Episode 24: Emotional Eating - A Body Positive Mindset
- Alex Treanor
- Oct 24, 2023
- 12 min read
Research suggests that having negative thoughts about our bodies is a significant predictor of emotional eating. Although it’s not something that typically comes to mind, creating a body positive mindset has a huge influence on our eating habits.
Part 4 of a 5-Part Series on Emotional Eating.
Episode Transcript:
When we acknowledge the role that body image has on emotional eating, it helps us to cultivate an environment that fosters positive eating habits.
INTRO MUSIC: Welcome to The Compassionate Wellness Podcast. I'm Alex Treanor. I'm a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and I am so excited you're here. The wellness industry is full of do's and do not's, should's and should not's. But I like to take a different approach. I'll be sharing all things health and wellness from a joyful, real-life compassionate perspective. If you're ready to drop the cookie-cutter approach and create a life you truly love, while eating a cookie or two along the way, let's dive in.
Hey, friends! Welcome to part four of our emotional eating series. If you listened to last week's episode, you probably have a good idea of what we're talking about today. But in case you missed last week, today we are diving into body image.
Of the five factors that we're covering in this series, this one is a little bit of a dark horse. It's not often something that comes to mind when thinking about emotional eating. In my experience, when we feel that there is a problem, or something that we want to change about our behavior, we tend to really focus in on that specific behavior. We view it almost in isolation. And a lot of times when it comes to change, it really requires seeing the full picture. So instead of just saying, "I want to change emotional eating, I need to pay attention to my emotions and my eating", we have to look at the full landscape of what is happening. That's what I'm hoping this series is helping with, to discover some of these other factors, but this is a big one for that.
When it comes to that big picture concept, body image is a huge component. It is really an underlying theme when it comes to eating behavior. And when we acknowledge the role that body image has on emotional eating, it helps us to cultivate an environment that fosters positive eating habits. When we understand how the way we think and feel about our bodies, influences the choices we make about food, then we have more awareness and more understanding and more acceptance, and more ability to make change happen.
As I was researching this topic, I found it really interesting that feeling negatively about your body is considered a significant predictor of emotional eating. That word predictor is important because we couldn't say that about the other topics we've covered. So far, they have been connected. We know that stress levels connected, managing our emotions, having self-compassion, those relate to emotional eating, but they don't necessarily predict emotional eating. Just because you're stressed doesn't mean you're going to emotionally eat. Body image is different, because it's shown to be a predictor of emotional eating. So that really shows how important this concept is.
More than just emotional eating, we know that thinking negatively about our body is closely tied to many different problematic eating behaviors, harmful eating behaviors. The National Eating Disorder Association, acknowledges there is, they say "an incredibly strong tie between eating disorders and a negative body image", which when you think about it, that makes sense, right? I feel like that is relatable and understandable; that if you don't feel good about how you look, if you don't feel good about your body, you will do what you think needs to be done to look different, which often is associated with our eating behaviors. And so we turn to drastic eating changes, we can understand why those are connected.
Body image is also tied to all the other factors that we're covering in this five part series, that shows how much of an underlying theme is, right? It goes with all these different other concepts. We know body image is connected to self-compassion. The research suggests that when we increase in self compassion, we're also more likely to view our bodies in a positive light. We know that feeling unsatisfied or unhappy with our body leads to increased stress, which we know from part one can also impact our eating habits. And we know that body image is connected to more restriction in our dietary patterns. We see that in what the National Eating Disorder Association mentioned, right? If we feel negatively about our body, we tend to restrict our food intake.
Body image is a big topic. I covered it more in depth in Episode 17. But just to clarify something about body image that's really important as we go through the remainder of this episode, body image is not about how you look. Body image is how you feel about how you look, which means that changing our body image is more about changing our thoughts and our feelings, then changing our body. You can have good body image, regardless of what your body looks like, because it only matters what you are thinking about your body. Our tendency, when it comes to body image, is to think that if I'm unhappy with how my body looks, I need to change my body. But in reality, we need to change our thoughts.
So if you want to decrease your emotional eating, it's important to consider how you feel about your body and to look at the thoughts that you have about your body.
