Eating is a part of life. Your body gets its nutrients from food, but sometimes we go overboard with our eating habits and it results in weight gain.
One common cause for weight gain is emotional eating. Emotional eating is eating to bring yourself comfort when you’re upset, stressed out or facing some other kind of distress.
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 emotional and physical health takes a hit.
Everyone has good days and bad days, but how we deal with the bad ones brings emotional eating into play.
You look for comfort for your pain. You might turn to food for comfort find a coping mechanism that won’t judge you, hurt you or tell you “no.” To complicate the issue, eating pleasurable foods can stimulate the release of endorphins just like exercise. So, after you eat, you feel better.
It’s a vicious cycle.
Emotional eaters use food to relieve stress. You may hide behind food instead of seeking solutions to the problems. This is common when the stressor is something horrible such as physical abuse or death or it might be a less serious, but still very real source of stress.
Are You An Emotional Eater?
How do you know you are using food in this way? The first sign is obvious. You 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 when you aren’t really hungry. The foods that you choose are what we term “comfort foods”:
* High fat foods like french fries, potato chips…anything fried
* High carb foods like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes
* Sugary foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies, cake
If this sounds like, it might be time to look at some solutions and help.
How to Get Help for Emotional Eating
There is help for emotional eaters. It’s not an easy road, but if you follow these 3 steps, you will be closer to healing your physical and emotional health.
Step 1: Admitting There’s An Issue: 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. But once you admit you have something to deal with, you will be prepared to move on and heal.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: Get Your Family Involved: 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.
I would say that I am an emotional eater, but I don't tend to snack. I tend to just eat larger meals than I should.