While there is shockingly little conclusive research about “emotional eating” (i.e. eating over feelings), one thing we know is that dieters tend to eat their feelings, and non-dieters tend to not-eat their feelings.
In other words, we have reason to believe that dieting in and of itself encourages emotional eating (which makes perfect sense for a variety of reasons, some of which I described in last week’s blog post).
The question then becomes,
if “dieting” is contributing to or even directly causing us to eat emotionally (a distinct possibility), what does “dieting” really mean and how can we avoid it??
I hear women say to me over and over again: “I gave up dieting and now I can’t stop eating Nutella out of a jar…”
And I can’t help but say back,
But did you REALLY give up “dieting?” Or did you just start eating bread again, and thought that would “fix” it?
Let me explain…
One thing I find over and over again, is that 9 times out of 10, women who “give up” dieting, are still thinking like dieters — their emotional response to food is the same as it would be if they still were actively manipulating their food…
They’re still conscious of everything they eat (and usually judgmental of what they eat),
They feel ashamed whenever they think they’ve “eaten too much,”
They’re often still trying to control themselves around food even if not “technically” following a specific plan of eating,
And, generally speaking, they maintain a moralistic and fear-based perspective on food, rather than deriving gratitude, joy, and pleasure from the life-sustaining force that food actually represents.
You see, “dieting” (and the compulsive behaviors associated with it), has little to do with what you are or are not putting in your mouth — and everything to do with how you feel and think about what you put in your mouth.
Unless your thinking changes, neither will your behaviors.
(I also talk about this at length in this blog post about the real difference between “normal” and “emotional” eaters).
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