For this episode, I have four tips from the research that we'll go over about how you can start to do that in ways that will help you to better manage your eating habits. Before we dive in with these tips, I just have to acknowledge the complexity of this topic. I always hesitate giving tips, because I feel like it turns into a checklist of like, "Oh, hey, this is really easy. All you have to do is step one, step two, step three, check these boxes, good to go. Problem solved, all done". And that's not how it works. That's just not reality. I don't think anything in health and wellness works that way, where we just check a box and we're done. Wellness is a continual journey and a continual process and it changes and our situation changes. And it comes with skills of learning how to navigate and how to pivot and how to change our mindset and how to be compassionate with ourselves. It's a whole big thing. So these tips are from the research, but I just want to be clear that they're not a checklist. These are definitely skills that can be helpful things that can help you to develop. But don't forget your self-compassion, your grace in applying these because it's not an overnight change. Body image is a big, big topic, a meaningful topic, an important topic. And it's not something that we can change overnight, but it is something that we can change.
Okay, that being said, let's dive in with the four tips of what the research suggests that we can do to help improve our body image and thus, have a prediction of less emotional eating.
The first thing that's recommended is to pay attention to your self-talk. I feel that has come up in almost every episode of this series so far! So clearly, there's a theme of the importance of mindset and the importance of thoughts when it comes to emotional eating. In terms of our self-talk around body image, the reason this is important is because we are surrounded with so many messages all day long, countless messages every day. Inescapable, I would say, messages of what we should look like what we shouldn't look like what is "perfect", in quotes, always in quotes. Not a visual medium, but I'm doing air quotes.
We're surrounded by all these messages, which give us thoughts. We're just thinking about what we see, what we hear throughout the day. And we have these automatic thoughts come into our mind. And when we're constantly surrounded by these messages, those automatic thoughts repeat. And we hear them or they come up, or they pop into our mind pretty consistently. And what happens is, then we start to notice them, and we repeat them to ourselves, and we dwell on them, and we ruminate on them. And we think they must be true. And it becomes these, like mini mantras that we're just constantly telling ourselves.
Those are the thoughts that we want to pay attention to. Just because you have an automatic thought doesn't mean it's true. And so we need to question it. So the importance of noticing our self-talk is so that we can start to question some of these things that we do tell ourselves repeatedly. So when you catch one of these automatic thoughts, what you can do is ask yourself, "Is this a fact? Or is this an opinion?" If you're not sure, if it's a fact or an opinion, I can tell you if it has the word too, T-O-O in it, it's an opinion. Sometimes we say "My arms are too big, my thighs are too jiggly my torsos too long". If you're saying too, it's a comparison. There is no standard to be met when it comes to body size, body shape. So you know automatically it's an opinion.
If you're feeling that the automatic thought is true, then you're going to ask yourself a follow up question of "what evidence do I have to support this fact?" And try to see really what what is behind it? Is there actually any evidence or is it something that you think is a fact but is really false?
The second thing we can do is to appreciate what our body is capable of. So much of body image is just about outer appearance, how we look. The truth is, our body is capable of so many things. Your body is literally doing amazing things all day long. All day. Your lungs are breathing, your heart is pumping, your blood is going throughout your body, you have oxygen circulating, you're breaking down foods to give you energy, you can literally see something on the floor and pick it up and not even think about it. And all of that just happens. That's a literal miracle. That's a miracle that your body does that, it's so cool. And it cares for you in so many ways, it keeps you alive. And when we only are focusing on the outer appearance, we miss that we miss all the miracles that are happening every single day to keep us alive, and to keep us experiencing life and having joy with our loved ones and doing things that are fun and exciting. And that bring us fulfillment your body does that for you.
So how do we appreciate our body and the capabilities? One recommendation is to show gratitude for your body. Maybe that's keeping a gratitude journal, but learning to recognize and to appreciate the things that your body actually does for you. Beyond your looks. There are so many other things to be celebrated about your body that have nothing to do with your looks.
The third thing that we can do is to drop the comparisons. Feeling unsatisfied with our body so often stems from comparison. The truth is that all bodies are different. All shapes, all sizes, all variety. It's all beautiful, it's all normal, it's all expected. There is no standard, there is no perfect. So often the media tells us that there is a standard, there is a perfect, and that needs to be achieved. And when we compare ourselves to that standard is when we start to feel unsatisfied with our bodies.
The thing that's tricky about the media is it's edited. We know that it's photoshopped. We've seen all the YouTube videos of them photoshopping images and how they look completely different. We've heard the Victoria's Secret models come out and say, "I saw a picture of myself and didn't know who that was". We know it's edited. But what we tend to do is to accept that media image and criticize ourselves. What we can do instead is to flip the script and to say, "I'm going to criticize that image in terms of questioning that reality. Knowing that that is not accurate, and choose to accept myself". You're allowed to be critical of the media that you take in. You're allowed to question it and say I don't think that's real and accept yourself.
