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| Healthy Tips: Are You an Emotional Eater? |
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Many of us struggle with emotional eating. If you find yourself turning to food because you feel sad, happy, angry, depressed, bored, lonely etc. you may be an emotional eater.
Many of us don’t realize that we are eating for emotional reasons. It’s a way of reacting that we don’t connect with our weight loss struggles.
When does emotional eating become a problem?
When, it’s taking us down a path that we no longer want to go. I packed on 45 pounds and I didn’t want to gain any more. Personally speaking, I was tired of carrying the extra weight.
After we over eat:
We feel terrible. We are over stuffed and emotionally we beat up on ourselves. We berate ourselves for a lack of will power when it’s more than that. We need to learn a more effective way of dealing with our feelings.
If you are going through a difficult emotional time and you are over eating to deal with it, you probably need to seek outside help to deal with the underlying issues. Speak to family or friends and where necessary, see a certified counselor.
Psychologist and One On One Wellness Consultant Dr. Wendy Froberg say’s, “ putting ice cream on a cut won’t make it better.”
How can you stop emotional eating?
Here are some strategies that worked for me:
Change the environment. If your kitchen is near the area that you unwind/relax in, watch television somewhere else in the house. Break the association.
Don’t keep in the house items that you cannot stop over indulging in. Make yourself have to go out to get your fix. More often than not – we won’t go.
Mentally check in: Ask yourself if you’re really hungry or not. Consciously checking in can help you to realize that the issue at the moment isn’t physical hunger but emotional. Sit with the feeling and try to work through it. No one ever died because they denied themselves a piece of chocolate cake.
If you are tired, admit it and to go lie down or take a time out.
If I was upset, I had to learn to talk to a friend or my spouse rather than use food to medicate my feelings.
Instead of sitting in front of the tv and eating – I went for a walk. With the consistent workouts, the pounds fell off.
And, if you fall off the wagon, don’t give up on yourself. Try again and again and again and again…You get the idea.
Sandra |
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