Emotional Eating

The idea that nutrition is linked to the skin health no longer needs substantiation. Everyone from Perricone to Bobbi Brown has got on board with the subject not to mention Nigma Talib - she of the gluten, dairy, wine and sugar-free diet for glowing skin. So today I'd like to discuss a subject that is close to my own experience eating as a skincare nerd - I have only 2 ways of affecting meaningful changes in my diet - when I am happy - I am so caught up in my work -  I simply forget to eat and when I am sad I can say no chocolate or cheese is safe around me - not one cookie. Others have to find words and tears to know their feelings but mine are fantastically represented on scales. Slim - happy. Skinny - ecstatic. Round - blue.   I won't say my feelings are unaffected by the scale but let's just say it is a very accurate barometer of the state of my soul.

So much so that I am not even sure if I remember how to heed physical hunger - there are days when I am writing or working like yesterday that I find myself eating a single meal. My body certainly needed nutrition but I just didn't remember to eat. This is as unhealthy as reaching for snacks in sadness. Famine may result in a socially acceptable physique but it is the seedy underbelly of feasting. 

Now most of the advice on emotional eating involves avoiding trigger foods - chocolate or cheese in my case and working out your stress by journaling and letting your darker feelings find expression. Or calling a friend or meditating instead of succumbing to your emotions. My strategy and I can only tell you this is to find a physical outlet for exercise that will also require you to heed physical hunger. Regular meals or at least snacks when I think I am not hungry and working out when I get introspective. To some extent this happens when I am surrounded by caring people who wonder what I've eaten but I dream of the day when the need for food is something I can divorce from feelings. This was my goal in the latter half of 2017 and while I still struggle to eat on happy days I am doing much better on exercising when I am blue. Like this Cookie Monster.