What’s the Difference Between Emotional Eating, Mindful Eating & Intuitive Eating?
Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is a method of eating that moves us from bad emotional place/mood to a good place/mood. Food is seen as comfort, safety, an escape and fills emotional needs rather than physical needs
Questions you can ask yourself to identify if you are emotionally eating
Low/sad, stressed, frustrated, angry, lonely
Food has a hold over you?
Not physically hungry?
Past the point of feeling full?
if you occasionally use food as a pick me up or to boost your mood, this is absolutely normal. But if using food (especially nutritionally sparse or “fun” foods) instead of processing your emotions and regulating your nervous system is a regular occurrence for you then it may be time to take action in addressing your emotional needs.
Source: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/diets/emotional-eating.htm
Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is a practice of not only satisfying physical hunger with food, but of bringing both intention and attention to your food and the occasion of eating (staying present with a meal or snack)
Additionally your sensitivity to the food, how you feel eating it as well as how it is making your body feel whilst processing it is heightened, meaning you can more easily listen or feel how your body is responding to the food and are able to honour your fullness/stop when you’re satisfied (you have power over the food)
Intuitive Eating
is an evidence-based tried and tested approach that has shown unparalleled results in the quest for improved physical and mental health in the way we think about food/our bodies, how we eat and move, and how we feel holistically.
There are a few key thinkers in the field of intuitive eating, but this the official definition and main principles that come from Evelyn Tribole (MS, RDN, CEDRD-S) and Elsye Resch (MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, FAN-RD) who coined the term Intuitive Eating, founded intutiveeating.org and are the authors of ‘Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach which integrates instinct, emotional and rational thought, Intuitive Eating is a weight-inclusive, evidence based model with a validated assessment scale and over 140+ studies to date. With 10 defined principles it helps you regain trust with your body. It is applicable for every-BODY (shape, size, colour and medical disease)!*
Common causes of emotional eating
Stress
Eating over emotional instead of processing them
Boredom
Feeling lost
Loneliness
Old patterns/habits from childhood
Social influences
Trigger events
Helpful Tips on how to start divorcing
yourself from emotional eating
Identify your triggers: events/people/emotion; Keep a diary: every time you feel a binge coming, ask yourself what you’re feeling and WHY. Look back after 3-4 weeks to find the patterns
Shake Your Body: Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) help release cortisol (the stress hormone) and adrenaline that gets “stuck” in the body and needs to be let out
Reach out, call a friend/someone you trust ask for help
Hypnosis videos on YouTube
Start therapy: Learn how to process and regulate your emotions
Learn how to regulate your nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems work together to regulate breathing, heart rate and stress levels in the body
Ride the wave: the urge to binge can leave anywhere from 15 - 30 minutes. If your’e able, go and do something you love (walk, yoga, colouring, music etc) and see if the binge is still there after.
If you would like help beating disordered eating habits or binge eating in particular, I offer private therapy. If you are interested, click the button below to get started - I can’t wait to meet you!
