this episode was pre-recorded
as part of a live continuing education webinar on-demand CEUs are
still available for this presentation through all CEUs register at allceus.com/counselortoolbox hi everybody and welcome to today’s presentation
on emotional eating making peace with food during the next hour so we’re going to define emotional
eating and differentiate it really from eating when to celebrate and when it’s a problem and
also differentiate differentiating it from eating disorders will explore emotional eating in
terms of its beneficial functions and rewards and discuss why restrictive diets don’t resolve
emotional eating a lot of times people will say you know I have been on this diet forever
and it doesn’t seem to be working or I can’t seem to stick to any diet that I try and we’re going
to look at different reasons why this might be what is emotional eating and it’s exactly what it
sounds like it’s eating in response to emotions and feelings other than hunger so if you’re eating
because you’re bored if you’re eating at someone and sometimes, especially if you are angry
at someone or disappointed in someone you may eat and sort of be eating and thinking you made
I do this so eating at someone eating to forget or distract myself from eating to feel better because
when you eat regardless of what you’re eating but especially if you eat high-sugar high-fat foods
you’re going to release serotonin and dopamine eating out of boredom you know hand-to-mouth bang
eating out of habit and like I said a few minutes ago not all emotional eaters have an eating
disorder um and we want to differentiate that it means that their eating is not problematic
to them no not at all if they’re telling you it’s a problem then it’s a problem they may not
meet the criteria for binge eating disorder or bulimia but it’s important to address it because
they understand that they’re eating for a reason other than hunger and they want to stop because
they want to eat for hunger but not otherwise and for us as clinicians the first thing we need to
do is understand why is it that they’re eating is it boredom is it a habit so they need to keep a food
log or a food journal over a week or two weeks and sometimes when people come in for an
assessment especially if that’s one of their main presenting issues I’ll start just doing
a retrospective of the last three days to get an idea of what may be triggering some of their
eating episodes and then we can look at some of the habits or bad habits may be that they’ve gotten
into and start talking about ways to address those remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day
this isn’t going to go away overnight but a lot of times if you give people some tips tricks and
tools to think about implementing when they walk out of your office after the assessment before the
first official session it provides them some hope and gets the momentum going and again you don’t
have to binge to be an emotional eater some people graze all day long some people will eat and it’s
not what would be considered technically a binge but it’s more than they had anticipated maybe they
go back for second helpings or third helpings when they weren’t hungry but it was good so why
is eating so soothing there are a lot of reasons now there’s obvious it tastes good so that’s
you know the big obvious bonus but thinking about the function the eating serves we have to eat in
order to survive when you were an infant it eating involved a closeness with your parental unit
which could release oxytocin I say parental unit because even if it was dad feeding the baby
a bottle there was that connection there was that contact which caused the infant and the parent to
release oxytocin this is our bonding chemical so eating was associated early on with bonding food
may also have been associated with sleep if the infant or child was given a bottle every night to
go to sleep then they may start thinking or they may be in the habit of eating to wind
down or calm down and we need to help them figure out different ways to do that as a toddler what an
eating means to think about when you went from well we probably don’t remember that but think about
when your kids went from eating you know food out of a jar to even their first Cheerios that
was huge figuring out how to pick up that little cheerio and get it in their mouth and it involved
exploration and mastery they were discovering all different types of textures and tastes and
figuring out what smell went with what taste and it was a cool and exciting time for kids
and I mean think about it they’re like a year old so it doesn’t take much to amuse them but this was
the rewarding reward equals dopamine equals let’s do that again it involved power and control of the child
at this point was starting to be able to feed him or herself was starting to be able to be somewhat
independent from the parent when it came to the basic physiological function of eating so eating
itself had its rewards and it was self-esteem building because the child started learning you
know how to feed himself and how to ask for what he or she wanted at least in terms of food there
are formations of memories around foods even as early as toddlerhood you know we have celebrations
we have birthdays we have different things and most children have certain foods that they really
like and it could be because the first time that ate that food was a really happy experience
or it could be just that’s their favorite food and that’s all they want to eat but they remember
