Emotional eating is a common in both men and women. Emotional eating simply means you eat to make your feel better.
It is a way we have chose to deal with problems or emotions we don’t wish to talk about.
How can you tell the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger? Physical hunger is when your stomach lets you know it’s hungry and once you eat you feel satisfied, full. Emotional eating is when you are constantly eating, you never feel full.
Now, if whenever we felt this hunger we ate fruits or vegetables it wouldn’t be so bad but no, we eat fatty, salty or sugary snacks. We want comfort food, that is what makes us feel good or we think it does. We believe that eating is actually helping us soothe the pain, ease the loneliness, suppress the anger, etc and this makes us slip into mindless snacking. We do this all day.
This eating habit gets out of control and you start to gain weight. You try to lose weight and may be able to lose a few pounds. However, since we still are eating due to our emotions, we gain it all back, it becomes a losing battle. How do we deal with this? What can we do to stop eating for the sake of eating? We have to become more mindful of our eating habits.
ARE YOU HUNGRY
When you reach for those chips, cookies, cakes, etc because you are hungry, first ask yourself are you truly hungry. How many times have you gotten up to get something to eat? Listen to your body and try to notice if you are eating because you are hungry or simply bored. By doing this, you will stop yourself from eating constantly and stop the mindless eating.
EMOTIONS
When you notice that you are eating for the sake of eating, at that point and time, try to figure out why you are hungry again. It may be hard to ask yourself this question because the reason we are eating is so that we don’t want to deal with those emotions. But by facing them, it will help you curb those emotional hunger pangs. Allow you to deal with your emotions in a different way.
EAT AT THE TABLE
A good way to get away from eating constantly is to start eating at the table. Don’t eat while you are watching TV. Stop eating in your bed or the sofa. By eating at the same place all the time, this will also help you stop emotional eating.
CRAVINGS
If you crave cookies, then eat a cookie. By depriving yourself of what you want, you will end up eating ten times more than you would have eaten the first time around. The trick is to eat what you want but don’t overdo it. Depriving your cravings constantly can eventually lead to emotional eating because you just don’t care at that point.
MOVE AROUND
So you feel hungry again, what were you doing when you decided to eat again? Were you just sitting around, lying in bed or watching TV? Then start moving around, find something to do. A good way to fight emotional cravings is to keep busy. Start up a hobby that will take up your time. Go for a walk, exercise or clean around the house, do anything that keeps you moving. Next thing you know, your hunger pangs have gone away.
JOURNAL
Keep a journal, every time you get up and eat, write it down. This journal is for you, no one will see it so be honest with yourself. By being honest, this will help you change your eating habits. Jot down if you ate every hour, two hours and how much you ate, what you ate, everything you can think of and of course, what happened during the day. After all this, if you notice you can’t seem to stop eating then maybe you should find other ways to help yourself. You can join a support group, where you can share with others your struggle. This allows you to see that you are truly not alone in your fight, there are others.
If you want something more personal then talk to your friends. Talking to someone about your problems, how you feel, just venting can help relieve a lot of the stress and sadness that you may be bottling up. Remember, you have been eating so much because you are suppressing your true feelings.
While you are trying to fight this battle, keep those unhealthy snacks out of the house. Keep fruits, vegetables, healthy food in stock. This way if you are still eating too much, at least you are eating healthier foods until you can control your eating.
Last but not least, seek professional help. Sometimes it’s hard to tell friends or family members how you truly feel. At times, we just don’t feel that they really don’t understand us. Even though support groups are good, we aren’t always ready and feel a bit out of place sharing our struggles with strangers. Going to a therapist is at times easier; it’s one on one, more private. No matter which option you choose, the most important thing to do is face your problems.
When you finally notice what triggers your emotional hunger pangs, it will be easier to deal with and you will be able to curb your appetite. You will be thankful and much happier. Not only that, but any weight you have gained you will be able to get rid of it because you no longer have the desire to eat just because it’s there.