) in order to be loved instead of just being.
Not too long ago I would have panicked if I had to give up sweets--literally panicked. I had such a strong fear of hunger that I always had food available or "I'd better eat it now in case it isn't there when I get hungry". I still can't imagine life without sweets, but the panic has eased.
I see some of 1, 3, 9 and 10 in my emotional eating patterns. Basically stuffing down my feelings. I've been so successful at it that I rarely feel my emotions anymore, or maybe I feel them in a very narrow range of 4 - 6 instead of 1 - 10. I can have tears well up over something but not be feeling any pain--damn I'm good!0 -
Wow. Going through that list has helped me realize just how much of a hold emotional eating has on me. I use every single one. I have been fooling myself for a long time. We can't change something if we don't know it needs changing. Now I know.0
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Definitely type 1.
Not so much angry, as anger keeps me too busy to want to eat, but depressed, anxious, bored or lonely all fit.0 -
Questions
1. Can you identify a time when you began to seek food for comfort? What was happening in your life at the time? If you can’t remember when you started using food for comfort, try to describe the time when this habit intensified or became more severe.
I began when I was in my pre-teens. I was over-weight at that time. I never really thought of it as emotional hunger at that time. I don't talk about feelings much so I never told anyone about the things that were bugging me and stuffed myself with food. The smallest arguments would make me start eating. The worse part is that I actually felt better after I ate. It intensified when someone put me down or when I fought with someone or was scared.
2. How would you feel if you had to give up the habit of eating when you’re upset emotionally? Describe what your life might feel like. Part of you probably says that you’ll be fine, but what does the other part say? What does the part of you that’s scared of giving up emotional eating say?
I would be glad to get rid of it. I hate to be so dependant on food to make me feel better. I sometimes honestly think food makes me feel better. Sometimes it really does. But its rare. I think if I give up emotional eating I will never really allow myself to enjoy food and I'll always think about eating. I fear the thought of food will always be in the back of my mind after I stop myself from over-eating and that I will feel deprived of something. Everything seems so stupid now
3. What part of your relationship with food are you in denial about? Which part would you rather not know about? How might you get this out in the open to yourself? What would happen if you did this?
I am not in denial about anything. I may be more dependant on food than I think I am. I let food 'consume' me instead of it being the other round. Over-eating also makes me feel greedy for some reason. I am aware of what I do. I'm just not trying hard enough.
4. Which of the 12 types of emotional hunger do you suffer from most (see below)? What are some ways you could begin to change your habit of eating when faced with emotional hunger like this?
I am mostly a Type 1 and Type 8 eater, unfortunately. I could spend time thinking about the problem that thinking about the food. I could tell myself that food will not help me solve my problem and it will DEFINITELY not make me feel better. Bloated, maybe. But NOT better.0 -
1. Can you identify a time when you began to seek food for comfort? What was happening in your life at the time? If you can’t remember when you started using food for comfort, try to describe the time when this habit intensified or became more severe.
Became more severe when I was living at home again after undergrad. only lived there for 6 months but still ended up gaining 20. I was start being more active more healthy when i began grad school... now i am changing again resulting to food when stressed tired and lonely after long days in the lab class and at work.
2. How would you feel if you had to give up the habit of eating when you’re upset emotionally? Describe what your life might feel like. Part of you probably says that you’ll be fine, but what does the other part say? What does the part of you that’s scared of giving up emotional eating say?
empty. i feel like the second i come home from long mentally emotionally days or days of studying at school, the first and foremost thought is decompress... veg out, relax, sit, think about nothing while filling that hole the knot of stress has been working into my stomach. i would give anything to find a better coping mechanism then eating after a long day depriving my brain from relaxation. i would have so much more time rather than spending it dwelling on food.... making food for the next week, sweet things, warm things, spicy things....something that makes me feel full slowed down and relaxed would be such a release.
3. What part of your relationship with food are you in denial about? Which part would you rather not know about? How might you get this out in the open to yourself? What would happen if you did this?
i deny that i can change. i honestly feel like this is me, so accept it rather than change it. i've been eating like this my entire life. starting off with the rule, finish everything mama puts on my plate... to eating huge huge huge after school snacks before dinner in middle school. i would not want to know why i feel like i can't change. i would want to know whats stopping me from this. i dont think its easy to go so far back and think why from middle school i need to eat when alone at home.
4. Which of the 12 types of emotional hunger do you suffer from most (see below)? What are some ways you could begin to change your habit of eating when faced with emotional hunger like this?
1 - 90% of the time... its because im stressed, tired and in need of calming down
2 - think i just ate out of spite from my roommate being better than me at life this week.... hard to admit to that. ugh... i really need to ignore her focus on myself.
6 - i know i eat nonstop when at either parents house... i await the day i am fully away from them.
12?? maybe because of the roommate thing. shes 100pounds and i judge her for it. im average...and hope no one judges me for being the same0 -
I identify as a type 11 emotional eating to feel carefree.
type 10 to avoid confrotation or connecting with someone that I don't want to to connect with. someone that has belittled me and made me feel bad about myself
type 2 eating to avoid confrontation. from someone that has belittled me and harrassed me.
type one-eating to dull lonelinss, boredom, fear(anxiety)0
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