that food and they remember when they ate it they felt good they felt happy so as an adult there’s a
part of their brain going chicken nuggets make me happy now that’s how the toddler
thought as an adult we can understand that chicken nuggets themselves aren’t making you happy but you
see the connections that we’re making here there’s been an association between happiness and chicken
nuggets unhealthy foods especially for children when as adults we’re still able to control what
they eat your sugary foods your unhealthy foods are usually reserved for treats or rewards so
when you’re feeling like you need to be rewarded when you’re feeling like you want to feel good
sometimes you’ll resort to those things when you were a kid that made you feel good like chocolate
chip cookies or Haagen-Dazs or whatever it was for you we’ve talked in the past about associations
and conditioning and this is all coming back kind of full circle now because we need to understand
that our brain has associated pleasure and reward with food for a lot of different reasons not just
because of nourishment looking at the reasons why your patient eats is going to help you understand
what underlying issues you may need to address in treatment culturally we associate eating with
caring and celebrating think about birthdays and holidays what do we do we get together we have
buffets we have pot Luck’s when someone passes away what do you do you bring food over when
somebody’s sick what do you bring food over so in our culture there is a lot of emphases
put on eating and nourishing and that’s true of a lot of different cultures with low blood sugar
can cause feelings of depression and anxiety which are quelled by food so if somebody typically
doesn’t eat well during the day you know they go long periods without eating or if they have
blood sugar issues to begin with and then they eat they feel better so when they start feeling
not so good what do you think their first reaction is let me eat and see if that helps evolution
predisposes the human body to crave high sugar high-fat high calorie foods for quick energy and
to prepare for a famine our bodies are cool and frustrated at the same time because
you know your body takes in these foods and it says we’re gonna secrete the most amount of
dopamine and the most amount of reward for these high-calorie foods because we want to make
sure we’re prepared in case there’s a famine back you know in the day many many many years ago
hundreds of years ago we couldn’t guarantee we would have a meal every day let alone three
meals every day so the body prepared and it said alright we need to get whatever we can when
we can so we’re going to make this a higher fat higher calorie food more rewarding now I
said it’s also can be a blessing and a curse today there’s still a little part of our primordial
a brain that says if it thinks there’s a famine it will slow down your base metabolic rate which
causes people to gain weight we see this a lot in people with eating disorders who tend to not
take in very many calories or if they take them in they purge them so the body goes well I can’t
guarantee I’m gonna get enough food I’m gonna get enough energy to survive so I’m just gonna turn
down the thermostat a little bit to turn down the base metabolic rate which compounds the problem
for the person with an eating disorder so it’s important to understand that the brain is somewhat
active to what’s going on so I keep saying we need to figure out what’s behind or underlying
the craving first we need to rule out physical causes for some people it’s as simple as this if
they’ve got low blood sugar because they’re not eating too often and obviously as counselors we’re
not going to diagnose this their doctor or their nutritionist will but we can start exploring and
go it sounds like you might need to look at having your blood sugar checked or talk to your doctor
about how frequently you need to eat because some people and I know I’m very guilty of it if
I get into it into a groove doing something I’ll eat breakfast and then I’ll get into a groove and
before I know it it’s 3:00 in the afternoon and I haven’t eaten for like a whole bunch of hours I’m
not doing math today and my blood Sugar’s low and I’m starting to get foggy-headed and irritable
and tired so it’s a real simple fix there in our society we are so driven and we are so we get
so caught up in things because that’s such a fast pace that it’s easy to forget to eat or easy to
avoid eating so that’s the first thing we want to rule out are you eating in response to low blood
sugar which is making eating seem more rewarding and when you eat in response to low blood sugar
a lot of times people who do that end up eating more than they normally would because they start
eating fast it’s like I’m gonna shovel in as much as I can your brain doesn’t register
you’re eating for 20 minutes or so so before your brain even registers what’s gone on and gets
the blood sugar back up they’ve already eaten a whole ton of food why is this under emotional
eating well because generally when they go in to just start eating yes they’re hungry but
they’re also cranky and irritable and most of the time they’re not thinking about what I’m eating
for the nourishment it’s I’m eating feel better after lack of sleep and this is so true for shift workers as
well as you know new parents and college students and anybody who’s not getting enough sleep if we
