Eating with No Hunger

Do you experience  eating with no hunger? If so, this is a sign that you’re following emotional cues rather than body cues for physical hunger. When you eat this way, you will never be satisfied because you were not in need of food to begin with.

When you eat emotionally, the craving comes on faster than the slow build-up of true hunger. When done eating you will often feel guilt, shame, remorse, or some other feeling that indicates you regret doing what you did. You will probably find that you ate mindlessly, without paying any attention to the food or how much of it you ate. Before you knew it, a bag of chips or a pint of ice cream was gone.

However, it’s easier said than done to stop this habit. Step One is to become aware of what’s happening. You can stop and do a little inner exploration when you have this feeling. Write down all the emotions that are coming up for you. This is important, because when you crave food and eat you are often moving further and further away from feeling your feelings. Then no learning takes place and the same behavior keeps being repeated over and over.

Often people are afraid to feel their emotions. It has a bad connotation, especially if the emotion/feeling  is a negative one like anger, frustration, loneliness, sadness, or boredom. However, I find that my clients’ reticence goes away when they simple observe without judgement. Then the emotions are no big deal anymore. When emotions are studied, you will find that they come and go. None last forever.

We have been programmed in our society to buck up and deal with things. So the above approach goes counter to what we have been taught. Consciously or unconsciously we feel selfish and weak when we spend time going within.

I invite you to go in this new direction. You will learn a lot, feel more empowered, and start getting a handle on the inner dynamic that drives you to repeat the same pattern even though you consciously do everything you can to stop this out-of-control eating. Here’s your signal that this inner approach will work: When part of you wants more than anything to lose weight and have a good relationship with food, BUT another part wants you to indulge just one more time. The only way out of the maze is to see what emotions and feelings are triggering the unwanted eating. Once you have this figured out, a chunk of the battle is won.

Learn more about what triggers you.