What is emotional eating?
Emotional eating (or stress eating) is using food to make yourself feel better eating to satisfy emotional needs, rather than to satisfy physical hunger. You might reach for a pint of ice cream when you're feeling down, order a pizza if you're bored or lonely, or swing by the drive-through after a stressful day at work.
Occasionally using food as a pick me up, a reward, or to celebrate isn't necessarily a bad thing. But when eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism when your first impulse is to open the refrigerator whenever you're stressed, upset, angry, lonely, exhausted, or bored you get stuck in an unhealthy cycle where the real feeling or problem is never addressed.
Emotional hunger can't be filled with food. Eating may feel good in the moment, but the feelings that triggered the eating are still there. And you often feel worse than you did before.
No matter how powerless you feel over food and your feelings, it is possible to make a positive change. You can find healthier ways to deal with your emotions, learn to eat mindfully , regain control of your weight, and finally put a stop to emotional eating.
How to stop it?
Identity your emotional eating triggers
What situations, places, or feelings make you reach for the comfort of food? Most emotional eating is linked to unpleasant feelings, but it can also be triggered by positive emotions, such as rewarding yourself for achieving a goal or celebrating a holiday or happy event. Common causes of emotional eating include:
-Stuffing emotions: Eating can be a way to temporarily silence or "stuff down" uncomfortable emotions, including anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, resentment, and shame.
-Boredom or feelings of emptiness: You may feel unfulfilled and empty, and food is a way to occupy your mouth and your time. In the moment, it fills you up and distracts you from underlying feelings of purposelessness and dissatisfaction with your life.
-Childhood habits: Did your parents reward good behavior with ice cream, pizza etc when you got a good report card, or serve you sweets when you were feeling sad? These habits can often carry over into adulthood. Or your eating may be driven by nostalgia for cherished memories.
-Social influences: Getting together with other people for a meal is a great way to relieve stress, but it can also lead to overeating. It's easy to overindulge simply because the food is there or because everyone else is eating. Or perhaps your family or circle of friends encourages you to overeat, and it's easier to go along with the group.
-Stress: Ever notice how stress makes you hungry? It's not just in your mind. When stress is chronic, as it so often is in our chaotic world, your body produces high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol triggers cravings for salty, sweet, and fried foods foods that give you a burst of energy and pleasure.
Find alternatives to emotional eating
-If you're depressed or lonely, call someone who always makes you feel better, play with your dog or cat, or look at a favorite photo or cherished memento.
-If you're anxious, expend your nervous energy by dancing to your favorite song, training your favorite sport, squeezing a stress ball, meditate or take a brisk walk.
-If you're exhausted, treat yourself with a hot cup of tea, take a bath, meditate, light some scented candles, or wrap yourself in a warm blanket.
-If you're bored, read a good book, go and have a good sweat session that will make you feel great afterwards, watch a comedy show, explore the outdoors, or turn to an activity you enjoy (woodworking, playing the guitar, shooting hoops, scrapbooking, etc.).
Practice mindful eating
"The core principles of mindful eating include being aware of the nourishment available through the process of food preparation and consumption, choosing enjoyable and nutritious foods, acknowledging food preferences nonjudgmentally, recognizing and honoring physical hunger and satiety cues, and using wisdom to guide eating decisions." -Cheryl Harris, MPH, RD
-Start with One Meal: You can practice with a single meal or even part of a meal. Try paying attention to hunger cues before you begin eating or tune into the feelings of satiety at the end of a meal these are great ways to begin an attention practice.
-Remove Distractions from View: Place your cell phone in another room, or turn it off entirely. Turn off the television and computer and put away anything elselike books, magazines, and newspapers that may distract you from the eating experience. Give your full attention to the meal in front of you.
-Tune into Your Perspective: Recognize that there is not a right or wrong way to eat, but simply different levels of awareness around the eating experience. Focus your attention on the sensations of eating.
-Engage Your Senses: Try using all of your senses in your food notice the smells, textures, colors, and flavors when you place food in your mouth. Try noticing how the food changes as you chew each bite thoroughly.
I hope this can help you. just remember you are not alone in this, this is very common nowadays and i can see it almost every day, this is a serious issue that really can harm you and requires attention as soon as possible, if you need extra help im here! i will be more than happy to support you. Don’t hesitate to contact me.
Lissette xx