By Jennifer R. Scott | Updated February 15, 2014 Emotional eating can be a di£cult challenge when you are trying to lose weight. It’s a di£cult habit to break once it’s a part of your life, but by understanding what causes it and nding ways to cope that don’t involve food, you can overcome it. Read on to learn how to prevent and Prevent and Cope with Emotional Eating Before you can learn to cope with emotional eating, you must rst understand what it is. As the name implies, emotional eating is characterized by repeatedly eating in response to feelings rather in response to hunger to gain physical nourishment. Emotional eaters often consume large amounts of food at one sitting, which is sometimes referred to as a binge. Understand the Emotional Cues Many emotional eaters eat in response to ve common cues, which include boredom, loss of control and anger. Only you can know if these cues prompt you to eat emotionally: Eating a snack a few times a week because you are bored may not be a problem; eating a container of ice cream each time you’re angry probably is. Understanding these cues and learning how to choose another response — such as exercising to release pent-up anger —will help you end the cycle of eating in response to these feelings. Identify Your Triggers While many emotional eaters share cues in common, there may be certain feelings or situations that trigger you to eat that do not aect someone else. One of the best ways to understand your own personal emotional eating triggers is to keep a “food and feelings” food diary. In it, you simply record what you eat and how you were feeling before, during and after your binge. Stress Aects Your Eating Habits Stress is one of the most common reasons that women in particular overeat. Stress is alleviated by eating certain foods and many women get in the habit of reducing tension by enjoying these foods rather than dealing with the source of their tension. By creating self-care skills that allow you to identify non-food solutions to tension-causing situations, you will be much less likely to cope with emotional eating. What is Emotional Eating?
(Please note: Extreme feelings of hopelessness are typical of chronic depression. Please talk to a mental health professional if you nd yourself feeling perpetually hopeless.) Lack of Control You think: My life is out of control. ere is nothing in it that I am in charge of. Everyone and everything around me rules my life. Except for eating…I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want it. So I will. Feeling Unappreciated Perhaps you’ve accomplished something exceptional at work and no one has noticed. Or maybe you’ve made a personal achievement you’d dreamed of for years. But no one at home shares your pride. You nd yourself tempted to congratulate yourself by “treating” yourself to a binge. Boredom ere’s nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Perhaps you feel lonely, too. ere’s nothing at home to occupy your mind or your hours. But there is a pantry full of comfort food that will kill some of that empty time. If you t into any one of these ve proles, try sitting down with a piece of paper and brainstorming to nd alternative behaviors to eating. You may be surprised at the solutions you come up with…and at just how well they work once you try them. en, write your ideas on notecards and post them where you will see them in your moment of need — how about on the refrigerator door or next to the pantry? Accepting why you eat the way you do can be a big step towards breaking the cycle of emotional eating.
eat emotionally after a stressful day. Let Go of All or Nothing inking
All or nothing thinking means you feel like you must do something perfectly or you should not do it at all. We often are either “on” our diets or “o ” of them. e sense of failure this brings can cause negative emotions that in turn trigger a binge. By allowing yourself the freedom to face every day as a fresh start and see every decision as independent of the one before it, you may nd emotional eating is much easier to avoid.
5 Common Emotional Eating Cues
By Jennifer R. Scott | Updated February 15, 2014
Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food — usually “comfort” or junk foods — in response to feelings instead of hunger. Some of the common emotional eating cues are: Anger Whether you’re angry at yourself, another person or a situation, you stiªe your feelings using food rather than confronting them and releasing them. It’s easier to smother a problem than to
deal with it. Hopelessness
You think: Nothing really matters anyway. Nothings ever going to change or get better for me. So, why should I care about my health or weight? Besides, eating makes me feel better.
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