Emotional Eating Blog Post
By Sarah Hunt
Have you ever gotten in the car to drive home, arrived home, and then realized that you can’t remember if you stopped at any of the traffic signals or stop signs? It happens, right? Now, have you ever been upset with someone or something that happened and sat down with a bag of something or a carton of something and then realized a bit later that everything is gone; that you actually ate everything? That happens too.
A whole lot of emotions + a whole lot of food + years of habits. It equals emotional eating and it doesn’t always look as clear as an empty bag or plate or container. There is an in between that can just look and feel like eating past being full or when you don’t want to or need to. It is a common experience that most of us can relate to. The question is what impact does it have on those emotions and what impact does it have on our health? These are exactly the questions that I’m coming to Dubai to discuss next month.
I began my journey to a healthy new me with yoga all the way back in 2007 in Vancouver, Canada and immediately began to realize the amazing possibilities. I attended many teaching workshops throughout this time and became a certified yoga instructor in 2009. I joined the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition the year after and became a Registered Holistic Nutritionist in 2010. Then I moved to London in 2011 and I have found that I love working with people in this area of the world.
Over these years I have realized that I love the simplicity of real food and gentle yoga, which together combine to form a holistic and healthy way of living for me. I enjoy sharing the benefits of these practices with others and that, too, is why I am coming to Dubai!
Something that is important to realize in this field of nutrition is that food is just food. Food only becomes troublesome when we attach all of our thoughts and behaviors to it. If you eat when you’re not hungry or eat past the point of being full, you’re using food as a drug. Without realizing, you create another problem rather than dealing with what is really going on whether it’s rejection, loneliness, boredom, loss, negativity or sadness. Pills and potions have been invented that result in weight loss. If weight and food were the only issues, there wouldn’t be any problems. Once you lose the weight, the feelings you’re trying to avoid will still be there.
Until you dig deeper, your sabotaging patterns and behaviors that cause the problems in the first place will still be at work. Through past conditioning and habitual beliefs from childhood, food can be a constant battle for us. I have recently been studying emotional eating and have been discovering how we can break free of the vicious cycle of dieting and compulsive binges. Through natural ways, we can reach our optimum weight, make food an enjoyable experience and discover our life’s purpose. I am grateful to have discovered holistic nutrition and I am excited to share this knowledge with you.
In the end this is a personal journey. All of our stories will be as individual as we are. Once you begin to inquire within, the healing process will begin and you can truly start to live your life, rather than be ruled by food. You will feel more connected to your authentic self as you deepen your mind-body relationship. When you stop focusing on diets, food and weight loss, a whole new world opens up. This is a journey that leads to feeling more alive and free, as we become more aware of all the beauty that life has to offer. Come join us this May to discover a great, healthy and new YOU!