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Do You Turn to Food When You’re In a Transition?

– Posted in: embracing emotions emotional eating greiving identifying emotions and needs Late night eating loneliness and overeating losses and disappointments Making lifestyle changes motivation to change habits overeating, dieting, weight loss overwhelm procrastination reducing stress resolving emotional eating self connection self-defeating thinking stress and overeating stress eating transitions unrealistic expectations

The Random House College Dictionary defines a transition as "a change from one position, state, stage, subject or concept to another." Many emotional eaters have difficulty with transitions and turn to food as a way to comfort and soothe themselves during the transition process. Here are some examples of what I call "transition eating": --You

Are You Eating Over Unmet Expectations?

– Posted in: adjusting expectations depression emotional eating greiving hopelessness identifying emotions and needs Late night eating loneliness and overeating losses and disappointments Making lifestyle changes overeating, dieting, weight loss personalizing procrastination resolving emotional eating self connection self-worth stress and overeating stress eating unrealistic expectations weight loss

Jackie baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies after spending Saturday afternoon with her close friend Carol. The time spent with Carol did not feel nourishing.  The two dishes of ice cream and the plate of hot, freshly baked cookies did. Just baking the cookies felt more nurturing than spending time with Carol. Jackie was

Do you feel worthy of self-love?

– Posted in: adjusting expectations compassion depression emotional eating forgiveness gratitude greiving overeating, dieting, weight loss perfectionism resolving emotional eating self-acceptance self-love self-worth weight loss worthiness

We've all heard it said that you can't love anyone else until you love yourself. And although we know there's truth to this old adage, most of us persist in looking for love outside of ourselves, often in all the wrong places. In one of my emotional eating groups this week, we discussed the concept

Are you eating to rebel against someone or something?

– Posted in: disappointment emotional eating forgiveness greiving grieving hurts losses and disappointments old pain overeating, dieting, weight loss painful childhood memories rebellion resentments resolving emotional eating unmourned losses

Do you find that you sometimes grab food (and eat even though you're not hungry) because you're angry at someone or about something?  Or maybe because you're resenting some situation and feeling powerless to change it? You're mad or frustrated at these times and you certainly need something. In the moment, the food tastes good, calms you down and

Loneliness and emotional eating–Part I

– Posted in: adjusting expectations depression despair emotional eating greiving loneliness and overeating overeating, dieting, weight loss stress and overeating stress eating weight loss

My client Alexis (name-changed), a forty-four year old web designer, has been single her entire life.  Without partner or child, she often feels invisible at social gatherings filled with couples and families.  Her parents passed away in the last few years and as an only child without much extended family, she often feels a painful, overwhelming and

The emotional eater’s expectations: are they realistic?

– Posted in: adjusting expectations depression emotional eating greiving hurts losses and disappointments old pain old pain overeating, dieting, weight loss reducing stress stress and overeating stress eating unmourned losses wounds from childhood

After spending Saturday afternoon with a close friend, Jackie came home and baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  The time spent with her friend Carol did not feel nourishing.  The two dishes of ice cream and the plate of hot, fresh baked cookies did. Just baking the cookies felt more nourishing than spending time with Carol. Jackie knew that an afternoon with Carol meant

Hope is everything

– Posted in: dieting emotional eating flexibility greiving grief grieving hurts losses and disappointments losses and disappointments old pain old pain overeating, dieting, weight loss painful childhood memories reducing stress stress and overeating stress eating trauma Uncategorized unmourned losses unmourned losses weight loss wounds from childhood

The Random House College Dictionary defines hope as "the feeling that what is desired is also possible or that events may turn out for the best."   It's certainly easy to have hope when everything is going your way--you just landed a great job, met the man/woman of your dreams, lost a lot of weight or won the lottery. 

Are losses and disappointments sending you to the refrigerator?

– Posted in: emotional eating greiving hurts losses and disappointments old pain overeating, dieting, weight loss painful childhood memories reducing stress unmourned losses weight loss wounds from childhood

Most of us don't like to spend much time thinking about our losses and disappointments or painful childhood experiences.  Yet, without much effort, they are brought to the forefront of our minds when something in our environment triggers thoughts of them.  We see a happy couple and  think  "Oh, yeah, I had a loving relationship with Jack,