Some years ago, I worked in a challenging job as a hospital health educator. During that time, nearly every afternoon I would get an intense craving for a cookie.
So on my break, I’d walk to a nearby bakery and buy a couple of chewy oatmeal raisin cookies.
It bothered me that I couldn’t break this habit. But no matter how hard I tried to resist, those cookies would occupy my thoughts until I got out to the bakery for my “fix.” [Read more…]
Today, I’m sharing my personal story about emotional eating.
It’s not easy for me to do this because it reminds me of sadness in my life that never goes away completely. But as a way to help you understand emotional eating, I’m opening my heart to show you my own struggles toward a healthier relationship with food.
My journey began after nine years of silence, a time in which I never spoke of my personal pain, and instead used food to push my feelings far away. [Read more…]
Don was not making any progress with losing weight. It seemed that food always filled in for what was missing in his life.
He told me, “On Friday night, I planned to go to a movie, but when I got to the theater, the show was sold out. So I stopped at the video store on the way home and rented a movie instead.
It turned out to be horrible– not the slightest bit entertaining or enjoyable. But the evening wasn’t a total loss. I had my pint of Häagen-Dazs, so that became my fun.” [Read more…]
It starts innocently enough.
You open a box of Girl Scout cookies, planning to eat just a couple. An hour later, you realize you’ve finished off half the box.
Or perhaps at a party, you reach into a bowl of peanuts or M&M’s and quickly lose track of how many times you grab another handful. [Read more…]
On the way home from work, Kathy stopped to visit her mother.
She’d planned to stay only a few minutes, but then she noticed the plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
They smelled wonderful!
“I’ll have just one,” she thought. And she did. It tasted so good that soon she reached for another, then several more. [Read more…]