👈 Happy, depressed, bored, stressed.. all are possible cases lead to emotional eating.
This is a natural thing if it happens once in a while, especially that food is part of our daily life, so it is ok to enjoy and indulge sometimes without feeling guilty and punishing ourselves.
👈 But when you use food to numb your feelings frequently without being hungry, it will cause weight gain and it will stop your from reaching your goal, in addition to the guilt feeling that happens after this meal.
👇 Steps to help you overcome emotional eating
🔹It is important to know if you are eating because you are hungry or just because you want to! (real or emotional). Emotional hunger comes suddenly, it makes the person tends to eat more carbs, sweet plus eating with sense of satiety and a great sense of guilt. While real hunger is gradual and most people stop when they feel full, plus it is not mixed with guilt.
🔹 Try to determine the causes that pushed you to the emotional eating phase, writing everything in your food diary (some of you might consider this a non-practical method) but it is effective and helps you understanding yourself and your feelings more. The more you understand yourself and your feelings the more you have control over yourself.
🔹 Future Imagination: Think beyond the taste and the texture of food, because they are just part of the whole experience. For example, consider how you will feel after eating a large amount of sweets? Bloat, gases, fatigue and guilt for hours, all this for a few minutes of joy and for a moment of weakness.
🔹 Apples, carrots and raw almonds, make them your first choice before you turn to fatty foods – because it gives you a feeling of satiety, especially that you need more time to chew crunchy foods so your brain will forget about craving.
🔹 Try to occupy your time with something you love, a hobby, spending time with friends. Sports and walking is an excellent way to get rid of the negative energy and boredom, it also improves your mood.
If emotional eating is something you suffer from; it is important that you admit it so you can fix it. However, make sure you are not alone, many people suffer from the same problem and I hope this post will help you take few steps toward the change.
Dietitian – Liliane
@dietliliane