How to overcome emotional eating
Photo by TYLER COLEMAN on Unsplash
The emotional eating cycle
When we understand at a deep level why we eat emotionally, we can begin to regain the power of the cycle. The emotional eating cycle has four main stages. Each stage has a name to make it easier to recognize when they occur in our daily lives: the trigger, the dissimulation, the false luck and the hangover.
Trigger: A "trigger" is an event or situation that causes a stressful or painful emotional reaction. It can be any object, event or conversation. Triggers create a physical reaction in the body. Our breathing can accelerate or become shallow, or we can start to sweat. Emotionally we can feel angry, sad or upset. The reason why we have certain triggers unlike others is related to our family history, our personality and, especially, our insecurities.
Dissimulation: there are many ways to hide feelings that we do not want to feel, but one of the most common methods is to eat foods high in sugar, carbohydrates and fats, such as chocolate, ice cream, cakes and cookies. These comforting classic foods have an appropriate name because they hide difficult emotions by creating temporary relief. Classic comfort food is heavy and difficult to digest. Outside the brain, digestion needs more energy. Heavy foods extract energy from the nervous system where we feel our emotions and direct them to digestion. These foods hide emotions, strange feelings that trigger the emotional cycle of food.
False luck: when you eat to hide your feelings, you enter the stage of "false luck". The characteristics of this phase are the feeling that everything is fine, that there are no questions to address first or that it is only a product of our imagination. Comfort food, which is associated with the desire to cover, allows us to forget at least for a short time.
Hangover: Soon, the feeling of happiness and forgetfulness begins to fade and the "hangover" prevails. During a hangover, two types of pain occur. First, there is the physical pain and discomfort that occurs after eating too many "comforting" foods. Then comes the emotional pain that results from feeling guilty and ashamed of not doing what you originally intended (eating healthy) by repeating a worn pattern. In addition to all this, you may often feel confused because you have forgotten or removed the original trigger that initiated the down cycle.
A new trigger: the guilt and shame of the hangover often act as a new trigger. Then the cycle of emotional eating begins again. We continue to eat badly and the cycle continues. Instead of producing a stronger impulse from healthy habits, we feel the opposite, a negative cycle that drives us. Many of us think that we simply lack discipline. But the truth is that we are stuck in the cycle.
Break the cycle
There is no magic solution. To get out of the emotional eating cycle, you must first understand the pattern and commit to recognize it as soon as it appears. The cycle can continue, but you will notice and stop it faster.
Here are four ways to break the cycle:
Create awareness. Awareness is the first and most important step. You will learn more about how to use the cycle personally, as well as the stories and games you play to avoid compromising with what you really want.
Solve the problem directly. The simplest and most direct way to break the cycle is to solve the problem directly if you feel triggered. Often, emotional eating habits can be stopped if the initial triggers are treated honestly. If you cannot talk to someone directly or if the activator is an object, such as an old picture of a family member or the memories of a partner, take a moment to fully experience how you feel. If you are aware of the trigger and are fully aware of how you feel, the power of the cycle will decrease.
Build a toolbox with healthy habits. In addition to dealing directly with the problem, the next step is to replace an unhealthy habit with a healthy habit. With conscious practice, this "toolbox" becomes more automatic and we will see how old habits fade naturally. You can walk, drink a large glass of water or eat something healthy.
Find the origin. If certain habits do not work for us, if they cause us pain and prevent us from achieving our goals, we should take the time to try to understand them and think about them. Finding an origin means asking profound questions about why we do what we do.
This is a big issue that is not always easy to solve. When you think about your habits, read good self-help books and work with a coach, you can discover the deeper reasons behind your triggers.
Resources:
Here are some books that I found very useful to understand your triggers, their causes and how you can address them honestly:
Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth by Brad Blanton
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie
Receive support
I am here to help you discover your triggers and control your emotional eating habits. Support is one of the main factors in changing long-term behaviour. This is why I can help you achieve your health goals.
You can make an appointment with me here.
