3 Steps to Build Your Own Emotional Eating Rescue Kit

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3 Steps to Build Your Own Emotional Eating Rescue Kit

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 03, 2009 | POSTED BY MICHELLE

Emotional Eating can get triggered at any time of day or night. You get an upsetting phone call, text or email and suddenly you’re starving. You’re out to dinner with friends and you feel left out of the conversation and dessert immediately seems like the perfect escape. Your husband and kids have gone to bed and you want some special time all to yourself but don’t know what would feel rewarding besides a few stolen cookies and a handful of chips. Emotional eating is using food to numb, comfort or reward one’s self. It is using food, not just as nutrition but also as a coping mechanism for life.

Therefore the answer is both simple and difficult. It’s simple because if you deal with your feelings head on, you won’t need food to help you along. It’s difficult because dealing with feelings head on can be frightening and overwhelming, particularly when you don’t yet have the skills to do so which is what makes the quick fix of food so enticing.

To begin to face your feelings you can build yourself an Emotional Eating Rescue Kit. This is something that you can have fun with. Just follow these three simple steps:

Step One: Identify Your Top Three Emotions That Trigger Emotional Eating

For a few weeks take the time to observe yourself. Notice which emotions send you to the drive thru lane of your nearest fast food joint. Look for the times of day that you overeat. Some people binge in the afternoon and others do so at night. Look for places where you overeat for instance in restaurants, at family gatherings, at work, or at home. Does anger, sadness, loneliness, or boredom make you most hungry? You can keep a journal or calendar until you notice some regular patterns. When you do, pick the top three feelings, times, or places that you emotionally eat.

Step Two: Build Your Rescue Kit

Get a shoebox or a big manila envelope. You can use a drawer in your night table or even the glove compartment of your car. Collect things that address the feelings that trigger you to eat. You can put inspirational writings in your kit, passages from a spiritual book, or aromatherapy, or a CD with songs that shift your mood. You can put the phone number of a friend who will hear you out. You can put pictures or images that soothe you. You can put anything in there that will help remind you to address the real feeling instead of trying to eat it away.

Step Three: Use Your Rescue Kit

Your rescue kit will only work if you use it. Practice using your kit. Develop it so that it really does address the feelings that trigger episodes of emotional eating. Don’t be afraid to use trial and error. This is about getting better and better at attending to your real needs. You can even create a pocket sized rescue kit that you keep in your purse or in your desk at work. When your emotions trigger you to eat, you can always excuse yourself, go to the restroom with your rescue kit and keep yourself present to what’s really going on for you.

Remember when you eat, you abandon yourself. By eating you don’t address your real needs, hurts, and concerns. As a result many people report feeling stuck in their lives. But when you begin to address your true feelings your life starts to propel forward. If you’re a Shrink Yourself member you have already learned to look for the underlying feeling behind the urge to binge or overeat. You may even use the Hunger Coach regularly (This is a specially designed program that you use on your computer or phone to help you understand a craving in the moment when you have it). However, there are going to be times when getting to the computer isn’t always an option. When the power is out, or your internet is down, or you’re traveling in a third world country you can still take steps to slow down, stay aware, and hold your own hand through your feelings, without the escape that food provides.

22 Comments In the order they were posted.

hopeful2010 said...

Today I am worried, I am going to my niece's grad party. There will be alot of people there, and I tend to overeat in big crowds. There will be lots of food, I don't want to over eat, but when I am in crowds, I don't want to make conversation, and so I tend to hang out by the food and eat. Today I want to stay away from the food and only eat when I am hungry and to satisfy my hunger only. I can't control what they have there, but I can control what and how much I eat. I hope I have this planted in my mind.

dyna said...

This is a great idea...a rescue kit. I am getting started on making one for me to use at work, where the stress drives me to eat from the candy dish and one for home where my bad times are from the time I get home from work about 6pm til I go to bed. Literally sometimes my dinners last for hours it seems, until I am so sluggish I just go to bed. However today is the last day for session 1 workbook and I have had tiny binges a couple times, but no big energy sucking binges since starting this program. I will work this program.

tinkerbell said...

I have also discovered a few binge moments, actually times and have had to evaluate them. This is good. I feel better when I am in control of proper eating. when I choose to or not.

amb317 said...

