Am I Nuts Or Is It Emotional Eating?

Nuts!

Ever found yourself mindlessly snacking late at night?

Just last night, I woke up around 1 AM, and headed to the kitchen like I was under the control of a force beyond my own logic.

Opened the cupboard and before reaching for the bag, I paused. But instead of changing direction, I let myself off the hook.  I told myself that macadamia nuts are low in carbs, so just a few won't hurt.

It’s never “just a few.”

So, I took out the whole bag telling myself that it was more convenient than pouring some into a small container. After indulging in the satisfying crunches and taste, I felt good and easily went back to sleep.

But the next morning, I didn’t feel so good. I woke up feeling bloated and guilty. No wonder. I had consumed over 800 calories of salty nuts - at least 4 ounces, which is equivalent to 200 calories per ounce. I couldn't help but wonder why I didn't make a different choice.

After all, I had stuck to my healthy eating plan the entire day before that midnight moment. I had every opportunity to wake up feeling great, but I let my emotions take over, again.

This Nuts at Night snacking habit has been going on for the past month, and it's becoming

more frequent. I recognize the power of emotions, and while I am going through a tough time, I know that using food to fix my emotions is not the answer. But sometimes, knowing isn't enough.

Before my nuts at night phase, it was multi-grain chips.

And before that, it was Halo Top ice cream - the kind that has fewer carbs and more protein.  This phase had the most severe repercussions the next day.

And before that, it was chocolate chip cookies - the tastiest phase but also the one that made my belly grow the biggest.

Each phase of my emotional eating cycle has different tastes, looks, and feelings, but the underlying emotions remained the same.

It’s not about the food. It’s about the emotions that drive us to repeat actions that hurt us.

Do you ever find yourself in the kitchen when you feel anxious, bored, or upset? You're not alone. Many people turn to food for comfort as a way to cope with big, difficult emotions. This is what we call emotional eating, and everyone does it from time to time.

Eating is a natural way for our bodies to survive, and it makes sense that it lights up the reward system in our brains and makes us feel better. However, when emotional eating happens too often, and you don't have other ways to cope, it can become a problem. Eating doesn't address the real issue if you're feeling stressed, anxious, bored, lonely, sad, or tired.

For some people, the cycle of turning to food to cope can create guilt and shame, which only adds to the already tough feelings to navigate. Emotional eating can be complicated.

What is emotional eating?

It’s eating food to satisfy a non-physical hunger, or better put, a void.

Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, feels urgent, and is often satisfied with high-calorie items, making us feel guilty afterward. If you eat to satisfy an emotion, you may feel worse afterward because of the unnecessary calories you've consumed.

Physical hunger comes on gradually and dissipates when you are full.

That’s the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger?

Emotional eating can cause of the initial onset of obesity.

If we only ate when our bodies needed fuel, many of us would not become overweight or obese in the first place.

Besides being a huge factor in weight gain emotional eating also hinders efforts to maintain a healthy weight after successful weight loss.

Emotional eating is using food to comfort ourselves, dull a painful emotion, or distract ourselves from feelings we don't feel capable of handling.

If emotional eating is holding you down then it probably feels like food is a four letter “F-word.”

This is where food awareness comes in.  Let’s face it, food is a four-letter “F” word and ideally the word will be “fuel” most of the time.  But if you are an emotional eater the f-word is likely “feelings” more often that you want.

Just becoming aware of why you are eating is the first step.  Awareness is almost always the first step.

Just asking,  “What  “F-word” am I about to put in my mouth?” will make a huge difference.  Or as I like to ask, “What the “F” am I eating this for?

Feelings

Fun

Flavor

Family

Festivities

Awareness may not stop you from eating it every time but the more aware you become the closer you get to reversing this habit.

Food is at the center of so many things we do. It's a part of our celebrations, and it's a way to show someone you care. Sharing food with others is also a way to connect. Therefore, it's natural to have an emotional connection to food. The goal is to allow you to make a conscious decision about when, what, and how you eat. There will be times when it makes sense for food to be a part of dealing with big emotions, and other times when there are better ways to cope.

But what causes someone to eat because of their emotions? Almost anything can trigger a desire to eat. Common external reasons for emotional eating may include work stress, financial worries, health issues, and relationship struggles. People who follow restrictive diets or have a history of dieting are also more likely to eat emotionally.

Other potential internal causes include lack of self-awareness, alexithymia (lack of ability to understand, process, or describe emotions), emotion dysregulation (inability to manage emotions), and reversed hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) stress axis (under-active cortisol response to stress). And my favorite: Cognitive Entitlement when we use our thinking skills to justify or rationalize eating food that we intuitively know is going against our authentic intentions.  Emotional eating is often an automatic behavior, and the more that food is used to cope, the more established the habit becomes.

Full transparency: My recent bouts with emotional eating feel very similar to my past struggles with drugs and alcohol.

Do I have a food addiction?

