How To Stop Emotional Eating
Background Information on Emotional Eating
You may not realize it, but you are more likely an emotional eater, just like most people. Your eating is often triggered by your emotions. Think about it. Recall those times you ate because you were happy, depressed, sad, celebrating, frustrated, angry or scared.
If you’ve never really thought about eating and your emotions, don’t worry; most people are like you: they don’t realize that their eating habits are oftentimes dictated by their emotions.
It’s common to be unaware of things that impact emotional eating. In reality, many of us tend to make decisions based on our emotions rather than our rational side. In the case of emotional eating, since we were little, we have been subconsciously conditioned that food helps us feel good. In the beginning, eating fills a biological need: stop our hunger. However, there are times when we use food to fill an emotion need, which should have been filled by something else or elsewhere.
The line between emotional eating and a serious eating disorder is very narrow. An emotional eater is different from a binge or compulsive eater. But how can you tell if you are simply an emotional eater and not someone who has a serious eating disorder?
People with full-blown eating disorders tend to binge on a regular basis. They tend to eat huge amounts of food and they do so very fast. They also feel that they have no control over food or they have a food obsession. People with eating disorders tend to hide foods around the house or they may hide someplace and then eat. For example, they buy foods in secret, and it usually after members of the family have gone to bed.
Both emotional eaters and compulsive/binge eaters may share a similar characteristic: they often have experienced trauma — either physical or sexual abuse. However, it has been found that the percentage of binge/compulsive eaters who have experienced physical or sexual abuse is higher than that of emotional eaters.
Binge eaters face a number of challenges. Unlike anorexia or bulimia, binge eating isn’t as popular or well known eating disorder. In fact, many people go on not knowing that they have this type of eating disorder. Those who have an eating disorder are advised not to go on a diet; they are instead encouraged to talk to a trained and licensed therapist.
Although emotional eating isn’t as serious as the other eating disorders such as binge or compulsive eating, emotional eaters may still suffer a great deal. However, there are ways to manage emotional eating. The first step, of course, is becoming self-aware of the emotional eating problem. Self-awareness involves admitting and accepting that an emotional eating problem does exist. For a lot of people, admitting and accepting that a problem exists is hard to do. Some hold the view that admitting and accepting the existence of a problem means they are weak. Needless to say, self-awareness is a crucial step towards successfully managing an emotional eating problem.
The next step is evaluating emotional eating habits by recording the times you eat for four to five days. In this step, you don’t write what you ate; you write instead the times you ate and how you felt each time. By the fifth day, you go over your notes and count the times you ate because you were hungry or you thought you were hungry. Analyze your eating habits over this five-day period, taking note of those times your emotions seemed to trigger you need to eat.
The next step is self-management. You’ll want to keep recording those times you ate and how you were feeling as you ate. Over time, it will become easier for you to identify whether your eating was an emotional response or not. It’s a good idea if you write in your diary right before you reach for that food. If you realize, through writing, that your urges to eat are in response to feelings of anger, depression or some sort of emotional high, you’ll soon learn to train yourself to put down the food and walk away. In time, you’ll minimize your tendency of an emotional eater.
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