The Somatic Solution by Jane McMiller

The 9 Key Steps for Emotional Eating Recovery to Find Peace with Food

Part of Emotional Eating Recovery Series

Unlock the Secret to Emotional Eating Recovery!

Do you find yourself in a never-ending battle with cravings, constantly at war with food and your own body? You're not alone. Many of us use food as a coping mechanism to deal with emotional ups and downs. But what if there was a better way to navigate emotions and break free from the cycle of emotional eating?

The Somatic Solution is a transformative roadmap for building your inner strength and overcoming emotional eating once and for all. With practical guidelines to develop a healthier relationship with food, this book enables you to take charge of your emotions and eat without guilt—truly savoring every bite.

Qualified psychotherapist and somatic embodiment coach Jane McMiller has guided countless individuals toward holistic well-being and a world free of emotional eating. Combining over 20 years of experience and professional expertise, her personal journey, and extensive research, Jane offers you a must-read in a soon-to-be transformative emotional eating recovery series. This first installment is all about experiencing a deep internal transformation and fostering a healthier relationship with yourself. Ready to learn how?

The Somatic Solution holds all the answers you've been looking for and more:

• A comprehensive introduction to emotional eating: Understand how it differs from attuned eating, identify your emotional triggers, and confidently navigate your emotional landscape.
• A powerful method to connect with your true self: Embrace wholeness and listen to your body's true needs.
• Practical techniques to manage social eating: Learn how to easily handle emotional eating in social situations.
• The willpower myth unraveled: Gain insights into your body’s responses and dispel common misconceptions about willpower.
• Simple guided somatic practices: Achieve lasting internal shifts through powerful mind-body integration and emotional healing.
• Powerful and cathartic somatic exercises: Overcome shame and guilt, nurture body appreciation, and cultivate self-love.
• A comprehensive and personalized workbook: Engage in interactive and constructive activities that will help you on your journey to recovery.
• Effective and introspective prompts: Identify your core beliefs, triggers, and inner voice, and learn all about your food associations as you inch closer to self-harmony.
• Nine dynamic steps for lasting change: Implement mindfulness, resolve your internal tug of war, embrace authenticity, apply self-compassion, and deal with relapses effectively.

Whether you're struggling with binge eating or restrictive eating or simply wanting to re-establish a healthy relationship with food, the tools in this profound guide will empower you to become a mindful eater, manage emotions with resilience, and make more unshackled choices.

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Excerpt from The Somatic Solution © Copyright 2025 Jane McMiller

CHAPTER 1
LET’S BEGIN WITH THE BASICS

I used to spend hours upon hours wondering and questioning why I always turned to food for comfort. Whether I was feeling overwhelmed, anxious, scared, sad, excited, or anything in between, I wanted food to be there with me. It was a way to avoid the real problem, whatever that was at the moment. I was doing something. I was taking my mind off my worries, doubts, and fears. Food became my crutch, and only after I understood why I did this was I able to move forward.

Emotional eating works in this vicious cycle of getting triggered, turning to emotional eating, feeling guilty and ashamed, and repeating. If we want to heal from emotional eating, we need to find a way to stop that cycle, and I believe the best way to do that is by peeking back the layers and focusing on understanding your personal emotional eating experience.

In this chapter, we’re going to dive deep into the heart of emotional eating, shedding light on what it is, why it happens, and how it’s intricately woven into our emotions, stress, and coping mechanisms. Together, we’ll explore the underlying causes of emotional eating, many of which may have been buried deep within your subconscious for years, and unveil the role of stress and how it can trigger those late-night trips to the pantry or the desire for comfort food. But overcoming emotional eating is not just about understanding why you’ve turned to emotional eating—it’s about recognizing the impact it has on your overall well-being. Emotional eating can take a toll on both your physical and mental health, affecting not just your body but your self-esteem, too. It’s essential to acknowledge all of the consequences so that you can reclaim control over your life and find more helpful and effective ways to cope with your emotions.

At the end of this chapter, you’ll have the opportunity to take what you’ve learned and put it to practice by making use of the workbook exercises. Allow me to let you in on a secret: The success of this journey is entirely up to you. It doesn’t matter if I have the best advice in the world; if you don’t apply it practically, what will change? I know that it can be daunting, but this journey is about liberation, not deprivation. By making use of the workbook exercises, you’re taking another powerful step toward complete food freedom! Doesn’t that sound worth it? You are worth freedom and healing, so take your time as you work through these exercises. Take your time as we shine a light on what’s been really holding you back and preventing your food freedom. With that being said, let’s jump straight into defining emotional eating and finally understanding the difference between that and eating that nourishes and edifies rather than tears you down.

DEFINING EMOTIONAL EATING

In order to understand emotional eating, there is one fundamental truth that we need to address right now: Emotional eating stems from emotional hunger, not physical hunger. So often, as emotional eaters, we begin to fear physical hunger because we are scared that it will lead to an emotional eating episode. But the truth is that physical hunger isn’t the culprit. Emotional eating is. Sure, both physical and emotional hunger involve the desire to eat, but emotional hunger and physical hunger are worlds apart. Physical hunger is our body’s way of saying it needs fuel, signaled by gradual sensations such as growling stomachs and low energy. It’s satisfied by nourishing meals and leaves you feeling comfortably full. Emotional hunger, on the other hand, is driven by feelings like stress, boredom, loneliness, or sadness. It craves specific comfort foods, often leading to overeating without true satiety. Recognizing the difference is key to making mindful choices and fostering a healthy relationship with food.

But if emotional hunger leads to emotional eating, what is “normal” eating, also known as attuned or mindful eating? How can we spot the difference? Let’s take a look.

The Difference Between Emotional and Attuned Eating

The most important difference is the source of the hunger. What’s triggered your hunger? Attuned eating comes from physical hunger, meaning your biological cues signal that your body requires fuel to keep going. Similarly, the opposite is true since attuned eating also pays attention to the fullness cues. In other words, you eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. If you’re in the place where I was many years ago, this concept might sound like a myth, but I want you to know that it is possible. Emotional hunger, on the other hand, stems from certain triggers, usually an emotion or feeling that you want to drown out. And, unfortunately, even when you’re full, you will ignore the body’s signals telling you so.

Let’s break down these differences into a simple format.