I’ve recently taken in some new data, consistent with older scholarly research, client data, self-healing and intuitive understanding, that simply reminded me just how much people struggle with food!
Aside from the convenience of low-quality, HIGHLY processed, prepackaged and microwaved (which is NO LONGER molecularly food once is cooked or warmed in the microwave, but that is an entirely separate rant) food choices the mainstream so often use in their DAILY life, it is the addiction to EMOTIONS and the internal JUSTIFICATIONS that keep people eating to soothe themselves.
Research after research study of the brain and the psyche has revealed that FOOD does not and cannot ‘make’ you feel better. There is no chemistry. No instant neuroemdocrinal reaction
Therefore, when certain foods are REMOVED from your daily nutrition plan (AKA a DIET for those who need a ‘quick fix’ to a lifestyle of chronic poor nutritional behaviors/choices), there is little to no possibility that one will respond with anegative emotions
So WHY then do so many individuals link their emotional well-being and happiness to FOOD?
The answer: They are emotional addicts.
A ‘comfort food’ is basically any food, often from childhood but can also be from specific events or locations or experiences, that elicits a false sense of happiness or calming sensation within our moods. When we are emotionally ‘triggered’ (a word I use to show that we are in need of some deep healing and release of the past), we sprint to certain FOODS to FEEL BETTER.
comversely, there is a portion of the population who actually subconsciously boycott eating altogether when they hit specific emotional triggers, which is often more about control
The reality is that we are actually AVOIDING the need to heal our own deep emotional issues, expectations and distracting ourselves, even diverting these ‘feels’ through unhealthy practices.
This is the SAME behavior you see in alcoholics (people who drink alcoholic beverages to soothe or avoid emotions such as anxiety or a bad day), drug users, prescription pain medicine abusers and even gamblers, chronic shoppers and pornography addicts!
Your addiction, however, is two-fold: EMOTIONS and FOOD
Many times, when the truly unaware and uneducated individuals are looking to ‘lose weight’, they often get sucked into a vortex of MARKETING ploys designed to take your money based on FALSE claims and promises.
Overweight individuals who struggle with emotional issues and have somehow attached their own self-soothing behaviors to consumption are easy targets. They are lacking in varying degrees of self-worth, value and care, therefore they become an easy target for the industry.
Rant: if you actually PAY for a ‘diet’, powder or plan that guarantees your success or your money back but does NOT take into consideration YOUR age, lifestyle, weight, travel style, job, sleep patterns, activity, stressors and everything else that makes you YOU, you’ve been SUCKERED!
Diet plans that restrict an individual to low calories (1200-1600 per day), low activity, zero tolerance of any raw/clean food item or groups, small portions or limit one’s consumption of actual chewable foods for an extended time frame often create a nutritional depletion of the body and brain!
It is a personal platform for me from which to preach, however, I do not advocate nor to I jump on ANY trendy or latest/greatest diet plan, motion, potion or lotion! Why? Because they are all marketing scams designed to steal your money by capitalizing on your weakness towards self.
So then….the modern industry provides a fix to the very toxic side effect of nutrient depletion by dumping expensive ‘supplements’ down their throats, creating a greater issue with addiction!
Just imagine…..you consume some magical ‘B vitamin’ drops to offset starving your body of natural whole B vitamin rich foods but then, you are unable to get anymore. You FREAK out! At least most folks do. Swap out any supplement, enhancer or pre-workout blend for said B vitamin addiction and you have issues
My job? To UNDO this toxic mental process of addictive behaviors by reminding ALL individuals they are in control of their emotions, behaviors and choices 100% and there are ZERO magical fixes.
Look at the fitness industry subgroup of bodybuilding or fitness competitions. In spite of my personal opinion and the countless stories of how women’s bodies have completely boycotted them after they tortured them with these intense practices, I am FULLY AWARE these individuals are disproportionately using anabolic steroids to achieve the results they do. Not only do they take a pantry full of supplementation/juicing and practice intense rituals of borderline starvation, they become addicted to these practices!
And the physical, emotional and long-term side-effects and health impacts!!!!
Humans are hard wired in the subconscious mind to ACT and REACT to certain situations, without thinking about it or even being aware of it.
When ‘A’ happens, they respond with ‘B’!
Sometimes they have every superficial intention to change their reactions, but then when ‘A’ hits, they eventually go to ‘B’.
