Emotional Eating
It is a matter of fact that emotional eating is one of the biggest factors in our lives that keeps us from losing the weight that we want to lose. Breaking free from emotional eating will essentially mean that we finally can shed the kilos that seem so attached to us – and once we have conquered emotional eating, it can happen quite without effort, too, because there simply is no need to stuff ourselves with comfort food any more, so the weight starts to come off by itself.
Makes sense, right? Sounds so simple, too. If it just wouldn’t be so very HARD! I don’t know how many of you suffer from emotional eating, but I can count myself into that category fair and square. My first stop is the fridge or the cookie cupboard every time I
- feel sad or depressed
- have no self-esteem
- feel angry
- am bored
- am happy
- am stressed (big time! I have always been a stress eater!)
- feel anxious about something
- am upset or disappointed
Have a look at this list – does that ring a bell? Watch yourself over a period of time and when you go to get some food, just stop and think WHY you are doing this right there and then. See whether you can identify some of your triggers. A healthy diet weight loss is simply not possible as long as we haven’t got our emotional eating under control.
What is “emotional eating”?
Through eating when negative emotions take over we are trying to bring happiness – or a better feeling – back into our life. So emotional eating is nothing but “happiness seeking”. When we have a bad feeling, we go and have some food that makes us feel better (even though it is only temporarily). Unfortunately it usually isn’t apples, strawberries or lettuce that gives us that pleasurable feeling, but chips, chocolate, ice cream, doughnuts, fast food and the likes. They trigger the pleasure centers in our heads and make us feel better. The funny thing is, we KNOW that it will only be very short lived, and we KNOW that we will very much regret it after, but we still do it because we are driven by our emotions and not our head.
How can we break free from emotional eating? Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a quick fix. Because emotions are very different for everybody, and everybody reacts differently to them. Here are two ways of breaking free from emotional eating – they are what I try to do right now, and I am making progress, but I have a long way to go.
- Get counseling. Go and speak to a psychologist. It really helps to talk about the feelings we develop that make us go and stuff ourselves with food. The professionals can help us identify in which situations we turn to food and why. They then can help to work out a plan how to tackle this and turn our negative reaction into something more positive that will help us with our feelings and our weight.
- Change habits. Emotional eating has developed into a habit for many of us. When we feel a certain way, we react a certain way (FOOD! NOW!). When we recognize this, we can consciously and actively try and change the habit every time we feel a food binge coming along. Work out what else you like to do. Listen to your iPod and dance? Scrapbooking? Knitting? Reading or working in the shed? Stop and think before you grab food next time, and consciously choose to do something else that brings you pleasure instead. If we do this often enough, we develop a different “reaction pattern” and start to push food off the #1 spot for making us feel good.
Does that make sense? I am actually seeing a psychologist about my food addiction. I have better and worse weeks, but I have the feeling I am getting better. I feel like I am being equipped with all I need to know and with ways to handle oncoming food splurges. It’s not easy, definitely not, but it is doable, and anybody can do it. Some will take longer (probably I), others will be breaking free from emotional eating faster. It doesn’t matter, as long as we recognize the problem and then work with it to overcome it.
I find I get over emotional eating if I completely focus on something I really love such as power walking or surfing the Web. The worst thing I can do is plop myself down on the couch because the kitchen starts screaming my name right away!
@Sandy, that’s a good tactic, but unfortunately I usually still hear the screams no matter what I do…..
Sounds like something I saw on http://www.fatmatters.com – the psychological deprivation part of strict dieting… I read the free download ebook on that site – made a lot of sense…
Counseling is truly one of the best ways to cope with emotional eating. I had a long-time friend who went to counseling for this exact reason, and came out of it raving about how much her counselor helped her. She admits that she still has bouts with emotional eating, but it’s a whole lot easier for her to resist the urge…
With that said, I’m feeling a little lonely right now, and I’m wishing I had an ice cream sandwich in my freezer…
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Well, thank God you didn’t have one – or did you go for something else???
WOW! Your list hits on all the reasons for my emotional eating. I’m still not so sure I want to be talking to a shrink soon about my frustrations. lol
I also had problems with emotional eating, there were times when I simply felt the need and had to eat something to feel warm and good. My solution was to drink tea instead of eating something and tea surprisingly has the same satisfactory effect on my body. Now I even replaced coffee with tea and I feel even better.
What great advice here! I think I will try drinking tea as well!
Counseling is great – you just have to make sure that you find one that is knowledgeable in the area of emotional eating, since many are not. I also like the tea idea, since hot liquids tend to register as food in the body. They are more satisfying. Soup works too!
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You mention chips, chocolate, ice cream, doughnuts, fast food. These are high processed refine carbohydrates and sugar. Sounds like you have a problem with low blood sugar or you need more serotonin or both.
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I can relate to this- reaching out for the remote and bag of crisps when I got bored. The key is moderation.
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Hello Petra…..great topic!
One of the things that has helped me a lot with emotional eating is asking my self a better question. When I get tempted, especially around pizza my nemesis, I just ask myself “is it more important to me to eat this pizza right now or is it more important to me to get down to X amount of weight by X date? My brain knows the right answer even if my stomach does not.
Also every morning when I put my keys and my cell phone in my pocket I also have an index card I put in my pocket that just says the weight I want to be at and a date. That way I can pull it out when ever I have a moment during the day and focus on it….
Along with the weight loss program I am following these have been a big help for me….
Nice blog by the way!
Peter, thank you so much for these great tips on how to conquer your emotional eating! I think too that you will be more likely to succeed with breaking bad eating habits if you stop and think for a moment before you “do it” – this can stop the mindless eating before it even begins.