Hello love,
I wanted to cover this topic, food just being fuel, because when we feel so out of control around food, when we have no willpower to say no to food that we want to just push food away from us and just say food is just fuel and disconnect from it.
The thing is that as an emotional eater we are disconnected from food, our body and our emotions. The more we push food away the more power it has over us.
What we desire a harmonious relationship to food.
I get it.
I had the same relationship to food as well. Trying to control it, trying to stop craving certain foods, trying to figure out what was really going on and why food had this power over me and I couldn’t say no.
This is only the surface – feeling out of control with food. We’re just seeing the symptom of our emotional eating, the symptom of our disconnection to food and ourselves.
So, the more we *try* to disconnect from food, the more power it has over us. Viewing food as only fuel is disconnected.
Finding the Middle Ground.
Usually as an emotional eater food is all pleasure, all consuming, all soothing. That’s not a healthy place either.
Swinging from one extreme to another means we are in an unhealthy pattern with food.
Again we want harmony.
Food is not only pleasurable
OR
only fuelling us.
Food in the middle is a combination of these traits.
The Food Body
There is something amazing I love to share is that in yogic philosophy the first body is called the food body. Because our body is literally made out of the food we consume.
If we just think of food as fuel and disconnect from it, what does that say about our relationship to us and our body?
When we call food fuel we tend to not put in the love and care into our choices. We also forgo food being pleasurable as well.
Food is not just fuel, it is meant to taste good. That’s how we keep eating, It is part of our survival.
How this develops
Somewhere along the lines as emotional eaters we start using food to soothe ourselves. Its a coping mechanism.
This usually stems from childhood where we weren’t regulated or modelled how to be with our emotions. This becomes more complex as we add in diet mentality and body image issues to the mix.
When we have this disconnection to food and we want to control is as an emotional eater it’s coming from this deeper place where we are using food as a bandaid and not meeting our true needs.
The Shift
I would like to invite you to start thinking about food as nourishing your body and literally becoming a part of you. It’s like if you were pregnant and creating a baby, everything you consume becomes the baby.
Everything that you digest, absorb and assimilate becomes you.
The more we can shift to this way of thinking about food and honouring it. We will feel less overpowered by food.
Of course we need to do the deeper work of with our body and the emotions under this pattern. We want to integrate on all of these levels.
If we shift to knowing that food literally becomes a part of us it helps us shift. In The Emotional Eating Evolution Program this is the first phase out of 4. This first phase is about True Nourishment.
In this phase, we move away from diet mentality which is about restriction, deprivation, food as fuel and separation. To a more abundant way of being with food, discerning true from emotional hunger, satisfying hunger and how food plays this important role and nourishing us.
This helps us feel more and more connected to our food and we can build that healthy relationship to food.
As we move through all the phases the program we connect back to food, our body and emotions. These are the areas we are disconnected in.
We start feeling good, at ease and confident around food because we are working on the deeper issues to have this sustainable relationship.
If what I’ve shared resonates with you, you can find out more about The Emotional Eating Evolution Program here. It is my step by step process with lots of support, guidance and the deeper work to help you resolve your emotional eating from the root.
To true nourishment,
Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist + Emotional Eating Expert
