Tragedy = An Emotional Eater

Yesterday there was tragedy in my new city, Yellowknife, the place I now call home. A Twin Otter float plane crashed in to a parking lot in Old Town and the two pilots that were flying the plane passed away and the seven passengers were injured.  I’ve only been here for four months but Yellowknife is a very small community that is very close and tight-knit and everyone knows everyone or has a connection to someone. I did not know the people on the plane personally, but I do know many people who knew both pilots and some of the other passengers and I was there when they received the news of their passing.  It was devastating!

I’m an emotional person but for the most part I keep things bottled up and to myself.  I have my own ways of dealing with things which most of the time involves food (and sometimes booze).  I’ve lost close friends in the past and I always react the same way and even though I didn’t know these people who lost their lives yesterday, it did affect me emotionally and I’ve been feeling down in the dumps about it ever since.  Seeing my friends today and seeing how they’re trying to deal with the loss of their friends and trying to be supportive for them and then remembering how it felt to lose those people who were close to me, it just makes for a hard time and a lot of feelings and emotions come up.

Last night when I got home from work I didn’t feel like doing much.   I didn’t go to the gym, I didn’t want to cook and I didn’t want to go anywhere, so I popped a pizza in the oven and proceeded to eat the entire thing which made me actually realize that I’m an emotional eater.  I’m not sure why my feelings trigger my unhealthy actions and cravings but they do.  Today hasn’t been much better.  I don’t want to go to the gym, I don’t want to eat healthy and I’m pretty sure I’m going to pound back a few beers when I get home.

I know I have the right to feel sad and down but I don’t want it to undo all my hard work that I’ve done in the past few weeks to get myself to where I am now.  I’m not sure what to do. So instead of giving advice today, I’m looking for it.  What do you do when you’re sad or down or tragedy strikes? Do you not care about your diet and exercise? Do you keep going?

Any help or advice would be great.

And please, take a moment to think about those you’ve lost in your life and say a prayer for the friends and family of the victims of this sad and devastating incident in Yellowknife.