Hello love,
Emotional eating can be a bit complicated. Emotional eating is a coping mechanism we develop from a young age in which we use food to cope with any discomfort or uncomfortable emotions.
As time goes on and we use food to soothe ourselves, we start feeling out of control of food + our body. We then layer on diets (diet mentality) and controlling the body (body image issues) to help control this pattern. These additional layers start to create emotional eating triggers other than just emotions.
True emotional eating is triggered by unresolved emotions. But other things that trigger mood imbalance can trigger emotional eating. There is a difference here which I will explain and is nuanced.
If you are working on emotional eating and only looking at emotions OR just the food OR just the body issues you may not truly resolve the pattern. It is usually a combination of all of them. You are multifaceted and so you need to look at all of you to see what is really going on.
When I was creating The Emotional Eating Evolution Program it was based on my own journey. I tried ALL the things – the diets, trainers, therapy, chiro, etc and nothing specifically worked to help me. What I found was that this pattern is multilayered and needs a multifaceted approach.
I want to share with you the areas that I work with clients to help you discern what might be going on for you.
True Nourishment
We add in true nourishment in the program to combat the diet mentality and behaviour that may be triggering emotional eating. When we are in a diet mentality we are restrictive, reducing calories and creating an obsessive mindset about food. This can trigger a stress response which triggers a mood imbalance. The restriction creates bingeing and the mood imbalance triggers emotional eating.
If you are able to truly nourish the body we reduce these mood imbalance triggers and reduce emotional eating.
Body Acceptance
What we tend to do is ignore the needs of the body (eg rhythm, movement) and we are hyper critical of the body and this triggers mental stress which leads to mood imbalance.
This then triggers emotional eating. Understanding and meeting the needs of the body can shift this trigger. This is where we introduce body acceptance, honouring the rhythms and rituals of the body and movement.
If there are deeper emotional trauma with the body we work on it in the next phase.
Emotional Wellness
Doing the first 2 steps (True Nourishment + Body Acceptance) there is a lessening of triggers for “false” emotional eating. Emotional eating that is caused by other factors than unresolved emotions.
Now we focus on the unresolved emotions under the emotional eating. The “actual” unresolved issue triggering the emotional eating pattern.
When we get in touch with it we can resolve it and integrate it and find new ways to meet our needs and move forward powerfully. This is done on a somatic level to truly get at the root.
When all 3 of these areas are tackled we resolve emotional eating at the roots.
This is why when you try a modality that only focuses on food, OR body OR emotions we don’t see the full picture and change doesn’t tend to be sustainable.
As we work through all the layers of emotional eating whether triggered by emotions or other factors we start feeling more at ease, confident and free in our body.
Inside of The Emotional Eating Evolution Program we move through all the layers to resaving emotional eating so you can feel free, confident and at ease in your body and around food sustainably. If you’re ready to resolve this pattern I invite you to apply + book in an Emotional Eating Assessment call to see how the program can support you.
To resolution,
Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist + Emotional Eating Expert
