Emotional Eating – How To Stop It For Good!
Is emotional eating something that you know all too well? I am with you 100% and know how debilitating it can be.
You aren’t hungry but eat anyway. You have tried every diet under the sun and maybe lost some weight through sheer willpower, only to gain it back again. Why is this so?
You know it is effecting your physical and mental health but you just can’t stop. After many years of dealing with this, I now know why willpower doesn’t work and what does.
Why Doesn’t Willpower Work For Emotional Eating?
Willpower’s definition is “control exerted to do something or restrain impulses”. That is just it. You want to eat X, Y or Z but you are restraining yourself from doing so.
How hard is it. You want it but can’t have it. So how much more do you want it now? If you are anything like me, more.
It is a feeling of loss. A feeling of missing out. But what are we really missing out on? More control over our food, more love, more joy, more fun? That is what I want more than the food.
The problem that I have found with this approach is that it is not sustainable, nor permanent. “We crave what we can’t have” – Kartik. This didn’t just happen overnight, it has been learn’t as a program from most likely a young age and no amount of willpower is going to cure you.
You have to get to the root cause of why you are emotionally eating in the first place and deal with it for good.
So Why Do We Eat Emotionally?
There is something missing. We needed comfort at some stage in our life and the only place we could get it was from food. It helped to fill that void in our hearts.
For me this stems back to the trauma that I encountered as a young girl. At that time, I didn’t get the comfort and support that I needed so went looking elsewhere. Food became the relief that I needed to keep going and I have kept up until now.
I am finally ready to accept and deal with the emotions and subconscious programming that has been holding me back so that I can live a much more fulfilled life.
What Have I Done So Far
Over the past two years I have been on a personal development journey. One of self exploration and healing. Healing my mind as well as my body.
On this journey I have discovered an amazing set of tools. Things such as muscle testing, clearing techniques for negative emotions as well as negative beliefs.
These have worked wonderfully in many areas of my life but I was still struggling with my emotional eating. It was getting better as I removed the unconscious blocks but not cured.
Some of the beliefs I cleared that weren’t serving me and that have been replaced with a more empowering one are:
- I am not good enough
- I don’t matter
- Exercise is not pleasurable for me
- I am worthless
- I don’t deserve to forgive myself
- My mum doesn’t love me
- I eat even though I am not hungry
- I don’t trust myself around food
As I said, replacing these beliefs with more empowering ones has helped a lot, just not fully.
So What Have I Found To Curb My Emotional Eating?
Recently I came across another approach that resonated with me and may for you as well.
This technique is all about getting to the root cause and healing those deep emotional voids.
Its a program called Think and Thin by Brittany Watkins. I watched her video on emotional eating and it resonated with me so well.
It is a combination of removing your negative beliefs but also includes an imagery exercise that fills up the void that you have been chasing your whole life.
After completing one of the exercises 6 days ago now, I have noticed a massive difference in my eating habits.
There is food in my house that would normally be eaten by now but I have no desire for.
Once I complete her 6 week program and I can only imagine what my life will be like. I believe it will be one of pure pleasure around food rather than pain. And hopefully some weight loss as well.
Ready to heal your emotional eating? Anything I can help you with for your journey? Then leave me a comment and let’s cure emotional eating once and for all.