Life can feel pretty heavy and sucky at times…
When it does, we behave differently than when we’re just cruising along in the fast lane…feeling fine…
We might find ourselves:
- Crying more
- Saying, “ef it” more and desire to go out with friends and leave our responsibilities in the dust
- Sleeping more
- And most commonly, many of us EAT more as food is just so damn accessible!
Why do we do this?
Why do heavy times cause us to eat?
There are 2 main reasons that I’ve noticed both in myself, and with all my clients.
Allow me to share…
1. Your mindset is unhealthy as a result of childhood experiences.
Did mom/grandma ever give you a cookie when you were a good girl?
Did anyone ever take you out to ice-cream after having a rough day?
Believe it or not, this kind of response to hard times brings about automatic responses in us that cause us to end up unhealthy and out of control of our actions around food.
Looking at our unhealthy mental patterns and learning how to transform them is super-duper powerful and important in getting DIFFERENT, HEALTHIER results compared to the same old sucky ones you’ve been getting up to this point over and over…and over :-/
2. Food covers up uncomfortable feelings.
Stuffing yourself with food, prevents you from feeling your emotions. Food covers them up. It numbs the pain. People eat to self-medicate.
In reality, your biggest personal growth opportunities that can bring you to a better, happier, healthier and FREE-er life, happen when you allow yourself to sit WITH the pain instead of trying to avoid it.
Not easy to do. Sitting with the pain hurts, but I invite you to try it out and trust the process!
Here’s some homework for you to test out to help you with your transformation around food….
Next time you feel pulled to eat unnecessarily,
DO NOT GET MAD AT YOURSELF!
Instead, LOVINGLY ask yourself:
- “Was I hungry?”
- “What was I doing just before eating this?” -Oftentimes something we were thinking about can trigger uncomfortable feelings in us that cause us to turn to food.
- “What feelings am I stuffing down?”
- “What is a better way to deal with these feelings?” Is there a conversation that needs to happen, a book or a YouTube video you can read/watch regarding your discomfort and how to work on it proactively?
Next time you notice the same situation happening again, try sitting with your discomfort for 5 minutes.
Allow yourself to notice your emotions.
Journal them if you’d like.
Let yourself cry, scream, FEEL.
It’s okay! You WILL come out of it, and you will come out of it feeling BETTER.
So often my clients are SO AFRAID of letting themselves feel “badly” because they fear never coming out of it.
THE TRUTH:
Pushing your feelings down, only makes your life-sucking situation last LONGER=more suffering.
We, human beings have ALL of our emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, fear, shame/guilt to FEEL them, to EXPRESS them, to USE THEM, to LEARN from them and to MOVE ON.
Don’t be afraid to feel!
(If you haven’t already, go see the Disney Pixar movie, “Inside Out.” It’s a BEAUTIFUL demonstration of the importance of allowing yourself to utilize and feel ALL of your emotions).
And finally, test out making a positive, healthy choice to soothe yourself that is something OTHER than food.
If you DO end up resorting to food, no worries!
This isn’t about torturing yourself, this is about creating AWARENESS around why you’re doing what you’re doing so that EVENTUALLY making the better choice will become MORE automatic, than simply turning to food.