How to Overcome Emotional Eating
Eating is a part of life. Your body gets its nutrients from food. Sometimes we can go overboard with our eating habits and it can result in gaining weight. One issue with food is emotional eating.
The problem of emotional eating may end with the scale but it begins in the mind. Stress takes its toll on your life. When your defenses are compromised your health takes a hit and so do your emotions.
Everyone has good days and bad days. How we deal with the bad ones brings emotional eating into play. You look for comfort for your hurts. People who turn to food for comfort find a coping mechanism that won’t judge them, hurt them or tell them “no.” To complicate the issue, eating pleasurable foods can stimulate the release of endorphins just like exercise. So, after you eat, you feel better.
Emotional eaters use food to relieve stress. They hide behind the food instead of seeking solutions to the problems. This is not uncommon when the stressor is something horrible such as physical abuse or a death.
But, how do you know you are using food in this way? The first sign is obvious. You will gain weight if you eat too much. In light of the weight gain, examine other areas of your life:
* Have you been under stress lately at work or at home?
* Has anything traumatic happened in the last year?
* Are you dealing with a problem but haven’t found a solution?
Answering “yes” to any of these questions could mean that you are an emotional eater. You eat but you are not necessarily hungry at the time. The foods that you choose are what we term “comfort foods”:
* High fat foods like French fries, fried foods
* High carb foods like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes
* Sugary foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies, cake
There is help for emotional eaters. The first step is recognizing that you have a problem. You’ll experience feelings of helplessness and guilt. The guilt is over potentially ruining your health and the helplessness lies in the fact that you don’t see a way out.
Secondly, seek counseling. There are many types of counselors out there that can meet your need. Emotional eating has nothing to do with dieting or changing your eating habits but gaining control over your emotions.
A counselor might suggest things like visualization, practicing problem solving skills, relaxation techniques and family support. Visualization helps you to see your problems in a realistic way and not blown out of proportion. You will also learn to see food as nutrition for the body and not an emotional crutch.
Thirdly, your family can learn your triggers for stress and be on the lookout for changes in your eating habits. They can help you be aware of the foods you are eating, assist you in making healthy food choices and exercise along with you. Proper diet and exercise increases immunity, blood flow and positive thinking. Yoga enhances the mind/body connection so you don’t eat when you aren’t hungry.
Finding new ways to solve your problems and deal with stress will push food out of the equation. You’ll feel good about finding solutions which will replace the dependence on food.
I am an emotional eater and know that the battle to overcome this is not easy I strongly believe that people need some kind of outside help to overcome this problem, otherwise they will just be repeating there mistakes.
Currently I am trying a online program through http://www.totellwellness.com to help me stop the compulsive eating and binging so far I am liking it and it has open my eyes to how I eat foods and checking my emotional state.
I really enjoy their online videos which go through the exercise programs, it feels as though you have a coach working with you the entire time.
I don’t think there is a person on earth that is overweight that doesn’t have an emotional eating disorder. It’s called self-medicating.
It’s how addictions are built. Pain pills, illegal drugs, alcohol or food, it’s the same. It’s a form of helping yourself in an unhealthy way.
I am definitely an emotional eater. I battle it a lot. I win some, I lose some, but I win more when I recognize my eating.
I have to admit that I am a huge emotional eater. Especially when I am depressed or bored. I’ve learned to keep carrots close so that I can crunch on them instead of reaching for a bowl of cereal.
I have definitely found it helpful to keep fruits and vegetables cleaned and cut into servings so it’s easier to grab and I’ll be less likely grab that unhealthy snack. Also getting those unhealthy foods out of the house that I turn to on an emotional day fixes the option to grab them.
As far as emotional easting is concerned,identifying eating triggers is the first step; however, this alone is not sufficient to alter eating behavior. Usually, by the time you have identified a pattern, eating in response to emotions or certain situations has become a habit. Now you have to break that habit.
Emotional eating is eating as a way to suppress or soothe negative emotions, such as stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness and loneliness. Both major life events and the hassles of daily life can trigger negative emotions that lead to emotional eating and disrupt your weight-loss efforts.