Is it Physical Hunger or Emotional Hunger?
Post-surgery, people often struggle following post-surgery food guidelines and their changing relationship with food and eating. At Perth Weight Loss and Surgery, we know that for some people, eating behaviours can be driven by the internal discomfort that feelings produce and for many of us, this discomfort is eased by eating. This makes a lot of sense. As infants, being fed while we are being held and cuddled is a beautifully nurturing experience and is where the fusion of feeling and food begins. This subconscious connection to food and feelings stays with us. Food becomes our emotional BandAid.
Using food as a BandAid is not possible after surgery, so we need to develop new skills. Once learnt, these skills will last a lifetime and free you from using food to soothe the discomfort of your feelings.
It is essential to understand that our thinking and beliefs create our feelings and our feelings produce our behaviours. The great news is that by changing the way we think, we can change the way we feel.
Eating Behaviours and COVID-19
The social isolation we are all experiencing at present can lead to feelings such as boredom. The discomfort caused by boredom is generated by a need to DO SOMETHING. The solution, in this case, is activity. Generate your own “go-to” list of boredom survival activities and keep these handy for the future. Being prepared in this way will ensure you have things other than food to quell the discomfort of boredom and most importantly, break the link between feelings and food.
Check in with yourself to see if other feelings are present. Could you be feeling loneliness or emptiness? Learning to identify the emotion gives you the information you need to examine the thoughts and beliefs that triggered the emotion. You then have the power to change your thinking, change the way you feel and improve your wellbeing.
Check these characteristics of physical versus emotional hunger:
Support is available from Perth Weight Loss and Surgery team, and we are there to help you with your weight loss journey.
More information
At Perth Weight Loss and Surgery, the first step is easy – for further information on nutritional care pre or post-surgery in Perth, contact us on (08) 6155-8822 or click here to book a bulk-billed phone consultation.
