Hello love,
This is something that happens to a lot of emotional eaters – feeling like a robot. You can be watching yourself emotionally eat and you think “why can’t I just stop?”. It feels like something outside of you has taken you over.
OR you have an emotional eating episode and think “what happened?”.
In both cases it feels like something has taken us over and we have no control over this behaviour.
When this would happen to me I felt like a failure and out of control. I had no idea why this was happening. I didn’t understand this pattern. I also didn’t see anyone else experiencing this or talking about it and didn’t know why it was happening to me. So I had to start figuring out what was going on.
How this pattern forms…
If you are watching yourself eat and you know it’s because you are not physically hungry (here’s a guide to help discern that) then you are emotionally eating.
I had this pattern because I was emotionally eating. Something would trigger me which led me to feeling uncomfortable and then going to food to soothe. I had to do a lot of work on my patterns.
We usually develop this pattern because we were told to dismiss/distract/avoid our emotions by our parents or caregivers when we were younger. What we needed was for them to validate our emotions and help us regulate ourselves. Sadly, this is the case in society as well and can be subtle.
For emotional eaters we use food to feel better and cope with these emotions that now live in our body because we have ignored them for so long.
If we keep using food whenever we feel this discomfort it becomes a pattern. Our brain loves patterns and so it becomes automatic. Once a pattern becomes automatic it lives in the subconscious and has about 95% power when triggered.
This pattern is a coping mechanism. This is not resolving the emotion but rather distracting us from it. We are not meant to cope with things in life but rather to resolve them.
Resolving this pattern
So this pattern needs to be resolved on a deeper level. If we pile on a diet, exercise plan or even talk therapy we are only working with the conscious mind that has 5% power over the emotional eating pattern.
What we need to do is uproot this pattern, resolve it and create a way that meets our true needs. If we don’t and keep using these surface solutions we will be white knuckling our way forward. This doesn’t last very long.
This emotional eating pattern is trying to keep us safe from discomfort in a dysfunctional way. The same thing is happening with any other resistance that comes up for us as well on our emotional eating journey.
How do we get to the root and clear this?
In The Emotional Eating Evolution Program and my other programs we work through this on a somatic level to process and resolve this pattern and create a new way forward that is meeting your true needs. This creates profound change as it gets to the root.
Once we clear out this pattern we can add in new ways to nourish ourselves and accept our body that feels aligned. This is how we move forward feeling at ease, confident and free in our body and around food.
If this is resonating with you and you are ready to resolve your emotional eating and start feeling free in your body then I’d love to invite you to check out The Emotional Eating Evolution Program here. I am also currently opening up 2 spaces to my high level 1:1 container The Evolution which is a 12 week container to dive deep and resolve this pattern on all levels. Book in an Assessment call to chat about either or get in touch on instagram @lallnutrition.
To flow,
Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist + Emotional Eating Guide
