ARE YOU AN EMOTIONAL EATER?

ARE YOU AN EMOTIONAL EATER?

Do high-stress situations send you straight for the fridge?

Is the solution to having a hectic life with the family, problems with the children, your boss, your husband (!) at the bottom of a family size packet of chocolate?  Then read on….
When you feel sad, angry, pressured, or anxious, food is not the solution. In fact, unhealthy, emotional eating often leads to the complete opposite ending up with gain weight and consequently not liking what you see in the mirror.

How do you know if you are an emotional eater?  One way to understand your eating habits is to keep a diary to record not only what you eat but how you feel when you eat it. On reviewing your diary you will establish food triggers, which in turn can help you learn to deal with your emotions — without food.

To break your self-destructive cycle of emotional eating, you have to become aware of what you are doing and then implement a plan to break the habits you have previously formed.

Follow these basic tips to get started…

Before you reach out to eat something ask yourself:  Am I actually hungry or do I feel depressed, stressed or anxious? If the answer is yes to the latter, STOP and think about how you can handle the emotions instead of suppressing them with food.

Are you anxious about work, in a rush to get everything done? Tight deadlines to achieve? Rushing to get home from work thinking about sorting the family dinner?

Think about how you can break down what you need to achieve into smaller bite sized chunks that appear less daunting and stressful and make you feel like you are on top of things.  Can you address the emotion in the moment by acting on it directly and positively?

Using food to numb the thoughts is quick and easy to do now, but so damaging long term. Attacking problems directly, rather than with food, is often difficult, but once you begin to uncover what’s triggering your behavior & analyze your feelings, it gets easier and easier to establish healthy eating patterns.