Stop Emotional Eating
if food has become your go-to drug to escape from
reality and you don't know how to stop this destructive behavior o emotional
eating then you might want to listen to what we have to say. in this article
we're going to give you seven simple tips to say goodbye to emotional eating
once and for all.
but before
we do that let's clear some misconceptions about emotional eating first.
emotional eating is the behaviour of reaching out to food to soothe negative
feelings and emotions like guilt, anger, resentment, stress, worry, anxiety,
disappointment etc. the main reason behind this behaviour is the same as for any
other addiction.
Dopamine is
the feel good hormone. when we eat good tasting food especially sugars dopamine
is released which is associated with a temporary good feeling, negative
emotions trigger bad feeling and who wants to remain in a bad mood.
some turn to drugs, others to alcohol and many turn
to food. this is a bad habit and it can only ruin our health. but lead to even
more misery down the road as not only do the negative feelings return after a
short while they intensify.
so emotional eating is bad and it's not a permanent
solution to the problem. most people realize this and yet they can't stop. the
power of addiction is that strong. you need to first internalize this belief
that you are stronger than these cravings and you can get over anything that
life throws at you that being said.
let's look at seven tips that can help you out on this journey of getting rid of emotional eating for good
No 1. nip the evil in the bud
first things first, honestly evaluate your current
situation. first identify whether you actually have an emotional eating problem
or you just eat too much too often. emotional eating as we said is the
unhealthful habit of eating to overcome some bad feeling or emotion.
if you can link your bad eating habits with some
kind of emotion then you do have an emotional eating problem. next identify the
emotions that are your triggers for reaching out for food. it might be stress as
stress releases a hormone called cortisol.
that can trigger cravings for salty sweet and fried
foods or may be you don't like to feel sad, depressed or ashamed and you go
towards food for temporary relief from these feelings. another common reason
for emotional eating is boredom.
since you have nothing else to do. well, why not have
a scoop of ice cream right! most of the time one of these reasons triggers our
emotional eating habits. so instead of procrastinating on fixing the root causes
of emotional eating by going to food try to deal with it because these feelings
will still be there when the effects of sugars and dopamine fade away then
guess what you'll do next look for some more food.
No 2. stop being so impulsive.
feeling sad again? now what guess i'm gonna order
some burgers for McDonald’s like i usually do. even though i just had a full
meal. Stop! it doesn't have to be this way. most emotional eaters have given up
on themselves because they have tried to give it up.
but they couldn't this bad experience turns into a lack of self-confidence and feeling powerless over the cravings. this is so wrong because we are always in control.
there are two brains inside of us one
is the animal brain, the one that's responsible for these cravings, and the
other is the conscious brain that decides whether to act on the feelings or not!
an effective strategy
of dealing with this is to just pause. pause before impulsively eating for just
five minutes.
you can have the ice cream after five minutes. when
you succeed in winning five important minutes from your drooling animal brain
utilize these five minutes to think. think about why you want to eat this so badly.
what impact would this have on your health will the negative emotions still be
there after you've indulged.
what
would your feelings be after this when you've thought about this for a good
five minutes. chances are you won't be needing the ice cream any longer.
No 3. have some alternatives lined up.
another effective strategy for dealing with
emotional eating is to have some alternatives lined up. that can replace your
bad eating habits. when you are hit with the trigger in life you're bound to
have some setbacks. experience things that you don't like and face stress from
the office or studies.
these feelings are normal but the way
you deal with these emotions could be well or not well. emotional eating is
the unhealth way of trying to deal with these emotions and it only works for a
few minutes. the best way is to deal with the situation head-on and practice
some of the healthful ways of toning down the bad feelings or stress.
which could include walking, jogging, sports,
reading a book, watching a movie without popcorn of course or maybe visiting a
friend. a good practice will be to write out the emotions that are the common
triggers of your emotional eating habits
and then associate some healthful activity to replace emotional eating. make sure
to paste the page right where it is visible to you.
No 4. remove the temptations
since you have read up till this point I’m guessing
that you've made up your mind that you won't indulge in emotional eating
anymore that's great. but what is that bag of cheetos and bottle of cola doing
in your room. you might say that you'll get rid of them later or you're strong
enough to keep yourself from indulging.
you're not fooling anyone here those bags would be
gone in a few days not in the trash or back to the store. but in your stomach
instead. if you made a firm decision of stopping emotional eating then you need
to remove any and every temptation from your room that might make you remember
the good old days.
the things that we do over and over our brain makes
neural connections around them and one thing could lead to the execution of the
whole process before you know it. so to change these connections you need to
change your environment.
No 5. learn from your mistakes
so you slipped up and emotionally binged on extra
large pizzas. so what! stop the drama already and no you're not worthless it is
human nature to make mistakes. we learn by making mistakes I’m not going to
quote Edison here because you may have heard it a million times already. the
real problem is that we have forgotten who we are a child would just laugh off
a minor fall.
but an adult well he has to maintain his image. so
he won't even go there if there's even a slight chance that he might slip and
if he does slip, the embarrassment how could he ever show his face around there
again that's the sad reality of our world today. you don't punish your child
for falling. when he first starts to walk do you we learn by making mistakes.
it's just who we are so instead of weeping over
your past failures and thinking that you're worthless, move on. What
you can do? However, learn from it. identify your weaknesses, the reasons that led to
emotional eating by identifying the root cause you're less likely to slip the
next time and even if you do slip well try and try again.
No 6. don't try to become a Buddhist monk
we mentioned in the last point the slipping is part of the process but another thing that might be triggering you to slip is being too strict about it. we mentioned in another article that the Atkins plan is great.
but is often not practical due to a strictness. as
we were saying if you try to impose too many restrictions on yourself then
you're more likely to fail. give yourself some breathing room eating a little
more than you normally do doesn't count as an emotional eating onslaught.
Similarly don't label every food item out there as good
food or bad food. just try to maintain a balance and enjoy everything in
moderation. this way you won't feel like you're missing out on anything or you're
being punished the life of a Buddhist monk is not that easy.
No 7. eating should be fun
when was the last time you truly engaged with your food i don't mean the time of your last meal. but the time when you truly enjoyed every bite that you took. all the flavors that the food left you with due to our busy lives often we're in a rush when eating.
rushing to catch the bus rushing to
reach the office on time, rushing to make the meeting and all the other times
we're just grazing aimlessly on food. while watching tv most of the time
emotional eating is mindless and without any focus on the food rather than just
trying to swallow everything whole.
make it a habit to eat consciously without any distractions and just by doing that there are chances that you'll be able to identify whether you need to eat or you are just trying to run away from an emotion.
finally to summarize emotional eating is the
practice of going to food for comfort from an existential crisis. however it is
not the solution rather it is part of the problem not only will emotional
eating leave you with more guilt than you started with.
but it will also
damage your self-esteem which can lead to a never-ending cycle of emotional
eating. if you realize this and want to quit emotional eating once and for all
then the seven tips we mentioned will surely help you out.