in response to Barb's dilemma

June 19, 2009

....I've come to believe that if you're not eating for physical hunger, then you

are eating to soothe/ cope with emotions. (I don't know what other variable

would cause one to eat if not for 1 of these 2 reasons.) Simply " liking " food

did not get me to be uncomfortably overweight/ obese. Once I " got " that I DO

eat emotionally, I took time to " listen " to what I was thinking and feeling

prior to wanting to overeat. I started observing and noticing patterns of when I

would want to binge. It's not the " old feelings from a wounded childhood " that

I get conscious of, but feelings of self-doubt, FEAR that " something is going to

go wrong, that I'll make a mistake, fail that test, that I'm not a good

employee, person, that I'm not good enough/ strong enough and will be found

out " . SO, my belief is that the feelings likely ARE there for you- you just

have to slow down, pause, and start to notice them.

I picked up the book " Shrink Yourself " that has referred to on several

occasions. A huge " aha " moment for me was getting that there's a part of me

that absolutely loves being a " victim " to life. Powerless, no responsibility, " I

can't change things. " , " I can't do anything about this. " , etc. How much easier

is it to believe these things! Then I can just sit and binge my way into

oblivion. Hide out like a bear in the winter. VERSUS, admitting that I CAN do

something about this. That I might be scared and I might not be perfect, but

that I'm not powerless. In fact, I have incredible power! But with power and

action comes the potential, dreaded MISTAKE or FAILURE. This is what I figured

out for me. Maybe someone out there will also resonate with it.

Good luck finding/ discovering your internal world Barbara. It's fascinating

stuff...why we do things, what we're thinking behind our actions, etc.

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