are surviving on sugar and stimulants we’re going Peak and Lower Valley Peak and Lower Valley and
you just keep going up and down until you just crash because every time you crash you crash a
a little bit lower so if somebody’s on that roller coaster they’re going to feel worse between you
know eating episodes they’re going to feel tired they’re going to feel a flood of sluggish irritable
fatigued and to a certain extent maybe depressed and they may be missing attributing those feeling
those emotional feelings to emotions versus physical causes and likewise we also want to make
sure that you know we’re addressing the emotional causes because there’s probably stuff there
too but if they’re not getting enough sleep and they’re living on sugar and stimulants their
the body is kind of in a state of hyper-vigilance a lot of times it’s exhausted so they’re going
to be tired and cranky so those are a couple of things that we want to look at those are
relatively easy fixes or at least relatively easy things to point out and go let’s think about this
one of the things that I suggest for a lot of my clients is just to take a week and mindfully and it
is difficult but try to eat healthfully you know try to eat a few times a day you know try to eat
like three meals a day and getting enough water and trying to get enough sleep and try not to overdo
it on the stimulants at the beginning I’m not going to say cut out anything because that’s not
realistic and it’s not fair and they’re probably already struggling if they’re coming in to see me
so if I go hey let’s just turn your world upside down and guess what you’re not going to drink any
caffeine anymore it’s not going to create a happy person so I asked them to try to make some small
changes and see if that starts to help dehydration causes fogginess and symptoms of depression we
want to make sure that they rule that out and too many stimulants also causes dehydration so you
know we’re looking at some of the physical causes of irritability and fatigue and cravings because
again we’re going back to when I felt this way before not looking at why I felt this way but when
I felt irritable depressed cranky what has made me feel better and generally food and generally
it’s not good food for me it’s M&Ms I love my M&Ms, especially the ones with almonds but I digress
nutritional causes of cravings high carbohydrate and high starch foods caused a greater release
of serotonin and endorphins so if you’ve got somebody who’s depressed for whatever reason that
they may crave these kinds of foods to increase their serotonin level or increase the
endorphins in their energy levels chocolate people who crave chocolate may be low in magnesium it
also um the level of magnesium affects how much serotonin is available again just keep
saying this just for legal reasons we want to make sure their doctor or nutritionist goes in and
makes this diagnosis but if there are particular foods that they do crave it’s important for them
to bring that up with their medical provider if they’re craving fatty foods now again fatty foods
are just good I love fried foods but it also could mean that they’re not getting enough Omega threes
Americans typically don’t and interestingly if they crave soda they may be calcium deficient
who knew so these are things to take a look at to ask people you know if they’re craving soda
maybe cutting back on their soda a little bit and see what happens and or getting blood work done
once we’ve ruled out the obvious physical causes they’ve gone to the doctor gotten blood work done
everything I’m comes back happy they’re getting enough sleep but they’re still eating when they’re
not hungry we need to rule out habits is there a particular time or activity that makes you crave
this food when I was growing up I would go to the grocery store with my mother and on the way back
home from the grocery store she would always we would always get junk food and she would get a
bag of chips and put them in the front seat it was like a 20-minute drive from the grocery store
to our house and by the time we would get back to the house we would have put a good dent in those
potato chips that being said I got into the habit of whenever I went to the grocery store I would
get something out of the bag and put it in the front seat and eat on the way home now am I paying
attention to what I’m eating no likely am I eating because I was hungry probably not so we want
to look at habits a lot of people will eat when they are watching TV it’s a huge one so we want
to not do that or if you’re going to eat when you’re watching TV make sure you sit at the table
at least that makes you a little bit more mindful so think about their particular times
or activities that you eat and you’re just not hungry are their particular times that you
mindlessly eat like like I said when you’re driving or when you’re watching television those
are both habits and can be mindless because you’re not paying attention to how much is going on in your
the mouth you’re not probably paying attention to the taste and you’re not paying attention to whether
you’re full or not so if you’re mindlessly eating then there’s going to be a lot more calorie
consumption in addition to the fact that you’re not eating because you’re hungry you’re just
eating to eat are you going too long between meals than needing a sugar boost which leads to a
sugar crash so again that’s a physical cause but we want to rule out these bad habits that
