Ep 046: I'm convinced nothing will help me stop emotionally eating (with Ellen Shuman).

11/28/16 • 31 min

Are you someone who identifies with the emotional eating experience? Have you tried everything to work through emotional eating and bingeing, but still lean on food when things feel intolerable? Do the tools that everyone suggests to you to overcome these problems always seem to fall short? Listen now to get a new perspective and begin to find some relief from emotional eating.

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Key Points:

Sometimes we get convinced that nothing will work as good as food in allowing us to cope with our emotional issues.
How do we incorporate tools that just don't work with our lifestyle?
Eating for emotional comfort just doesn't make us happy in the long run!
Ellen Shuman, a therapist who does work specifically with people who struggle with emotional eating, joins us to help answer today's letter! She tells us about her journey to becoming involved in the eating disorder and emotional eating worlds.
"The Oprah Effect"
Ellen's "Emotional Handrails:" something to attach our mind to in order to tolerate the emotions long enough to figure out what is driving us to emotional eating.
It's not about food behavior, it's about being able to internally emotionally regulate!
"I've learned how to neutralize the things I'm saying to myself that really are distortions, and not really the truth." - Ellen
The whole point of eating emotionally is to be mindLESS, which is why mindFULL eating is such a hard goal for people who deal with emotional eating.
"First we learn how to tolerate our thoughts and feelings and to feel more empowered to manage those so [that] we're not so scared they're gonna overwhelm us." - Ellen
There are so many tools out there that work better!! It's about intervening BEFORE the food thought hits.
Conscious positive behavior replaces conscious negative behavior.
Ellen's "To Hell With it Switch:" that moment in which we abandon our promises to "do better" and instead engage in emotional eating to numb out.
What's the brain chemistry going on here?? What are the patterns of thinking that trigger our emotional eating?
Top brain (pre-frontal cortex) vs. bottom brain (primitive brain).
Use self-compassion and self-care to quiet your negative thoughts (middle-brain self-critical statements) that lead to emotional overeating!
"I am not my thoughts! Just 'cause I have a food thought doesn't mean I have to act on it." - Ellen
"Don't believe everything you think." - Dr. Wayne W Dyer
Ellen chats about her program, A Weigh Out which focuses on an end to emotional eating and weight obsession, her free phone seminar session, and the Weigh Out free 3-week membership.
If we work on the underlying issues and learn new tools to support our emotional management, then the food issues begin to resolve themselves.
Happiness and freedom from food obsession comes from being who we truly are, and working on our emotional coping tools.
You are WORTH putting in the effort and figuring this out. Stop blaming yourself... you haven't found the tools yet that work for you!
RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE!!

Show Notes:

Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus.
Marsha Lineham and DBT
Excuses Begone! by Dr. Wayne W Dyer
Free Phone Coach Seminar with Ellen
A Weigh Out
Ellen's free 3-week membership
Ellen's contact information: [email protected], (513) 321-4242
Eating Disorder Dietitians
Julie Dillon RD blog

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to [email protected].

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

Key Points:

Sometimes we get convinced that nothing will work as good as food in allowing us to cope with our emotional issues.
How do we incorporate tools that just don't work with our lifestyle?
Eating for emotional comfort just doesn't make us happy in the long run!
Ellen Shuman, a therapist who does work specifically with people who struggle with emotional eating, joins us to help answer today's letter! She tells us about her journey to becoming involved in the eating disorder and emotional eating worlds.
"The Oprah Effect"
Ellen's "Emotional Handrails:" something to attach our mind to in order to tolerate the emotions long enough to figure out what is driving us to emotional eating.
It's not about food behavior, it's about being able to internally emotionally regulate!
"I've learned how to neutralize the things I'm saying to myself that really are distortions, and not really the truth." - Ellen
The whole point of eating emotionally is to be mindLESS, which is why mindFULL eating is such a hard goal for people who deal with emotional eating.
"First we learn how to tolerate our thoughts and feelings and to feel more empowered to manage those so [that] we're not so scared they're gonna overwhelm us." - Ellen
There are so many tools out there that work better!! It's about intervening BEFORE the food thought hits.
Conscious positive behavior replaces conscious negative behavior.
Ellen's "To Hell With it Switch:" that moment in which we abandon our promises to "do better" and instead engage in emotional eating to numb out.
What's the brain chemistry going on here?? What are the patterns of thinking that trigger our emotional eating?
Top brain (pre-frontal cortex) vs. bottom brain (primitive brain).
Use self-compassion and self-care to quiet your negative thoughts (middle-brain self-critical statements) that lead to emotional overeating!
"I am not my thoughts! Just 'cause I have a food thought doesn't mean I have to act on it." - Ellen
"Don't believe everything you think." - Dr. Wayne W Dyer
Ellen chats about her program, A Weigh Out which focuses on an end to emotional eating and weight obsession, her free phone seminar session, and the Weigh Out free 3-week membership.
If we work on the underlying issues and learn new tools to support our emotional management, then the food issues begin to resolve themselves.
Happiness and freedom from food obsession comes from being who we truly are, and working on our emotional coping tools.
You are WORTH putting in the effort and figuring this out. Stop blaming yourself... you haven't found the tools yet that work for you!
RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE!!

Show Notes:

Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus.
Marsha Lineham and DBT
Excuses Begone! by Dr. Wayne W Dyer
Free Phone Coach Seminar with Ellen
A Weigh Out
Ellen's free 3-week membership
Ellen's contact information: [email protected], (513) 321-4242
Eating Disorder Dietitians
Julie Dillon RD blog

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to [email protected].

