Did you know that you actually have a relationship with food that you eat? If you’re like most people, the thought probably has never occurred to you. Your relationship to food is very intimate. It is something very near and dear to you. I say this because it speaks volumes as to if you struggle with your weight or if you are living at your Perfect Weight.
Many of our feelings about food are engrained within us from our childhood. Do you remember hearing any of these statements as a child?
§ Eat this and you’ll feel better
§ You’re not leaving the table until you clean up your plate
§ He’s a good eater, just like his father
§ Clean up the rest of this because I don’t want any leftovers
§ You’ll make grandma feel bad if you don’t eat
I know I’ve heard many of the above statements. We were all told things in our childhood that were not necessarily true when it comes to food. Because of this, our relationship with food began on a false pretense. One of the main lessons we may have learned in childhood is that food equals comfort. If we were sad, angry, sick or any variety of emotions, we were often times comforted with food. So our relationship with food began with associations that were not necessarily accurate.
As you grew into adulthood, you may have dealt with different personal struggles as well as other traumatic events and you may have turned to food for comfort and emotional satisfaction. If you did, you’re not alone. Most people have used food in this manner more times than we’d like to admit.
Anytime you eat because of something you’re feeling as opposed to hunger, it is called emotional eating. This type of eating can occur at anytime during the day. For many people, emotional eating is the primary reason they are overweight. If you’ve been unwilling to address the issue of emotional eating with yourself, getting this one issue under control can lead to tremendous weight loss.
If you answer yes to any of the next questions, you may be an emotional eater….
- Do you eat to comfort yourself in stressful situations?
- Do you continue to eat long after you feel full?
- Do you eat because you are bored or lonely?
- Do you eat due to problems or turmoil in your life?
To understand emotional eating, we need to back up and think about the real reason why we eat in the first place. The main reason we eat is because our body needs fuel in order to function properly. Our body doesn’t care about our feelings; it just needs food to survive. So if our relationship with food is more about the emotions we’re feeling than fuel for our body, then we have a wrong relationship with food.
If you want to change from emotional eating to eating on purpose, you first have to become conscious of what you put in your mouth. You must be willing to question why you’re eating. Is it because of hunger or because you’re bored, upset or angry? To begin eliminating emotional eating, first you need to….
- Organize your eating…eat on purpose. Eat at scheduled times and when you’re hungry.
- Make eating a conscious activity….not while driving down the road or in front of the television.
- Listen to your body. You will soon be able to tell the difference between physical and emotional hunger.
- Change your unwanted behavior one episode at a time.
Once you know the difference between emotional eating and eating on purpose or consciously eating, you have just made the biggest step in your weight loss journey. This may mean making some life style changes but you will feel so much better once you are back in control. Weight loss will become easy once you know why you’re eating. You will then be able to say, “I have a healthy relationship with food”!
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