Do You Struggle With Overeating?

Let’s talk about a common concern during the holiday season: Overeating.

What is the motivating factor with overeating and what do you do about it?

The feeling of being powerless or eating when you don’t want to, or feeling like you are starting to cut back on food but you can’t; that is all driven by something unconscious. 

What does that mean?

A lot of people think they eat out of boredom, it’s not that. Boredom and eating are ways of numbing yourself to a feeling that you find unacceptable underneath. With my experience, it’s almost always neediness.

If the thought of being needy makes you squirm, then neediness may be the emotion you’re trying to cover up with food.

Neediness is a normal human emotion. In fact, it’s the cornerstone of all relationships and we want you to get comfortable with that. 

How do you get comfortable with your feelings?

For starters, you can set an alarm throughout the day and give yourself five minutes to name your feelings. If you’re covering up neediness, then you may be covering up some other feelings.

Feeling words are: Needy, anxious, sad, joyful, angry, irritated, frustrated. These are all feeling words. What people do when they’re covering up their feelings is mistake thoughts for feelings. 

For example, if you stop at noon every day and think, “I’m behind in work, this person down the hall is driving me crazy, it’s going to rain today.” Those are all thoughts, and the goal is for you to start with the feeling that you’re feeling. What is it that you're feeling when you think about how someone is down the hall bothering you? What is the feeling, you feel when you think it’s going to rain? What are the emotions you’re feeling when you think those thoughts?

The more comfortable you are with your emotions, the less likely you’ll eat to cover-up your feelings up.

If you have any further questions or problems on this topic, give us a call at (757)340-8800.