Previous Episode

Ep 045: Does Intuitive Eating really work with a chronic illness?

Do you have a health situation that makes intuitive eating difficult? Do you have doctors telling you that weight loss and cutting out certain food groups is required for your wellbeing? Do you just feel lost and want to help guide yourself toward food peace?? Listen now for some first steps on how to tackle it all.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

Key Points:

Reflections on the 2016 Election, the President-elect Donald Trump, and the fat phobia that has come along with his campaign.
The difficulty in choosing not to diet, and dealing with the pressures from outside sources to continue down that path.
Using food as a coping mechanism and a numbing agent for uncomfortable feelings.
The vulnerability and fear of being thin.
Coping with health issues, such as PCOS, while also dealing with a disordered relationship with food and your body.
PCOS: weight gain, hormone destabilization, fatigue... what do we do??
Does intuitive eating really work for PCOS?? Or does "healing" PCOS require weight loss, as so many doctors suggest?
The million dollar question: can someone work on intuitive eating (rather than dieting) AND manage their health with PCOS? HELL YES!
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: a genetic and environmental syndrome that affects someone's hormones, which leads to high insulin levels and insulin resistance. These high insulin levels lead to a high drive to eat, especially carbohydrates, which can lead to weight gain. Weight loss is often the primary treatment from most practitioners. This can make delving into intuitive eating difficult! Other sympotoms can include hair growth and male pattern baldness. These symptoms can have a huge negative impact on the body image of someone dealing with PCOS.
Self-care needs to be a priority for people with PCOS, especially getting enough sleep.
Those affected with PCOS can actually use the delicate balance of their bodies to delve deeply into intuitive eating! Take notice of energy levels and mood, rather than weight and even hunger cues (hunger cues can be super difficult to interpret with PCOS!).
Those with PCOS will probably need more protein than those without, especially at breakfast and before bed, to help with fatigue and appetite (but don't cut out carboydrates or fats!).
Focus on healing your body and your soul... Sometimes, it's not about the food!!
Sit with your vulnerability. (This is where therapy can come in handy! Therapists allow us the space to sit in that feeling.)
Put weight loss on the back burner and check in with your body... how does it feel today? What self-care did I do that worked for me today? This will help lead you to food peace and body peace.

Show Notes:

Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus.
PCOS and Food Peace tools
Eating Disorder Dietitians
Julie Dillon RD blog

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to [email protected].

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD.

This episode was sponsored by my friends at Green Mountain at Fox Run.
A special promotion for Love Food listeners:
VIP Upgrades at Green Mountain at Fox Run
On stays November 6 - December 17, 2016
Green Mountain at Fox Run is offering special upgrades for one+ week reservations through the end of the year. Receive a free room upgrade and $250 credit towards amenities and professional services.
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Next Episode

Ep 047: My family hates my body.

Have you worked really hard to stop hating your body but feel like your family keeps holding you back? Do you find yourself dealing with the food police within your own family, even after you've begun to make peace with food yourself? Do you have family that encourages fat shaming and diet culture, even when you feel like you're doing your best to rid yourself of the mindset?? Listen now as Julie tackles this family-oriented topic and introduces some solutions.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

Key Points:

What is the experience of finding peace with food while family members surrounding us stay stuck in the diet mentality?
Fat shaming can come from people we care about!
Setting our own boundaries is SUPER important in trying to protect your own recovery.
The world that we live in isn't one of body-positivity, HAES, and size acceptance. This means that when we pursue recovery, we are going against the vast majority of society, and sometimes that means our families. This makes the work harder to do, but it is that much more important!
Going against family dynamics is super hard, and when we actively follow our own path, it is common to feel pressure to go with the flow and back off of our own personal work in order to appease the family.
When we RECOGNIZE any emotion we are having, it automatically diffuses it and breaks its power.
How to beat body comparison: recognize the emotion, remove its power, and counteract with readily available responses of self-compassion.
How do we connect with our self-compassion?? We must actively find ways to support self-compassion for the moments in which we feel vulnerable.
Remember, our feelings and experiences are not going to last forever!!
Have some ready-made comebacks to assert your recovery, either by facing it head on or by changing the subject.
Surviving the Holidays and National Diet Month : #SoAnyway
How do we empower ourselves to connect to peace and health and feeling comfortable in our own skin?
When we provide new visuals for ourselves that are more size-diverse, it provides another option for our brains to think that OTHER kinds of bodies are beautiful too!
IT'S NOT OUR JOB TO FIX OUR FAMILY!
We should spend our energy on keeping ourselves safe, setting our own boundaries, and focusing on ensuring that we are providing the best modeling for our own family in terms of having a healthy relationship with food.
Embrace self-compassion, boundaries, and self-care.

Show Notes:

Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus.
Dear Virgie: How Do I Deal With My Mom's Fatphobia and Concern Trolling?, Wear Your Voice
Embrace, the documentary
Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family by Ellyn Satter
Eating Disorder Dietitians
Julie Dillon RD blog

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to [email protected].

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD.

This episode is sponsored by my friends at Green Mountain at Fox Run.
A special promotion for Love Food listeners:
Immerse yourself in a practice of mindfulness. Join Green Mountain at Fox Run for "Mindfulness for Women Who Struggle With Food and Body - A Meditative Retreat", designed to help you reduce stress, eat well, move joyfully, and guide the way toward ending eating and food struggles. For dates and registration information, please visit