Many of us find ourselves in front of the pantry grabbing for seconds or thirds, at the work break room eating everything in sight, eating well beyond our fullness because food tastes good or going through the drive through yet again only to feel bad about what we are doing, eating emotionally or bingeing.
Tens of thousands of people emotionally eat for a variety of reasons, too many to possibly list at once but there are some main sources or reasons why we are emotionally eating.
To start, food is typically available to us at all times. We have grocery stores all over the place, the ability to deliver food straight to our homes or offices, drive throughs, some that are open 24 hours and numerous places to get food. Food is everywhere because it is vital to our lives, however, when we are over eating it becomes out of balance and is no longer the most effective way we are fueling our bodies.
Because food is typically always available, I say typically because I also want to acknowledge there are thousands of people without adequate food supply and this is also important but more to come on this, it is an easy coping mechanism to rely on. Additionally, we emotionally eat because people tend to find eating less problematic than other maladaptive strategies such as drinking, self harming or cheating on a partner. Therefore, it is easy to justify because we have to eat anyway to sustain ourselves.
Here are some of the top reasons why we are emotionally eating:
Stress. Yes, stress! Of course stress made the list as this is likely no surprise to anyone. When we are stressed, we are often looking for something to make us feel better. We may also realize we have limited time to eat so we are eating food in a non mindful way, often going well beyond our hunger cues signaling to us we are full.
We enjoy the food we are eating. We engage in eating food because it tastes good. However due to our lifestyles, availability of food, disconnecting from our bodies we are no longer listening to our bodies. We ignore our hunger cues and continue to eat. We also struggle with the mindset of not wanting to waste food or having to enjoy the whole thing of something which disconnects us from hunger cues and leads us to continue to eat.
Comfort. Food is comforting to us. Food often takes the place of relationships, happiness and feeling good. When we find ourselves upset, in a breakup, having an argument with our partner, feeling defeated at work, struggling with stress, there’s always food. Haven’t we all found ourselves having a crappy day at work and then treating ourselves to something good? The issue is, when this continues and there isn’t awareness around it, we continue to engage in emotional overeating.
Control. When the world feels like it is unraveling at our feet, we can always eat. As we live within society’s expectations of us, there are so many things we cannot manage such as how people treat us and our relationship with others, our status at work, if we make the amount of money if we want to, if a pandemic hits and shakes us etc., we can choose what we put into our bodies. This often makes us feel powerful, even if we are not consciously aware of it to help us to feel control.
Current or previous food insecurity. As mentioned above, people struggle to have resources to purchase food. This leads to a feast or famine mindset where one needs to eat everything available to them now, because they are not sure if there will be more later. This mindset can continue even when food insecurity is no longer an issue. At times our mind is making up for lost time and continues to engage in overeating because the food was once not available to us.
Food can serve a lot of purposes for us. Food can be nourishment, enjoyment, a celebration, comfort or many other things. The issue with over eating is when we consciously or unconsciously use food to solve the issues of our lives. There is nothing wrong with eating for enjoyment or comfort from time to time. However when it becomes a daily habit we are no longer listening to our bodies for what our bodies need and the issue never gets appropriately addressed.
One of the first steps in overcoming your emotional eating is to identify why it is occuring so you can tackle the personal issues at hand while also learning the appropriate skills to cope with your life stressors and to have a healthier relationship with food.
If it is time to rebalance your relationship with food, you may be in a spot where you’re ready to make lasting change.
If you have not already, sign up for my free video series on “Make Peace with Food.” It’s a great first step and I promise you will walk away with some great tidbits on changing how you view food!
Most importantly, it’s necessary to shift the shame and guilt that comes with emotional overeating. Food has a vital place in our lives, and it’s ok if it’s time to find balance in your relationship with food.
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