The common belief is that most people are overweight because they eat too much and move too little. While this represents some of the population, it is a mistake to see this as a truth in its whole. On the contrary, many of us struggle with weight or health issues because we are not eating enough while moving too fast.
We may very well be falsely labeling ourselves as an overeater. Lets face it, what we consider overeating is subjective. One person might consider 1-2 cookies as overeating while another would consider overeating to be an entire bag of cookies. Many of us set impossible standards for ourselves based on a fear of food, a fear of appetite, and fear of weight. This often stems from a deeper belief that “food is the enemy,” that food equals fat and if we eat less food, we will have less fat. Fear is what guides the assessment of how much we eat.
Only the body can determine overeating. It’s the wisdom of the body that knows these things.The body is where wisdom lives. We may need more or less food on different days or in different seasons. When we learn to tune into our bodies, we know what to eat and how much of it we need. we cannot learn this about ourselves in a diet book.
As soon as we self-label ourselves as “overeaters,” we start to self-hate and begin an internal attack on self. Let’s get the word “overeater” out of our vocabulary. The word itself is seen by most as a horrible crime. We often equate eating too much to a weakness or an unbeatable battle. Internally we are saying, “I’m bad, I’ve failed.” A mental fight against food keeps us in survival mode (the sympathetic nervous symptom), which physiologically prevents us from releasing fat and building muscle. The mental process alone is often what gets in our own way of maintaining our health or any sense of self-compassion.
Rather than seeing overeating as a failure, lets look at it as a doorway: A gift with a brilliant message. It is a symptom of something else. Overeating has little to do with eating. It has to do with a transformation that we are seeking in our lives.
Welcome it. The more we fight something the more it comes back. Especially if what we’re fighting is ourselves. There is no winner in a fight against self. Overeating comes from body wisdom, asking us to better nourish ourselves.
Why we overeat:
Becoming curious about our symptoms will help us evolve as individuals both consciously and biologically (in our health and metabolism.)
1) Are we under-eating while falsely self-diagnosing ourselves as overeaters?
A) If we are always on a diet, we may overeat as a rebound to under-eating. If we are not getting sufficient amounts of fat and protein, the lack of these macronutrients will lead the body to scream hunger.
B) If we are skipping breakfast or lunch in service of work schedules or weight loss, our bodies’ natural need to nourish will eventually win.
C) Holding on to a belief that food equals caloric fat and is bad, we will fight food, and it will fight back. Appetite will win because it is natural. We are biologically designed to eat food. It is very basic junior high biology.
2) If our diet is lacking in needed fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins or minerals, it will continue to hunger in search of what it needs. Let’s get the majority of our calories from sources of the highest quality.
3) Emotional stress
Symptoms show up (thanks to our body’s wisdom) to slow us down. We tend to want to sweep the past under the rug but our body speaks up if we haven’t resolved our issues. Unexpressed hurts of the past remain in the present and may be shoved down and sedated with food. Current relationships or careers not congruent with who we are, will cause us to feel stress. If the body can’t find nourishment in life, it will search for it in food. If it cannot relax on its own, it can rely on overeating. One method to deal with stress is to overeat because the body will pull blood out of the brain and into the digestive system, causing us to feel relaxed. Since digestion is only possible when the nervous system is relaxed, the body must start to relax in order to deal with all the food we just ingested.
4) Fast-paced living
Overeating is a lack of awareness, of satisfaction, of relaxation, and of a palatable life or diet. The body needs time to realize that it is full. The brain needs to know we have received all the nutrients needed. The body requires time and presence. In a rushed mindset, we will keep eating because we are not giving the body enough time to sense what is enough. Some may see this as fast eating. I see it as fast living.
Eating and living (aka nourishment) is about presence, relaxation, and time. Overeating is predominantly a problem of not being present to the experience of life and what it has to teach us. If we are rushing around, we will over-consume.
Amp up on vitamin T (time) and vitamin R (relaxation.)
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