EEA...

Hi. My name is Mary and I am an emotional eater. After 3 great days eating healthy foods and only eating when I truly was hungry, I gave in. I had a long rainy day inside with the kids running like crazy and I used food to deal with the stress. I still counted every point and I didn't eat anything that was different from what I normally ate, but I just kept eating, and eating, and eating. All day long I just did not feel "full" and that was when I realized I was eating for the wrong reasons.

I know I am not alone. There are thousands, maybe millions of people (a lot of them women) who use food to self-medicate. There are hundreds of articles online about EE. I read one from Weight Watchers Australia/New Zealand that, other than making me wonder what the heck Tim Tams are, was really well done. They mention how from the time we are nursed as babies we are connecting food with emotion. That food/emotion connection is one we make often enough that even the media picks up on it. When girls on tv go through a bad break up they often pull out the big carton of Haagen Daaz, grab a spoon, and go to town.

The key is to recognize that in ourself and know our triggers. I know that if I have a particularly rough "mom day" I am going to want to eat a big bowl of ice cream, get a huge Cafe Rio salad, etc. Those kinds of days are a trigger for me. What I could have done yesterday was go into my room where it's quiet, take a nice long shower, and then read a book or watched my favorite movie while my husband took care of the kids.

One important thing to remember: It will hurt. You will feel uncomfortable. I remember one day last year coming home from BYU where I had just failed a big test. I felt like a huge failure. I felt like I had let my family down. And the whole way home do you know what I wanted more than anything? A milkshake. I was trying to eat healthy but man I just wanted to say "forget it," stop at JCW's and get a nice huge chocolate chip cookie dough shake. I stuck to my goals and made it home without the ice cream but the whole rest of the night I was on edge. I felt like an addict going through withdrawal. I was still extremely upset about the test and the situation but I was refusing to use food to self-medicate. At one point I think I even got jittery. It was crazy, but it really made me see how much EE can really affect a person.

What we need to realize is that there is hope! In the article one woman said, "When you don't self-medicate with food, emotions are going to bubble to the surface, and they may seem intense because they've been eaten away for so long. Once the emotion was felt and let go, the cravings disappeared."

Today is a new day, I am determined to find better ways to deal with my emotions than food and am slowly finding what works for me. Is emotional eating something you struggle with? What healthy ways have you found to deal with your emotions?