Let’s rephrase the question, in technical terms: Do I have a compulsive and uncontrollable desire to eat certain foods, often high in sugar, salt, or fat, despite negative consequences such as weight gain, health problems, and shame?

Do you?

Individuals with food addiction may have a preoccupation with food, experience intense cravings, and find it difficult to stop eating even when they are full.

Like other addictions, food addiction can have both physical and psychological components, with changes in brain chemistry and reward systems playing a role in the development and maintenance of the addiction.

We’re not food “addicts” but we have addictive traits that can be down-regulated.

Is emotional eating an eating disorder?

Emotional eating on its own is not an eating disorder, but it can be a sign of disordered eating, which may lead to developing an eating disorder. Disordered eating can include being very rigid with food choices, labeling foods as "good" or "bad", frequent dieting or food restriction, often eating in response to emotions rather than physical hunger, irregular meal timing, obsessive thoughts about food that start to interfere with the rest of your life, and feelings of guilt or shame after eating foods you view as "unhealthy".

“We don’t do diets because diets don’t work.”

GH Fasting adds normalcy to your eating habits and allows you to take your power back when it comes to those “uncontrollable” urges.

But often it’s more than an urge.  Unnecessary eating becomes a coping mechanism that takes on a life of its own.

There are many reasons why eating becomes a way to cope. Difficult emotions may lead to a feeling of emptiness or an emotional void. Eating releases dopamine, a brain chemical that makes us feel good. We also develop habits and routines with food. If you always eat when stressed, you might reach for food at the first sign of stress without realizing it. On top of that, food is legal, and you can get it everywhere. Messages and images about food can increase your feeling of hunger.

Without judging yourself as good or bad answer these questions with radical honesty:

• Do you eat more when you're worried or anxious?

• Do you eat when you're not hungry or feeling full?

• Do you eat to feel better, calm yourself, or reward yourself?

• Do you eat until you feel stuffed?

• Does food feel like a best friend?

• Do you feel out of control around food?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, emotions have taken away some of your power when it comes to eating.

The Silver Lining:

No matter how powerless you feel over food and your feelings, it is possible to make positive changes. There are cognitive behavioral techniques you can learn that can offer healthier ways to deal with emotions, avoid triggers, and conquer cravings.

My Favorite: Neuroplasticity Alignment

Neuroplasticity Alignment is a cognitive-behavior-emotion remedy that essentially reprograms your brain and down-regulates the programs (traits) that seem out of control. And the best part, it only takes 10 minutes a day once you learn how to do it.

Others ways to reduce emotional eating include identifying your personal triggers, finding other ways to care for yourself, self-love, the R3 technique and taking five minutes before giving in to a craving.

Remember, even though you may not completely understand why you eat emotionally, you can develop tools (Warrior Weapons) to manage it.

Here’s what I’ve learned in helping 1000’s of people lose weight over the years:

Losing the weight is the easy part, keeping it off is the hard part. Keeping it off permanently requires developing new lifestyle habits and neural programs. Reprogramming specific programs in your brain and changing your lifestyle.

Sound impossible? It’s very possible and it’s happening all the time!

Neuroplasticity Alignment is the secret sauce we’ve all been looking for. But until you learn how to do it - here are some steps to get started with:

1. Mindfulness (Self-Awareness): Awareness eating means being fully present and attentive to the experience of eating, including the taste, texture, and aroma of the food.

2. Hunger and Fullness Cues: Awareness eating means tuning into your body's hunger and fullness cues, eating only when you are truly hungry and stopping when you are satisfied.

3. Non-judgmental Attitude: Awareness eating requires a non-judgmental attitude towards food and yourself, avoiding labeling foods as "good" or "bad." And more importantly not labeling yourself as “good” or “bad” either.

4. Emotional Awareness: Emotions are part of being human. But instead of ignoring them or pushing them down, become curiously aware of them. Curiosity is part of the cure for using food as an emotional coping mechanism.

We share similar emotions and similar coping mechanisms but everyone is different.  So your journey won’t be the same as the next person’s.  But the willingness to actually embark on the journey is how lives change.

Become Willing to Change

Embrace the wisdom to know that every intention exists on a continuum.

We’re never a total failure or a complete success.  Nor are we ever 100% cured or 100% sick we are always somewhere in the grey area between the extremes.

We’re always somewhere between the absolutes.

No matter how badly we think things are going we’re still operating above 0% of our authentic potential.

And no matter how great things are going we’re probably still not operating at 100% of our authentic potential.

Success is moving a little closer to our authentic potential every day.

So start.

No success happens without starting.

If you want help from a community that cares join our crusade: Warrior Weight Loss & GH Fasting group on Facebook.

If you are ready to start solving your problem once and for all. I can help.

Schedule a free metabolism kickstart call - me or one of our coaches will help you start applying these steps specifically to your own unique life situation.

Schedule Metabolism Kickstart

To your healthy success,

Thomas Miller