Hey love,
I wanted to dive a bit deeper today about emotional eating. It’s not just about eating when we’re bored or craving a treat—it’s actually a coping mechanism.
And here’s the kicker: emotional eating is also a subconscious pattern. If we don’t understand what’s really going on underneath, we’re likely to keep approaching it the wrong way.
We try using willpower, jumping on the latest diet, or talking about it endlessly in therapy. But here’s the thing: none of those solutions get to the root of the problem.
Why? Because we’re trying to fix something with our conscious mind, but emotional eating is way deeper than that—it’s a subconscious pattern. So trying to power through with sheer willpower might work for a little while, but it won’t last.
I know this from experience. I’ve had times when I stuck to a diet for months—sometimes up to a year—and thought I had it all under control. But then, eventually, the willpower runs out. You can’t just keep forcing yourself to do the same thing over and over. And that’s when things start falling apart.
So, why do we emotionally eat in the first place?
Emotional eating is really just a survival mechanism. It’s our way of coping with stress, difficult emotions, or life situations when we can’t seem to get our emotional needs met. But the thing is, it’s an automatic pattern and a “band-aid” approach.
When we emotionally eat, we’re using food to comfort ourselves, soothe our feelings, or numb out all those uncomfortable emotions. We do it because we don’t always know how to deal with those emotions head-on, and food feels like an easy way to make them go away for a while.
A lot of times, this pattern starts in childhood. When we’re kids, we need our parents or caregivers to show us how to handle tough feelings like stress or sadness. If we’re not shown how to move through those emotions, we might start using food or other coping mechanisms as a way to self-soothe.
But here’s the thing: emotional eating is not your fault. It’s a pattern you learned along the way, and with the right process you can resolve it.
Let’s break it down a bit:
- 2:00 – How Society Makes It Hard to Process Emotions (And Why Food Feels Like the Only Fix)
- 3:09 – What Triggers Emotional Eating (And Some Examples)
- 3:25 – Why Emotional Eating is So Hard to Stop (It’s All About the Subconscious)
- 4:31 – How to Work With Your Emotional Eating Patterns to Actually Shift Them (And Start Feeling More Confident)
- 9:15 – Why Diets and Exercise Aren’t the Answer (And What Really Works)
- 10:00 – The Difference Between Your Conscious and Subconscious Mind (And Why It Matters)
- 10:30 – Grab Your Free Guide & Take the Next Step Towards Breaking the Cycle
Next Steps
1. If you are ready to start your journey to resolving your Emotional Eating you can download my free guide “What Are You Truly Hungry For?” to start discerning true from emotional hunger and catching your triggers HERE.
2. If you are ready to transform your emotional eating so that you can get to ease, peace and confidence around food and in your body with a step by step process and guidance then find out more about The Emotional Eating Evolution Program HERE.
To resolution,
~Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist Specializing in Emotional Eating
