**Everyone** Hi Ashley!
How many of us are emotional eaters? Do cake and crying go together like white and rice? I want to try to bust this habit of emotional eating!
Lets start with why we eat when we are emotional. Do you eat when you are sad? How about when you are angry? Now that we have established that both of those answers are probably yes, let me ask you one more. Do you eat more when you are happy? Ah, got ya didn't I?! So if you are an emotional eater like me, lets see if we can fix it!
I know when I am upset, the first thing I want to do is eat, eat, and probably eat some more! I know that feeding my feelings isn't going to make them disappear, but something about eating that triple chocolate, 5 layer cake with ice-cream on the side makes my frown turn upside down!
Lets take a minute to explain the differences between emotional eating and just being hungry! Believe it or not, sometimes it is hard to tell, specially when you are in a crummy mood!
You need to first realize, emotional hunger comes on suddenly as to physical hunger which gradually occurs. So when you are beginning to feel hungry gradually, you are probably actually hungry and need to eat something. If you become hungry abruptly, chances are you are feeding those feelings again!
Second, emotional hunger is immediately satisfied when fed although you will probably still "feel" hungry. Physical hunger can wait a while. When you are sad and you eat that piece of cake, you feel happy as soon as it hits your mouth but you aren't full. If you were eating to cure your physical hunger, you are full after eating your meal. Furthermore, emotional hunger will bring you to eating and eating until you can't eat anymore. You will most likely still feel "hungry" even though your stomach is extremely full of food.
Third, and definitely what I consider most important of all, emotional eating will leave you with a guilty conscience. When you eat to cure physical hunger, you do not feel bad about it! If you are eating your problems away, you are going to stuff your face with that brownie, then some chips, and maybe even a chocolate bar or two, and then think about what you ate, possibly cry some more, then feel EXTREMELY disgusted about the amount of food you just ingested! If you were eating because you were physically hungry, you are going to feel full, happy, and most of all, satisfied!
Now that we have that established, lets see if we can establish some rules for gaining control of your emotional eating. In order to do this, you need to pinpoint the cause of your emotional eating.
For example, I know I practice emotional eating when I am stressed. If anything stresses me out, the first thing I want to do is eat! And not good things. I want cake, cookies, chocolate, even fries! Anything unhealthy!
Rule #1, Tame Your Stress! If you are eating because of stress, try to find something that tames your stress such as yoga, meditation, or a phrase you can say to yourself to calm you down in a time of need. I found that if I am extremely stressed if I take a second and just BREATHE and tell myself "everything is fine Ashley" for about 5 minutes, it really gets me in a much better mood and helps me fight that craving to eat my feelings.
Rule #2, Have a hunger reality check! Before you start stuffing your face, ask yourself, "am I emotional eating or am I really hungry?". You will be surprised to see that if you ask yourself before consuming anything, you could change your mind. Even if you are still going to eat, you may not eat quite as much or as unhealthy if you convince yourself it is emotional eating and not physical hunger.
Rule #3, Get Support! Chances are, you aren't the only one you know who eats to help their feelings! Find a friend, or even try joining a group to help you when you are in a time of need. If you have someone else to explain your feeling to BEFORE you eat, it could really help you out! I know if I can just talk about my feelings to someone who understands where I am coming from, I am less likely to be eating to feel better.
Rule #4, Fight Boredom! If you are bored and begin eating, chances are you are just eating to cure your boredom. Find a way to keep yourself busy! Go start cleaning the kitchen, read a book, you could even come read a blog! **hint hint** Anything to keep your mind busy so you are not thinking about eating!
Rule #5, Take Away Temptation! If there are certain foods that you know you eat more when you are emotional eating, don't keep them in your home! If you don't have them in your grasp, you aren't going to want to go out of your way to obtain these items. You don't have them, you can't eat them! And if you REALLY worried about not keeping them in the house, buy a little at a time and keep it all put away! Again, out of sight, out of mind!
Rule #6, Don't deprive yourself! This goes along with rule 5. Like I said, if you feel the need to keep that junk food around for those emotional days, that's fine! But don't forget, OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND! If you REALLY feel the need to indulge, do it responsibly. If you just have a few pieces of candy hidden in the back of the pantry and you KNOW you only have a few, you are more likely just to grab one, eat it, and feel satisfied.
Rule #7, Healthy Snacking. Let's try to choose our comfort foods a little better. This doesn't mean giving up everything with calories or sugar, just trying to find some things that we can eat a little more of, for a little less feeling bad about it! Try some lo-cal snacks, maybe even some juice! Anything that has a little sugar should keep you feeling non-guilty but satisfied!
Rule #8, Get Enough Sleep! I have found that if you are not getting enough sleep, you are going to try to snack to A. keep yourself awake and B. find some energy. If you get enough sleep, you are less likely to be snacking looking for that extra push to finish your day, or even start your day. So be sure to stay rested!
Rule #9, Eat Appropriately. When you eat, even snacking, eat at a table! You should enjoy any sort of food at a table with no distractions! Yes, it sounds like an incontinence but that's really the point! If you know every time you are going to consume food you are going to be at a table, no TV, no radio, no magazine, no work, you are going to be less likely to be eating as much! You know as well as I do you can sit in front of that TV and eat that whole bag of chips before you even realize you opened it! Knowing you can only eat in one place under one circumstance you are really going to think about eating before actually eating!
Rule #10, STAY POSITIVE! If you are in a bad mood, think about things that are going to make you happy! If you are in a good mood, you probably won't even have to worry about emotional eating! So that's that! STAY POSITIVE! Besides, the sky isn't REALLY falling!
I know 10 rules sounds like a lot, but really, these rules can both help with emotional eating, and keeping you happy and healthy!
So here's some joyful celebration balloons for taming your emotional eating! Good luck! And don't forget to keep that big smile on your face and stick to your feelings but don't forget to stop and think first!!!!!!!
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