One of the questions I will ask new clients is “Do you eat to live or live to eat?”
Translation: How do you view food? Do you view food as fuel for your body? Do you feed yourself what makes you feel better for life? Or is food frequently top of mind? Do you eat because you like the way it tastes or because you crave it, etc? Do you use food as a way of feeling better?
I recently sat in on a talk with Jessica Procini, Escape from Emotional Eating and she talked about the quiz she gives her clients. The following True/False quiz may shed some insight for you:
Are you an emotional eater?
- I over eat even if it’s a couple bites
- I eat when I’m not physically hungry
- I eat a lot later in the day esp. after 3pm
- I spend a lot of time thinking about food and my body
- I can’t seem to lose weight no matter how healthy I eat
- I feel like I can’t trust my body, or I’ll lose control and eat everything
- When life gets overwhelming, I have a hard time saying no to food
- I have tried diets to stop stress eating
- I feel bloated lethargic and dim
- I won’t buy certain foods or keep them in the house b/c I’m afraid I’ll overdo it
- I want real transformation in my relationship with food
According to Jessica, if you have answered True to more than two of these questions, you may have an issue with emotional eating.
What surprised me about this was that she, herself, had been through many therapy sessions, (I believe she logged over 900 hours in sessions between therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists) and was unable to breakthrough. She would leave her therapy sessions, go home and reach for the pantry.
Food can be such a form of comfort in so many ways. We celebrate special occasions with food. We have family dinners. We go out to socialize over dinner.
But when you are tormented by and around food or the thought of food, maybe there’s something underlying that needs to be uncovered so that you can release yourself from the emotional attachment to food.
According to Jessica, the key to success is understanding the deeper cause.
Here are the action steps to take:
- Look at what’s going on. Recognize and acknowledge emotional eating.
- Feel to heal, how did it feel before, during and after eating
- Choosing to change, making a conscious choice to put healing into action.
Being mindful is the key to all of the above steps. Before we can make changes of any kind, it starts with awareness. Pay attention to your body cues, emotional and physical. Think about these steps before acting on any emotional habit!
Click here to find more information on emotional eating. http://EscapeFromEmotionalEating.com