we can tend to get into other things that can be construed as bad habits are eating without
putting food on a plate if you eat straight out of the bag you’re gonna eat more than if
you put it on a plate so put it on a plate sit down try not to watch TV all the things that your
grandmother would have told you so what do we do about it emotional eating interventions I talked
earlier about the food diary do a retrospective during the assessment if they want to get
a jumpstart on things but have them keep a food diary preferably for the duration of treatment
but at least for a week what time did they eat were they craving just any old food or something
that was salty sweet sour this will give you a general idea
and can give their medical provider a general idea if there are any nutritional imbalances or if
there are particular associations with what emotion or state were you in and I say state because being
exhausted is not necessarily really an emotion where you are happy sad mad glad exhausted drained
whatever state feels like it would work and then because of why were you feeling this way
it doesn’t have to be a dissertation it can be short and sweet but I encourage clients
to write down everything they eat before they eat it during the first week or you know like I
said preferably throughout the entire course of treatment why before they eat it because it’s a
stop remembering we’ve talked before about how we have an urge we have a craving we have an urge and
then we engage in the behavior oftentimes without stopping to mindfully think is this what we want
to do this provides that stop it says okay I’ve got it to write down the time and then I’ve got to
think about why I’m eating and honestly, a lot of clients notice a reduction and their habit of eating
when they have to do this just because they don’t want to record-keeping that up for the period of a
a month or two months helps break some of the habits eating that they might do like I said before when
they’re eating I encourage them to use a plate sit down don’t walk around don’t stand at the counter
eliminate distractions as much as possible and focus on the food you’re eating that goes with
mindfully eating what does it taste like is it good take small bites when my son was young and
I think I’ve shared this before he had gastric reflux and we would sit down at the table and
I would shovel in food as fast as I could get it in my mouth because he couldn’t be put down
for too long before he would start to get fussy at least until we figured out that he had gastric
reflux and Zantac was just a lifesaver I developed that habit when he was little and I kept it up
for a while, it took a while to learn for me to learn to go back to take you to know reasonable
bites and tasting my food and even today if I’m not paying attention too much I’ll eat my dinner
rest and then I’ll sit there and I’ll be like well yes I’ll taste that a little bit later
because I didn’t taste it when I ate it encouraging clients to be aware of their eating habits and try to
avoid setting up a binge by restricting certain foods now does that mean you have to have cakes
and candy and whatever your trigger foods are in your house all the time and in your face no I
would encourage people not to do that but to say you know I said for me M&Ms is one of my favorites
reward foods if you will I don’t keep them in the house but I will allow myself occasionally to buy
a small snack-size pack of M&Ms when I’m out or I will get a regular-size pack and I’ll share it
with my daughter so I’m not restricting it I’m not saying I can never M&Ms again I’m just
not making it available to myself when I might have some unrestricted time to try to avoid buying
a bunch of comfort foods and keeping them around the house and when you’ve got kids when you’ve got
family, it’s not entirely possible usually to not have some of that stuff around but try to avoid
having the things that you particularly used for comfort because if it’s not readily available
then you’ve got to focus on guess what dealing with the emotions instead of stuffing them with
food try not to go too long without eating as I said earlier if you go too long then by the
the time you get to the food your blood Sugar’s low and you’re just shoveling it as fast as you
can initially distract if you know that you’re getting you’re eating and you’re like I’m really
not hungry but I want to eat take a bath take a walk call a friend heaven forbid get on Facebook
whatever it is you can do to distract yourself for 10 or 15 minutes if after 10 or 15 minutes
you’re still going I rant whatever it is then you can decide what to do about it then
most of the time when people stop and go I’m not hungry let me distract myself they get
caught up in that distraction and before they know it they’ve forgotten about the craving to identify
the emotions if you know that you’re not hungry but you want to eat then say okay what’s going
on what’s going on with me it doesn’t mean that the person is never going to eat when they’re
upset because a lot of people do and is it the end of the world probably not necessary if they can
start reducing the frequency of times that they eat in response to emotional distress that’s what
we want to progress, not perfect if it’s depression that’s causing them to feel hopeless
or helpless right now if it’s stress anxiety or anger remember our big kind of lump together
stuff what are they stressing out about do they feel like they’re overwhelmed are they afraid of
