Emotional Eaters Do This One Thing

Many of our habitual patterns, including eating, come from our childhood. In this blog post I shared how the smell of fried cabbage and pancakes remind me of mom standing in the kitchen on Saturday night while i am watching Chip and Dale to the rescue. It simply reminds me of my mom's love. So it's natural to my body, when I am stressed, to want fried and sweet food. 

Can you think of childhood memories connected with food experiences and accompanying emotions?

• Who was in the picture? It might be someone you care about, for example, a family member. 
•  What was the food? Can you think of that foods sensual qualities: texture, smell, taste, color, temperature.?
• How old were you? It might be the 5 year old you or younger you.
• What was the emotion and feeling associated with it? Think about love, safety, care.
• How does it reflect your food choices now? Do you still crave that sensual qualities?

I mentioned above "my body" intentionally. Because in today's technique we will learn how to separate Self - Conscious mind from self - subconscious mind and body.

Ready to dive?

In order to tap into emotional eating and really start tackling it by providing non-destruction options, we must do this one thing:

be curious. 

The subconscious parts of our brain are designed to help us survive. They want love, belonging, safety, and security. They react. 

The councious parts of the brain are designed to think, reason, grow, progress, challenge, create, and be different. They act.

To tackle emotional eating, let's put Curiosity Goggles on and observe when the subconscious (survival) parts of the brain talking and when conscious parts of the brain can be activated. 

About curiosity 

Notice, there is no judgment in curiosity. There is just quiet attention to what is.

The very first habit we must build is being curious. Consider it like going to the gym and building your muscle of curiosity. Do it more often and you will build your curiosity muscle even faster.

Here is your curiosity muscle rep:

"Hmmm…isn't it interesting that …. (Name it)"

In fact, you can use this curiosity rep for any circumstance, any time, anywhere.

Try it. I really want to hear your feedback.

When you are ready to step up your game and dive deeper, here is the next step:

What is the pattern of your emotional eating? Above I mentioned, many of our emotional eating patterns come from childhood. So when we feel stressed or under pressure, we tend to lean towards the foods that remind us of feelings of love, safety, belonging. 

To help you see a current pattern, use the following sentence:

When …..(circumstance), I want …. (food you crave), because….(how it makes you feel).

For example, when 11pm comes, I crave cookies, because I am tired and want sweets and they make me feel good.

Let's add one more element to this exercise. 

When …..(circumstance), I want …. (food you crave), because….(how it makes you feel). What I really want is …. (name it). 

Take time for this one. 

Avoid rushing to finish the final sentence. To name what you really want takes courage. It takes bravery to take a really deep look at what is really asking to be nourished.

We may feel uncomfortable and we may not even know. No need to push it.

To relax into curiosity, here are two options you can practice

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