Why Do We Have an Emotional Connection with Food?
Our emotional connection with food can cause us to believe that it can do for us what it wasn’t designed to do. We use it to cope with the issues of life, the good and bad. Using food in this way gives it too much power over us!
As a Companion
We sometimes treat food as a companion. We’d rather run to food, than to a person, because it doesn’t have an opinion and can’t talk back to us. It’s always there when we need it, day or night.
It’s not healthy to substitute food in place of companionship. Connecting with people is so very important in living a well-balanced life. Sharing and relating to family, friends and being of service to others are ways to live a healthy lifestyle.
We need people to help us talk through life issues and to help us to understand different perspectives. Food can never substitute for human connection.
Using it as a Drug
Food can, temporarily, calm and sedate us when we don’t want to deal with issues. We may have said to ourselves at one time or another, “If I can just eat this box of chocolates, I’ll be ok.” Or, “This pizza will get me through whatever issue I’m dealing with.” We may not have verbalized it, but by our actions, we believed that to be true.
Using food as a drug, will certainly not make our issues go away. In fact, it multiplies them. Instead of dealing with the main issue(s), we also have to deal with the weight gain that comes from abusing food. If we eat a dozen donuts, will our issues cease to exist? We must deal with them eventually.
Diets
Diets can be deceptive because we can put so much trust and hope in diets to “fix” us. We get excited about going on a new diet and the prospect of losing all of our weight. In the beginning, we are enthusiastic and committed. However, as the days go by, our commitment disappears, and we’ve failed yet again.
We’ve all heard that diets don’t work. Well, it’s true! Diets are typically thought of as having a beginning and an end. So, that’s why the weight inevitably returns, because we stop eating the way the diet suggested. In order to lose weight and keep it off, we must choose a food plan that is balanced with fruits, vegetables, protein, and grains; and it must be a lifestyle.
The truth is, using food to cope with life issues is unhealthy and can lead to more than just weight gain. It can lead to conditions like diabetes, heart attack, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and much more.
But, there is hope! You can decide to do something different by being willing to surrender to a different way of eating. If you need help in doing that, please email me or go to my resource page and click on one of the links and ask for help.
Cynthia
