We all eat food!
The problem is that we've learned to associate FOOD with our FEELINGS!
When we're happy, excited, bored, anxious, nervous, stress, lonely, and sad - we EAT!
If you think about it you'll recognize a pattern for your own eating habits. We should be eating to satisfy our physical hunger, but all too often we eat to satisfy our emotions. This is where the problem lies!
Emotional eating is a struggle for many, many people. We need to learn to control our eating habits and thought processes in order to avoid emotional eating.
Unfortunately, when we eat to satisfy our emotions and not our physical hunger, we reach for what we call "comfort foods", which are typically unhealthy - sweets, potato chips, processed foods, chocolate, etc.
You KNOW what your "comfort food" is.
Emotional eating is using food to make you "feel" better, but it doesn't SOLVE the problem that caused the emotional eating. It fills your emotional need rather than your physical need. Typically, you feel even WORSE after eating emotionally, because you have the guilt from eating bad food.
TheTRICK is to recognize your patterns for emotional eating and to retrain your brain and your body to do something different.
First - recognize the pattern in your own life. You need to know the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger.
Emotional hunger - comes on suddenly and needs to be satisfied RIGHT NOW!
Physical hunger - comes on gradually and can wait a little bit before it needs to be satisfied.
Emotional hunger - typically craves specific foods - mostly junk food or what we call "comfort food".
Physical hunger - many different foods will sound appealing to you.
Next - make a food journal to track what you're eating and how you feel at that time. This helps you to recognize the patterns in your eating/drinking habits.
Emotional eating CANNOT be your primary coping mechanism.
You need to find a NEW way to deal with your emotions.
1. When you feel those emotions, try one of these options instead:
*prayer
*meditation
*call a friend
*quiet time
*take a walk or go for a bike ride
*read a book
*drink a cup of hot tea and relax
*try a new hobby like painting or doing puzzles
*take a nice hot bath
The key is that you need to find something DIFFERENT to do when you feel those emotions, instead of reaching for food.
2. Take a some deep breaths and count to 100 before giving in to an emotional hunger. You CAN get past this craving.
You also need to learn to slow down when you eat the GOOD food. Savour your foods and enjoy them. Think about how you're feeding your body with good things.
Take good care of yourself to help control your emotions! Take time to relax each day. Reduce the stressors in your life. Don't overwhelm yourself. Enjoy your family. Exercise. Eat as healthy as possible. Drink plenty of water. Get plenty of sleep.
Don't let your emotions carry you somewhere you don't want to go.
Get ahold of your emotions and don't let them control you!
You can see this on YouTube as well: https://youtu.be/qs2ndJ-mUqI
Author - Amanda Townes
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