How To Stop Emotional Eating
For many women emotional eating is the main reason they struggle with weight loss. Emotional eating is when yo
u reach for food in response to an emotion or feeling rather than true hunger. This makes sense because eating is very nurturing. Also, if you’re upset, eating is a way to make yourself feel better, especially if it's a treat you really like. The problem is that because you’re feeling emotional to begin with, you probably won't stop at a 150 calorie snack. You won't feel so good later – especially if you are trying to lose weight. In order to stop this problem from adding unwanted pounds to your body you need to take action and figure out what emotions trigger your unplanned eating. There are 3 ways to do this:
- Keep a food diary of what you eat and how you felt before you decided to eat. You will start to see patterns and notice when it's happening again.
- Before you eat, stop and ask yourself if you are hungry or feeling some other emotion like boredom or loneliness.
- What are some alternatives to eating when you experience these problem emotions? Keep brainstorming ways to live the life you want to live. What do you really like that's not food related?
Learning to deal with emotional eating is all about getting in touch with what you are thinking, feeling and doing. Being aware of your behavior instead of living on autopilot is the first step to taking control of your emotional eating. Consistently monitoring yourself by keeping a food journal will help you change your habits and behaviors so that you only eat when you are hungry instead of in response to feelings and thoughts. This is the key to meeting weight loss goals easily.
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