“All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty.”
- A Course in Miracles

What is emotional eating? Obviously, it’s eating out of or because of emotion. But what types of emotions and why? For most women, emotional eating centers around dealing with any of the following feelings:

• Loneliness

• Anger

• Boredom

• Sadness

• Jealousy

• Frustration

• Stress

• Guilt

• Depression

This list could go on and on. Since I’ve been a fitness trainer, I’ve come to realize there are more female emotional eaters than male. I’d like to offer you my explanation on why I think this is so. Women in my opinion, are more heart based while men are more head based. What I mean by that is this, women “feel” more than men do. I’m not saying men don’t feel anything but generally it is women who wear their hearts on their sleeves. This can be a good thing in those moments of joyful bliss such as crying when you see that Hallmark Card commercial  or watching your daughter get married on her wedding day. But…it can be hell when you’re dealing with all the negative emotions that cause you to grab a pint of Hagen Das or call your favorite pizza delivery place, order a pizza and eat the whole thing by yourself. Then you have to deal with the guilt…and how do you do that? Maybe by eating more…

A few years ago when I was at my heaviest, I ate out of boredom. My comfort came in the guise of a big yellow bag with M&M on it and while watching TV, I’d eat the whole bag. It wasn’t the small bag either…it was the mega bag. If I went to the movies. I would stop by the grocery store first, buy the mega bag, hide it under my jacket and walk into the movie. I would eat the whole bag of M&Ms in between breaks of stuffing popcorn in my mouth. My epiphany finally came when I realized I associated TV and movies with being bored. I finally realized that while TV and movies were something to do, they just weren’t active things to do like playing basketball or going to the beach, etc. I finally began to seek out alternatives to eating crappy junk while in front of the tube. I figured if i had the urge to eat, I would slice an apple or some other fruit and eat that while I viewed TV or watched the blockbuster movie I rented. It wasn’t long before I kicked the habit of eating out of boredom.

What is Emotional Eating – Controlling the Emotions

Is it possible to control your emotions? Is it possible to control them as a woman when they seem to dominate your being? I don’t think so but you can control how you react to situations. For instance, I’ve been privy to conversations where women say their husband or boyfriend made them angry early in the day. After being angry about that, they then go to work and a coworker says something they don’t like and as a result, there is more anger. By the time the day is done, she’s angry to the third power and it ends in drowning her sorrows in a dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. It’s easy to get caught up in a sea of negative emotions from one incident. But, what if you were able to look at the situation and how you reacted to it differently? In a book called “A Course in Miracles” one of the quotes reads, “All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty.” I’m not sure about you but in all my little anger moments I wanted to be right and at least wanted the other person to feel guilty for what they said or did to me. In the same breath, anger can stem from wanting explanations of why someone did or said something to you or about you. There’s such power when you realize you can choose how to feel. You control your reactions to situations like this. It just takes practice. How do you practice it?

What is Emotional Eating -  Be Trigger Happy

In defeating emotional eating, you have to recognize your triggers. For me, I recognized TV/movies = boredom= eating. I made that connection but it took some time. For you it could come in the following scenarios:

• Am I in a toxic relationship?

• Are there certain people who bring out the worst in me?

• Is my self esteem low?

• Do I bring work stress home?

Everyone has certain triggers which lead them to finding comfort in food. You can identify these on your own or find a professional who can help. There is an accupressure technique called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) which is great for getting rid of unwanted negative emotions. I use it myself!

What is Emotional Eating – Is it medical?

Eating to deal with feelings can come from medical roots as well. For example most women crave chocolate during their menstrual cycles. Why? This because there is a drop in serotonin (the happy hormone) during this time and chocolate increases those serotonin levels. On the flip side, some women eat out of depression and this may have its origins in thyroid issues. One of the biggest side effects of hypothyroidism is depression. This can be coupled with hormone issues like low progesterone and high estrogen which can really throw a woman’s body off causing her to crave certain foods which may not be good. If you eat constantly because of emotion it may solely due to medical imbalances. Once these imbalances are addressed it can eliminate the bulk of emotional eating and lead you on a healthier path. If you’re still asking yourself,” What is emotional eating?” after reading this post, I hope your answer now is, “Something I can conquer.”

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