21 Day Emotional Eating Journal Challenge Day 8-Day 14

If you are finding this post before you find Day 1-Day 7 hop on over here and read those prompts before continuing on with day's 8-14. Each of these post build upon one another. So make sure that you do them in order.

Journal Prompts Days 8-14

Day 8 Thoughts & Journal

Day 8 Thoughts:

Today is going to be a little different as far as my journal entry. I want to share with you my thoughts and feelings 9 months ago when I first heard about this concept of food freedom and not using food as a way to emotionally handle what situation are being thrown your way & I also want to share with you where I'm at now.

9 months ago when I heard this concept of not desiring food it was such an odd concept to me. I couldn't even wrap my head around not desiring food. Because I used food so frequently as a way to cope with my emotions, my situations, and what was going on in my world at any given moment. I thought how can that even be possible. How can some one not desire something that they need to survive. I understood not desiring, alcohol or smoking or other vices that people have.

But could it actually be possible that I didn't desire food in the way that I currently did. And then I thought but I want to desire food. I like eating, I like enjoying good food, I like having a delicious piece of chocolate cake, and I love losing myself in ridiculous amounts of chips.

But why? I kept coming back to why do I want to eat all the chocolate and why after my boys go down for nap is that when I want to devour an entire bag of veggie straws? And I kept asking myself does that thought "I want to desire food serve me" does it get me to what I ultimately desire for myself and my life. Or does that thought continue to keep me from what I truly want?

Over the course of my life so much of my head space as been taken up by thinking about food. Whether it was stressing about how much food, how little food, how many calories, willing myself, controlling myself, restricting, tracking, worrying...this could go on and on and on.

I was ready to not think about food as much. I was ready to live a life where food was not a priority for me. Where food was really just survival, fuel for my workouts, or when I wanted the occasional joy eat, where I actually enjoyed it, tasted it, and stopped when I had enough. Not a manic episode of me trying to get a moment of escape as I inhaled in 10 seconds something that I didn't even really want and was so not worth it.

Today I'm living this. I'm living this belief that I can get to a place of food freedom. I'm not there yet, but I see moments where I know I have changed my entire belief system about food and foods purpose in my life. I can see myself dealing with my stress, and worry, and anxiety in ways that in the past I would have used food to cope, to distract myself, and to help me go unconscious to all of the stress and things that are completely out of my control.

Food that felt that it literally had a pull over me, drawing me in anytime I saw it, smelled it, or thought about it. Holiday times when I willed myself, made deals with myself, to just not eat or to eat the food in moderation, willing myself to just "be good" for 30, 60, 90 days; only to be back to those old habits the second my "challenge" ended.

Its not that I have control over the food now. It is that I have control over my emotions and my thoughts. There is no need for the food any longer because I don't have all of the emotional turmoil in me. I know how to deal with the emotions. I have the tools to allow the emotions to be there, make them neutral, or change the thoughts that are not serving me.

I didn't have a food problem, I had a thought problem.

Day 9 Thoughts:

Today is about become aware of what it feels like when you are hungry. Do you even know when you are hungry?

When you are truly hunger what hunger signs do you have? Does your stomach grumble, do you get a headache, everybody's signs are a little different.

When you just want to eat because of your emotions what does that feel like? How is it different from your true hunger.

This is a VERY important step in the process that I'm leading you through here and how this all comes together.

Most of us don't even let ourselves get hungry. We don't allow our bodies to get to a point where it has become hungry because we are continuously eating throughout the day when stressful and anxious situations arise.

So today your challenge is to let yourself get hungry and become aware of what those physical feelings are.

Day 9 Journal Entry:

Physical Hunger for me feels like an emptiness in my stomach. It usually starts low in my stomach and is just kind of there. As it intensifies it rises higher into my stomach. I will often time notice tingling in my mouth as well the more and more hungry I become. If I let that go for too long I will start to get a dull headache. This kind of hunger can't effected by water; when I try to fill myself up with water it doesn't help. Physical hunger is gradual it slowly grows more and more intense.

Emotional Hunger is immediate. I can tell that it is emotional hunger because it is during certain situations or I have a feeling of wanting to escape of my currently reality or check out from what is happening. I'm trying to make myself feel better. Emotional hunger also can be because I saw a particular food item. I open the fridge see the dessert my mom sent home with us and I HAVE to have it NOW. Or I go into the pantry to get the boys a snack and all of a sudden, I must have the pretzels. I also know that it is emotional hunger when I'm grabbing. I'm not being conscious of the choices and I'm grabbing on the go.

This is a great visual to show some of the different aspects of emotional vs. physical hunger. I'll also be doing an upcoming blog post going more in detail about these two types of hunger and will think here once it is completed.

Day 10 Thoughts:

I know this might seem like a silly question to have you journal about but most of us actually don't know what it feels like to feel full. We know what it feels like to feel STUFFED. We are so use to not being aware of our hunger cues that we don't stop when we are full, we stop when we are stuffed and can barely breathe.

What does it feel like when you are satisfied. It is an important things to learn because when you know when you are full you can stop eating that much easier. But if you have no clue what your bodies signals are for telling you that you are full and you can't stop eating, and you will blow past them every time.

Your body is designed to tell you when it is time to eat and when it is time to stop. But we have allowed our thoughts, feelings and how we use food as a way to help us with those thoughts & feelings that we no longer pay attention. We have been blind to these cues for so long that we no longer know what they even feel like.

