Work in Progress
in Don't Feed the Animal
I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve known what to say.
I haven’t felt especially motivational, although I’ve come to realize that after suggesting in my last post that I needed help, the fact that I have gotten help is something to report. It may even get your body motivated to get some help if you need it, too.
After two seasons of fighting with emotional eating I felt lost enough to start seeing a therapist, who I’ve seen four or five times now. I wanted someone to help me answer questions like, Why do I keep eating when I’m not hungry? Why can’t I stop?
My therapist isn’t an eating disorder specialist (turns out these people are pretty hard to find) but she’s helping me address the problems and situations in my life that are causing me distress. Working on and changing, as much as possible, what’s causing my unhappiness is our goal. Figuring out better ways than eating to deal with stress is the next step.
I remain committed to exercising and although I’ve bagged the triathlon season this year because I’m just not feeling it, I’m running often and planning on some fall races. Food-wise, I’ve been kicking around ideas for drastic diets, including the ever-popular Paleo and Vegan nutrition lifestyles. Maybe then I’ll lose weight!
But now that I’m in therapy and am better at looking at the big picture, I know that for me, plans to revolutionize my eating habits are just other way of hiding from how I feel and focusing on food more than is healthy. So Instead I’m starting small: My current eating plan involves eating three square meals a day, picking fruit instead of sweets for a nightly dessert, and stopping all snacking. “Healthy snacking” is promoted constantly by nutriti, but for me, it leads to grazing and eventually plopping down in front of Google Reader or the television and pigging out. Drinking a cup of tea or some water between meals and reminding myself I’m only an hour or two away from a meal works better for my overall food intake than snacking.
So now I have someone to help me chart positive changes in my life and a reasonable approach to eating. It feels pretty good to have an expert to lean on and a plan.
Tags: emotional eating, therapy
July 29th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Oh man, I think therapy can be so great. It’s such a great way to attack our problems–good for you for being brave enough to do it. Not enough people are strong enough to seek this kind of help.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Kate, I’m seeing a therapist (who actually is an eating disorder specialist) for my emotional eating issues, too. She has me actively practicing some cognitive exercises to keep me from raiding the refrigerator when I’m not hungry (or doing other unhealthy impulsive things, like screaming at my boyfriend for leaving a sock in the living room). For me the question isn’t “Why do I keep eating?” It’s a much more broad, “Why do I keep doing things I know will yield undesireable results?”
But good for us for getting help. From reading your blog, I think you and I have in common that eating isn’t the disease; it’s a symptom of something much deeper.