EMOTIONAL EATING

Since I became involved in health and fitness, I have become acutely aware that many people suffer from emotional eating. Many tend to use food for comfort, stress relief, or as a reward.   

Unfortunately, emotional eating doesn't fix the emotional problem and usually makes us end up feeling worse and guilty for overeating.  Our society has basically made emotionally eating acceptable and normal.  When a friend is having a hard day, we tell her to go and have a cup cake or some other decadent dessert.  We call it “comfort food.”  While this may be okay in some circumstances, we must recognize that many suffer from emotional eating which causes them to eat more than just a cup cake on a regular basis.  Many sufferers are afraid to admit it and others don’t really realize that they may have a problem.  It’s like a secret addiction that people don’t want to talk about.

If you have ever eaten a pint of ice-cream when you were feeling down, for example, you have experienced emotional eating.   It’s a temporary fix which may not necessarily be a bad thing.  There are many scientific reasons why we depend on food to quench our stress.   But, when you continually turn to food as an emotional coping mechanism, it becomes a problem.   The result of continuous emotional eating is that it will affect you physically and emotionally.

Dealing with emotional eating is not about abstaining from eating the foods that you love, but making a conscious effort to pay attention to those things that may trigger overeating.  When you are experiencing certain emotions and you desire to eat, ask yourself what is going in that moment that is making you want to eat.  Then face the issue head on and allow yourself to feel the emotion you are trying to suppress. 

When you are hungry, eat mindfully – eat enough to satisfy your hunger, but try not to over eat.  And, please, stop dieting.  Nothing triggers binge eating more than dieting.  It takes a conscious effort to overcome emotional eating and you cannot force yourself to eat less by engaging in a stringent eating schedule or diet plan.  To do so will do nothing but cause failure.  

Try to adapt a new healthier way of eating that will result in weight loss, if that is your goal.  Begin to engage in regular physical activity.  The best thing about engaging in some sort of regular exercise is that exercise helps to relax the mind and body which can help you deal with stress, anger and other emotional issues so that you don’t turn to food for comfort.