Emotional Eating and Food Restricting

It’s not uncommon to reach for food from time-to-time to comfort ourselves or celebrate a win. In fact, we are often taught from infancy that food equals the comfort.

A baby cries and mama picks her up and gives her a bottle. The baby associates the comfort of mama’s arms with the food. This association is often carried throughout our lifetime. Or, perhaps sweets and treats were off-limits except for special occasion. We grow up finding that we need to reward ourselves every day just for “adulting” and soon we find we have a raging “sweet tooth”.

For others, anxiety and depression create nausea or loss of appetite. The very thought of eating something makes them feel ill. In fact, many people have severe stomach pain, cramps, constipation and/or diarrhea when they feel anxious or excited.

While these feelings and behaviors may not meet the criteria for eating disorders, they are a form of disordered eating.

If the way you relate to food seems to be dictated by your mood, you will likely benefit from meeting with an Intuitive Eating Therapist. 

Intuitive Eating principles help you to recognize your hunger and satiety cues, and with the help of an Intuitive Eating Therapist you can learn strategies and techniques to help you manage your anxiety or depression and their food-related behaviors.

If you struggle with emotional eating or food restricting, please reach out to us today for a Free 30-minute consultation.