Principle 7 - Cope with Your Emotions Without Using Food

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Hi All,

This message is continuing with our weekly theme of a thread of

messages focusing on one of the ten principles outlined in the book

Intuitive Eating by Tribole and Resch. Please post and let us know

what you think about this week's topic. Perhaps you could quote a

small section that meant something special to you. If you haven't

read the book for a while, you might want to re-read this section.

Something new might jump out at you that you would like to share

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topic or other peoples comments about the topic.

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previous week's theme, that's okay too. You can go directly to that

message and then scroll down to the bottom of the page to see many of

the posts in that thread.

Principle 1 - " Rejecting the Diet mentality " started with message #

16826.

Principle 2 – " Honor Your Hunger " started with message # 17023.

Principle 3 – " Make Peace with Food " started with message # 17267.

Principle 4 – " Challenge the Food Police " started with message #

17462.

Principle 5 – " Respect Your Fullness " started with message # 17630.

Principle 6 – " Discover the Satisfaction Factor " started with

message # 17830

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This is a tough one. This coping with emotions means going through

some rather uncomfortable feelings. Before I started Intuitive Eating

I probably would have told you that I don't eat because of emotions,

but since starting IE I've learnt otherwise. Sometimes now I know I'm

not physically hungry, but I still want to eat.

At work boredom is a big trigger for me. I have a few tasks at work

that I have to do every month and I find it repetitive and a little

mind numbing. Lately I've realized I reach for food when doing these

tasks. I guess the food is simply a little sensory stimulation and a

distraction. It also allows me to get up from my desk and move around

a little.

The book talks about using food to sedate yourself and I know I do

this. The book says this can be an addictive behavior; this is not

surprising to me since I know I have addictive behaviors in other

areas of life. I go for the completely detached from life experience.

There are no feelings to experience in this state. But that is really

an awful way to go through life. Being zoned out and then having to

deal with the emotional hangover afterwards is no fun. I still do

this and I'm not sure how best to deal with it all the time, but for

the last couple weeks I've found myself buying smaller quantities of

sugar laden food than I usually do. So maybe something is changing in

the right direction.

Loneliness is also a big emotional stressor for me. I'm not real good

at connecting with other people, although I've learnt to be better at

it. When I was younger I pretty much burnt with loneliness all the

time. It had nothing to do with the physical proximity of people.

Bing in a crowded room can be the loneliest place of all. Over the

years I've gotten much better at connecting with people. A lot of it

had to do with learning and trusting to be more open. But I know

there are still times that when I feel lonely the first thing that

comes to mind is food.

I'm just starting to learn to cope with emotions without using food.

I'm grateful for this chapter in the book because if there is

anything about IE that would make me quit trying it is this. This is

also where this group becomes important. It is important to me to

know I'm not the only one that goes through these difficult things. I

should probably sit down and do the exercise of listing how using

food had hurt and helped. Sometimes it helps to see things on paper.

Sorry for such a long post, I guess this chapter really strikes a

chord with me.

Arnie

IEing since Aug 08