What Everybody Needs to Know About Emotional Eating

Are you trying to distract yourself through eating? 

This is the number one common problem that I see for so many women when they’re struggling with their eating and weight.

Read the transcript here or skip to watch the video below.

Let’s talk about distractions. 

So, the first thing you need to know is that emotional eating is a distraction strategy. 

Anytime we are emotionally eating, we are trying to disconnect, to numb out and unplug. The thing about distraction strategies is that they go hand in hand with other distraction strategies. 

So, we really need to be mindful around what other distractions strategies we are using because it’s just a matter of time until the food is introduced. For many of us, we are using these distraction strategies and are just relying on them far too much.

Distraction strategies are an avoidance strategy.

Distraction strategies are an avoidance strategy. We’re avoiding what’s really going on for us. 

A common distraction strategy that we are overusing is TV. We mindlessly watch TV or Netflix when we binge on The Real Housewives of New York, for instance!

Another distraction strategy is our phones -the scrolling, the games – or when we spend too much time on our laptop or just any of those type of activities. 

Just know that if we are using these other distraction strategies and we have a history of emotional eating, it’s just a matter of time until the food will follow. 

Then what will happen is we’ll create a reliance and attachment between the distraction strategy and food, which is another distraction strategy. They go hand in hand, they’re like best friends. 

And so how this plays out is that if you’re watching TV on the couch and you’re watching the real housewives of New York, for instance, it’s just a matter of time until the food follows. Then you establish this strong connection between watching that show- or watching TV in general- and eating.

It’s difficult to break.

This habit is quite difficult to break. So what we have to do is to start to be aware of how we are using distraction strategies in our lives right now. 

What purpose is it serving?

Remember, distraction strategies are an avoidance strategy so we don’t have to sit with ourselves, sit with our feelings and sit with our thoughts. It’s a way of using these strategies to numb out and avoid what’s going on. 

The key is to come back to what’s going on and deal with the cause rather than the symptoms. 

Anytime we are just numbing out, unplugging and disconnecting, this is not the same as relaxing. Many of us say we’re just relaxing: “I’m just watching TV”. 

We need to be more conscious of this. We need to know that if we are numbing out, then food will follow. 

Come back to yourself.

Start to really lean into the feelings.

Place your awareness into your body.  

Tune in and reflect on what’s really going on for you. 

This is a Path to Change. 

And if you want some help with this and more strategies around how to do that, then click the link below. I’d love to show you this Path to Food Freedom.