Eating and Cleaning

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone!

The weekend before last I spent the entire weekend either eating or

thinking about it. It was an awful weekend, partly because I was

feeling anxiety. My house was a mess and it was making me anxious, but

instead of cleaning I wanted to eat. So the house stayed messy and I

ate. No progress made there!

This past weekend, with awareness that clutter in my home causes

anxiety, I decided that we were all going to clean. And we did. And I

had a much better food weekend, eating when I was hungry. I did eat

without hunger last night, but not to a large extent.

This is a perfect example of eating to deal with emotions. I see it

very clearly now, and the good news is that I can change my behavior.

For the longest time I thought it was all about what and when I ate,

but really it isn't about food at all! I can now acknowledge that

clutter makes me nervous, and work in a non-dramatic way to avoid

clutter in the house and in turn avoid eating to quell anxiety. How on

earth did food get inserted into my cleaning routine, lol?? It seems

almost silly to write about, but I literally have been struggling with

this dynamic ever since I have lived away from my parents (I am 46).