Chews Love

Feed Your Soul, Heal Your Body, Save Our Planet

Ever had a fight with your boyfriend, or a frustrating day at work, then end up cozying up with a nice cold pint of Ben & Jerry’s at the end of the day? Do you reach out for food to feel better even when you weren’t even hungry? Is your first impulse always to open the refrigerator whenever you’re stressed, upset, angry, lonely, exhausted, or bored?

You may be an emotional eater. Meaning that you’re someone who uses food as a way to deal with feelings (typically negative ones) instead of to satisfy hunger. Instead of seeing food as what it is, i.e. something you consume for survival (like air and water), you misconstrue it into something else.

As I’ve touched on in previous posts, emotional eating is not a sin! When we become stressed, anxious, or worried, it’s only human to gravitate towards food to cope with our emotions. The problem arises when food is the only coping mechanism to dealing with emotions. One question I ask my clients and which I encourage you to answer truthfully is:

“What percentage of your self-care tool kit currently consists of food”?”

When your emotions dictate eating habits–rather than your stomach, it can quickly lead to overeating and perhaps most damaging of all, an unhealthy mental relationship with food in the long run. Let’s look at some signs that indicate you might be an emotional eater.

#1 – YOU EAT WHEN YOU’RE STRESSED, SAD, ANGRY, LONELY ETC
You search for food the moment you feel anything, be it sadness, stress, annoyance, disappointment, anger, loneliness, anxiety, or boredom. Sounds like you? If the first thing you want to do is raid your fridge after you’ve gone through an emotional event, no matter if it’s positive or negative, chances are, you’re an emotional eater. This pattern of eating has probably become so ingrained in you that you don’t even realize it. And in such cases, you’d typically find yourself 10 spoonful’s into your peanut butter, only to realize that you’re not even hungry at all!

There’s a time and place for using foods to cope with emotions. But the long-term risk is that the original reasons that cause you distress are never uncovered and are never dealt with. Just like hiding your head in the sand doesn’t mean the world doesn’t keep going, ignoring your emotions by eating doesn’t mean the problem has disappeared. It is still there; you just don’t know it.

#2 – YOU EXPERIENCE SUDDEN PANGS OF HUNGER
Are you fine one second, then absolutely ravenous the next? Here’s the truth. Physical hunger doesn’t always come on suddenly. Instead, you’ll more likely notice low energy levels and your stomach may make all kinds of weird, gurgling sounds. This is in stark contrast to emotional hunger, which comes on suddenly when you may not even be thinking of food. One moment you’re prepping the slides for tomorrow’s meeting and the next minute, bam! You can’t wait to dig into that thick, chocolatey cake in the fridge. So, the next time you reach out for food, note the time it took to get hungry. If it was within seconds, it’s likely in response to an emotion rather than physical hunger.

The next time you are hungry but can’t figure out if it’s physical or emotional hunger, I invite you to have a healthy snack like an apple. Notice what happens: does it begin to satisfy you or does it not “do anything for you”? If it’s the ladder, it’s likely because you’re not actually hungry.