Hello love!
This week I wanted to share about advice I was given and that is typically given to emotional eaters in order to stop going to food to cope.
Strategies like walking, journalling, running, talking to a friend or the laundry list of things to distract yourself.
While this is well meaning advice it doesn’t get to the root and resolve your emotional eating.
On my emotional eating journey I did all the diets and also went to cognitive behavioural therapy was over a 1.5 years.
I learned to rewrite my thoughts and changed my behaviours but even after over a year I was still using food to cope. My binges actually became worse with stressful situations because I had no real tools that resolved the issue.
I was only able to distract myself. As emotional eaters we use food to distract from our uncomfortable emotions.
Talking to a friend, journalling, running etc is another way we can distract ourselves and we are just moving away from the emotion.
BUT
The emotion is calling out to us to resolve it.
Emotions are produced in our body and if we don’t process them they remain stuck in the body. Each time they are triggered and we distract they grow bigger like a volcano waiting to explode or binge eat 😉
Using distraction tactics is like putting ice cream on top of poop.
We need to validate our emotions and using these tactics we are ignoring our need to be seen, heard and validated.
Maybe you were taught this by your parents? Caregivers or even found this to be a reprieve from getting in trouble…
What is the solution? Check out this week’s video for more on:
- We need a way to get into the body and process these emotions
- What I found that was missing on my journey; feeling safe, modelling to feel our emotions
- How these tactics just repeat the cycle of disconnection.
- Our needs as a human we need to be seen. heard and validated.
- Why these tactics leave you feeling numb or agitated and NOT at ease in your body
- more about the modality we use in the Emotional Eating Evolution Program to resolve your emotions in a compassionate way so you feel at ease in your body and around food.
Bandaid solutions (tactics) are temporary, we need to get to the root in order to not have food be in control.
To true resolution,
~Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist + Emotional Eating Expert
