Food Never Hugs Back

I watched a Mel Robbins story the other day where she was going through a 'moment' and shared it as she was eating her ice cream. Out of her story the take away was that if in the moment you can stop processing what you are feeling you can like stop the trigger that led you to grab the food you didn't intentionally plan to eat. It was not on plan for her to eat the ice cream but she realized that some unresolved emotions in the meantime, she reached for ice cream.

Food 'can', in the short term be 'comforting' but once that feeling of being 'comforted' is passed, it's often met with remorse which starts off its own cycle of food and emotions. If you can pinpoint the trigger that sent you to the 'pantry', you can likely stop the raid.

I often suggest writing down what you were thinking/doing ahead of the trigger, what you are feeling in the moment and options to do instead.

If you can identify the thoughts and feelings, over time you can then choose another behavior to that trigger instead of reinforcing old behaviors of reaching for food to fill an emotional need.

Food never 'hugs' back. It doesn't fix 'emotional hunger'.

This word wheel can be an awareness tool to help identify thoughts and feelings and bring awareness to your emotions. This can help stop the auto pilot reaction and give you time to think through what you are feeling and find the appropriate response instead.

Check out that word wheel. Put it where you can see it and refer to it.

The-Gottman-Institute_The-Feeling-Wheel

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