Dear Emotional Eating

My most influential teacher...

You have been my most accomplished title, though uncontrollable eating has a few more initials. I’ve tried to hide you, ignore you, numb you, and soothe you, only to find you are always there lurking in the background. As painful as this relationship has been, you have been my biggest teacher as to who I am.

The 3 teaching feelings are guilt, fear, and lack of willpower. You never miss an event. Especially when I'm in what I call “a spin." In a spin, these feelings are toxic and not willing to listen. They are so present that I need until the following Monday to call myself back to decency.

You appeared to me at a very young age. I remember being on a diet in grade school. I was usually heavier than everyone else in school. This was crushing, kids weren’t heavy in the 70’s. All my friends had snacks with their meals and were satisfied. I always felt hungry for more sweets and couldn’t understand why.

I've tried every diet for you, eating one meal a day, weightwatchers, vegan, raw food, paleo, and keto. They all work - if I stick to them. I learned there is no shortage of others feeling this way when I shared my challenges with Emotional Eating.

I also experienced the connection between hormones and emotional eating. However, after that was resolved, I still needed to make sense of this reaction to food and more importantly, this reaction to myself.

Though I'm not you emotional eating. I eat every day, and I have emotions every day. Emotions are data points; it's a gauge of where I'm at on this journey of exploration into “who am I.”

Emotional eating and my relationship with food has been influential teachers!