When we understand the cycle at a deep level, the cycle starts to have less power over us. We love to give names to each stage, so they’re easier to spot when they happen in our daily lives.
There are four main stages of emotional eating: trigger, cover up, false bliss, and the hangover.
Trigger: A “trigger” is an event or situation that causes a stressful or painful emotional response. Any object, event, or conversation can be made into a trigger. Triggers create a physical response in the body. Your breathing may speed up or become shallow; you may start sweating. Emotionally, you might feel angry, sad, or annoyed. Why you have certain triggers as opposed to others has to do with your family history, your personality, and mostly your insecurities.
Cover Up: There are many ways to cover up feelings we don’t want to feel, but one of the most common ways is to eat foods high in sugar, carbohydrates, and fat, such as ice cream, cakes, and cookies. These classic comfort foods are aptly named because they hide the difficult feelings by producing a momentary sense of relief. Classic comfort foods are heavy and difficult to digest. Apart from the brain, digestion demands the most energy. Heavy foods pull energy from your nervous system, where you feel your feelings, and direct it toward digestion. These foods cover up emotions, creating a numbing effect for the feelings that started the cycle in the first place.