I like this idea a lot, the rescue kit I make needs to be kept in my car because I become overwhelmed while working field sales as a result of an interaction with a customer or a broadcast voice mail message from work. I hope the rescue kit will prevent me from seeking out fast food restaurants or massive amounts of sweets from the local drugstore unfortunately CVS has EVERYTHING I love, salty chips, chocolate cookies, lemon cookies, candy, etc. Also, I think having aromatherapy nearby and convenient will be especially helpful.

maria said...

Not emotionally eating has been very, very difficult b/c I am dealing with these feelings that have no solutions, and problematic situations that cannot be fixed. A rescue kit implies that there IS a solution, a fix, something to help make the situation better. I face a lot. I have two brain tumors, which mean a lot of pain, and a lot of fighting with insurance companies. My little boy has problems with making friends, and I can't help, although I try. I help care for my handicapped mother and my father who had two kinds of cancer. There's no rescue kit in the world that would fix any of these problems. No CD, no inspirational reading, nothing will make the problems go away. Food helps numb the pain for a little while, and I can eat while dealing with the problem, rather than having to escape the situation and take a bubble bath or exercise or something like that. There's not always time to take time away, if that makes any sense. So, I need BETTER solutions for coping with the extreme pain and stress in my life. Do you have any ideas?????

lana said...

Prayer is the solution to help you cope. Ask for strength and courage as we are never given more than we can handle. Remember this and all the blessings in your life and you will feel better. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Marianne said...

What a great idea! What a way to distract me from eating to numb my feelings or fill a void. It's something tangible, a substitute for eating. I can imagine that after using this technique, the desire to use food for comfort will dissipate. For the next few days, I will seach for various items, words of affirmation, prayers, phone #'s, photos, music etc., that will be my personal rescue kit. I'm sure that there will always be something to add to my kit! Thanks!

Michelle said...

Maria, It sounds like you have a lot going on right now. There is a lot of stress and pain in your life. The thing to keep in mind is that food never makes any of it better. It simply postpones finding the real love and support you deserve and need.

Jeane said...

Michelle, I have done the regular on line and then the 9.95 for several months, and would like to come back again, can I rejoin for the 9.95 again or do I need to start over. If I can do the 9.95 again, how do I do that?

tinkerbell said...

I am going to start a rescue kit for myself. It's unreal how bad emotions do bring on eee moments. Incense, music,phone and friends.

august said...

Well I have binged on CAPPACINO CHUNKY CHOCOLATE yoguart it is so shaming....

Michelle said...

August, Forgive yourself and bounce back. There is nothing to be ashamed of.

mayte said...

It´s a great idea actually , I´m going to start with mine rigth now. Thanks

aine c said...

I'm still at the stage of identifying the feelings. Wow, they are powerful. I love the idea of having a buddy system so that you can interrupt a potential binge with a "phone a friend" option that actually does two things at once interrupts the glaze-stage and also helps you feel loved and supported.

gertie said...

a rescue kit sounds like concrete support for me. something tangible that i can take with me in the car and reach for when i am aware that my emotional eating/hunger switch has been triggered. thank you.

Rebecca said...

Maria God Bless you! My wish for you is strength and courage to continue. I lost my brother to cancer and know how discouraging taking care of ill loved ones can be. Hang in there and God Bless You!

di Brennan said...

Can you please explain the cost involved in doing the programme for the second time I finished it a couple of months back...and also how to apply etc

brendaatthebarn said...

Rebecca, thank you, your words helped me too. My husband has bowel cancer and we have just gone through 2 years of different types of surgery. The next step is chemotherapy because they weren't able to remove the cancer. Sometimes I feel totally overwhelmed and wish it would end. Our lives are totally consumed with this terrible disease. But I know I must remain strong to get us through.

pattie said...

pattie said, Iam just starting out.All of your comments and suggestions have sprung up my faith that with Gods help ,and reaching out for help. I can learn to deal with my feelings and not stuff them down with food.

august said...

I have fallen off the bike but ready to get back on. I am glad Monday is over...... I have been on track for 10 days and I let my husband only suggest CCC AND AWAY I WENT.

august said...

I will pray for you that have Cancer in your life..... I apolgize I whinned about overeating....... That is what I need to do. Take the focus off of food and put on focus to help others. Just for today... lets think everything is going to be ok......... not wonderful but ok.

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