Having once eaten my way up to 240 pounds and a sized 22, I ate for many reasons that had nothing to do with body hunger. This issue is becoming even more common in our culture of food abundance, advertising, and processed foods designed to hijack our brain chemistry.

Although both sexes can struggle with eating too much, I'm gearing this article toward women simply because I've heard their stories most often through emails.

Here are the top 10 reasons women eat too much, gleaned from my emails over the 10 years I've had Take Back Your Temple online (in no particular order):

1. Permissible Self Care

You may feel guilty or that it is selfish to take time for yourself. You've become so busy taking care of everyone that you put yourself on the shelf. So food becomes a way to "rest" and make yourself feel special without feeling guilty - at least temporarily.

2. Emotional Novocaine

Food becomes a way to numb yourself to uncomfortable feelings, such as anger, anxiety, stress, boredom, depression or frustration.

3. The Food is There

Leftovers are calling you from the kitchen or you are over-enthusiastic in "tasting" the food you are preparing. Before you know it, you've grabbed a little bit of this and that until you have consumed the equivalent calories in a meal.

4. Last Supper Eating

 If you are a diet veteran, then you are probably very familiar with "Last Supper" eating (also known as "Get while the getting is good"). You are so accustomed to going on diets that you tell yourself that you better eat up your favorite "goodie" because you won't be allowed to have it ever again.

5. Relationship Building

Food becomes a way you show love to others. After I got married, I found myself gaining weight. I discovered a simple reason for it. I had started fixing my portion sizes larger unconsciously. It was because I was cooking for my husband and preparing his plate as well, matching my portion sizes to his! He is a big guy and I'm a petite woman, so no wonder I was getting bigger eating as much as he was. To deal with the issue, I asked him to prepare his own plate or when I prepared his plate, I was careful to fix the portion size appropriate for my size.

6. Something to Do

Eating becomes a habit that you do when you are bored or you use it as a form of procrastination. You use it as a delaying tactic to avoid an activity that you view as painful, either consciously or unconsciously.

7. Food Insecurity

You may have experienced hunger as a child if your parent had difficulty putting food on the table. The official name for this one is "food insecurity." Deep down, you are afraid of experiencing insecurity from lack of food again, so you overeat as an insurance policy.

8.It's New and Improved

Food becomes a form of excitement. I experienced this one on vacation last year. When you travel, do you anticipate eating food you've never eaten before (new food) or eating familiar food, but prepared a new way (improved food)? This can also happen when you attend a new restaurant or want to try a new food item advertised on television. The fear of scarcity is behind this one: "If I don't eat it now, I may never get the opportunity to eat it again."

9. It's Free

You can be vulnerable to eating too much at church dinners, banquets, family holiday dinners, or eating out on an employer expense account. Since you are not paying for it, you want to eat as much as you can to take full advantage of the freebie.

10. Bottomless Food Pits

Have you ever had the experience of sitting down to watch T.V. with a bag of buttered popcorn or potato chips in hand, and then found yourself reaching into an empty bag a short while later? If so, then you fell into a bottom-less food pit. It's keeping a large serving in front of you, eating mindlessly until it is gone.

I wrote this article to make you aware of the many environmental cues that can tempt you to eat when you aren't hungry. In that way, you can seek wisdom as to effective ways to handle them.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him (James 1:5)."

Be blessed in Health, Healing, and Wholeness,