Looking Beyond the Food to the Message

I am always amazed by the things I can learn simply by paying attention to my urges to eat when I am not physically hungry. Over the years that I have followed (and not followed as well) the principles of intuitive eating (basically eat when hungry, stop when satisfied) I have learned a few things.

The first thing I learned was that I didn't have a weight problem because I lacked willpower or because I loved food and eating more than thinner people do. I learned that I had spent a lifetime chasing the wrong guidelines and applying my willpower to solutions from outside of myself rather than looking inside for the answers that are there and have been all along.

Somewhere along the way, I had another realization when I "woke up" with the refrigerator door open, and found myself looking inside for something to eat. After checking in with myself to see what I wanted to eat I realized that I didn't want to eat at all. I was not hungry.

As is often the case, the urge to eat when I am not physically hungry was an indication that there was something brewing that I was avoiding. I don't remember specifically what that thing was, but I do remember the realization that I had made a habit of using food to procrastinate...and that I used it often for that purpose.

Nowadays when I find myself looking for food when I am not physically hungry I ask myself what it is I am trying to avoid or put off. Once I ask myself the question, the answer is usually there...and I know...okay I am avoiding writing a rejection letter to an author whose book I am not going to publish. Once I know what I am trying to avoid I can remind myself that eating won't make the unhappy task go away...that I will still have it to face after I have overeaten...and I can gently direct myself to the task at hand, get it done, and move on with other more pleasant tasks.

I find that what is usually most important in stalling overeating for me is to interrupt the behavior. If I am looking for food and I am not really hungry, that is the time for me to stop and ask myself what is going on, what I am trying to avoid, and then once I know the answer I can attack the problem itself instead of trying to avoid it.