Below is an interview I had with a local fellow fitness trainer and mom. When I first met her, the first thing I noticed was her enviable toned figure, radiant hair and skin, and a smile like sunshine. By the looks of it, you could never tell that Shannan ever struggled with emotional/compulsive eating. When she opened up to me first about what she struggled with (emotional eating), I knew it was something I wanted to share with my own clients and friends.
Remember, eating disorders aren’t always as black and white as having anorexia or bulimia. According to an article in the World of Psychology, currently 80 percent of women in the U.S. are dissatisfied with their appearance. And more than 10 million are suffering from eating disorders. And even while “normal” eaters experience occasional emotional eating episodes (e.g., Thanksgiving when we all stuff ourselves because it’s tradition, releiving stress with a bottle of champagne, or rewarding your hard work with a slice of pie), a normal eater thinks nothing more of the event. On the other hand, a truly emotional eater will feel a whole host of emotions tied to their eating experiences, and uses food to feed a feeling, rather than physical hunger.
In Shannan’s story, emotional eating led her to gain 30 lbs. However, through the steps she took to address her emotional eating, she was able to lose the 30 lbs and has kept it off for 3 years now. You can see her before and after pictures on her website, listed below.
Question 1: When I first met you, there’s no way I would have guessed you ever had an emotional eating issue. Your body is slammin’! When did you first recognize you had a problem with emotional eating?
Shannan: Thanks Sumi. The outer evidence showed up after college when I got my first desk job and I gained 30 pounds, was wearing my aunt’s size 16 pants, and hated being in my body.
As if that wasn’t’ enough to snap me out of it, I really realized I had a problem when I ate a whole pint of ice cream and wanted to throw up just so my stomach would stop hurting. The pain of waiting it out gave me time to think about what I had just done and what I wanted to do about it.
Question 2: Did you ever follow a diet?
Shannan: No, for some reason I never did jump on fad diets or follow any trends. At one point I did follow a low fat diet and really watched and limited my fat intake. That worked really well for me until some major life events occurred and I eventually maxed out my coping abilities.
That’s when I turned to food.
It wasn’t until after I graduated from college and no longer had the drive and distraction of making A’s and the Dean’s list that it all came crashing down on me. I had stuffed a lot of emotion by focusing on being driven, productive, smart, and successful. I know a lot of women who pull up their boot straps, put on their fighter pants, and get the job done all while neglecting their own emotional needs and self-care. And we think a diet’s gonna solve the problem.
Question 3: Tell me about how you took the steps to normalize your eating?
Shannan: Shortly after I realized that I couldn’t get this food thing figured out on my own I “happened” to see a seminar in a local magazine called Intuitive Eating, based on the book Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I devoured the book and it changed my life.
I also signed up for the weekly group coaching sessions. The biggest help was being able to process and talk about what I was going through with someone who understood the way my brain was wired at the time and who would not judge me for my stubborn or seemingly ridiculous thoughts and behaviors. It was the “awakening” along with the support I needed.
Prior to the coaching group I knew I felt uncomfortable around food and people. I knew that I had gained too much weight. I knew that I ate crappy food and that I ate way too much at meal times. I knew that my eating habits and lack of movement were making me miserable on so many levels, but I had no clue why I was doing it or how to stop.
I started really looking at my thoughts and behaviors and slowly changing them for new ones. Even though I was now aware of my thought processes and reasons for making poor food choices and eating way to much, I wasn’t consistently able to change it. I’m an emotional eater so I eat to sooth my feelings. I had to learn to recognize my triggers and how to deal with my feelings without using food.
Question 4: What do you use to track your success, other than the scale, dress size, etc?
Shannan: In the book Intuitive Eating, they introduce a tool called the hunger scale. It’s a scale from 0-10 that helps you rate your hunger and fullness based on how you feel physically. Most people with unwanted weight gain and food struggles have completely lost touch with their natural hunger and satiation cues. We often have an ongoing dialog in our minds questioning if we are really hungry or full.
Overeaters tend to keep eating “just in case”. The worst thing in the world is to feel like we did not get enough. So we keep eating until we just can’t eat anymore. That way we know we’re “satisfied”.
Under eaters will wait as long as possible to eat to make sure they are really hungry and then eat just enough to make the hunger pangs go away to insure they don’t eat too much. I’ve been all over the map with my eating habits.
Now I check in with how I feel before, during, and after I eat. I do check my weight once a week to make sure I’m not in denial and I pay attention when my pants start getting too snug. I really have to check in and pay attention to what I’m eating and why.
By now I’ve identified my trigger foods and my trigger emotions so it’s a lot easier to change my behavior than it was in the beginning. I lost the 30 pounds in 6 months and I’ve kept it off, for the most part, for 3 years. I will never get it perfect and I’m OK with that. I love my body, I love the way I look and the way I feel, and that is the greatest measure of success.
Question 5: Can you share 5 simple tips to help others who might have this problem?
Shannan:
I have found there are 5 essential ingredients to overcoming emotional overeating:
1. Be willing to admit to yourself when you are eating for comfort
2. Identify the feeling you are trying to “stuff” or avoid
3. Create alternative ways to deal with your feelings, like actually feeling them
4. Refuse to judge yourself no matter what – self judgment is what feeds the cycle!
5. Get help and find support. You are not alone!
Question 6: And I can’t leave without asking you if exercise played any role in your eating? .
Shannan: Yes. I often refer to myself as a former exercise resistant compulsive over eater. I hated exercise and I loved to eat, bad combination. In the beginning I lost weight just by practicing the Intuitive Eating principles. But it wasn’t until I started moving consistently that my body composition completely changed. I not only lost fat but gained muscle, got more toned, had more energy, and could even lift my 8 year old daughter up to do a flip in the pool! I’m not only thin, I’m toned, fit, and strong – diet only can’t create that.
Question 7: Do you feel like you’re “cured”?
Shannan: I really don’t even know what that word means. I do know that my whole life has changed just because I let go of using food as my safe haven. I went from being 30 pounds overweight, self-conscious, insecure, and depressed to loving my body, actively playing with my daughter, enjoying sex with my husband, starting my own business, and wearing a bikini at 43 years old!
I no longer consider myself a compulsive over eater, however, at times I’m still triggered by emotions and tempted to escape through food. I just think it’s a part of my life. The difference is today I own my power and I make choices that serve my body and my soul. More than making peace with food, I’ve learned to make peace with myself and that’s more than a cure, it’s a miracle.
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You can reach Shannan Carrozza on www.WalkLiveAustin.com. She offers a free 20 minute coaching call for anyone who thinks they might benefit from having someone to talk to and support them through any life change they are ready to make.
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