Understanding The Emotional Eating Brain

Congratulations for making it to Module 4. This module is a very important section of this training course because for most people who struggle with weight, they have combined their emotional world with food. 

The reason it’s so important to understand and transform your emotional eating patterns if you struggle in this way,  is that If you were to listen to your body 80-90% of the time, you will slim down and stay thin. 

For that reason, inside of the ThinWithin Life™ community, we are defining emotional eating as eating for any reason besides feeling physically hungry.

You might have noticed that as you’ve been practicing eating why you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied, that there is a little voice that may at times encourage you to eat when you are sure you are not hungry.

These inner voices encouraging you to eat is what I call Your Inner 2-Year-Old™. 

Any time you finding yourself giving in to your inner 2-year-old, emotional eating is at play. In order for you to get in front of and heal your emotional eating patterns, the journey is about separating your emotional needs from physical food needs – and emotional eaters unconsciously get these all mixed up.

To move through any emotional eating pattern that you might be experiencing, it’s important that you understand the three parts of your mind. 

We all have three brain types-

Your Limbic System is motivated to –

1. Seek out pleasure, happiness and comfort – Such as foods, social relationships, reproduction, acceptance and recognition, drugs and alcohol.
2. Avoid physical and mental pain – This is where fears, anxieties, and anger reside.
3. Conserve energy and seek efficiency – To find the path of least resistance.

These three above motivation types are known as the motivational triad. 

Knowing that this motivational triad is always in place, how in the heck are you going to transform your emotional eating patterns and lose even more weight?

Well, thank goodness to your lovely prefrontal cortex!   Your prefrontal cortex likes to learn and take information in and it understands the benefits of you having a healthy lifestyle and enjoying movement. It’s sophisticated and mature and it loves to plan and reflect. It’s the part of you, that when it’s in full effect – you are on FIRE! It’s the part of you that can manage numerous tasks at home and work and manage your family’s needs. 

Your prefrontal cortex also has the ability to shift and change habits so you can gain control over your food urges and triggers, by rewiring and changing how your brain responds to stimuli and the environment, which is what neuroplasticity is all about! 

Neuroplasticity is how you are going to permanently make changes to your habits and patterns (like you’ve already done up to this point) so that you can continue to lose weight and feel amazing!

Here are some simple tips you can do right away to support your Mature and sophisticated Adult brain aka your Prefrontal Cortex – 

1. Sleep – getting enough sleep will lower your cortisol levels along with keeping you calm. Getting enough sleep will also help you  feel more relaxed and avoid impulsivity.
2. Lower your stress – through yoga, meditation, pilates, EFT tapping, massage, relaxing music, breath work, walking, etc. These are beautiful ways to reduce your cortisol levels.
3. Avoid getting OVERLY hungry – Continue eating when your body is hungry. Please just avoid getting overly hungry. I don’t want you getting so ravenous that you’ll eat absolutely anything and feel out of control.
4.  Develop and practice new tools to counteract your animal brain. Well, heck yeah! This is precisely why you  are here and what you are going to continue to learn and practice in this module.  
5. Front load your day. Example of front-loading your day might look like planning your mornings, journaling, thaw out chicken from the freezer, write a grocery list, make important calls, work out earlier before you get tired, etc.
6. *** Study your inner-2-year-old – Begin listening to and getting to know your inner 2-year-old brain like your thin life depends on it, because it does!!! Observe when your brain throws up the desire for food. Notice the words your inner-2-year-old says and how she says it. Is she mean, lovely, convincing, or sneaky? Observe and get to know what this part of you wants.