BUILDING BETTER HABITS
A thoughtful woman thinking about emotional eating /Credit Valeria Boltneva
Emotional eating has
its own underlying causes. We are different people. And as different people, we
deal with issues differently. Some people cannot handle challenges. So they
find a way to hide from those challenges. Emotional eating on most occasion is
triggered by something. Something that someone did not anticipate. And when
that event occurs unexpectedly. Some people are thrown out of proportion. They cannot
just handle or come to terms with it. It is a difficult phase. And since no one
prepared you for a difficult chapter. You just want to hide. To deep your head
somewhere. And hope that when you come out of this hiding, things would have
changed. Some people hide behind emotional eating. Eating not because you are hungry,
but eating because you are too afraid to confront your feelings. And you are looking for something that make you feel better.
Address the
Underlying Cause
Don’t ruin your life. Instead,
address the underlying causes of your emotional eating. The trigger that led
you to eating. That is what you need to address. The most common trigger is
loss. A sudden loss of someone pushes people to emotional eating. Loss of a
loved one is indeed, a very unfortunate and devastating reality. No one is ever
prepared enough to deal with loss. Our families and friends are fundamental to
us. And when something happens to them. We become inconsolable. Some people just don’t know
how to deal with that loss. The emotions become too much and their best way of
handling it, is finding something that makes them happy. Food is very close. So
you find your favorite food combinations and you just eat. And while at it, you ruin your life.
You will gain
unnecessary weight. This too will become a big problem for you. Being overweight
or obese is a health risk. You will end up with a lot of problems. Problems such
as, breathing issues, fatigue, and the worst of them all losing your
independent capabilities. Emotional eating can lead you here. Emotional eating
can ruin your life. Creating a second problem does not help you solve the first
problem. Therefore, the best way to deal with emotional eating is to address
the underlying cause. You need to identify the thing that you are running away
from. The emotion that you don’t want to face. The feelings that you are too
afraid to feel. You need to start feeling them. You need to stop using food as
an escape. You need to go the hard way. Face your problems.
Face those feelings of
loss. Come to terms that the person you treasured is gone. That the thing you
loved is no more. Accept the loss. Accept that things have changed and you need
to make peace with these changes. Life is no longer the same. You need to make
a difficult decision to move on. You need to make a difficult decision to grief
the loss. And you also need to make a difficult decision to know when you need
to stop grieving. Actually, grieving a loved one has no end. You need to find a
way to live your life as you manage your emotions. Address the underlying problem.
If it is bullying at school, being different from other people, or low self-esteem.
Whatever is triggering you to eat. Identify it and deal with it. Address the
underlying cause. Don’t nurture problems. Solve them. Face your fear. Don’t ruin
your life.
Think
About Yourself
You are a normal
person. A person with your own independent life away from the triggers. Before the
trigger to emotional eating, you got a life. You got dreams. You had ambitions.
There were things that you wanted to do. You need to remember these things in
the midst of your difficulties. You need to think about yourself. There is a
way you wanted your life to pan out. You had goals. And emotional eating was
not one of those goals. Your ambitions have nothing to do with emotional
eating. Your dreams have nothing to do with being overweight. You envisioned a
good life. A life where you will work hard for things that you would like to
own. You were hard working. You were a go-getter. You were determined. You made
things happen. You need to remember this person. You need to think about
yourself.
You need to see yourself
in the profession you wanted to become. You need to see the person you wanted
to become. You need to think about your dreams. The mere fact that something
came along the way that presented quite an obstacle does not mean you stop dreaming.
An obstacle does not mean you get stuck. Challenges do not mean you stop
thinking about yourself. You deserve a life. You deserve good things. However,
when you choose emotional eating over yourself, you are not helping yourself. You
are on a path to ruining yourself. You will not become what you wanted. You will
not do the things that you wanted to do. Your life will be stuck. You will not
make progress. Your journey will be cut short. We cannot escape challenges on
the way. Challenges are part of life. You just need to learn the best way to
deal with them. Loss with happen plus so many other difficulties.
There are some things
you cannot control. You cannot control life. You cannot prevent loss. But this
is a challenge that is within your power. You can handle it. You might not have
strength now, but you need to find strength to handle it. You need to deal with
your feelings. You need to learn how to face your feelings no matter how
difficult they might appear. Challenge your emotions. Be the adult in your
emotions. Feel them for some time but learn when to manage them. Don’t hide. Think
about yourself. You got things you need to do. You got responsibility. You are still
alive. Your journey is not over. Don’t hide behind emotional eating. Don’t ruin
your life. Don’t gain unnecessary weight. Face your problems. Deal with your
difficulties. Don’t act out by eating. Don’t go for short-term happiness. Think
about yourself. Think about all the things you wanted to do and become.
Change
You need to change. You
need to stop running away. You need to change. You need to snap out of your
emotions. You need to get out of emotional eating. You need to break this toxic
relationship between food and you. You need to adult up. You have been stuck
for way too long. You have been lingering on the same spot for too long. It is
time to get up. It is time to start thinking. It is time to start dreaming
again. You need your control back. You need to put yourself in charge. Stop letting
your emotions lead you. Stop allowing your emotions to determine your behavior.
You don’t want to lose your life. You don’t want to ruin your life. So, change.
Get out of things that are pulling you back. Break the negative circle. Find some
strength. Fight for some strength. Push yourself. Force yourself to move on. Go
past your triggers.
You need to dream of a
new life. You need to become ambitious again. You need to fight for things that
you want. And you don’t want to be obese. Being obese will stand in the way of
your progress. You will develop different health problems. You don’t want that.
You want to make progress. You want your life back. You want your independence
back. You want to enjoy life again. Deal with the challenge. Conquer whatever
is pulling you down. Change. Get over emotional eating. See emotional eating
for what it is. A bad practice that will ruin your life. A practice that will
create more problems for you. You need to break up with emotional eating. You need
to choose yourself. You need to prioritize yourself. You need to come to terms
with whatever happened and learn to live without it. This is your only way to
growth. You to accept that things have changed. The sooner you accept the
better for you. Don’t waste your five years being stuck on the same thing. Break
up with toxic things. Choose change.
Discipline
You will not make
progress with emotional eating until you develop some level of discipline. The first
level of discipline you need to develop is knowing that binge eating is bad for
your health. Eating unhealthy foods will ruin your life. You will destroy your beautiful
body. You will create other problems on top of this problem. You need
discipline to recognize this bad practice and end it. Enough is enough. Snap out
of emotional eating. Stop crying. Stop eating too much. Start feeling your
emotions. Start solving your problems. Start figuring out your solutions. Become
an adult. Start thinking like a rational member of society. Stop being a weakling.
Don’t be overpowered by your emotions. Stop entertaining circumstances. Find your
way out. You are the person. Not your feelings. You are supposed to subdue your
emotions. You are supposed to be in control. Be in control. Develop some level
of discipline.
The second layer of discipline you need to
develop is the discipline of decision making. You have been stuck for too long.
Emotional eating has prevented you from doing so many things. You need to start
making decisions that benefit you. Decisions that help you to live healthy. Decisions
that bring you to healing. Decisions that help you find help and follow through
with help. You need to develop discipline to get out of emotional eating. You need
discipline. Emotional eating is difficult to break. Food is addictive. You are
eating to feel good. You are eating to escape. You are eating to forget
something. Food will make you forget whatever you want to forget. But for how
long? For how long will you remain in hiding? For how long do you want to ruin yourself?
Make decisions. Decide to end bad relationships. Develop discipline to curb
emotional eating. Don’t ruin your life. Save your life. Address your triggers. End
emotional eating.
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