Body image is also influenced by the people around us. So in addition to media, we have friends, we have family members, colleagues, coworkers, all kinds of people that we hear talking about their bodies, and that can lead us to comparison as well. If you hear a friend saying, "Oh, I just need to lose 10 pounds", then I might think " if she needs to lose 10 pounds do I need to lose 20 pounds", and I'm starting that comparison.
So we can also control our comparison by surrounding ourselves with body positive people, or asking people to not comment on bodies around us. Being mindful of the media and the messages that you hear from friends and family and those around us. That can be one way to help us to stop comparing ourselves.
And the fourth suggestion from the research is to focus on positive goals. And what I mean by positive goals is that they're stemming from a positive place. So often we set goals of things we want to change by focusing on what needs to change, right? "I need to stop emotional eating, I need to stop eating so much sugar". It's things that we don't want to do, things we want to reduce. And when we're thinking about having a positive body image, those thoughts "I need to stop eating, I need to eat less sugar" that feels very punishing. So instead, we can set the goals coming from a positive space. Meaning how can I best nourish my body? What can I add to my day that will help me feel my best? How can I best care for myself? How can I move in ways that helped me feel strong?
Looking for things that you can add, that come from something that you want to achieve. If you want to stop emotional eating, that's a valid goal, but let's rephrase it. What do you want instead? What do you want your routine to look like? What does nourishment mean to you? Flipping that script and looking at it from a positive perspective. The more that we're adding in these positive influences, it drowns out the negative. By focusing on nourishment, our habits will change, and the eating habits that we're wanting to drown out, will dissipate.
So just to summarize the four tips for managing our body image in order to change our eating habits,
First is to pay attention to your self talk.
Second is to appreciate what your body is capable of.
Third is to drop the comparison and
Fourth, focus on positive goals.
If you're wanting to incorporate some of these, the question to consider on this week might be what is one thing that you can do to celebrate and show gratitude for your body?
As we wrap up this episode, I just want to end by saying that you are so much more than your body. You have so many positive qualities. And body image is important. Yes, how you feel about your body matters. Absolutely. It's important for you to feel good about your body. And the thing about that is that's a mind job. That's something you have control over regardless of what your body looks like. Your body can stay exactly how it is, and you can still feel good about your body and that will be a helpful thing for behavior change. It takes work but it's mindset work. And it's things that you can do and change how you think about things. It is does not have to be a punishment for yourself or your body.
That is what I have for you today. Thank you for joining me. Next week we will wrap up with part five of this series and I'm so excited for that. I hope you have a wonderful week and I will talk to you next week!
OUTRO MUSIC: Thanks for joining me on this episode of the compassionate wellness podcast. If this message resonated with you, please share it with someone you care about. I'd love to connect with you as well follow me on Instagram @alextreanor.coaching, or visit my website alextreanorcoaching.com. And as a reminder, Treanor spelled kind of goofy, it's T-R-E-A-N-O-R. For any references mentioned in this episode, be sure to check out the show notes. I hope you have a wonderful day and don't forget to make time for something you enjoy.
References:
Annesi, J.J., Mareno, N., & McEwen, K. (2016). Psychosocial predictors of emotional eating and their weight-loss treatment-induced changes in women with obesity. Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity, 21(2), 289-295.Carbonneau, N., Goodman, L.C., Roberts, L.T., Bégin, C., Lussier, Y., & Musher-Eizenman, D.R. (2020). A look at the intergenerational associations between self-compassion, body esteem, and emotional eating within dyads of mothers and their adult daughters. Body Image, 33, 106-114.
Carbonneau, N., Holding, A., Lavigne, G., & Robitaille, J. (2021). Feel good, eat better: The role of self-compassion and body esteem in mothers’ healthy eating behaviors. Nutrients, 13(11), 3907.
Johnson, F., & Wardle, J. (2005). Dietary restraint, body dissatisfaction, and psychological distress: A prospective analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114(1), 119-125.
Kato, Y., Greimel, E., Hu, C., Müller-Gartner, M., Salchinger, B., Freidl, W., Saito, S., & Roth, R. (2019). The relationship between sense of coherence, stress, body image satisfaction and eating behavior in Japanese and Austrian students. Psych, 1(1), 504-514.
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/body-image-eating-disorders
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