failure rejection loss of control of the unknown we’ve gone through those things we want them to
identify what’s going on with them and then they can make better choices about how to deal with it
so general coping helps them develop alternate ways of coping with distress distract we’ve already
kind of go over that one I encourage people and you know it’s one of those DBT things that
a lot of therapists encourage their clients to keep a list of things they can do to distract
themselves because it’s not always practical to get up and go on a walk if you’re at work or it’s
you know two in the morning so what else can you do to distract yourself talk it out with a friend
with yourself with your dog sometimes you just got to get it out people who are more auditory will
prefer talking it out as opposed to journaling it now if they talk it out with themselves they
can record it if they want to or sometimes it’s just better to have a dialogue with themself if
it worked for Freud it can work for other people journaling if your clients are inclined to journal
encourage them to write it down sometimes just getting stuff out of their head and onto paper
will help the feelings dissipate a little bit so you’re not mulling them over and obsessing
on them and getting stuck in those thoughts and feelings additionally while you’re distracting
talking it out or journaling is also your break stop between the urge and the behavior
make a pro and con list of the de-stress, not the eating whatever it is that’s stressing you out
and how can you fix it or what are the pros of this situation and what are the downsides to
this situation encourages them to focus on the positive you know if something stressing you
out at work you know you’ve got a big meeting coming up or something you don’t want to do
or what it is you can get stuck on focusing on that or you can focus on the positive that you
do have a job that meeting only comes around once a month you can it’s time you don’t have to be
doing paperwork whatever the pros are for that person encourage them to focus on the positive
if you’re distressed because of some kind of a failure or perceived failure figure out what you
learned from it whether it was a relationship failure maybe you learned what not to do in a
relationship anymore maybe you learned things that you may have ignored maybe you learned what
you should have done instead but how can it be a learning opportunity instead of somewhere to stay
stuck and finally if something’s making you upset if something’s causing anxiety depression
hopelessness helplessness whatever the negative feeling figure out if it’s worth your energy
to get stuck here is it worth the turmoil is it worth you know having to pacify yourself with
food whatever it is a lot of times people say you know what now it’s just it’s not even worth
my effort is not worth moving me away from my goals because my goal is to stop emotional
eating my goal is to eat for hunger so I can go to dinner with people and feel comfortable
I can be at a party where there’s a buffet and not feel stressed out that I’m gonna go and eat
half the stuff on the buffet that’s my goal so is holding on to whatever this de-stress is getting
me closer to being able to do those things and generally, the answer’s no develop alternate ways
of coping with the stress the ABCs the a is the activating event that is stressing you out what’s
causing the de-stress C is the emotional reaction angry depressed stressed whatever we are your
behaviors what behaviors or B are your beliefs sorry what are the beliefs that are in there that
may need to be addressed what kind of things are you telling yourself and how can you counter
them cognitively eliminate your vulnerabilities you knew we couldn’t get through a presentation
without talking about vulnerabilities if someone is well-rested well-fed has a good social support
the network does not overstretch timewise then it will be easier to deal with stress or stressors when they
come your way you’ll have more energy to deal with it so there won’t be this overwhelming feeling
of I just want to bury my head in a jar of peanut butter be compassionate with yourself some days
are you know you’re just gonna feel anxious you’re gonna feel depressed you’re gonna get angry you
can beat yourself up over it and you know a lot of people do is that the best use of your energy
or can you be compassionate can you learn from it can you give yourself a break and go you know what
I’m having a bad day today and that’s okay I’m not gonna unpack and stay here but I’m not gonna
fight it either help clients learn how to urge surf helps them understand that just like a panic
the attack is just like a wave just like a lot of other things in life it will come it will crest and it
will go out again so they can sort of identify where they are on the energy of that urge
other tools people can use close the kitchen once I have the kitchen cleaned and you know all the
dishes are done and it looks pretty I hate going in there and finding dishes in the sink again now
I’ve got teenagers so we always have dishes in the sink but before I had children you know at
seven o’clock I finished all the dishes and closed the kitchen and that would be enough motivation
for me to not go in there and at least not use plates and stuff to eat so if we’re saying that
we’re going to only eat using utensils plates and sitting and all that stuff that we already talked
about then once you close the kitchen you’re not going back in there turn off the light that
