Hello love,
I wanted to talk about switching out one coping mechanism for another.
If you didn’t know, Emotional Eating is a coping mechanism. It’s something you would have developed earlier in childhood to help you deal with discomfort, distress and uncomfortable emotions.
We develop coping mechanisms when our parents or caregivers didn’t model to us how to move through distress and to get to to a resolution. They would not have modelled to us how to be with our uncomfortable emotions.
They might have shut us down, criticized us, made us feel something was wrong with us or they themselves didn’t know how to move through their own emotions.
Because of this they couldn’t remain calm and guide us through this process.
So when we are very young we end up holding in all these emotions. It’s uncomfortable and we need to do something about it. We need to cope.
As an emotional eater you end up using food because food releases dopamine and makes us feel good. This is distracting and numbs the discomfort. It’s temporary and a bandaid but was the only way you could survive.
So, as an emotional eater you go towards food whenever distress or discomfort comes up.
This pattern would have and continues to create a lot f conflict for you around food, your body and your emotions.
I’m sure you’re trying every way possible to resolve this pattern. Check out the full video here for more on why the tactics you’ve been using are keeping you stuck.
Let’s dive deeper here:
- 1:48 why this advice to help your emotional eating urges is another bandaid solution
- 2:45 You’re not broken – you just weren’t taught this
- 3:45 why “managing” your emotions leads to more emotional eating
- 4:24 2 things you need to be doing before an emotional eating episode
- 5:45 Meeting your true needs in these 3 areas vs. using food
- 9:45 Creating ease and peace in the body somatically, a shift in the NS
- 10:10 The importance of structure and flow in resolving this pattern
- 10:45 First tangible step to this process
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
