Unfortunately, it often works just the opposite. We turn to food when life gets tough, and we have feelings that we don't know what else to do with.
It's the easy thing to reach for.
A UCLA study of 17,000 dieters, most of them women, found that virtually ALL of them relapsed because of emotional eating.
Even when we figure out that it's ok to express feelings, we simply don't know how.
We also don't know how to ask for help . . . so we turn to food for comfort and self-soothing.
We do everything for everybody else -- FOOD is what we can give ourselves. (After all, we DESERVE it, as the logic goes).
A common refrain: "I eat for every feeling I've ever had."
It often just seems too HARD to manage feelings any other way.
It's not that it's hard, really . . . it's like anything else . . . it's just a matter of learning the right things.
But I won't lie to you . . . sorting things out emotionally, and being willing to feel your feelings DOES take a bit more effort than reaching for a carton of ice cream when the going gets rough.
The problem is, of course, it doesn't last. In fact, it only makes things worse in the long run.
So, it's your decision . . . resolve to learn what you need to learn to manage emotions.