also helps so you’re not being attracted to the pretty lights and you know all the
goodies that are in the kitchen brush your teeth this is something my grandmother used
to do and it works there’s some research behind it minty flavors reduce our appetite so
if you brush your teeth you get all the other flavors out of your mouth and it reduces your
urges to eat because it again it’s clean and fresh and do you want to brush your teeth
again meditate sometimes just getting in a space where you’re not obsessing about anything can
help people get past that urge to self-soothe with eating a CT for emotional eating what am I
feeling or thinking about what’s going on with me right now and what is important to me so if I am thinking
I want to eat I want to you know just dive into this jar of peanut butter and then I think about
what’s important to me is it important to me to get control of this is it important to me to you
know to be able to fit in my clothes in six months or not so what is in what way is controlling
my eating habits and eliminating emotional eating important to me and how does that get
me closer to other things that are important to me and what other things could I do that would
get me closer to my goals so if the goal is to have improved relationships and be able to feel more
Being comfortable around food reduces the stress around going out to eat and just around food in general
what else can you do when you are stressed out somebody also suggested adding a blue light
in the refrigerator decreases the appeal of foods which is interesting because yellow red and
orange and browns I think Pizza Hut are all foods that increase people’s hunger and desire to eat
but blue is just a completely different primary color and adding a blue hue seems like
that would be effective so cool thanks for that little tidbit their holiday help
and you know we’re coming into the holidays so I’ve got to bring that up at every single glass
choose lower-calorie foods if you tend to get stressed out or caught up or mindlessly eat when
you are at family gatherings, okay you know cut yourself a break know that that’s probably gonna
happen to fill up on the lower calorie foods the carrot sticks broccoli the white meat turkey
anything available that’s not like sweet potato pie or brownies keeps water or low calorie
beverage in your hand if you’ve got your hand full you can’t eat at the same time so you know if you
walk around with a cup in your hand it helps talk to people hopefully you don’t talk with your
mouth open or talk with food in your mouth so if you’re talking to people you’re not going to be as
inclined to go get something to eat because you’re wanting to stay engaged in that conversation stay
away from the buffet especially if you know that it could get stressful or maybe you know for me I
turn into a pumpkin at like 7:30 at night I get up at 4:00 but I turn into a pumpkin at 7:30 and a
a lot of times holiday parties and those sorts of things are at eight nine o’clock at night and you
know I’ve already turned into a pumpkin so I know that if I go to those I’m gonna be more
likely to eat just to kind of stay away because I’m tired and it’s a bad habit it’s not because
I’m hungry so I know I need to stay away from the buffet during those times we rehearse refusal
skills if somebody says oh you’ve got to try it by two this figure out how you’re going to address
that ahead of time because there’s generally probably a lot of really good foods and you may
want to taste some but sometimes people who emotionally eat know if they start eating if they
start eating high-fat high calorie foods they’re gonna want to eat everything so if I start with
one bite of a brownie I’m gonna want to eat every suite that’s on the table if they know that then
they may want to choose to not even go down that road at that juncture and encourage people to stay
mindful of their distress meter before they go back for another helping and ask themselves am i
hungry am I just wanting to taste what’s here and how do I feel about that or am I eating
just because I don’t want to be here and I’m bored and I want to fill the time have people
keep an index card with their coping mantra and two reasons they don’t want to emotionally
eat so I need to be here I can do this whatever the mantra is that’s gonna get them through the
night whatever they’re telling themselves that it’s gonna help them plow through and make the
right choices but also two reasons that they don’t want to eat or they’re going to get around
maybe they’ve got something at home that they can eat when they get home eating before they go
to the party may also help prevent some grazing holidays bring out a lot of emotions in people
some people struggle with depression anxiety jealousy grief anger you know the whole gamut
during this time and during this time there’s food everywhere I mean starting at Halloween when
your kids bring home the Halloween candy which usually lasts about a week in our house baby
Oh Halloween candy followed by getting ready for Thanksgiving followed by doing all the baking
or whatever you do and the holiday parties coming up on the December holiday season there’s just
food everywhere so it’s really easy to cope if you will with stress being overwhelmed by being
tired by not eating enough healthy food by binging on unhealthy and soothing food if you will so it’s
encouraged it’s important to encourage people to stay mindful of why they’re eating what they’re
