Comfort Eating

I have several good friends who don't have full fledged eating disorders, but they do talk about eating for comfort. 

Movies and shows always have a broken hearted girl drowning her sorrows in a bowl of ice cream. 

Here is a quote from the TV show Gilmore Girls:

Lorelai: Listen, I've had my heart broken before. It's really hard. It's hard for everyone. So, can I give you a little advice?

Rory: OK.

Lorelai: Get back in your pajamas, got to bed, eat nothing but gallons of ice cream and tons of pizza. 

It is much easier to stuff yourself full of food and then focus on feeling full... than to focus on whatever feeling is causing you to over eat. 

Now it is normal to over eat when a food is particularly delicious. That is a normal part of eating. However, stuffing yourself full of food to cover up an emotion- that is disordered eating. 

Here is a quote from the wonderful book, Intuitive Eating....

"Food won't fix feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion as well as the discomfort over over/under eating." 

So rather than going into the kitchen out of EMOTIONS- get out your journal, call a friend, get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors, cuddle with your pet, talk to your boyfriend, read a book.... 

Remember- it is normal to overeat sometimes, but if you have a pattern of overeating, rather than dealing with your emotions... it will catch up to you and you'll end up with an abundance of overwhelming feelings.