Are You Stuck In A Cycle Of Eating To Soothe Your Emotions?
- Jul 12, 2021
- 3 min read
Written by: Dr. Denise L. Morrison, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you then feel guilty, ashamed, or defeated after you do?
Have you lost a lot of your mental and physical energy thinking about food, shopping, planning, cooking, calorie counting, etc.?
Wouldn’t it feel amazing to give yourself permission to eat the foods that you enjoy and feel okay afterward?
Time after time I hear from my clients that they have lost touch with their reasons to eat.
When they have been restricting their food intake or going overboard, they lose touch with how to behave “normally” around food.
If they aren’t exercising their “guilty” calories away, they cannot stand to be in their own skin.
Even when they allow themselves a treat, they punish themselves.
During our coaching sessions, we dive deep into why, when, and how their connections with emotions and food began because that knowledge changes everything! Seeing and feeling the possibility to give themselves permission to know that eating food can feel fantastic!
Eating foods that you love, having a drink of something that brings you pleasure is all part of life!
Eating with friends at your favorite restaurant or going to a party while being confident that you can enjoy a little bite of this or a little bite of that is actually okay.
That’s what we Coaches call Food Freedom.
For those folks who have never suffered from binge, overeating, restrictive, or deprivation habits, they eat when they are hungry, stop when they are full and they place NO meaning on their behaviors, the food, or the circumstances surrounding a meal.
When I met my husband, I thought he was a weirdo because he was like that!!
I was so conditioned by my Dad to eat my emotions until I was a big bloated numbed-out blob.
Thankfully, I retrained and reprogrammed my entire relationship with food and now I can join my husband for a meal without all of the guilt, shame, fear, and physical symptoms that I had lived with for over 30 years!
Are you ready to reframe your relationship to eating, exercising, and living?
I invite you to take the time to:
Check-in with yourself to notice which emotions/situations/people/memories trigger you to eat.
Stop and listen to what you are saying to yourself about that emotion and how it prompts you to reach for food.
Pay attention to the meanings that you place on certain foods and let go of labeling foods as “good” or “bad”.
Are you willing to eat without having to bargain with yourself; i.e., “If I eat a bag of chips now, I promise I will diet all week or If I eat these carbs today, I must go to the gym 5 times to get rid of it”.
Eat a meal that you really enjoy when you are physically hungry and allow your body (not your head) to tell you how it feels to eat that food and when to stop eating.
Trust that you can create a habit with this new cycle of intuitive eating that will help you be successful at the next meal, the next meal, and so on.
I am curious to hear if any of these steps would be difficult for you.
And if you are tired of the mental and emotional struggles with eating, please know that I am here to help you change the habits that do not serve you and create a new relationship with yourself, your food, and finally feel free to eat whatever you want!
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit my website for more info! Read more from Denise!
Dr. Denise L. Morrison, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Denise Morrison is the CEO of Intuitively Unique Coaching, her Holistic Brand of Health/Life Coaching.
She struggled for decades to overcome traumatic experiences from her own past. She compensated for her lack of confidence with degrees and professional success. She numbed her pain with addictive eating and self-abusive behaviors. And when she finally turned to the right teachers and coaches, she learned that change does not need to take decades. Change can actually be instantaneous. And change can be lasting. After working for many years in healthcare, Denise felt a pull and a passion for working with people on a deeper and more transformational level.
Her academic mind was drawn to the evidence-based nutrition and exercise practices, but she was also compelled by the more mystical therapies emerging from neuroscience and quantum healing.
Denise sought out the best training in health and wellness, life coaching, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to have access to the most powerful tools to help others change their lives for the better.
