My FIRST WORLD PROBLEM - Hunger????
I have a first world problem.
I struggle with over-eating.
Why? Because I have too much food available to me and ...
I eat my emotions.
Why would I talk about my syndrome of too much especially during the season to indulge and all!! I'm not a ruiner of fun, I promise.
I think about those who have not, those who don't have all the choices I have available to me.
And yes, I feel guilt. Guilt is okay to feel sometimes. It demands action of some sort.
For the longest time I couldn't identify those emotions. I didn't think about what I was feeling -the feeling was hunger in my opinion.
Did you know hunger can be how we experience a feeling?
For example, when my kids were younger they would sometimes mistake excitement for hunger or tiredness for hunger. They had been fed and watered like the little plantings they were so why did they need to eat more.
Hunger is a trigger from our brain to our bodies to nourish and replenish. That's normal and healthy.
When it becomes unbalanced, the body, where we feel emotions, tells the brain what to do. So the hunger signal is directed back to the body when we feel stressed, lonely, angry, sad - the brain has been reprogrammed.
Who craves broccoli when emotional? Or a vegetable/ fruit platter? Or who says to themselves, "Oh fabulous. I feel angry so I am going to go for a nice long walk?"
I don't.
The very foods that would help me in an emotional state become revolting to me. I have an approach avoidance with foods that nourish my body.
My body demands what I call, un-food.–the highly processed, manufactured junk and I have the hardest time stopping until I am beyond stuffed. Strangely, this causes me to be under nourished - even when I have so much food available to me.
Then shame visits. Such a crazy mixed up cycle which I call a first world problem.
People who have lack don't have such issues.
What am I doing to help me? I wrote a letter to my brain - myself, the boss of me.
Dear Self
You are not hungry after supper. You have eaten enough food for your body today. You are not working shifts anymore. The feeling in your body is most likely one of the following:-
- fatigue
- loneliness
- shame which leads to self punishment
- petulance due to feeling deprived of the very things that made you fat
- confusion
- anxiety
- boredom
Write post it notes and stick them on places where you subject your self to more suffering by acting out for the millionth time. The fridge doors, inside the fridge, the cupboards, the car dashboard, your wallet, your computer, the tv - these are all good places to stick notes. Put a reminder or ten, with an alarm, on your iphone that you are NOT HUNGRY. Write what to do on the notes and reminders.
Tell yourself to self soothe:-
- be still for 5 minutes and focus on your breathing
- take a short walk with the dog
- have a mint tea and sit outside - look at the sky - the moon, the sunset
- have a shower
- brush your teeth
- wash your face
- put cream on your hands
- put on comfy pj's
- listen to some calming music
- read a chapter in a book
- color
- go to bed if it's after 8:30pm
Next day - repeat
This is not an emergency. You will survive and thrive. I promise.
Love, me
hunger is not an emotion
photos from Tumbler, Pinterest, Stock
another well-written and timely post about the psychology of over-indulgence, that's particularly appropriate at Christmas. You are not being a ruiner if you are simply re-directing us back to the real enjoyment of the season and helping us see how feasting and celebration can enhance rather than ruin our holidays.
Of course, this is just one aspect of your post and it leads on to other areas of excess and lack of control in spending, an over-emphasis on material things--and I could go on and on, which I suppose is the mark of a good post. You made me think countrygirl, and put things properly in balance. Thank you.
Wow...your comments are always so thorough. Maybe you need to write a post about such things. You are an incredible writer.
So, so many of us can relate to the words you have written! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comments @rebeccamorgan. :)
The problem with food disorders, whether you eat too little or too much is that you're thinking about food ALL THE TIME! It's an addiction or bad habit depending on the severity, I suppose.
I had a very good friend who actually sleep eats. They had to set up a webcam to prove it was HER making the mess in the kitchen when she would yell at the kids in the morning. Frightening!
Emotional eating is definitely hard to overcome because one has to find the base emotion or problem in the first place. And with all the noise we surround ourselves with, it's so hard to find that quiet voice that needs attention. Perhaps the question to ask is: What am I hiding in the fridge/cupboard from? And tackle it head on.
Sleep eating? Yikes. That would be so embarrassing, never mind frightening!
I used to walk in my sleep - one time my mom found me in the laundry room of the apartment building we lived in. Can you imagine the hidden dangers in there??? especially these days....oy.
I usually know what the base emotion is for me...that's half the problem - the other half is cooperating with myself.....that willful part. But you asked a good question in "What's in the cupboard or fridge that I am hiding from". This put a new spin on things....thanks. I already drive myself around the bend with my thoughts.
Good one Mere....good one!!!
I used to sleep walk and have night terrors as a child. I outgrew them when I was about 10 - but if I wasn't terrifying my entire family screaming like I was being murdered, they were wondering where the hell I'd disappeared to (usually behind the couch behind the floor-length curtains). LOL
I'll bet you were adorable....poor thing. Your poor parents must have been terrified when they couldn't find you. Glad you outgrew those.
I know some who still have night terrors as adults. #nonotme
I stopped the sleep walking around that age as well. But I didn't scream like a banshee ....altho I would go mute at times....maybe that's why I overeat so I can complain about weight gain. Probably. Who needs Freud.???