by Coach Shana AlversonPat's article from yesterday inspired another mini-challenge for our fearless group of bloggers.
Pat is doing a great job getting a handle on her eating by bringing awareness into the picture. Awareness is what becomes necessary when our cravings have turned into compulsion and we begin to blindly reach for the nearest food-drug to calm our discomfort. That's exactly what addiction is; wounded souls trying to mask the fear of dealing with painful emotions with some soothing substance. As a person who's spent some time working the 12 steps, I know that the first one is admitting you have a problem. It's awareness. How can you begin to deal with addictions or compulsions when the behavior is automatic and you don't even realize what you've done until your belly is bloated and your head is spinning and the regret has begun to creep up?
For the rest of the week, I'd like to challenge all of us to catch ourselves numbing out our emotions with food. Then, admit it. This isn't a challenge to try and change the behavior... yet. Just for now, become aware of it and talk about it.
Next time you find yourself on the way to the kitchen and opening the fridge or the cupboard, take a moment to reflect.
"I'm reaching for the **insert craving here** and I'm not hungry. What the hell is going on? Am I stressed, lonely, sad, angry, bored, restless, overwhelmed, afraid?" Give the craving an emotion-name. For example: I'm not calling it a "bag of granola" anymore - it's now a "bag of boredom". If it's a bag of hunger, that's fine, too. The exercise is just to stop blindly reaching for food and uncover the reasons why.
Catch yourself, then admit it here.
Your experience and retelling will help someone else become aware, too.
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Note: The comment form has changed. Click on comments and then scroll to the bottom for the comment form.
13 comments:
Byron, I saw your post from late last night. You met today's challenge before it was even posted! Hope today is not quite so hectic.
You'll probably notice that the comment form looks different today. Google just released an enhanced comment feature, and I decided to try it. I like it better, but if it gives us any problems we can switch back to the old comment form.
How ironic your post tis morning! Just 15 minutes ago as I was making breakfast that experience happened to me! While my food was cooking I have got in the habit of grabbing a hand full of Eric's yummy granola, this morning I took a hand full looked at it and thought " I'm really not hungry for this, I do not need this, and put most of it back (sorry Eric!)" But this just goes to show how bad habits and mindless eating occur and with the thought process you have challenged us to Pat, we can try to nip those in the butt!
Good morning. I'm all confused with this new format. Looks easier now, but I couldn't find the comment box at first. I'm trying to post early because I'm not sure how busy I'll get later.
I am sooo sleepy this morning. Sleepy is not a good thing for me because I tend to want to eat sugar related foods to try and wake myself up. I know this and so I can avoid it today. I will only eat when hungry and will only eat the food in my lunch bag.
Anyhoo, I better get back to work. I will try and check back later. I miss you all.
Glad you all like the challenge! I've done this before and it can be pretty profound what you learn about yourself.
I once read that we eat to feed up two tanks, an emotional tank and a fuel tank. A good question to ask yourself is, "which tank am I trying to fill with this food right now?"
This morning I ate a muffin cup full of slightly hungry and didn't-know-what-else-to-do-while-waiting-for-my-coffee-companion.
Miki, I wonder if you are craving more carbs because you eat mostly carbs. Sounds like you need some protein in your breakfast to me. That might help curb the cravings.
I second that Pat. Miki, I think you probably need more protein throughout the day.
Just my two cents...
I guess one good and bad thing is that I have been so busy the past few days that Ir eally haven't had time to worry about eating a whole lot. However, that is bad for me because than I get so hungry that I want to eat something right now! Which means, I don't want to go home and prepare my own food and wait for it, I instead go somewhere and order food, and usually eat too much of it. NOw that I am back in the office, I can get back to my routine. I also really NEED to go grocery shopping so that I actually have food to prepare.
I thought I commented earlier but I guess it didn't go through...
Today's been a good eating day. With Paleo I don't seem to have many cravings, which is a new thing for me.
Sheryl, love the muffin cup of impatient/waiting. Excellent!
I've been gone all day long. Just got home. Tired. More later.
Pat, there might be a glitch. I posted something earlier too and it seemed to go through at the time, but apparently did not. Here's a new one:
I am (right now as I type) eating a Jamaican pastry of "I am not even enticed by what I'm eating at the moment, but my friend's mom just died and while he was in Brooklyn for the funeral he was so pleased (distraction technique I believe) to go to the well-known Jamaican bakery and send me some goodies and I better have eaten some before he calls tomorrow." I have no guilt; it's the right thing to do, but, c'mon. Can you believe all the reasons we eat?! And why did he go for food? He's putting a pastry on it and he wants me to indulge with him.
Sheryl, I think you win the day. You really got it as far as the challenge Shana issued...to name your food-emotion.
I'm going to try to do mine in hindsight since I've been away most of the day. This morning from 10-12:30 I was driving to Dearing, GA. That's out I-20 towards Augusta in the middle of nowhere. This is where McCorkle (the company I work for) grows it's plants...800 acre farm. I was in a planning meeting until about 6:30 then jumped in the truck and drove home. On the drive over, I ate a "I'm-hungry-and-I'll-be-bored-on-the-drive-scone" from Dancing Goats. I picked it up on my way out of town. For lunch I had some "I-don't-have-time for-a real-lunch-south-beach-bar". During the meeting I snacked on some "this-meeting-is-really-long-and-I'm-tired-almondsand 2 chocolate chip cookies." On the drive home I stopped for a "it's-been-a-long-day-and-I-deserve-it-payday-candy-bar." When I got back into town about 9pm, I picked up a "I'm-tired-and-it's-been-a-long-day-chic-filet-sandwich and brownie".
Ugh. Ugh! I don't want to report what happened today because it was an especially bad day. I feel a lot of regret. I wish I had made different choices. It's hard for me to admit what I did today; I'd rather let the challenge slide today and do it tomorrow when I'm sure I'll have a better day. If I don't admit what happened today, then it's sort of like it didn't happen. But it did happen, and that's the challenge...to be honest with myself about what I'm doing. ugh.
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