Pure Food Life

Emotional Eating: A Sensory Indulgence

Emotional eating and binging is in a small sense, about indulgence.  On the very surface of reasons why women over eat, binge, or purge sits the urge to satisfy an unwelcomed indulgence.  Many women who eat certain things decide that they do not deserve or should not eat a particular food before they even reach for the first bite.  Subconsciously women are always taught to be modest.  The social messages that women are sent from a young age is that it is better to refrain than it is to take part.  Women are silently told not to reward themselves with gratifying pleasures that seem unnecessary or selfish.  Such as excessive shopping, speaking, and of course: eating.

Therefore, the guilt that women associate with eating indulgent foods runs deep.  Also, since women already decide that the food that they are desiring/eating reflects negatively on them, weather it be due to a lack of self control or as a few extra pounds on their thighs.  They are likely to have a negative attitude about the food.

We have all done things out of guilt and shame, things that we knew were wrong.  If women think about how we go about doing these things it will give them a lot of insight about how they go about “blindly” indulging in forbidden foods.  When we do something that we know is wrong, we generally do it quickly, as quietly as possible, and as sneakily.  We don’t want any one to see the evidence of what we have done. So, as soon as the dirty deed is complete, we hide the evidence as quickly as possible!  This same kind of thought pattern and preemptive planning occurs during emotional eating.  A woman will sneakily creep down into the kitchen or where ever the food is hidden, when no one is around to see them.  Then they will eat that food quickly, often not even enjoying the taste once past the third bite.  In their haste they may be more likely to eat more than they plan to out of their guilt.  Certain women may think that once they have “failed,” and succumbed to their craving that they might as well, “go all the way.” Once the eating has stopped and the dirty deed has been completed, it is time to get rid of the evidence.  Women go about  “disposing of the evidence” in many ways, from skipping following meals, purging, exercising, etc.

The lasting problem here is that once the deed is done, the feelings behind them are not dead.  Women will feel a hole where that food was supposed to go.  The problem is that the food could not fill that hole because it was not put there respectfully, and the food is not always the problem.  This hole does not close on it’s own, and so out of impulsive haste women try to fill it again with yet another forbidden indulgence.

While indulgence is something that we all deserve, we should not feel guilty about it.  Getting back to the above topic, eating is a type of sensory indulgence.  But since it is guilty by association, women abuse it and do not allow themselves to enjoy their indulgences fully, and therefore; end up punishing themselves for it later.  This is why when someone is prone to eat under a negative pretext, she should look for another way to indulge.  Eating is a sensory indulgence which means that she needs some kind of mental stimulation.  What women don’t realize is that they can receive this stimulation by stimulating their other senses.  While this is hard and most forms of pleasurable activities don’t seem as rewarding as eating cake, in the end they are.  Therefore, instead concentrating on only taste, remember that there are still four other senses that deserve attention!   For instance, one could listen to music, take a bath, burn incense, watch TV, read a book, etc., or do a bunch of these things at once!  The idea of deflecting the desire to binge and participating in another activity is this…

We all deserve pleasurable indulgences, but we should not have to feel guilty about them.  This is why if women can do something that they enjoy as a reward that they can feel good about, they will be less likely to over eat during mealtime (or in between).  A girl may be pleasantly surprised to see that she ate much less of that chocolate bar after watching a nice movie and taking a bath.   This is because it takes the guilty out of the guilty pleasure, and in turn, eases the process of emotional eating.