My struggle with emotional eating on a weight loss journey

My struggle with emotional eating on a weight loss journey

I have more than one reason to share this today. First, I want to know that just because I am a Beachbody Coach and a huge advocate for health and fitness and practicing the lifestyle I teach, I also struggle and want to be an open book. Secondly, I hope that if you read this and also combat emotional eating, it will inspire you to overcome it and still achieve your weight loss goals. Finally, if you're reading this because someone you love is battling emotional eating, I hope it can shed some light on their feelings.

Looking back, I think I've always struggled with emotional eating, but I wasn't aware of it until recently. In early January, we decided to participate in a 21-day Daniel Fast with the church we attend. I knew I was struggling with my eating habits and had started to go off track, so I prayed that this partial fast would help me find my way. My husband decided to join me and we are currently on day 18. If you've never heard of it, it's a partial fast where you eliminate all leavened breads, sugar, coffee, and animal products—basically, you eliminate everything except fruits and vegetables. My senses have been heightened to my cravings since I can't have my comfort foods, and I'm realizing more and more how much I struggle with emotional eating.

Things I realized:

· I am addicted to certain foods/drinks because they make me FEEL. Example: My decaf coffee makes me feel cozy and relaxed (emotional eating, red flag #1)

· I eat mindlessly when I'm bored. Especially at night when I sometimes want to eat everything in sight. (emotional eating red flag #2)

· I often feel guilty after mindlessly eating because I realized I wasn't hungry to begin with. (emotional eating red flag #3)

· I have certain “trigger” foods (CARBS) that I can’t put down even when I’m full. These trigger foods are all foods that I am addicted to for comfort. Example: French fries or bread at a restaurant (emotional eating, red flag #4)

According to WebMD, you can tell whether you're physically or emotionally hungry by focusing on a specific food. For example, after a really stressful day at the office, I crave carbohydrates - typically things like chips, bread, pizza, and fried foods - things that I don't eat very often. And what happens if I can't get any of these comfort foods when I'm feeling this way? I get UPSET. Hello? This is not good.

Also according to WebMD, what you reach for to satisfy an emotion depends on the emotion. For me personally, when I'm having any type of emotional eating episode, I crave carbs and sugar. But this article I read says that happy people are more attracted to pizza or steak, while someone in a sad mood might reach for ice cream and cookies. I rarely want ice cream or cookies, so I guess I'm lucky. 😀

If you have been following me for a very long time, you know that I have my own weight loss story that I share. In the last year I have lost a little over 30 pounds. You may be wondering, “How did she do so well when battling emotional eating, and how can I do the same?” Well, first I will tell you that my results could have been much better. I drastically cleaned up my eating, but I still could have stuck to the meal plans better so I could have had better results. But in my opinion, I did wonderfully and am so much happier now. I want to share with you a few ways I still lost weight while struggling with emotional eating.

· I fell into an accountability group. I host these on Facebook if you ever want to jump into one. It helped me a lot and still does that other people are aware of what I do too!

· I started working out at home and replaced one meal a day with Shakeology. This just kept me more consistent and my training 5-6 days a week was obviously a big reason for my weight loss. Shakeology helps with my cravings.

· While I'm still battling nighttime episodes where I want to eat every carb in sight, I started reaching for healthier options. I wasn't supposed to eat at all after dinner, but hey, it was an improvement.

· I didn't let an episode of emotional eating derail me - I continued doing what I needed to do at the next meal to keep losing weight.

· I made sure I ALWAYS have snacks on hand. Every day I go to work with breakfast, 2 snacks and lunch. This way the constant greasy treats coming into the office don't irritate me as much. Example: The other day someone brought in some amazing looking donuts. My need for comfort kicked in, but I pushed it aside by eating my strawberry snack instead.

I’d love to hear from you – do you have your own struggles with emotional eating? How do you overcome it? Or do you need help overcoming it? Comment below and we'll chat!

Inspired by Whitney J DeLong