It’s been pretty well documented that a lot of people are emotional eaters. In fact, I just got an email devotion about that very topic today. People try to fill the gap of sadness with food. Or the gap of boredom, being lonely, etc. And I probably fit into that more often than not, though I think I’m somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.
But there are others who are emotional non-eaters. Those, who because of some strong emotion, are simply not hungry. The thought of food sounds repulsive and the taste is like ash in their mouths.
Normally I do not fall into this category. Even when my mom passed away, this was not really the case for me. My husband is the one that has a tendency toward this kind of reaction with emotions & food. Often when he’s very stressed out (like having to drive a huge moving truck towing a car across several states), he will pass on meals until the stressful situation is over.
Again, this does not normally happen to me. But it did recently. I like to think I’m a fairly rational person, not given to such dramatic emotions at this point in my life. Apparently that’s not as much the case as I’d hoped.
Anyway, it’s a weird, awful feeling and I hope I don’t experience it regularly from here on out. And I’m sorry for those of you who do react this way on a continual basis. I will never again joke about how I’d rather have that reaction than the opposite, making it seem like you’d want to somehow feel this way in order to lose weight! It’s like constant butterflies, and not in a good way.
Oh, well. Just something new I experienced recently in the realm of food that I thought I’d share all my greatest fans out there.
What kind of emotional eater are you?
Cari - It depends on the type of stress. If it's a short term type of stress, such as wondering if the money or the month will last longer, I tend to eat. If it's something that could really have a dramatic effect on the rest of my life, I don't eat anything! When Rocky and I were engaged, the only thing I could eat was cottage cheese and canned peaches, and not very much of either! When we went through a traumatic situation with a church/job....I lost 13 pounds in 14 days, and about 35 by the time it was all over 4 months later! But right now I am stressing about the holidays and stuffing my face with chocolate dipped pretzels!
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