Emotional Eating Series (7/9) Why High-Achieving Women Emotionally Eat

You know, and you have these thoughts in your head, why can't I show up for work, meet deadlines and look after everyone? But when it comes to food, I feel so silly and powerless.

And it's honestly this feeling of powerlessness that makes you feel shameful, embarrassed, angry and resentful at yourself because you know time and time again how it ends.

You give in to your cravings.

You feel like you've lost control, but you know how guilty you feel.

You beat yourself up and then you vouch.

You'll never do it again.

And this is a cycle that you stay in for most of the day.

Most of your headspace is consumed with how you're going to avoid makeup, etc.

So all of your day, even though you've got so much going on in your life,

work errands, children, the demands of a business of your job, whatever it is, even though you're doing that in the background,

subconsciously, you're not aware, but your mind is taken up with your body, food, how you're going to maintain a weight.

And it is so exhausting.

There's also a particular loneliness that comes with being the woman that everyone relies on and thinks that's fine.

You're capable, you are the organizer, the problem solver, the person who remembers the appointments.

who handles crises, like the person's counsellor.

You might have a full-time job, run a business, raising kids.

You might be doing all these things at once.

You are the multitasker.

And when people look at you, they often see someone strong.

And that's why we give our pressure to keep adhering to this role because we don't want to let these people down, but we're honestly letting ourselves down in other ways.

They don't see how mentally depleted you feel.

They don't see the constant pressure running underneath everything either.

And when you finally sit down at night and feel like food is the only thing that you want because everything feels like so much more of an effort considering what you've been dealing with.

No one sees that part and frankly would be way too embarrassed and shameful for people to know.

And it feels like you're living two different lives or two different mind spaces.