Emotional eating takes its toll

Why do you eat?

Is it because your body needs nourishment? Or is it because you are unhappy and depressed, and you think that piece of cake will make you feel better?

Luckily, I've never been an emotional eater. I've always eaten for nutrition. If I indulge in a piece of cake, it's because I want a treat.

But I've seen people who are emotional eaters, and they are not happy.

I have known people who "can't resist" so-and-so's wife's cookies, or people who "have to do something" for someone when they have a birthday or leave their job.

In their eyes, "have to do something" means getting a large cake or a colossal cookie.

Since an emotional eater ties their gratification to food, the only way they can show their appreciation for others is also through food.

I saw an example recently of someone who is not very well thought of at his workplace who bought lunch at a sit-down restaurant for a group of nine people. Once you include appetizers and tip, the bill had to be around $100!

Funny thing is, this person will complain that he never has any money. If that's the case, how can he afford to pick up a $100 lunch bill? Was he genuinely doing something nice for the group, or was he hoping the group would think better of him in return? In other words, was he trying to buy friends with food?

I don't know for sure, and probably will never know, but I suspect it's the latter.

I've also known people on weight loss programs like Weight Watchers who just can't stop cheating. Weight Watchers and other programs like it cost money. I never have been able to understand why someone would pay money to be part of a program that they are not even going to follow. Does the emotional eating get in the way of their weight loss?Are they afraid of losing weight for some reason? Do they like being fat?

I think emotional eating comes from deeper problems than just being overweight, and that if an unhappy person loses weight, but doesn't work on their other issues, they will go right back to using food as comfort. Which mean they will go right back to being fat.

A Good Housekeeping column agrees. The author says, "If emotional eating is a challenge for us, if we suffer because of the size of our bodies and our relationship to food, then somehow we end up believing that getting rid of the fat will take away the suffering. When it doesn’t, we feel so betrayed that we eat to comfort ourselves."

She recommends an experiment: Instead of waiting to be thin to be happy, try being happy right now. Live as if you were already thin, as if you liked yourself, as if you chose to have the life you have right now.

I like that.

An entry on The Fit Shack says, "If you do not work on your inner self and find the things in your life that you are happy about now and cultivate them to create more happiness, that unhappiness will more than likely follow you even if you lose weight, and you’ll find yourself either an unhappy thin person or an unhappy person who regained the weight they previously lost."

My favorite poem, "Desiderata," ends with the line, "Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

If you are an emotional eater, I hope you can take this advice to heart and find it within yourself to break your attachments to food. There is much happiness to be found in this world, and it lasts longer than a piece of cake. You only have to look for it.

Are you an emotional eater? What struggles have you had? How did you overcome them?