Motivational Monday: My Battle With Emotional Eating

Good morning! Happy Monday! Today, I am going to share a more personal post, one that is hard to express but I know someone out there needs this. I was reading a research article and learned that binge eating is taking over the country, that it is now being called an eating disorder. It boggles my mind but I know that I have been there. Stress brings about a roller coaster of emotions and actions that aren't necessarily good for you or your body.

For me my problems with emotional eating stemmed from college. I worked most days right after class and still had to go home and study. Most nights I missed dinner and relied on candy for simple sugar to give me energy. I would binge eat on candy and then not want to eat the next day for my poor decisions. Instead of refueling my body, I punished it and ate less. I would stress out about an exam and eat more. Then my cycle would continue and the next day I would eat less. I overcame this after college but it seemed like this was something that was still lingering.

Last year I endured a lot of stress. I went from being an emotional eater to not eating at all. I was stressed and upset a lot. I cried a lot. I was fighting daily to just find the motivation to participate in life. Instead of eating my feelings, I just didn't eat at all. This was awful for my body because finally I would eat and would consume enough calories for a couple days but nothing I was eating was quality fuel for my body to function.

For some reason, after a few months of this binge eat, not eat cycle I started to really fall into destructive nutritional tendencies. I would eat a lean cuisine for dinner and binge eat sugary snacks late at night because I was bored. At night is when I was left with my thoughts, and I would eat to make myself feel better. I never was snacking on anything of value. My grocery list was nonexistent and instead I got my variety from a different TV dinner each night and a variety of cookies and candy. I was eating to fill a void and quickly I put on weight.

At first, I didn't even notice how fast I was gaining weight. Then I was more than 10 pounds heavier. To some this may not seem like a lot but for my fit frame it was all fat. It put me in a bad place. I started to really judge myself, to stare at my body and put so much pressure on it to lose the weight fast. I worked out but was bored. I'd push myself hard but then would just snack. I worked out more
so I could cheat more. The weight didn't budge and I was cranky and tired all of the time. These choices really were adding up.

Finally, a break in the cycle, a true transformation started to happen when I joined a health and fitness group. At first, I didn't take it seriously and was still eating gummy bears before bed. But then I saw people really seeing positive change and I committed for 21 days and I lost the weight. I lost 10 inches and felt amazing. I had seriously awesome energy that lasted all day. I learned the importance of balance, of moderation and they ways you can still have your cake and eat it too.

Are you someone that struggles with binge eating? Do you want someone to help you kick your bad habits and move forward? Then message me and let's chat. I overcame some serious obstacles and you can too. Fill out my application for my next health and fitness group that starts on May 11th.

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