Emotional Eating: Why We Do It And How To Control It

Hey there! It's Samantha, and today I'm super excited to share with you my chat with Andrea Caprio, a real-life superwoman who's not only a Master Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach but also a mom of two amazing adult kids. Andrea's on a mission to help women like you and me break free from the vicious cycle of emotional eating and self-sabotage. 

In this episode, Andrea gets real about her own struggles with emotional eating and shares how she finally found lasting change by getting to the root cause of her cravings. We dive into the importance of tiny habits, celebrating wins (no matter how small!), and reframing negative thoughts to help you ditch the guilt and start living life on your own terms.

As moms, we often put ourselves last, but Andrea reminds us that self-care isn't selfish – it's essential for being the best version of ourselves for our families. So, whether you're a mom or not, if you've ever found yourself reaching for that pint of ice cream after a stressful day, this episode is for you. Get ready for some real talk, practical tips, and a whole lot of laughs as we explore how to create a healthier, happier relationship with food and ourselves. Trust me, you don't want to miss this one!

Hope you enjoyed this episode!

Remember we'll be back twice a month with more fun shananagins. Be sure to follow us so you don't miss a beat!
We'd sure appreciate a review too. This helps us reach more women just like you trying to make it through the sometimes chaotic, sometimes fun, and sometimes cry-worth days of motherhood.

Can't wait to hear more from us or want to leave us a comment?

Catch us on social:
Insta: @shesgotittogether
YouTube: @shesgotittogether
Blog: shesgotittogether.com

Here's to Getting it Together one day at a time,

Jessica & Samantha

Transcript

Overcoming Emotional Eating With Andrea Caprio

Speaker 1 0:00

And I think again, it's often a very female thing, not only, but I think as women we maybe ask ourselves more are we good enough, are we worthy, are we lovable, are we loved? And you know, these kind of things which often hold us back, and often they are rooted in our childhood from events that happened at the time that made us believe we are not worthy, we are not good enough, we will never get there, whatever it is. And we continue having those thoughts based on a event or several events that were maybe true at childhood Usually not, but you know we think they were true. That's our subconscious and we keep those limiting thoughts.

Speaker 2 0:47

Hi everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of she's Got it Together. I'm your host, jessica, and I'm Samantha. Each week, we peel back the curtain on what it really looks like to have it together, from the messy moments to the milestones. We're here to share it all. So grab your favorite drink, get comfy and let's dive into today's topic. So today we're here with a special guest. We have Andrea Caprio. She is here to talk with us today about emotional eating. Andrea's mission is to help others break free from self-sabotage and heal the relationship with food, and just figure out how they want to live their life on their own terms.

Speaker 1 1:30

So great, Sam and Jess, to have me here. And hi everybody. As you hear, I'm German. I live in Italy right now. I have traveled in many different countries. Actually, I'm a mother of two now adult kids. I have survived that. Good to know. Yes, there's hope, right. And I'm also a mother to lots of animals, I mean a dog and two cats. And, yeah, I'm remarried to an Italian husband and, as you mentioned, I have I'm a coach, a master certified transformational nutrition coach, so I help mostly women to overcome their struggles with weight loss, emotional eating and obviously related health issues or so. So I work in a very holistic way, really looking at the root cause and helping my clients to find lasting change. So that's about me and I really enjoy what I'm doing. So I love helping other people.

Speaker 2 2:29

Great yeah, it's just amazing that you live in Italy. I'm so jealous.

Speaker 1 2:34

Yes.

Speaker 2 2:36

And it is nice to know that there is hope that I have a 16th month old son. He's my first child, so it's like there is hope that they will grow up and be, you know, successful adults and that you can survive it Right, we'll make it.

Speaker 1 2:50

We will make it. You will, and I can tell you. I mean, look, I think I had a good parenthood. I mean still have. But you know, once they're out of my children now my daughter is 30. She just got married this year and my son is 28.

Speaker 1 3:06

They both live in France, actually, but also, you know, we lived in so many countries like South Africa and so on, and it has not always been easy. I'm remarried, so I had a time where I got through the divorce with their dad. So it has definitely been tough. And also I, you know, I had a time where I was a single mom. Right, I didn't jump from one marriage into the other immediately. And you know, after all, my new husband is amazing, but he's not that dad, he has his own daughter. So, anyway, it has been very interesting and we had some difficult times. My kids have some or, you know, have and had some health challenges. I had my challenges as well. So, yeah, it is what it is. But, you know, eventually they grow up and they're amazing human beings. I mean, I just I'm so grateful every day for them and for that journey.

Speaker 2 4:00

Love that. Well, I guess we can jump right into like emotional eating and like your experience with that and how you help other women you know cope with emotional eating, Because I think, like as moms too, like it's an journey and you can really, you know, just like dive into that emotional eating and like so how do you, how do you handle that, how do you help others?

Speaker 1 4:21

So I let me start, maybe, a little bit, by telling or sharing with you guys and you know, the listeners here is I became a coach through my own story, right, and that's also why I, you know, wanted to share a little bit about my kids, because, as a mom we all know, you know, just as a normal human being, right, a mom is a normal human being, obviously, but you know, no matter if you're a mom or not a mom, that's what I was saying is, you know, we have so many things to juggle.

