What Emotional Eating Gives You

“Why do I eat emotionally? What do I get out of it?”

Sound familiar? We know emotional eating gives us feelings of shame and guilt, it can lead to weight gain, it can begin a spiral of negative self-talk, none of this we would volunteer to experience. But emotional eating gives us other things too; it is powerful. When you let your emotions guide what you eat, it isn’t about what you eat but why.

Eating emotionally…

… works as a distraction: you’re focussed on the food and not how you feel. In some scenarios, you eat so much you can only focus on the physical discomfort of overeating and not on the emotional discomfort.

… gives us pleasure: we reach for foods—like mashed potatoes, doughnuts, and pizza—that overload our senses (our mouth waters, our nose loves the smell). Sometimes the foods we reach for can even remind us of happy memories: meals at grandma’s house, birthday parties with friends, or even incredible meals had on vacation.

… gives us a sense of control. When everything feels like too much—the kids are fighting, you worked overtime again, your partner is on a business trip—it is often because there is a lot going on outside your control. Being able to choose delicious food to eat gives you a sense of power, of control, over something when you desperately want it.

No matter if one, or all, of these speaks to your experience with emotional eating know that it is absolutely ok to eat emotionally! Life is busy and overwhelming, and food is easy to access—from the corner store to the work vending machine. The more you learn why you eat emotionally the better prepared you will be to choose to reach for the chips or not. You may still eat emotionally but being aware of why and when can make you feel powerful and less out of control around food. 

💛 Your peace awaits.