The topic of emotional eating comes home to many people. It is very common, so don’t be embarrassed if this is a problem for you. It is important not to beat yourself up for anything while working to make improvements.
Emotional hunger is different from physical hunger, but it can be difficult to distinguish between the two. Emotional hunger can cause these symptoms:
• Feelings of pain in the heart
• Feeling that something is missing in your life.
• Feeling of needing comfort
• You need to fill a void in your life
This is different from physical hunger, which commonly feels like:
• Emptiness in the stomach
• Soft spot
• Lack of energy
• Grunting noises
It is important to ask yourself before eating if you are physically hungry. If you find out that this is not the case, you need to find out what it is you are really feeling that is making you want to eat. Here are some feelings that can make people want to eat: sadness, anger, confusion, fear, depression, boredom, disappointment, disgust, bad mood, irritation, feeling insecure, upset, perplexed, procrastination, stress.
The process of eating is supposed to be pleasant, but eating to cope with an emotion or fix something in your life is not going to work. Food can comfort you in the short term, distract you from pain, or even lull you to sleep with a food hangover, but when you’ve finished eating, not only is the root of the problem still there, but now you probably feel guilty about eating all the food. meal. Every emotion or problem has a solution.
If you have used food to cope with emotions, it is important to acknowledge this and be kind to yourself. Put aside any guilt or shame you feel or have felt about turning to food to be happy. Dieting is another thing that leads to emotional eating, dieting messes with your emotions, so not only do you binge on the overwhelming biological urge to eat, but you eat to comfort yourself from the pain of dieting!
Here are 3 ways to work to overcome emotional eating:
1) Ask yourself: Am I physically hungry? If the answer is yes, then ask yourself what you want to eat and allow yourself to eat! Honor your hunger and your satiety. Eat until you are full and know that you have nourished your body. If the answer is no, go to step 2:
2) Ask yourself: What am I feeling right now? When you realize you are not biologically hungry, take a break instead of foraging for food and look deeply to see what you are really feeling. This may not be an easy question to answer, especially if you are out of touch with your emotions. However, if you know that you are not physically hungry and that you are turning to food for another reason, this is a good place to start! Pat yourself on the back for being aware that there is another reason you want to eat.
3) Ask yourself: What do I need? Many people eat to satisfy some unmet need. If you find out what emotions you are experiencing, try to find out what you can do besides eating that actually addresses the problem at hand.
Emotional eating can be dangerous if it gets out of control. Not only does it lead to weight gain, it can also make you sick and avoid the emotions that cause you to turn to food.