Emotional Eating

We are all living in a fast and sometimes stressful society and for many people food can be a great release and comfort. Are you feeding an emotion? Is your emotional eating partly to blame for your weight problem? Let’s talk about this today…

Slim people stay naturally slim because they rarely use food as a way of feeling better. Many people overeat for lots of reasons not just because they are hungry but also when feeling upset, bored, frustrated, angry, lonely and even when happy. Emotions are a vital link to how you act and react, especially when it comes to food for example, you’ve had a fight with your spouse and you feel bad. Chocolate is something that might be grabbed and eaten in excess in the hope that it will make you feel better. Well, at least that’s what you think but in fact it does the opposite.

If you can relate to what I am talking about you then are probably using food to soothe the soul, to de-stress your day and to help relax you when feeling overwhelmed. I used to do this all the time and it showed. I was hitting the scales at 100 kilos and would shove food down my throat to help try to heal my unhappiness with myself. If you do this too then you are probably looking to food for all the wrong reasons. I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how we react to it. With the right type of attitude you can overcome any obstacle, especially food, even if it seems a good idea at the time you know that soon afterwards you will be left feeling guilty and regretful.

If you can change the relationship you have with food and take control of your eating habits you will find it so much easier to lose weight and also to maintain it as well.

Here are some tips:

1)     Make your pantry and fridge safe zones. When feeling emotional you know you will find it hard to resist foods that aren’t ideal when they are easy to access.

2)     Instead of eating when unhappy or feeling emotional look at what is going on in your day and look at non food solutions such as calling a friend or going out and taking your mind off whatever is bothering you.

3)     Counseling is a great option. Talking with someone who isn’t family can really help to sort through why you feel the need to eat when you know you aren’t actually hungry. Better to talk about how you feel than use food to push the feelings further down.

4)     Be your own best friend and use loving, kind words to talk yourself out of overeating.

5)     Make sure you don’t have really long gaps between meals, snacking is a great way to keep your insulin levels balanced and your energy up as well. Having said this, choose wisely when you snack and make sure you select food that will be nourishing for your body.

When in doubt say to yourself "what would a healthy person do right now" and just do it. If you feel hungry ask yourself am I actually hungry or am I eating because I am feeling emotional?

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