Hello love,
Today I wanted to share with you why controlling yourself will not help you with resolving your emotional eating.
I wanted to touch in on this topic because when women are dealing with emotional eating they feel they need a lot of willpower and control.
The emotional eating pattern develops over time. Emotional eating is when we use food to soothe ourselves from any discomfort or uncomfortable emotions.
It is a coping mechanism and is temporary relief. This is not a solution or resolution and I’m all about resolution 😉
When we have this pattern it served us in the past to feel ok. We usually develop it when we are younger and use it because our emotions or needs were shamed or dismissed.
Sadly, this is typical in our society. Emotions are usually not tolerated or understood.
So as we grow up and have more discomfort and stressors this pattern gets out of control. We might notice more emotional eating which can result in more health issues, digestive issues, obsessive thoughts and even weight gain, etc.
So we think – if only i could control this pattern then I’d be ok. Yes, of course this pattern is not helping us but we need to think back to why we created this pattern.
Let’s go back to the roots of this…
We created this pattern because we had unprocessed emotions and our needs were not met. When we don’t process our emotions they stay stuck in our body. We then use food to cope and develop this coping mechanism to feel ok.
So now as an adult, we look at this coping pattern we used to feel temporary relief and we are trying to wipe out the pattern. We are trying to remove the behaviour without meeting our needs first and resolving the unprocessed emotions.
So with diets and exercise and behavioural change we remove the pattern but the needs remain. And this part of us that has needs grows bigger as we struggle to change our behaviour. Eventually this part of us overpowers us and we will go back to the old pattern of emotional eating even though it is not a true resolution.
So we need to learn how to create a harmonious relationship internally, meeting our true needs and processing the emotions running this pattern.
What we need…
We need to have all of these parts on board. In The Emotional Eating Evolution Program we do this with somatic meditations with psychotherapy tools (parts + inner child work mostly). This gets to the deep root and get all parts onboard because they are all a part of you.
So if one part loses (as in with diets and forcing change) you lose! We want all of you to be aligned.
When we have the tools to dive into this pattern at the root in our subconscious we can create a true resolution. We need to clear and clean up the roots so they are fertile and ready for a new way of being.
If we don’t we are pilling ice cream (diets/exercise/behaviour changes) on top of poop (emotional eating).
When we stop controlling ourselves and start understating ourselves on this deep level it feels like an EXHALE. This is how you feel at ease, free, and confident around food and in your body. There will not be that internal battle, only a clear way forward.
You can find out more about The Emotional Eating Evolution Program here. And if you are ready to resolve your emotional eating from the root I’d love to invite you to apply + book in an Assessment call to see how the program can support you here.
To moving forward with ease,
Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist + Emotional Eating Expert.
