Emotional Attachment to Food

Hey guys,

Mel here. How are you?
My day was sort of OK… the predominant theme being exhaustion. I worked till the wee hours of the morning on a work project and only got about 4 hours of sleep. So, I feel like I was justified to have 3 cups of coffee today in stead of 1!

My behaviour has become pretty standard now – gym in the morning (today it was upper body training); 5 meals a day of which two snacks are completely standard – protein bar and a Myoplex Lite; somewhat of a limited repertoire of meals for lunch and dinner. But I am finding that I have kind of “removed myself” from my eating. What I am trying to say is that in the first few weeks I used to obsess myself with what am I going to eat at what time and all that. Now it has become completely automatic. I don’t think about it. I don’t really care about it. I just see it is time to eat, eat, and then keep going. The emotional attachment to the meal times is gone…

Are any of you experiencing the same thing?

Mel

Jeni:
Hey guys,

I am really proud of Mel now. Her post today shows us that she has reached the point where food represents “nourishment” to her. The way it should be. Food is not a reward or a punishment or a friend or a foe. Sounds so easy and yet, it is so hard to accept this…

For those of you who are a bit further back in this process than Melissa, here is a little strategy that can help you shift your attitude to and your relationship with food – the most important step you can ever make in your weight loss journey.

The framework: Behind many weight management problems there lies an emotional attachment to food. Eating is so intrinsically embedded in nearly every social aspect of our lives - from celebrating Christmas to weddings, to birthdays. Just about any get-together whether it be with family, friends or work colleagues involves food. The hardest part is steering clear of a high carb meal - and learning to choose the best and healthiest option.

The Strategy: So how do we do it? How can we continually convince ourselves to choose the steamed fish with Asian greens when everyone else is going for creamy pasta with garlic bread on the side?

Stopping the “emotional eating” is not as simple as telling yourself just to eat less. It is never really that easy. If it was, you wouldn’t be understanding or learning from the experience that has made you eat so much in the first place.
One of the best ways to tackle emotional eating is to stop using judgmental and moralistic words when referring to food. You need to stop saying “I’ve been naughty, I’ve eaten too much today”, or “I’ve been so good, I can have that slice of pizza”. The emotional power of food is taken away once you stop dividing food into the “good/angelic” or “bad/evil/naughty” categories.

Instead of using the terms “good” and “bad”, use “everyday” and “sometimes”.
By taking away the association that food equals guilt or virtue, you will immediately limit the power that food can have over you. Eating pizza won’t make you a bad person; you just wouldn’t want it to be part of your “everyday” diet. Eating more “everyday” foods and less of the “sometimes” foods is so much easier when you take away this emotional attachment.
So try it – you’ll be amazed at the difference this tiny little change can make! More “everyday” choices, less of the “sometimes” foods!

Ciao! ;)

Jeni