More than any other influence our emotions can sabotage our eating behaviors. But why do we eat emotionally? It may be a more than one reason, or it might change for you throughout the day or week. For the most part, there are four main emotional eating influences that seem to be the most prevalent when it comes to why you might eat emotionally.
4 Emotions that Influence Eating
1) FOOD AS A REWARD
Often as children when we do something good or we feel bad, food, usually sweets, is used as a reward. This wires our brain to believe that the food will make you feel better. As adults we subconsciously continue to use food to lift our spirits and make us feel better.
Think about how often you eat something thinking “I deserve a reward or a treat” because you had a bad day or life has thrown you a curve ball. Remind yourself that food is not a reward, it doesn’t make you feel better and it doesn’t change the circumstances. The only thing that changes when you “reward eat” is your weight.
2) FOOD FOR STRESS RELIEF
Food is too often used to soothe stressful feelings. It is used to calm and relax. This is why the habit of over-eating, often at night after dinner, becomes a behavior that most find difficult to change. But again, the truth is the food doesn’t relax you outside of the moments it’s in your mouth. If you spend the rest of the evening beating yourself up, where is the relaxation and calm? Is it worth it?
3) FOOD IS USED TO FILL TIME AND SPACE
How often do you find yourself eating for ‘something to do”? You are bored or procrastinating on getting something done. Or perhaps you feel lonely and you use food as an activity or because your feel “it’s all you have”.
What other self-care activities can you create for yourself that don’t involve food and eating? I suggest creating a list of at least 5 things that you can do to fill time and space other than eating.
4) FOOD USED BECAUSE OF LOW SELF-WORTH OR SELF-ESTEEM
If we don’t feel good about ourselves food is used as almost a subconscious punishment. Do you ever eat thinking “What’s the use, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter or I will fail anyway”?
If you ever hear yourself say ” it doesn’t matter” when you emotionally eat what you are really saying is I DON’T MATTER. If so, ask yourself if that’s the truth…do you really believe you don’t matter?
All in all, our eating and over-eating behaviors involve many different factors grounded in our old conditioning. One thing is for sure, that if you continue to try to lose weight by following another quick fix or fad diet without addressing the reasons why you eat you will eventually end up back where you started.
If you tend to eat for any or all of these emotions, the truth is that food won’t change any of your circumstances, fix your feelings and it won’t soothe you. The only thing that food does when emotionally eaten is change your weight and not in a good way.
If you can’t put your finger on what makes you eat emotionally, schedule a Breakthrough call with me here and I will help you get clear on why you eat and what you can do to change it.
