If you're craving fried or starchy food, you may have an emotional eating situation!
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.
Thanks for posting about this, I would like to read more about this topic.
This was a very helpful. Thanks for posting
I’ve got a friend who is the same way. It’s always a struggle but I think that the first key to resolving the issue is identifying the reason behind it which she does. This is a great topic.
Maricris
http://zenforyou.dalefg.net
You know, I didn’t even see Casper’s comment when I made mine (how could I miss that?). Sorry Casper, you had it first!
I am an emotional eater, and tend to eat when I am bored and stressed out, I finally realized this when a friend noted to me that I had almost ate the whole basket of candies at work. I was extremely stressed and it was then that I realized that I needed a little extra help in this issue.
I found this program online
http://www.totellwellness.com? I am currently using their program to help me stop emotional eating & compulsive binging. So far, it’s been working great.
Anyone else have any experience with them?
I really like that they have online videos that help you work through
all the exercises. It helps so you don’t get discouraged. As though
you have someone there to help you through it. They also have personal
coaching options.
Thanks for the info!
-Paula
This is also one of the problems of eating disorder. Some people who have some problems and stressed eat a lot than their normal habit some are not eating because they are stress.
People who considered as emotional eater maybe they have eating disorder. They eat when they feel upset, sad, angry or whatever emotion could a person feel. However, there are tips to overcome such thing. Just be more responsible and try to solve and face the problems.Never take any food when you are upset or anything. Just be disciplined.
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