The Two Biggest Reasons We Turn to Food and How IFS Can Help
I've been working with people who describe themselves as emotional eaters for over 20 years now. And most of the people I meet with have tried to follow the one piece of advice that every emotional eater is told to try: when you want to eat, just do something else.
Sigh. (And eye roll, to be honest.)
This advice isn't helpful. My guess is you've tried it yourself. And if it actually worked for you the majority of the time, please let me know because you're the first person I've ever met for who that's true!
No, this advice usually doesn't work. Why?
Because we all have more than one part that turns us to food.
So yes, maybe that piece of advice works for one of your parts, but it won't work for all of them. Because each part is triggered by something different and uses food for a different reason. And each part is going to need something different to do (or not do). A one-size-fits-all approach just isn't going to work.
Which is where the parts mapping exercise we talked about last week can come in handy. When you map out your parts, you get to meet all of the parts involved in your emotional eating, and you can begin to understand why they're doing what they're doing and how you can be helpful to them.
And if you did a parts mapping exercise, my guess is you would find out that many of your parts turn to food for one of two reasons:
To distract from emotions
To soothe/comfort/reward
Eating for distraction and for soothing/comfort are the two most common reasons that people turn to food. And they both make sense!
Food is a great way to distract ourselves--it's available, enjoyable, and delicious. It's a great thing to do in front of the television in order to forget about the day you just had.
Food is also a wonderful way to soothe and comfort ourselves. It not only physically comforts our system, it connects us to family, friends, and ancestors as well as to our culture. All of that is really magical.
On this week's podcast, we're continuing our discussion on parts mapping and why it's useful, and we're talking about how a one-size-fits-all approach to emotional eating just won't hack it. And of course, we're talking about parts! Take a listen!
And don’t forget to sign up for my FREE webinar series, “Finding Peace with Food and Your Body.” When you attend these three webinars, you will understand what emotions lead you to food, develop alternative coping skills, practice body kindness and respect, and begin your journey away from dieting. Head to https://bit.ly/eewebinarseries for more information and to register!
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