The Eating Itch

A subtle snacking yen passes through my brain bundled together with worry-layered assumptions, contemplations to ponder and wild disconnected notions. I give the yen a moment’s too long consideration. It takes this as personal endorsement, detaches from the rest, and travels down to settle in my upper abdominal area.

Cozying into a space a bit below but under my sternum, the snacking yen now mutates from a simple passing thought into a prickling sensation. With each pulsing jab, the snacking yen sends its droning chant of “nibble, nosh, munch, chew,” back up to my brain to swallow any other thoughts. The irritation in my body now has my full attention. The snacking yen has transformed into the Eating Itch.

The Eating Itch often doesn’t care whether the urge to scratch is answered with the scrape of a salty pretzel going down my throat or the grazing bite of a high sugar sweet aching in my stomach. The Eating Itch just wants the hankering to be soothed.

If I could only reach down my throat, find that one bitsy spot and give it a good rubbing, my hips and thighs would be much slimmer, my mind much clearer without the chanting in my head and my mood much brighter from less judgment about every morsel I put in my mouth. But since scratching an itch inside isn’t as simple as attending to a mosquito bite on my arm, I’m looking for alternative answers.

I understand enough about myself to know that most times my Eating Itch has nothing to do with hunger but is a result of nervous energy about something I’m passionate about, scared to face or that I’m unhappy with a choice I’ve made.

Making that distinction is key for me. If my nervous energy comes from fear about the future or about my past then taking that power and increasing my activity by taking a walk or dancing around the living room to turned up Aretha Franklin, will reassure my urge that it has a purpose, without adding extra calories to my diet.

But sometimes when I’m high on a developing new passion or celebrating the happiness of just being me and the Eating Itch is tickling away to the joy beat of my pounding heart, the salty sweet mix of dark chocolate covered pretzels is the perfect scratch.