Although we can’t live without food, to most of us it represents more than just fuel for our body, eating can be part of ritual, culture, family, a pleasure or punishment.
As a baby our mother and/or a bottle not only fed but comforted us. As children, food may have been used as a reward; pizza at weekends, a special cake for birthdays, or as a punishment ‘going without dinner’, or incentive to do well or behave.
Food therefore can quickly become something with an emotional connection, representing positive and negative feelings, memories, and ritualistic behaviour.
For many of us, the start of our teenage years is often the first time we become aware of body shape, size and the imperfections. Contrast this with the media’s airbrushed perfection of bodies that have a personal trainer, chef and nutritionist to shape and maintain, and comparisons understandably fall short.
We can measure ourselves literally against what the media perceives to be ‘good’, ‘beautiful’ or ‘handsome’. Without a ‘6-pack’, flat stomach, toned arms, and able to slip into all the designer gear (if you can afford it) you may judge yourself to be less than; too fat, too thin or not good enough. Size and weight are now becoming political issues, and what/how we eat at this age can start to become part of a conscious decision making process. When we are old enough to be in charge of what we eat, in theory we have the power to choose, eat, overeat and restrict, but often it is our emotions that affect our decisions.
Have you ever found yourself reaching for chips, chocolate, muffin, or fried chicken when you experience a strong emotional rush such as sadness, worry, or frustration? This is an example of how your emotions can affect your eating.
Many of us learn that food can bring comfort, even if only in the short-term. As a result, we often turn to food to heal or temporarily distract from emotional problems.
Eating becomes a habit, preventing us from learning skills that can effectively resolve our emotional distress. We repress, numb or avoid our feelings with food or use food to cope.
Therefore, by identifying what triggers our eating, we can substitute more appropriate techniques to manage our emotional problems and maintain a healthy weight.
Identifying Emotional Eating Triggers?
Situations and emotions that trigger us to eat fall into five main categories.
Social. Eating when we are around other people. For example, excessive eating can result from being encouraged by others; eating to fit in, arguing, or to suppress feelings of inadequacy around other people.
Emotional. Eating in response to emotions such as boredom, stress, fatigue, tension, depression, anger, anxiety or loneliness as a way to “fill the void,” or superficially feel good.
Situational. Eating because the opportunity is there. For example, at an all you can eat or buffet style restaurant (or if someone else is paying!), seeing an advertisement for a particular food, passing by a bakery or fast-food place. Eating may also be associated with certain activities such as watching TV, going to the movies or a sporting event, etc.
Thoughts. Eating as a result of negative self-worth or making excuses for eating. For example, scolding oneself for how you look or lack of will power. Thoughts about sadness or when you negatively judge yourself can provide that trigger to opening the refrigerator door.
Physiological. Eating in response to physical cues. For example, increased hunger due to skipping meals or eating to cure headaches or other pain.
To identify what triggers excessive eating in you, keep a food diary recording what and when you eat, as well as the stress factors, thoughts, or emotions you identified as you ate. You will quickly be able to identify links between your feelings and what you eat, and what kind of situations lead to emotional eating.
Breaking the Habit
Identifying eating triggers is the first step; however, this alone is not sufficient to alter eating behaviour. Usually, by the time you have identified a pattern, eating in response to emotions or certain situations has become a habit, often for many years, sometimes since childhood. Now you have to break that habit.
Eat mindfully, that is fully present to the sight, smell, taste and texture. Turn the TV or other distractions off, slow down your eating, and really savour each mouthful. This way you will be more aware of the “I’m full” signal that the stomach sends the brain rather than wolfing down your food and feeling overfull and potentially guilty later on.
Developing alternatives to eating is the second step. When you start to reach for food in response to a trigger, try an alternative activity until the urge to eat passes, and plan for those times which you know may be difficult.
For example; Read a good book or magazine or listen to music, go for a walk or jog, take a bubble bath, talk to a friend, do house or yard work, go online, journal-anything!
Do any pleasurable or necessary activity that doesn’t lead to overeating. However, sometimes simply distraction from eating and developing alternative habits is not enough to manage the emotional distress that leads to excessive eating.
If your problem seems to be long term, or you’re concerned that you may be developing an eating disorder consider speaking to a counsellor. Counselling aims to enable you to identify and work through the underlying issues that have led you to seek comfort in food.
Sometimes as children we learned to use food to self soothe if we felt sad, lonely or grew up in an environment where expressing feelings was frowned upon. Counselling along with lifestyle changes, diet and exercise can enable you to make positive long term changes which will benefit mind and body.
If you wish to schedule a confidential appointment with one of our counsellors contact The Employee Assistance Programme on 949-9559.
Emma Roberts is a counsellor with the Employee Assistance Programme.
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