Emotional Eating: Ending the Cycle

The midmorning glazed donut, now stale, you furtively pop into your mouth an hour after the boss issued an ultimatum at the 9:00 meeting. Your fingers swipe fries from your son's kiddie meal after an argument with your mother. You stand in front of the freezer at midnight, digging a spoon into the now ice-frosted Ben & Jerry's, anxious about your relationship or unpaid bills.

You chastise yourself for the dietary lapse. You've blown the calorie/fat/carb balance for the day; pick your poison. May as well order a cheeseburger, well-done fries, Diet Coke for lunch or dig into the bottomless basket of chips, guac washed down by a couple of slushy margaritas at happy hour. You'll be skipping yoga or spin class for a date with a serve-yourself fro-yo with your choice of toppings. Tomorrow's another day.

Why do we turn to our childhood pals fat and sugar when we feel exhausted/overwhelmed/stressed/guilt-ridden or even in a celebratory mood? How do we stop the Pavlovian guilt response when we fall captive to cravings or hidden binges? How do we resist the lure of chips/fried mozzarella sticks/icing scraped from the top of someone's birthday cake?

Geneen Roth has penned a library of books linking compulsive eating and restrictive dieting to deeper, spiritual issues. Her latest book, Women Food and God, An Unexpected Path to Almost Anything, landed on the number one spot on the NYT bestseller list.

Roth who has been writing about compulsive eating issues for thirty years observes, "“...compulsive eating is basically a refusal to be fully alive. No matter what we weigh, those of us who are compulsive eaters have anorexia of the soul. We refuse to take in what sustains us. We live lives of deprivation. And when we can't stand it any longer, we binge. The way we are able to accomplish all of this is by the simple act of bolting -- of leaving ourselves -- hundreds of times a day.” 

The roller coaster ride between restrictive dieting and eating everything that isn't nailed down is destructive to our waistlines and our psyches. Add in traffic, overscheduled lives, physical and mental exhaustion. That 3 pm cupcake is looking pretty good.

Flipping the switch from emotional to intuitive eating is a learned response. Contact me at info@bethckramer.com for a complimentary health history and information about my upcoming workshop on Emotional to Intuitive Eating.