Coloring Instead of Emotional Eating

Have you ever thought about why you eat the way you do?? Do you have emotional eating?? 

I did!! I had emotional eating for many years!! I tried to correct my crazy eating with diets, only to figure out that diets and restrictions made it all worse. The more I restricted certain foods the more I craved them. I would go into anxiety attacks until I ate. I used to eat rapidly stuffing myself as fast as I could. I had no idea during those years that I was using food to bury my past and my pain. I had no idea I was burying my emotions. Healing from food addictions and eating disorders has been a gradual process for me.  

Last year I decided to take a huge leap and quit dieting as diets were destroying my life. I spent all my time focused on my diet! And focused on what I hated about my body. Diets teach us to hate and reject ourselves!! 

In March of 2015 I was starting my diet again for the umpteenth time. Yes, I would lose some weight each time I did my diet but I would then gain it back because I wasn't really dealing with the roots behind all the crazy eating. In March of 2015 I started my diet and at the end of the first day I knew I could no longer do that to myself. I started looking for a better way. At that desperate time in my life I came across a book called "Love Yourself Lighter" by Suyin Nicols. A book that impacted my life hugely!! 

I started working to learn how to tune in to my body, to learn how to eat intuitively. All the sudden I had lots of time on my hands!! Time that the diets and extreme exercise had taken the years before. Now I had lots of time to pursue things I liked. This when I started drawing for the coloring books. 

During this phase of healing I had to learn how to deal with all the emotions that would surface when I chose not to eat emotionally. With only eating when I was hungry and refusing to stuff myself a lot of buried crap surfaced. What I was really doing was learning how to "tune in" instead of "tuning out". I soon learned that coloring helped me calm down. It helped me deal with all those emotions that were surfacing. And it helped me keep my goals of not eating when I wasn't hungry. It kept my focus away from food and eating and it helped me deal with my surfacing emotions and memories so that I no longer needed to bury it all with food and eating. 

In 6 months of choosing to not eat emotionally I lost 25 lbs.  The same I had lost on my diet the year before. Only this time I had done it with no restrictions and no extreme exercise!! I wasn't living miserable because of a extreme diet. I was living at peace because I was learning to listen (tune in) to my body. I was learning to eat what my body wanted and I was learning to deal with my buried emotions at the same time. 

I also want to let you know that I have been able to maintain my weight-loss. Everyday I choose to eat only when I am hungry and to stop before I am stuffed. Memories and emotions I had buried continue to surface but I am learning healthy positive ways of dealing with my past and my pain. Coloring is part of that. 

Coloring helps me relax, it helps me feel better.  By choosing to not eat emotionally I am allowing buried emotions and pain to surface and the coloring and drawing helps me in dealing with the emotions as they surface. 

I am at peace with food for the first time in my life!! Years of eating disorders and food addiction gone!!   

Instead of disconnecting with foods and eating, instead of numbing out with sugar I have learned to tune in and deal with my buried things in a healthy way. Once you let the buried pain and emotions surface they leave and you feel so much better and so much lighter. 

So instead of reaching for a second helping reach for your coloring!! Instead of reaching for extra foods to try to brighten your mood or make you feel better reach for your colors!!