What is That Canary Doing Here?

Do you find yourself using food as a reward when you’re happy, craving crunchy things when stressed and yearning for sweets when you’re tired? Don’t worry—you’re not alone! This week, Karen will help define and identify emotional eating and strategies for managing it.

Emotional eating has a reputation. Relying on food for comfort is not inherently bad or wrong. And if you start to feel guilty for eating in response to emotions, this only is creating more negative feelings! But if food and eating are your primary emotional coping mechanism – when your first impulse is to open the fridge or cupboard when you are stressed or sad, two things can happen: 

1. You find yourself stuck in a cycle where the real emotion or feeling is never addressed.
2. You learn to connect uncomfortable emotions with eating and create a habit loop that can be tough to break.

Emotions can’t be fixed with food. Eating may feel good in the moment, but the underlying feelings and emotions are still there, just hanging out until the next time. Think of emotional eating as a "canary in a coal mine"; a signal that, somewhere, your needs are not being met. Is there restriction in other areas of your life? Maybe it's sleep, social connection, fun, self-care or downtime (to name a few) - and these restrictions trigger strong emotions. Are you stuffing down those emotions or needs with food? A practice could be to give your emotions and daily needs the attention they deserve.

Once you can sit with these emotions and give them attention, you can learn from them, move on and not spend so much energy and control suppressing them.

Here’s a practical strategy: keep a feelings journal or a similar mode of emotional awareness. 

1. In this journal, note what the emotion is that you are feeling. Do you sense it physically – like in your head, neck or shoulders? Identify as much as you can.

2. Ask yourself, "What triggered me to feel this way? What can I do to address that?"

3. Realize that the emotion, no matter how overwhelming, WILL PASS.

4. Don’t deny the emotion or assign it moral value. Recognize and validate it. And realize that you are not the emotion – it is not defining you as a person.

This all takes practice – and it will be an ongoing practice. But if you give yourself the space to try (and try again), these ideas can help you re-engage with your internal strength and manage emotions without always choosing food first.