Speaker 1 4:55

We have maybe work, we have our families, other occupations, whatever it is, and it's just, I believe, also in today's world, you know, it became really difficult because we get bombarded with so many things happening out there the news, elections, whatever it is, it doesn't matter, right, Obviously, the whole social media and so on. So our minds get so busy and we have so many things and feel the overwhelm. And, especially as moms, I feel we always are there for the others. Right, we try to solve problems. We put ourselves last and put everybody else first.

Speaker 1 5:35

Right, we, we put ourselves last and put everybody else first, right, our family, our kids, co-workers, bosses, whatever. It doesn't matter. I think it's a thing, it's natural for women a little bit more than for men. In my opinion there's no exclusion or so, but I think it's just the way we are done. So when we put ourselves constantly last, obviously eventually it's always like the you know, the tank of a car. Eventually it gets empty, right, if we don't fill up, we don't go to the petrol station and we'll fill up on gas. Eventually we run on empty.

Speaker 1 6:09

And that is what happened to me Many, many years ago. I think my kids at the time where I remember two distinct times one was there were like five, eight years old, somewhere around there, and then there was a bit later time when they were teenagers again. But I was at those times really running on empty and I used food as a coping mechanism. Food, to be honest, also, I drank a little bit too much, not overly, but you know there was the glass of wine here and the gin and tonic there and whatever.

Speaker 1 6:37

But you know, I kind of I remember very much at one stage I realized, oh, I have to stop. But I had not realized that I had to stop with the sugar and I haven't realized at that time how much sugar I was eating. I was not addicted, and I mean there are a lot of people who are really addicted to food. Addicted, and I mean there are a lot of people who are really addicted to food. I, you know, I didn't have that issue, but I realized I was eating more and more and it was definitely emotional eating.

Speaker 1 7:03

So there was the sugar in the coffee, the cookies and whatever. In the evening, you know, there was some sweets chips or whatever, because I'm tired.

Speaker 1 7:11

you know I had a hard day, or, you know, pick me up when my blood pressure, sorry, blood sugar is low or whatever it is. And so I realized that, and I came to a stage. It was a little bit later, though, but I came to a stage where I changed my eating habits completely. I came across something. I changed it and it really worked for me, and suddenly I realized that I had developed so many issues. So I had migraines, I was a little bit overweight, I was always tired, I had bloating, I was just not feeling well, and so I came through that ate healthy. Everything improved. I had three times fibroid removed, so there was a hormonal issue.

Speaker 2 7:56

When.

Holistic Nutrition and Overcoming Cravings

Speaker 1 7:56

I started eating healthy. I never had an issue after that again from going forward from that. So I came through this and I then started my company Wellness Methods. And that was now I actually realized it's over eight years ago. I was still saying December 27, but I think it's now eight years I have to double check, but I think over eight years and so I studied nutrition and holistic nutrition actually, and did some specializations because I realized how many other people had similar issues and at the time I had moved to Miami and I saw how bad people were eating and how unhealthy they were and very often also very overweight, and so I wanted to help other people.

Speaker 1 8:44

And that's how I started and I realized more people came to me with oh I have tried every diet under the sun or I've been yo-yo dieting or I've tried this pill or that thing, but basically they've tried several things for their whole lives almost. They lost weight and they put it back on. They lost weight, they put it back on, and so on and so on, and they did not realize that they're, or they did not find also that there were some deeper lying issues with the cravings, with the emotional eating, maybe some health issues, some underlying hormonal issues or neurotransmitter issues or whatever they were, and I was kind of the last resort and I was then specializing really on emotional eating and weight loss, because so many people came and they said, oh, I tried, this diet I cannot follow is so restrictive. Oh, my doctor said I should just eat healthy. But we all know we should eat healthy right.

Speaker 1 9:42

I mean right, we all know that, I mean you guys know it, everybody knows it that we should rather eat the apple and not the ice cream, right? Right, right but it's not that easy, right? And I got again a client who said whose doctor said hey, come on, you just need to eat healthy. I mean, yes, if it was so easy we would all do it, but no, it's not that easy. And that's why I'm helping people. It was a very long thing, but I think it puts everything together.

Speaker 2 10:08

Yeah, that's absolutely. I mean learning from someone that actually went through the process, you know, went through the challenges. I think that's the best way to learn anyways, so that's Absolutely.

Speaker 1 10:20

True, so do you have also some. Have you noticed some issues on your side with cravings or so?

Speaker 2 10:37

or so. I feel like, well, I'm pregnant right now. So I feel like now I feel like I have some cravings Like I normally, like you know, moderate like my sweets and like dessert and candies and stuff like that. But like now that I'm pregnant, like I just like I'm craving like sour candy and so I'm like trying not to like overindulge on that stuff because I want to be, you know, healthy and have like a healthy baby and all that stuff too. But it's like if I need some sour Skittles, I'm going to have some sour.

Speaker 1 11:00

Skittles.