Emotional Eating -- Is mine normal?

yasminara wrote: »

Hello,

I have a problem with emotional eating. I consider myself a relatively happy person, but I've had somewhat of a dark past and consequently don't exactly know how to deal with what upsets me sometimes. I noticed that when I get upset I can binge pretty bad, once when an ex hurt me (long story but it was really mean), I solved it by eating a bunch of food. I ironically never get full so even though I'm a 5'2" person, I can pack away 2-3 meals worth of food before I fall asleep.

In any case, as I've spent the last year trying to understand myself better, this was something I notice on how I deal with my issues. It makes it very hard to get back up every single time, so I wanted to reach out. Have you suffered with it? How have you dealt with it? Do you recommend getting help to deal with it?

Thanks,

Yas

I also have emotional eating issues. And I can kind of relate with your last relationship ordeal in a sense.

Take up a yoga practice with a good teacher. Yoga helps with body - mind awareness.

I used to do this myself.I am 5'3 and didn't feel full for years until I started watching what I put in my body, basically eating less. Eventually, I am guessing my stomach shrunk and I could feel full again. It is normal to emotional eat this way, as I used to do this myself. Now, I try to work out if I can in the moment or I use my mind to overcome the situation. I know that by emotional eating I'll just feel worse afterwards.

I am a total emotional binge eater, but have managed to get it under control in the last couple of months. The key thing for me was to recognise that acting on the urge to binge-eat when I'm unhappy is something that will make me feel worse, rather than better. Now, when I'm feeling the urge to binge eat, I either do something nice for myself that isn't food-related (e.g. listen to some music, go for a walk, look at some flowers, buy a new lipstick), or I treat myself to something that is really delicious, eat it slowly and mindfully, and consciously choose to indulge in that food without feeling guilty. This is so much more satisfying than stuffing in lots of food, not really tasting it, and hating myself the whole time.

The "log it, and move on" approach is also really helpful for me, so if I do mess up I just enter my calories and try not to get too worried about it. This helps to avoid getting caught up in a cycle of feeling bad/eating/feeling bad for eating/eating more.

Finally, it's been important for me to confront and try to consciously deal with the feelings that previously I've tried to suffocate with food. If I can identify what's making me unhappy or stressed, and think about ways that I might be able to improve whatever that situation is, it helps me feel more in control of both my life and my eating.

Hope that's helpful!

Nora