2021: A Year in Review
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

  • Voices
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Members
    • Covenant Partners
    • Issue Statements
    • Governing Board
    • Careers
  • Programs
    • NC Interfaith Power & Light
      • NCIPL Overview
      • Faith in Action NCIPL
      • NCIPL Articles
      • NCIPL Resources
      • Upcoming Events for NCIPL
      • Contact NCIPL
    • Partners in Health & Wholeness
      • PHW Staff
      • Mini-Grants
      • PHW Collaborative Pledge
      • The Overdose Crisis: The Faith Community Responds
      • Mental Health Advocacy
      • BIPOC Mental Health Grant
      • Growing Communities of Inclusion: A Faithful Response to HIV
      • Healthy Aging
      • Citizen Science
      • PHW Articles
      • FAQs
  • Priorities
    • Racial Justice
    • The Overdose Crisis: The Faith Community Responds
    • Gun Violence Prevention
    • Criminal Justice
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Public Education
    • Farmworkers
    • Legislative Advocacy
    • Christian Unity
    • Peace
  • Events
  • Resources
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Publications & Reports
    • Raleigh Report
    • Lectionary
    • Sermons
  • Donate
  • Council Store
  • Show Search

Search NC Council of Churches

Hide Search

Emotional Eating During the Holidays

Joy Williams, Former PHW Regional Coordinator · December 3, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I have to admit that the Eat Smart, Move More’s Holiday Challenge to maintain and not gain has been weighing on me…no pun intended. I sometimes emotionally eat during the holidays. I do it because I miss my grandmother and certain dishes remind me of her. I understand that others who are experiencing this season may not enjoy the holidays at all and are likely to emotionally eat as well.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, I sat down to eat at different tables. And I kept thinking, easy Joy, just eat enough. But I couldn’t. I finally discovered why emotional eating patterns are so hard to break during a visit with my uncle on Thanksgiving Day. He had baked a ham along with warm biscuits. I was preparing to leave when he asked, “Joy, do you want to take some with you on the road?” My heart skipped a beat. He reminded me so much of my grandmother, his mother, who had passed in June of 2010. This was our second Thanksgiving meal without her, and those were always her departing words, too. Whatever she cooked, whatever she had, she would say, “I love you, call me when you get there, and do you want to take some with you on the road?”

In honor of her, I accepted my uncle’s invitation to take some ham and biscuits for the road. The first bite was in nostalgia of my sweet, late grandmother. With the second and third bites, I relished in the delicious taste. And then I continued to eat, mostly because it was there. By the time I finished, it dawned on me that I had just emotionally eaten. I wasn’t hungry, but everything on my plate was now gone. Oops.

Despite all the reasons to feel guilty about my over-indulgence, I felt somewhat justified because I was with family and friends, and I had prayed over the food and myself. It made me connect to the feasts of the Old and New Testaments, when food was bountiful. It was a time to indulge in company, dance, food and wine. It was a time of celebration. I’m not justifying emotional eating, but rather, I’m pointing out that during this holiday season, there are emotions we each need to be aware of and then work to address.

It is important for those of us who follow Christ to take a stand for health. Health is more than just “maintaining” your weight; it is also indulging in the bountifulness of God’s goodness and grace with natural foods that God provides. Examples of God’s goodness and grace through food might be home-baked bread from non-processed ingredients or ham from a local pig that was not injected with hormones or fed a GMO diet.

God also cares about our emotions, intending for us to rely on God’s grace and truth for comfort.  However, we sometimes fail to acknowledge this and may turn to food to fill an emotional void. But during our times of weakness, let us remember that God has already claimed the victory.  We can take this opportunity to indulge in God’s goodness and grace through food by paying particular attention to the foods we provide for ourselves and our loved ones. It is important to take the extra steps to provide wholesome foods–foods that God has provided. So I continue to challenge myself, and you, to provide natural, wholesome choices for people to indulge in this holiday season.

–Joy Williams, PHW Regional Consultant

Partners in Health and Wholeness is an initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches. PHW aims to connect health as a faith issue. Please visit our website to sign your personal pledge to be healthier, and to find out about grant opportunities for churches in NC.

