q's to lesson 3 - munches answers

1. Can you identify a time when you began to seek food for comfort? Yes I was 17. What was happening in your life at the time? I found out a family secret that was quite earth shattering at the time. I started using recreational drugs briefly and became a bit promiscuous. When I realised that it was making everything worse I discovers that secretly eating chocolate helped loads! If you can't remember when you started using food for comfort, try to describe time when this habit intensified or became more severe.

2. How would you feel if you had to give up the habit of eating when upset emotionally? – well there is no ‘if’ for me – I’ve already realised it’s a necessity. Describe what your life might feel like. Its as scary as can be – yesterday I had a bad day. I was low and knew that food would change my mood round but didn’t want to do it. The problem is I have no other coping mechanism yet so inevitably my mood got even worse. Part of you probably says that you'll be fine, but what does the other part say? What does the part of you that's scared of giving up emotional eating say? I would love to be like someone with no food issues - be able to eat because i'm hungry and eat anything because there is no guilt attatched and to be able to stop eating when i'm full (to even know what it felt like to be full would be a start!) I imagine having control over food to be very liberating but at the moment the thought of a future without my comfort blanket of chinese and chocolate cookies can be terrifying some days to be totally honest

3. What part of your relationship with food are you in denial about? Which part would you rather not know about? How might you get this out in the open to yourself? What would happen if you did this? Erm.. don’t know

4. Which of the 12 types of emotional hunger do you suffer from most? To begin with just 1 and 9. Some 17 years since I discovered the soothing effect of overeating I no longer have 9. Nowadays I would say 1 is the biggie but also sometimes 2, 3, 7 & 10. 10 is a weird one! I can distinctly remember a few years ago my mum saying I needed a gastric bypass and the minute she’d left I had an almighty bingefest all the while thinking ‘this’ll show you’ as if I was punishing her?! And only a couple of weeks ago when kel had quit smoking she called me from her night out and confessed having just had a cig – my first reaction was to eat to pay her back!! Ridiculous! What are some ways you could begin to change your habit of eating when faced with emotional hunger like this? Don’t know but I wish I did – on to lesson 4!