Hello love,
When I talk to women who emotionally eat the inner dialogue they tend to have is:
“I’m broken”
“What’s wrong with me”
“Why can’t I just get this under control”
I get it, I was the same way!
I would look at the women around me and they would all seem so normal with food. Not obsessing just eating. And I wanted that. I thought the same things “Why can’t I just get a handle on this. Why am I hungry all the time?”
What I want you to take away from what I’ll be sharing is that you. are. not. broken.
When you have this Emotional Eating pattern – it’s a coping mechanism. It would have formed when you were really young.
A coping mechanism like this means you deal with discomfort, distress, stressors in your life with a bandaid like food.
Because you weren’t given the tools and modelling to be with this discomfort and create resolution.
You might have had parents or caregivers who didn’t have a great relationship with food, or be able to move through their emotions, able to help you regulate yourself. They couldn’t show you how to move through these stressors in a way that supported you.
If you have this coping mechanism and have been using willpower for years and years thinking something is wrong with you and all you need is MORE willpower…
Sorry to break it to you but it’s not going to get to the root of this pattern and stop it.
If you’ve spent years, decades even using willpower with no change that’s too much time wasted. Because a new habit should only take a max of 66 days to form if you’re consistent. But if you’ve used willpower and you haven’t shifted this pattern after all those years something more is going on.
When you have a coping mechanism it’s deeply ingrained.
It’s automatic.
It’s subconscious.
AND you need different tools to resolve it.
Check out the video below at the timestamps to dive deeper:
- 2:34 How willpower can make you swing to the other extreme
- 3:05 Why you go back to using food
- 3:30 What we need to move out of this pattern
- 3:50 What that looks like tangibly with food, your body and emotions
- 6:00 Getting triggered and why it’s harder to control eating with tactics
- 7:10 Of course you’re still using food to soothe if you’re doing this
- 7:40 The first step to shifting this pattern
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 wholeness,
~Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist Specializing in Emotional Eating
