Those three little words, “I Need help!” may seem small and insignificant, but in reality, they can be the beginning of a whole new life. At least that’s what I found. Unfortunately, I had to find that out again just recently. So here’s the deal; I’ve made huge progress with my emotional eating. Sometimes, I’ve even been lulled into thinking emotional eating is a thing of the past for me but obviously, not so. I had about a three day period recently when several stressful things came together all at once and guess how I dealt with it? Yep, I fell right back into old negative thinking and eating patterns. You would think after finally “getting it” that there are better ways to handle life’s little stresses, that I could always just use one of those new strategies and go on about my happy-go-lucky way but that’s not what happened. I started feeling sorry for myself that things weren’t going the way I planned and I starting feeling depressed. All my positive thinking just wasn’t pulling me out of it and next thing you know, chocolate is landing in my mouth. And no, I’m not talking about a piece or two of high quality planned chocolate, I’m talking the old binge way of eating- standing in the utility room where no one will see me while I stuff piece after piece of chocolate in my mouth. And this didn’t just happen once, it happened several times over this three day period, and of course; I got more and more depressed.
Then, I simply said to my husband, ” I want chocolate. I’m not really hungry but I just want to eat.” Somehow in just admitting it out loud to someone else, I felt something shift. I was asking for help by just saying that. All of the sudden, I could remember that I had choices. That I didn’t have to stay stuck in this depressed, eating place. I remembered I had a whole toolbox of ways I could deal with what was going on. How could I have forgotten that for three days? (OK, truth be told, I halfheartedly tried to tap a few times but didn’t want to; I wanted to eat). But really, there are many choices such as: journaling, calling a friend, deep breathing, meditating, taking a bubble bath or of course, tapping.
I also remembered that my journey to heal my emotional eating had started by reaching out and asking for help on a private Facebook page that I was on at the time. It was that simple act of stepping out of the isolation, embarrassment and shame of emotional eating that started me on my path to healing. It might sound small but it took a great deal of courage to admit that I needed help and to reach out for it.
So, I have to ask. Is there something you need help with but are afraid to ask? Have you reached out? If emotional eating is the thing holding you back from living your dreams, it may be as simple as asking for help to start you on your own path. It’s not a quick, easy journey but it is SO worth the trip to learn more about yourself and to step out of your old stuck ways of life.
If I can help you in any way on your own journey, please let me know. I hope by being honest about my own struggles, it will be an inspiration to you and will help you to realize that perfection is never the goal; self-love and acceptance is.