*Emotional Eating - A Challenge Well Met*

In my previous post I had come to the end of my 21 Day Challenge and after reflecting over  my three weeks I decided that I would stick to calorie counting for portion control and exercise. Its been two weeks since then and I've lost another 3lb. I'm super happy as I haven't felt 'deprived', I've just been eating a lot less junk food and strangely enough the less of it I've eaten the less I actually feel as if I need it. Furthermore I've noticed that I'm actually coming to terms with my emotions and this is the point I decided to dedicate this post to.

I know like may others out there, you eat to 'ease' which ever emotion you are feeling at that time and like the majority of emotional eaters it more than likely doesn't work and you end up feeling worse than you did before you fed your emotions. I know for me after I've stuffed myself with which ever food I can get my mitts on I never feel any better, I feel sluggish, snappy and it often leads to a cycle of bingeing on more junk food.

I'm starting to realise now I don't need to feed my emotions, if I'm sad I can sit on my own and have a good cry, if I'm happy I can smile and laugh or tell someone why I'm happy, and I'm sure this would work for the majority of other emotions too.

I found this especially at the weekend. I was feeling really poorly and stayed in bed most of the weekend yet at one point on the Saturday I turned to food to comfort me. I felt sorry for myself and I convinced myself that I should eat something to make myself feel better rather than face the emotion itself. I picked up the bag of savory bites and started to eat them, I couldn't taste a single thing and I was feeling sick but I was trying to convince myself that this food was going to make me feel better, it would take away the feeling of sickness, headache, cold and all the other aches and pains I had. After the 3rd mouthful I realised the savory bites weren't actually making me feel any better, infact they were making me feel worse. Thats when it clicked in my head that I had successfully managed to convince myself that food would make me feel better. Now thats pretty stupid concidering I felt sick and I was trying to use food to make myself feel better, plus who ever head of savory bites curing a headache, neck ache and a throat infection? Because I for sure haven't! So I threw the pack down and got on with feeling like sh*t. I faced that emotional, hell yeah I felt sorry for myself and yes I did nearly cry in pain at a few points but I actually allowed myself to feel that emotion and to be honest it wasn't half as bad as I thought. I still feel terrible but I feel like I've accomplished something by not using food to smother an emotion.

Now I've managed to sit and type this post I think I will return to my pit of sickness fully assured that I won't be muching my way through any savory bites to make myself feel better.

*A Happy Ever After... Ending*

Today is the last day of my 21 Day Challenge. I say its the last day of the challenge but really its not. Its been a set period of time I told myself I would be accountable for what I ate and how much I exercised. I have been very much that and I managed to lose 5lbs. I'm more than happy with that number for a few reasons, I was ill this week and didn't manage the length or the type of exercise I was incorporating the previous too weeks as well as that I managed to twist my knee and have suffered with pain when ever I walk for the past four days. But even more important to me, regardless of being sick and injuring myself I still carried on. Yes, I may have been able to lose more, in fact I'm sure I could have lost more but I stuck to it. I got through those three weeks and realised I'm a much stronger person than what I thought I was. I've proven to myself that I can achieve something I set my mind to, I may encounter some hurdles some of which may be bigger than others but its possible. I realise that now. These three weeks has restored my own faith in myself and my ability.

So my 21 Day Challenge is pretty much finished but it's not only about the finish (in this case the finish line being the end of the challenge) I now have learned I am stronger, I am capable and I have faith in myself to achieve.

Now I'm focusing on the week to come. I've decided to stick to calorie counting and exercise, I saw my best results doing this and I felt the best results doing this.

Here's to next week!