eating when constantly bombarded with high-fat high carbohydrate foods people are tempted to eat
to feel calm yeah I challenge anybody to say that they’ve never eaten and go okay you know I’m just
focused on this right now I’m not thinking about everything out here and it feels good um I’m good
now goods are probably not the word I should use but it does help people distract themselves sometimes
when you eat especially those high-intensity foods you feel happier serotonins release dopamine
is released you’re like oh that’s good I want to do that again or you just feel numb you
can get into a zone where you’re just eating and not caring it’s not that you’re feeling calm
you’re just not feeling anything and a lot of times when people get into that zone they’re
not tasting the food either they’re just kind of on an autopilot emotional eating like most other
escape behaviors never address the underlying emotions and their causes so we need to look
at it are you feeling anxious are you feeling jittery are you feeling depressed because your
blood Sugar’s low because you’re nutritionally deficient because you’re not getting enough sleep
or because there’s something cognitive going on or all of the above emotional eating often results
in physical issues like weight gain poor sleep and reduced energy weight gain is you know in and
of itself, a few pounds here and they’re not a big deal but some people can start emotionally eating
to feel better they gained a lot of weight then they start feeling less energetic it starts being
harder to move around they get to the point where they are clinically obese then they’re going I’m
never going to take all this weight off they feel hopeless and helpless you see where this is going
so they eat some more can cause poor sleep apnea it’s hard to get it’s also hard to get
comfortable sometimes if you’ve eaten a whole bunch of food right before you go to bed you know
your bellies all full and little you wake up the next morning and your belly still awful which
means you probably didn’t sleep very well the night before and emotional eating often results
in reduced energy because the foods we binge on the foods we eat for self-soothing often end up
causing a sugar crash some people try to undo emotional eating by restricting other calories
which can lead to nutritional deficits and more cravings I had a girlfriend when I was in high
school and you know think back to I don’t know if they still do it but when we were in high school
there was always some kind of candy sale going on and she would always forgo all other food so she
could have two chocolate bars each day and you know we’re not going to get into the all the other
issues surrounding only eating two chocolate bars but the point I’m making it right now is the fact
she wasn’t getting protein she wasn’t getting you to know most of her vitamins and minerals and stuff
that her body needed to make the neurotransmitter so she could feel happy and she was contributing
to a sugar crash but I also know that it’s common around the holidays for people to do this they’ll
let go all day without eating because they know they’re going to a party tonight and there’s going
to be a lot of really good food doing that once in a while is not a big deal doing that 10 or 15 times
in a month could start to have problems emotional eaters need to first find a way to stop before
they eat so whether it’s writing in a journal or adding there are a lot of apps on your phone
that you can put your food in even if you’re not writing about your emotions and your cravings
and all that kind of stuff sometimes it’s enough to make people stop before they each
for the food or you know kind of an extreme way to go is to not keep pre-processed or prepackaged
foods in the house so anything that you’re going to eat you’ve got to make a second identity
the underlying reason for your eating figure out do I generally eat in response to and then
address the thoughts and emotions leading to the urges so if you figure out that the underlying
emotions for your eating or your depression then what thoughts are maintaining that depression
and how can you address it once you address the underlying issues of some of the emotional eating
will go away some of its habits we’re going to have to break that habits and over the course of
you know past couple of decades of working with people my experience has been the majority of the
time people don’t want to hear well once you deal with your emotional issues the emotional eating
will go away now they’re there because they want to stop that behavior right now so yes we need to
work on all the underlying issues but give them a tip or a trick or a tool whatever you want to
call it to use before they walk out of your office after every single session that way they have
something else they can put in their toolbox and feel more empowered to have control over what’s
going on with them and what’s coming their way knowing what and why is
80% of helping them get to the recovery point now if there’s co-occurring or if the
eating issues are more than just emotional eating if there’s the person meets the
criteria for binge eating disorder bulimia or anorexia there are a lot of
other underlying issues they’re gonna have to be dealt with so I don’t want
to trivialize that but I do want people to feel like they’ve got some hope over
what’s going on are there any questions if you enjoy this podcast please like and
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