Healing The Binge Eater In Me

(This article was shared with me by a client. I thought it worthy of sharing with you.)

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) (yes, that thing you keep seeing commercials for on TV) is now classified as an eating disorder.  Hello, my name is Aubrey, and I am not only a recovering sugar addict, I was also a binge eater. GREAT!

Have you ever caught yourself saying that you were going to 'eat your feelings?' Story of my life. At first I thought I meant it in that semi-kidding way, but after the 7th consecutive week of drowning my sorrows in cookie dough and brownie batter [yeah that's right, the raw, gooey, chocolaty, salmonella ridden stuff] and still not feeling just as crappy as before I started, I realized I might have a problem.

Having worked with Linda on and off for many years, I thought she may be able to help me with this. I knew that I was binge-ing on sugar laden foods when I was upset or frustrated; low and behold she introduced me to the world of emotional healing which has helped me get off the roller coaster of emotional eating that I was so miserably riding.

When I felt myself getting frustrated, instead of immediately searching for the first delectable treat I could get my hands on, I learned to stop myself and reflect on what was really going on.  I would ask myself, "Why are you actually mad right now?"  The immediate response would be whatever the most recent inconvenience was but I knew that was not the real reason for my emotional state so I thought on it a bit longer. I thought about the entire day and there I found my answers. Maybe I forgot my homemade lunch and gym clothes and then was stuck in traffic on my way to work, which I was already late for. I was upset with myself for allowing those things to happen, and then I was upset that I was upset about it.  

Once I looked beyond the frustration inducing event, I was able to recognize the truth, which allowed me to figure out exactly which emotion was causing the angst in me.  I learned to recognize the emotion for what it was, put a name to it, and then speak truthfully to myself about it. My conversations were more or less: "I understand that I am feeling angry due to the earlier inconvenience. I accept that I feel angry," took a deep breath and exhaled the anger away.  More often than not it worked right away; it was awesome!  The best part about this was if I didn't feel I was ready to handle a certain emotion [aka I couldn't stop crying], I would say "I understand that I am upset and need to recognize this, but I am not ready right now," and I would almost immediately be able to stop crying and go back to a functioning human until I had the time to face that emotion head on. 

What I am learning is that my emotions can control how I think, what I say, what I do and what I eat - or I can learn to control myself. I will pick being able to control my health and happiness any day!