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Food, Health, Mental Health

About Joy Williams, Former PHW Regional Coordinator

I am passionate about health and faith. Children, families, and elders have my deepest love and concern, and I've cultivated a heart for dance, plants, cooking, water, chilling with great friends, and talking about the matters of the heart. I love the Lord and seek to bring myself and others closer to The King Most High.
Learn more about PHW and our efforts to improve the health of God’s people: healthandwholeness.org

Reader Interactions

More Like This

Because of Jesus
Partners in Health and Wholeness Mini-Grant Cycle Now Open
Politics of Eating

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Anonymous comments or comments that target individuals will not be posted (please include your first and last name). All comments must be on topic and respectful. Comments will not be posted until they have been reviewed by a moderator. Comments do not reflect the positions of the NC Council of Churches.

Footer

Contact

NC Council of Churches
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org

Facebook

Partners in Health and Wholeness

Featured

Emotional Eating During the Holidays

Latest Tweets

Our @healthandfaith initiative is accepting mini-grant applications! If your faith community would like to implement a program or initiative to support your congregation’s health ministry and its mission, we encourage you to apply! More info at the link: ncchurches.org/progr… pic.twitter.com/EWJz…

About 36 minutes ago

RT @RasuShrestha We grieve and are mortified by the staggering number of mass shootings and other acts of violence with guns in our country. We need action, not just thoughts & prayers. Sign the petition now if you agree: ✅change.org/p/interfa… #GunControlNow pic.twitter.com/hx2O…

About 2 hours ago

Are you passionate about the health and wellbeing of North Carolina communities? Then apply for a job with our Partners in Health and Wholeness as the Engagement and Program Administrator! ncchurches.org/2022/… pic.twitter.com/0Q7Y…

Yesterday

The U.S. Supreme Court, as if rushing to settle old grievances, in recent weeks has thrashed about in a virtual frenzy of “originalism” – never mind the consequences for America’s civic well-being. ncchurches.org/2022/…

About 2 days ago

Faith Leaders! Last chance to apply this training! Learn to incorporate suicide prevention programming into your congregation’s activities. Apply at the link! ncivpb.iad1.qualtric… pic.twitter.com/vFmT…

About 2 days ago

Follow @ncchurches

Latest Tweets

Greetings! Be sure to stop by our table at the Western NC Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church at Lake Junaluska this weekend! We hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/30bk…

About 3 weeks ago

Hello twitter family! Be sure to stop by our table at the NC Conference of the United Methodist Church in Greenville, NC starting today! We hope to see you there! pic.twitter.com/l6X3…

About 3 weeks ago

Our mini grant cycle is now open!!! pic.twitter.com/eyRp…

About a month ago

RT @faithleadership Faith coalitions are addressing the opioid crisis by providing resources, connections and a destigmatizing vision. lght.ly/45iam80 Featuring: @okconfchurches | @ODMHSASINFO | @healthandfaith | @ncchurches | @DukeTMCI | @shannon_fleck

About a month ago

Join us for Sacred Conversations: Older Adults - Fraud & Scams on Friday, June 24th from 11 AM to 12 PM and learn to recognize common scams targeted towards older adults and how to protect yourself and those in your faith communities. ncchurches.ourpowerb…

About 2 months ago

Follow @healthandfaith

Latest Tweets

RT @mocleanair A new study found hundreds of toxins in natural gas from residential sites, including toluene and benzene in 94-95% of samples. Read more, call ALL your elected leaders for just clean energy: ow.ly/ICTi50JKSug @GCVoters @scennetwork1 @uscan @enviRN @docsforclimate @CEHN

Last week

RT @GeorgiaIPL The Supreme Court’s ruling limits the EPA’s ability to set the strong standards needed to cut carbon pollution and tackle the climate crisis. We can’t afford to stop fighting climate change. pic.twitter.com/XTC7…

Last week

RT @scennetwork1 Join us for Season 2 of @CJYpodcast! We spoke to Catherine Coleman Flowers, one of the founding mothers of Environmental Justice from the South, about the lessons learned from her activism with the civil rights movement to the modern EJ movement. #SouthernVoices #CJY #Podcast pic.twitter.com/TzEr…

Last week

RT @scennetwork1 We thank everyone who joined us for our first in-person convening since the pandemic started! We had a fantastic time and had over 30 organizations from the Southeast represented!🎉 pic.twitter.com/1KYc…

Last week

RT @scennetwork1 We made the news last week! NC Faith Leaders Call on the U.S. to Pay 'Fair Share' for Climate-Related Loss! Read the full article here: publicnewsservice.or… pic.twitter.com/nltj…

Last week

Follow @ncipl

Latest Tweets

Copyright © 2022 NC Council of Churches · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design · Hosted by WP Engine