There are specific signs that you have an emotional problem with food and engage in emotional eating:

• You feel like you have tried "everything", but you cannot lose weight. 

• When unexpected things happen you often think: "Fuck it, this is a bad day, I might as well start again tomorrow / Monday / next month" 

• You never feel like it's the right time. The job is just too busy now, and you just have to get the next thing out of the way and everything will be better…

• You say to yourself: "I promise this is the last time", but still it happens again and again and you break the promises to yourself. 

• You often have cravings that you try to resist, but you have to give them up on a regular basis.

• You think with desperation about your body that you "MUST lose weight now !!! It is a complete crisis how I have fallen into disrepair… " 

• You are a perfectionist and you're still looking for the "perfect" solution to lose weight. 

However, there is nothing wrong with you binge eating or eating emotionally. It is only a learned behavior that has been stored in your brain❤️‍

WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT YOU?

It says nothing about your qualities as a human being, about strengths and weaknesses, or about personal character. It only says something about your brain functioning exactly as it should, by storing many actions repeatedly, creating a habit. 

And the good thing is that it can be resolved.🙏 You can train your brain to do other things than eat when you are triggered.

WHERE IS THE LIMIT OF THE RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD BECOMING A PROBLEM?

To find out whether someone has a problem with food and eating or not, we must look at two factors: 

First of all, you need to look at whether you are eating things subconsciously or because it is impossible to resist. This means that there is no free will. At the same time, you need to look at whether what you are eating is in line with your values. 

When we have developed emotional eating and use food as an escape, then it is not the food that is the problem itself. But how to deal with insecurity in life, along with how to deal with emotions such as stress, overwhelm and inadequacy. 

CHRONIC STRESS IS LIKE PUSHING JETFUEL INTO THE FIRE FOR EMOTIONAL EATING

If you are chronically stressed, your brain is stuck in "survival mode" and overwhelmed. This affects the quality of your thinking. 

When the level of stress and overwhelm becomes high enough in the brain, several things happen:

• The intelligent part of your brain (cortex) is disconnected.
• Then you become reactive by activating the survival brain in "fight or flight" mode.

When we live in this place in our brain, we handle uncertainty, resistance and unforeseen events very poorly. And when your brain fires on all the cylinders here, you will not think about the long-term goals or consequences. But you will need an urgent need for escape. This is where the food comes in.

WE ARE BLIND TO BIG PROBLEMS BECAUSE THEY HAVE BECOME “THE NEW NORMAL”.

In our culture today, stress has become "normal". We can relate to each other socially and engage in "bonding" over a cup of coffee, while we talk about how violently stressed we are and how overwhelming life is. It has also become common to point to everything else in life to blame. "Had it not been for the job being so demanding", "Had it not been for the boss being like that", "Had it not been for the kids being impossible", "Had it not been for the fact that I do not get to sleep at night "," I just cannot think and focus on more now with all that is going on ", and so on. 

But the main reason why some people struggle with overwhelm and stress - which in turn gives them the mindfucks around food, body and eating that are listed above - is not because of the external factors, but what is happening inside of them and how they respond to and deal with chronic stress and its causes. 

WHEN YOU DO THE RIGHT THINGS FOR THE RIGHT REASON, YOU GET THE WHOLE SOLUTION❤️

To deal with the problems of emotional eating, you need to rewire your response to negative emotions and triggers for your cravings. Then you no longer need to use food as an escape. In addition, you need to repair a strained relationship with food, and your relationship with yourself. 

Only when you have high self-esteem, believe that you are worthy enough and deserve the best for yourself, will you be able to support yourself with love. And this is where the magic happens✨. This is when you manage to create sustainable and permanent changes in yourself and in your life in the long run.

Because there is nothing wrong with you, you just have to learn a new way to meet your needs.

Want to know more about what you can do to solve emotional eating? Check out ways to work with me here.