Emotional eating ? stop it

Posted by juanoliv3 on September 7th, 2015

 Emotional eating is when you consume food, especially unhealthy kinds, with the purpose of solving emotional problems and not because you are hungry. Everyone eats for comfort once in a while, it is normal, but the bad news is that these small doses can turn into habits and they can be highly dangerous, as subconsciously you will always have cravings when you feel bad, instead of dealing with problems or finding solutions in another way. Such habits lead to gaining weight, making you feel bad, guilty, instead of bringing comfort and soothing the situation. Once you learn how to stop emotional eating, you will be able to feel better about yourself in many ways.

To begin with, it is important to establish if you are emotional eating and if you truly have a problem. Think about the times you are eating, if it is when you are truly hungry, when it has been more than 3 hours since you had a meal, when you feel low in energy and such. Afterwards, you don’t feel happy with the food you eat and you can’t seem to find something that makes you feel full. Cravings usually appear when there are certain emotions in discussion, when you feel stressed, sad, unhappy, when you feel anxious, even when you are bored. At one point, you don’t even taste the food you are eating; you don’t enjoy it in a particular manner, just that you are eating it, like it happens when you have snacks when watching TV.

In case you feel some of the situations apply to you, then you are confronting with emotional eating. It is hard to realise it, but once you do, you have to learn how to stop emotional eating until it becomes part of your life and a regular habit that is harder and harder to let go to. Food brings us comfort due to many reasons, because it distracts us from problems we are having, because we think food is the solution and can ease pain, because it is more convenient to eat than take actions and make a change, and even biologically. When the body is stressed, cortisol hormone appears which usually makes people crave sweets and unhealthy foods, carbohydrates.

The key to how to stop emotional eating is to “train” your brain in order to find another ways to unwind and methods for comfort that are not related to food. It takes some practice and support, but it can be done, as you can find successful ways to calm yourself. Emotional eating usually appears when you are unaware of it, since it is unconscious and it happens immediately. There are a few methods that have proven to be successful, such as finding support, keeping a journal where you put down when you feel the need to eat or snack, notice the patterns, even getting in touch with a weight loss coach and such.

It is important to find the method that works best for you and the one you can stick to. Unfortunately, it happens in many occasions for people to be rigorous at the beginning and after a while, to give in to cravings. When this happens, you lose control and you are back to where you started. This pattern has to be broken for good.

Don’t feel hopeless if you are facing emotional eating habits. This coach can tell you more about how to stop emotional eating and help you reach your lifestyle goals.