Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Eating Your Emotions?

I read an interesting book this week. It is about a lady who at one point in her life weighed over 700 pounds. It is entitled "703" by Nancy Makin. I make it a point to try and read just about every diet book that comes out, at least flip through the pages and familiarize myself with what is going on out there. The ironic thing is, this turned out not to be a diet book, it was a book about emotions and how they are all wrapped up with eating, about obsession and how certain things can trigger emotional eating.

In this book she never gave an eating plan, or a health tip or even ever named a number on the scale as to when she felt healthy again, she did say that she lost over a quarter of a ton, which would be over a 500 lb. weight loss. In the book she describes how she learned to feel full emotionally and then food didn't seem as important to her. I was ashamed to read that she said that sometimes out in public people would make fun of her and say cruel things to her. I would think that if you see a person at that size that you need to see that there is obviously a bigger problem here than someone who craves something crunchy/salty when under emotional duress. And I would certainly hope that I have raised my children that they would never make an unkind or cruel remark to anyone, period!

I had a client pay me a compliment one day when she said I never made her "feel fat"! I was astonished and had to go home and try and comprehend what that meant. Maybe because in my heart I don't look at someone who is overweight and make a moral judgement of them. Perhaps that has been reinforced by the company I am associated with. The first chapter in Dr. A's Habits Of Health Book is entitled "It's Not Your Fault" and it is all about how the world we live in is so totally out of whack with how our bodies were designed that it is no wonder there are so many of us overweight. We'll talk more in another blog about emotions and the role they play in eating. One tip I do know that is helpful is this: try and eat 5-6 small balanced meals a day. That way if emotional eating rears its ugly head, at least you won't be so physically hungry that you will eat everything in sight!

So whether we are going to our women's networking group, training women in business or are a 'stay at home mom', for this week, let's try and see if we are "eating our emotions" or "feeding our bodies"!

Lynda Waldron, Certified Health Coach
LDWaldron@yahoo.com

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