How I overcame my emotional eating

I’m going to ask for your complete honesty here. Have you ever struggled with emotional eating? Have you ever had a rough day at work and finished off an entire frozen pizza? Do you sometimes find yourself standing in front of the fridge trying to find something that will cut through the boredom or make you feel just a little bit happier? Have you ever rewarded yourself for getting a big project done with a pint of ice cream?

If you are being honest I know you said Um Yes! to at least one of those questions. I know I sure did!

Emotional eating was something I struggled with most of my life. I managed a restaurant for almost 10 years. After a stressful day (which was pretty much every day in a restaurant), I would head home exhausted, tired, overwhelmed and sit in front of the t.v. with a plate of nachos followed by a Little Debbie Nutty Buddy or perhaps a half-way decent home cooked meal (I did go to culinary school) followed by some Oreos, followed by some chips an hour later, followed by just one more Oreo and a bowl of popcorn.

I swear those cookies were screaming my name from the kitchen.

And when I look back on my childhood, this behavior really isn’t a surprise. I played team sports in grade school and high school. If we won a big game, guess how we celebrated? By going out to get pizza and ice cream. If my siblings and I did well in school, we got to eat at Burger King (there was nothing like eating your Whopper while wearing that crown). If we got hurt, we would get a little cookie or candy to cheer us up. We didn’t get dessert until we cleaned our whole plate.

I know most of us experienced the same things. It’s no wonder we have a broken relationship with food and overeating.

What makes things even harder is that now food is almost always available. There are hundreds of grocery stores in every city, gas stations and drug stores carry food, we of course have food in our homes, but airports and train stations and hotels all have food in some form or shape. Not to mention pizza delivery, Chinese delivery and now we have Postmates and Uber Eats and DoorDash that will bring you any food you can dream of, wherever you are, at any hour. All you have to do is move a finger to your phone.

Our ancestors either had to hunt or gather their food, or grow, weed, harvest and store it. They worked hard to get their food!

The majority of the food we are bombarded with today is intentionally created with very little nutritional value but high levels of palatability that literally makes us crave more of the food that has no nutritional value. We get stuck in this cycle of never feeling satiated nor getting the nutrition we need! It is insanity.

We need to take a step back from the chaos and the noise. Eating shouldn’t be this hard! It’s a natural function of our biology and yet it causes us so much anxiety, stress, overwhelm and hurt.

But I was able to break the cycle and finally freedom! I was able to stop being a slave to my cravings.

How did I break free from my food addiction and emotional eating?

I hit reset. I stepped away from it all for a while and cut out all the crappy food. I had to stop eating sugar and French fries and anything from a package for a while. All that junk was literally messing with my brain. Once I cut it out the sugar, white flour, processed foods, I could think again. The fog cleared and I was no longer a slave to my cravings. I could actually say “No thank you” to a dessert or potato chip, something I never, ever thought possible before.

When you cut out that food you learn just how good you can feel. You learn how your body feels to work at optimum levels, not just getting by. You learn how to tell if you are really hungry or just grabbing for food because you are feeling an emotion.

This all does take some time. I cut out the junk for about 3 months. It took almost 2 weeks to clear everything out of system and the fog to lift. Then the cravings stopped, then my sleep improved, then I felt what it was like to thrive. It took a little longer to really get a handle on which emotions triggered my eating, how to be aware of my feelings and how to redirect myself away from food to something more productive. And I am still learning more about myself everyday.

But the message I want you to hear is that you can be free too. From the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep I was constantly thinking about food, about what my next meal would be. It consumed my thoughts. If I can break the cycle and overcome emotional eating, so can you!