Remember, this exercise is determining what it feels like to feel full not stuffed. This will require you to actually eat, slow down while eating and to check in with yourself throughout the meal to determine what full feels like to you.

Day 10 Journal Entry:

For me personally, feeling full does not feel like anything. I don't feel hungry and I don't feel full. My body personally goes from satisfied to full very quickly so I have to watch and be mindful. As soon as my hunger cues are gone (from day 9) I have to be aware and mindfully while eating. At the soonest hint of fullness I have to be finished eating.

I've done little test on myself and if I have the thought "Oh I'll just finish this last bite"...that is the bite that is going to take me over the edge into uncomfortableness. I know that feeling of being stuffed very well. It feels like a ton of bricks in your stomach weighing you down. It just sits right in the pit of my stomach.

Day 11 Thoughts:

This week begins our work on how you start changing those ways that you respond to emotional situations in your life. But you can't begin to change if you don't first recognize how you respond to them.

I want you to think about how you are currently responding to emotional situations in your life. You might have many ways that you respond. And you might respond differently to a situation that causes anxiety than to a situation that cases heartache or anger. I want you to think about situations you have been in recently and how you responded. Your response to every situation might not be to eat. Maybe you totally lose it on your loved ones, maybe you lash out and someone in particular, maybe you run and turn inward. This work that I'm having you do in this challenge transfers to all areas of your life.

These exercises can be hard to do and you might even HATE the way you currently are responding to them. But once again this challenge is about making you aware, bringing yourself out of the mindlessness that you have been in and then moving forward to learn how to change.

Day 11 Journal Entry:

When I get angry I will lash out verbally. I get super short with the people around me. I get frustrated and overwhelmed and go into a bit of manic state. My voice raises, I have less patience and I more often then not have to apologize and then the guilt starts.

When I feel guilt or ashamed, that is when I will often go to food to help with those emotions. The perfectionist in me starts with all of the lies about who I am and who I am not. How I have let someone down. I feel exposed and I want to hide because I didn't live up to my high expectations. It is easier for me to forget about it for a few minutes and I do that in food.

When I feel hurt I cry, usually talk to much and it is usually not the most coherent talk and then I just get more frustrated because I don't feel heard or understood. And then I just cry some more. This is just when I want to sleep and hide from everybody or run and get away from the person who hurt me.

When I feel anxious or overwhelmed with too much to do or trying to avoid something I will find comfort in food. This is when I most often times will emotionally eat. And seeings that I feel anxious and overwhelmed a whole heck a lot of the time, I was emotionally eating a lot.

Day 12 Thoughts:

As you start to become more and more aware of your thoughts and feelings you will start to recognize that there are patterns in your behavior and how you use food to cope.

Today I want you to think about about the circumstances that most often cause you to emotionally eat. When do you find yourself reaching for food.I want you to try and be as specific as you can. Look back on yesterday's journal and how you respond to different emotions. What circumstances create those emotions in you that cause you to eat.

Is it a work situations, when your kids are needing, how do you respond when you are in conflict with someone. Or is it a positive emotion that makes you want to eat? Maybe when you are celebrating or happy.Take a look at different times you have used food to emotional eat what situations is going on and then record that in your journal.

Day 12 Journal Entry:

It is almost a given that the moment I come out from putting the boys to bed I want to go straight to the pantry and find something to eat. It is a release of emotions for me, a reward for not completely losing it on them, and it is a moment for me to enjoy something before getting to the overwhelming list that is hanging over my head.

Social Situations are incredibly challenging for me. I think it is watching everybody else eat and enjoying themselves and feeling like I should be able to as well. If they can eat whatever they want why can't I.

I don't know what it is about grocery shopping; but on the way home I always want to eat something. That of course usually turns into a mindless eating episode and before you know it I have eaten the entire bag of chips on the ride home. For me I hate driving. It seems like the most impossible waste of time for me {which even saying that out loud I realize how ridiculous that actually sounds} so eating is a way to kill the time, and boy do I know how to kill time with food.

End of the night is one of THE. MOST. CHALLENGING times of the day for me. Relaxing = Checking out and Checking out = Food.

Day 13 Thoughts:

Today is about determine what are your emotional triggers before you start emotionally eating. If you have struggled with this for a long time. It may be a quick assignment for you if you are very familiar with what your triggers are.

However, it might be challenging if you have been avoiding your emotions and thoughts around emotional eating and you have have never thought about this before.

Go back to Day 11 and Day 12. On Day 11 we talked about how you currently respond to emotions. Any of the emotions that you listed that you responded by eating add those. On Day 12, look back at the circumstances that cause you to emotionally eat. Put yourself back in those situations and recall what are the emotions you feel in those settings.

Day 13 Journal Entry:

Overwhelmed

Frustration

Avoidance

Anxiety

Bored

Self-Righteous

Entitled

Guilt

Ashamed

Day 14 Thoughts:

Today I want you to either think back to a moment where you did engage in emotional eating and I want you to try and recall what do are you thinking during an emotional eating episode.

Honestly this is sooo incredible important. I know I say this on almost every post and really they are. Because it is like a giant puzzle and each piece adds up to why you use food. And you have to know all of those pieces to start changing this habit and behavior.

But what are you thinking in those moments; it might sound like "I don't care." "It won't matter" "I deserve this" " I can do whatever I want." "I'm never going to get to my goal any ways". Take time to really think about what you are think about while you emotionally eat and then write them all down.

It is time to start changing those thoughts; but before you can start changing your current thoughts. You have to know what they are.