Most of my clients think that emotional eating is a curse. That it’s an unfortunate defect they’ve been blighted with, and they were dealt a bad hand in life when it comes to food and weight.
“Poor me! I’m sick of this! Will this food problem ever not torment me?!”
Or something along those lines.
But here’s my take on it…
I’m not sure emotional eating is a bad thing. In fact, I think it might be my guardian angel.
Stay with me…I promise I’m onto something…
Emotional eating is an attempt to deal with a tough problem, feeling, or situation that we don’t know how to deal with and often don’t even know that we have without some kind of symptom to remind us.
That twitchy feeling that makes us want to rummage through the cabinets is really just a gentle signal reminding us to clue into what’s bothering us before it becomes a more serious problem.
(…and if you’re thinking to yourself “my emotional eating isn’t so gentle…” remember, binge eating and emotional eating are not the same thing…and have different fundamental causes. To learn more about the difference between binge eating and emotional eating, check out my free video training series here.)
This all to say…
When we strip away all the harsh judgement of our emotional eating—when we stop calling it a disease, a defect, a problem in and of itself—we can finally see it for what it truly is:
An alert that something in our life needs our attention. Something completely unrelated to food or our weight.
Be grateful for the reminder. It might be saving your ass.
Like this post? Check out my free video training series and end the diet-binge cycle once and for all.