How to Stop Emotional Eating: breaking free from emotional eating

October 5, 2009

Health & Motivation

Many people try to bury their feeling under a huge pile of food. The only thing that they succeed in accomplishing is getting fat, losing their health and becoming even more miserable. If you are a frequent emotional eater you have to break free from emotional eating. It doesn’t help you at all.

Your feelings play a very important role when it comes to what you choose to eat and in what quantity. If when you are happy you would like to eat a steak with a salad, when you are unhappy a box of cookies seems a lot more appetizing. And if you are bored you munch down on a bag of chips. You have to take control of your emotions and stop emotional eating if you want to lose weight and be healthy.

emotional_eating.jpg

Stop letting your emotions drive your eating habits. You should get healthy eating habits that in turn should drive your emotions, making you feel better. That emptiness that you feel cannot be filled with cupcakes and junk food as much as you would like. You have to solve your psychological problems without turning to food. In fact the answer is never found in food. The answer is always found in you. If you take the time to stop eating and do some inner search you will find this to be true.

You have to learn how to distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger if you want to stop emotional eating. The main difference is that emotional hunger appears all of a sudden while physical hunger builds up in time. If you can satisfy your physical hunger by eating something, you can never stop your emotional hunger. Emotional hunger is like the Greek fire. The more you try to put it out the more intensely it burns.

Usually when you are feeling the effects of emotional hunger you are craving for a specific food, that isn’t healthy most times. You feel a burning desire that cannot be quenched by nothing else. You just have to have that food. Physical hunger on the other hand can wait and you can eat any food you wish to make it go away.

What makes emotional eating so dangerous to your health and waistline is the fact that after you eat you are still hungry. Emotional eating is irrational eating. You can never satisfy it and in time you will get super fat if you indulge your emotional eating ravings. As you eat and get fatter and fatter you start feeling worse which in turn makes you eat a lot more food. It stats an unhealthy eating spiral that gets worse and worse as time passes.

If you are an emotional eater you shouldn’t be too harsh on yourself, feel bad and eat more junk food. You have to acknowledge your problem and to start breaking free form emotional eating. That way you will lose weight fast and become healthier. According to the specialists 75% of all overeating is due to emotional problems. That is why you should get in touch with your emotions and the best way to do this is by looking reality in its face.

stop_emotional_eating.jpg

Here are some tips to help you stop emotional eating:

  • -learn to distinguish emotional eating form physical hunger and find out what triggers emotional eating;
  • -make a list with all the things that trigger emotional eating and always carry it with you. When you feel hungry check the list and see if maybe you are feeling emotional hunger. If the answer is yes find another way to satisfy it. Do another pleasurable activity.
  • -try taking a stroll or talking with a friend instead of indulging your emotional hunger. Do anything else but eat.
  • -if the emotional desire to eat something becomes unbearable be smart. Eat some healthy food instead of something unhealthy. An apple is great or any fruit you like.
  • -don’t eliminate foods from your diet. If you stop eating a liked food that also had some emotional soothing effects on you, you will start battling emotional hunger more frequently. A smart thing to do is to eat that food from time to time but with moderation. You shouldn’t have forbidden foods, especially if you are crazy about them.
  • -studies done proved that we remember eating a food if we take 4 bites from it. So from now on limit your binging to only 4 bites and you will get the same effects as eating the whole unhealthy food.

All the above methods work and will help you stop emotional eating but the best method to put an end to emotional eating is by always being positive and being happy. Find out ways to keep your inner happiness away from the bad influences of daily living. I know life isn’t easy but there’s no reason to stop you from enjoying each and every day as much as you can.

You should also find out How To Stop Binge Eating: regain control over your eating habits and How to distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger.

top 2012 diet programs
, , , , ,

Subscribe

Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply