My battle with emotional eating on a weight loss journey
I have more than one reason to share this today. First, I want it to be known that just because I am a Beachbody Coach and a great health and fitness advocate, and I practice the lifestyle that I teach, I also fight back and want to be an open book. Second, I hope that if you are reading this and also struggling with emotional eating, it will inspire you so that you can overcome it and continue to meet the goals of your weight loss journey. Lastly, if you’re reading this because someone you love struggles with emotional eating, I hope it can shed some light on what they may be feeling.
Looking back, I think I’ve always struggled with emotional eating, but didn’t realize it until recently. In early January, we decided to participate in a 21-day Daniel fast with our church that we attend. I knew I was struggling with my eating habits and had started to lose my way, so I prayed that this partial fast would help me get well. My husband decided to join me and we are currently on day 18. If you have never heard of this before, it is a partial fast where you eliminate leavened breads, sugar, coffee, animal products, basically eliminate everything except fruits and vegetables. . My senses have heightened to my cravings as I cannot have my comfort foods, and I am increasingly recognizing the struggle I have with emotional eating.
Things I have noticed:
· I am addicted to certain foods / drinks because of how they make me FEEL. Example: my decaf coffee makes me feel comfortable and relaxed (# 1 red flag of emotional eating)
I find myself eating mindlessly when I’m BORED. Especially at night when I sometimes find myself wanting to eat everything in sight. (emotional eating red flag # 2)
I often feel guilty after mindlessly eating because I’ve recognized that I wasn’t really hungry to begin with. (emotional eating red flag # 3)
· I have certain “trigger” foods (CARBS), which I have a hard time eating even when I am full. These trigger foods are all foods that I am addicted to for comfort. Example: French fries or bread in a restaurant (emotional eating red flag # 4)
According to WebMD, one way to help determine if you are physically or emotionally hungry is to focus on a particular food. For example, after a really stressful day at the office, I CRAVE for carbs, usually things like French fries, bread, pizza, and fried foods, things I don’t eat very often. And what if I can’t get one of these comfort foods when I have this feeling? I get upset. Hello there? That’s not good.
Also according to WebMD, what is sought to satisfy an emotion depends on the emotion. For me personally, I crave carbohydrates and sugar when I have any kind of emotional eating episode. But in this article I read, he says that happy people tend to be more attracted to pizza or steak, while someone in a sad mood might reach for ice cream and cookies. I rarely want ice cream or cookies so I guess that means I’m happy .: D
If you’ve been following me for a long time, you know that I have my own weight loss story that I share. Last year, I lost a little over 30 pounds. You may be wondering, “How did you do so well fighting emotional eating, and how can I, too?” Well, I’ll tell you first that my results could have been a lot better. I cleaned up my eating dramatically, but I still could have done better by sticking to the meal plans, so I could have had better results. However, in my opinion, I did great and now I am much happier. I want to share with you some ways that I still lost weight while struggling with emotional eating.
· I got into an accountability group. I host them on Facebook if you ever want to get into one. Having others also aware of what I was doing really helped me, and still does!
I started exercising at home and replaced one meal a day with Shakeology. This kept me more consistent and doing my workouts 5-6 days a week was obviously a big reason for my weight loss. Shakeology helps me with my cravings.
While I still struggle with nighttime episodes where I want to eat all the carbs in sight, I started looking for healthier options. I shouldn’t eat anything after dinner, but hey, it was an improvement.
I didn’t let an episode of emotional eating derail me; I continued with the next meal with what I knew I had to do to keep losing weight.
· I made sure to ALWAYS have snacks on hand. Every day I go to work with breakfast, 2 snacks and lunch. This way, the constant assortment of greasy goodies coming into the office doesn’t tempt me as much. Example: the other day, someone brought some amazing donuts. My need for comfort appeared, but I declined by eating my strawberry sandwich instead.
I’d love to hear from you: do you have your own battle with emotional eating? How are you getting over it? However, do you need help to get over it? Comment below and we’ll chat!
