You don’t give power to an emotion when you are able to face and deal with it. Oftentimes when going through infertility treatments, it’s hard to be in touch with all the feelings you are feeling. Add on the emotions from the medications you are pumping yourself up with and it can be a recipe for disaster.
One sign you are NOT dealing is emotional eating. I mean plenty of people deal with stress by over drinking and perhaps doing drugs but thank goodness most of us know that neither of those options are smart during this time.
If I’m being honest with myself, I have been an emotional eater my whole life. I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember because of it. I never realized what a hold it had over me until recently.
So we all know that infertility meds can cause water weight gain but it typically goes away once you are off them. I used the infertility diagnosis as an excuse to eat my feelings. After all I deserved to eat because my baby making was so severely challenged. The 25 pounds that I had gained going through the process was my fault not the drugs.
Then, once I was pregnant, the 70 or so pounds I gained was not due to the Progesterone shots. It was due to the McDonalds and shamrock shakes I ate constantly. Again, covering my worry that something would go wrong once I had finally fallen pregnant.
I get it, the process is a struggle on so many levels. You will not get judgment from me if you choose to eat your feelings. In a process with little control I get it! I just want to put this on your radar and hopefully help you prevent making some of the mistakes that I made.
I will warn you though, people don’t stop being cruel once you do get pregnant. They still say and do stupid things. In that pregnancy that I gained over 70 pounds, I had many people ask me if the dr. was sure if there was only one baby in there. Thanks for intimating that I am a beached whale. It felt great after all I had to do to become pregnant to hear that. I can still see that exchange with a co-worker crystal clear in my mind. Ironically when I was pregnant with my twins those same people questioned that there were two babies in there. You just can’t win!
Next time you feel like you are eating your feelings can you promise me something? Will you at least be honest with yourself? Will you journal? Will you talk to someone you love and trust about how you are feeling? It will be worth it.