Because this is the human mind at work, the ONLY way to alter one’s addiction is to create NEW healthy responses (so as not to swap one addiction like smoking for another like eating) and behaviors, therefore rewiring our subconscious mind!
Individuals who have an addiction to emotions are often easily stressed out or triggered. Their ‘expectations’ of how others ‘should’ be are high and it creates a classic case of judgement. Expectations of how the kitchen ‘should’ be maintained, how family members ‘should’ act, even how young adults ‘should’ behave.
The stressed out individual will OFTEN justify their expectations of others and the situation, almost in a victim mindset. Once the ‘family’ doesn’t behave how they expect, the ‘boss’ doesn’t give them what they expect, the IRS doesn’t give what they expect, the ‘bank account’ doesn’t possess what they expect, they become SAD or DEPRESSED, or ANGRY, or ANXIOUS and turn to their justifications, excuses and addictions, often without thinking.
This is why a smoker struggles to quit. Not only is the CHEMICAL TOXIN in cigarettes and other tobacco products physically addictive, but there is a strong psychological component set well. They subconsciously link grabbing the cigarette to a ceremonial act of ‘de-stressing’. Their brain must be rewired.
Now, looking deeper into their pattern, how does one become aware of it or even change it?
Food addictions, especially due to the very likely attachment to the past, create a uniquely complex problem. Food is generally accepted as appropriate and even encouraged as a fix for emotional responses. Parents bake cookies to help their kiddos FEEL better. Depressed individuals turn to trigger foods like chips, cookies, donuts and even macaroni and cheese. Nostalgic or melancholy connections launch individuals down a path of eating specific candy or foods because ‘grandma’ use to make this.
I am not saying that a small portion of Mac-n-cheese doesn’t have its place ON OCCASION. However, people who are overweight or obese tend to use food to comfort their emotions because it is ‘food’, and generally accepted.
Combine the mental challenges of someone trying to LOSE weight due to an entire lifestyle of poor eating and nutritional self-sacrifice, who is using a ‘restrictive’ diet plan, who is addicted (unknowingly) to emotions, who has expectations of others (family, spouses, careers, finances, life) and who has a lot of unhealed emotional turmoil with a strong attachment to emotional eating (comfort foods), and you hold in your presence a collapsing human structure!
The most important way to HEAL this is to remember that comfort foods and emotional eating patterns are NOT what is making you FEEL better, but rather, a distraction or diversion from what you ARE TRULY FEELING.
You must align with your true FEELS, albeit frustration, sadness, unhealed past trauma or disappointment. Remember, how you FEEL (ie….stressed out because of family) is your OWN creation!
Feel the sadness and ask where does this come from? Am I sad because I am alone? Am I alone because I’m sad, negative, angry or have high expectations of others? Is this emotion really my own problem? How can I change this emotion by going inside of my own heart and providing myself with exactly what I NEED whether it is space, safety or just a sense of acceptance?
The answer will NOT be through addictive patterning.
Change your ‘go to’ responses by NOT using food or sugar (which elicits the same brain response as cocaine and heroin)! It’s not easy, but it is healthy and life-changing.
Release unconscious eating patterns or mindless picking at foods when done eating. Make sure every single bite you take has nourishment value AND is done out of HUNGER! This includes opening a package of crackers or eating the chips because they are on the table!
Stop linking food to pleasure, especially exclusively. It is not. Food is for nourishment. Find healthy hobbies to bring us happiness. When people attach to food to please themselves, they become emotionally depressed when they stop consuming it because THEY have created no other sources of happiness in their own lives!
We are responsible for our own happy!
People who emotionally eat are often haters of their own body. They speak of themselves in terms of being not good enough, or even self-hate. If they allow others to SHAME or humiliate them by speaking about certain body parts in negative ways, they contribute to the self-loathing emotional addiction.
We create our own existence, our own illnesses, our own long-term negative emotions and all of the illness and fallout we endure subsequently. No amount of mom’s Mac-n-cheese will ever restore that which you allow to grow like a cancer within the heart.
Negative emotional triggers such as frustration, sadness, anxiety, depression, anger, rage, loneliness, control, righteousness, sarchasm, victimization (poor me), attachment, irritation, low self-esteem, sudden mood alterations, self-loathing and self-deprivation are all linked to very specific areas within your soul, whether present, childhood or even past-life karma, in need of HEALING.
Heal yourself.
Two Tribes Primal Wellness for Men and Women 