Most of us know that emotions push us to eat. But lets quickly lay out an emotional landscape, in specific eating situation, so our options of how to handle the situation are clearly seen.
You come home from a long day of work, it’s Thursday night, and you just ate leftovers from the day before. You're satisfied, not overstuffed, and stopping now would nail your hunger. But your “sweet tooth” is starting grow. You have a craving that won’t seem to go away.
So what do you do?
Here’s the first layer of Intuitive Eating options:
Option #1- You satisfy the craving mindlessly
You eat fast and in front of the TV. Before you know it, you’ve had the entire pint and are completely stuffed
Option #2- You satisfy the craving mindfully
You eat slowly and intentionally, getting every bit of satisfaction out of the dessert, and in most cases, you only need a few bites when you do this
But let's continue to play this out….
The craving comes back. Not every once in a while, but nearly every night. You eat till you’re satisfied, not full, but for some reason it’s just not enough. You continue to have this nagging sweet tooth, thats just seems difficult to satisfy.
Here is the second layer of intuitive eating options:
Option #1- You continue satisfying the craving mindfully and with food
On one hand, its satisfies a craving, but on the other hand it’s taking a toll on your desired weight
Option #2- You get curious and investigate a possible deeper emotion that food may not be able to address
Thats where things can potentially get difficult.
An option here is to adopt a framework, that Alcoholic’s Anonymous have used successful for over 50 years. You’ve probably heard of it, its called the Serenity Prayer. It goes like this:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Lets break it down:
“….Accept the things I cannot change..”
Is this emotion something I have to shift my mindset around?
“…Courage to change the things I can…”
Is this emotion need to be addressed by a change in a part of my life?
“…Wisdom to know the difference…”
This blends in with the Final take-away. One thing worth noting here is to realize wisdom is acquired. Like any skill that is practiced, it grows. The more times you get curious and investigate your emotions, the better you get at adopting solutions that validate your emotions in a healthy way.