Tackling The Problem Of Emotional Eating
Emotional eating can be a huge problem for people who are trying to lose weight. Even though we as humans have to eat in order to survive, eating too much is where the problem is. Food is part of the life source for your body and it's also where most of the important vitamins, minerals and nutrients come from that keep your body functioning properly. While trying to lose weight, dealing with issues such as emotional eating is only going to make things more difficult and harder for you to reach any kind of positive results.
When
emotional eating takes its toll on a person, stress is probably the
leading cause of it and it can totally turn your emotions around and
affect your health drastically. When a person is trying to lose
weight, emotions will always be present, but emotions that are under
stress can significantly be more demanding on a person mentally.
Everyone knows that when a person is feeling down, they usually seek comfort to help satisfy their feelings. Trying to lose weight and dealing with added stress sometimes leads people to emotional eating or what is commonly referred to as “comfort food”. It is easier for people to reach for food to comfort them as it is a psychological device that isn't going to lecture them or tell them off. On the physical side however, eating foods that you enjoy will simply free up endorphins much the same as if you were working out. This sounds good physically, but after eating the problem is that you will feel great as if nothing happened. Trying to lose weight and going through unnecessary ordeals of added stress and eating more comfort food is not the answer to help with your weight loss.
While this is a very common problem with many individuals trying to lose weight, the fact is, people still use food as a way to relieve stress. People find it easier to hide behind the comfort of eating more food. A big problem with this is not being able to confront the situation and find a solution to any of the problems causing the additional stress.
The best way to handle emotional eating is to find out what the problem is. Since emotional eating will generally involve the gaining of excess weight, there might be other problems that exist which are causing you to seek food for comfort. However, the first step is to identify any other areas that might be adding or increasing your current stress levels.
How about your job? Has it been causing more stress for you lately?
What about things at home?
Has something in your personal life changed recently?
How about your financial situation?
Has a loved one unexpectedly become ill or even passed away within the last year?
Easily, any one of these can cause emotional eating habits. Remember what I said above about comfort foods. This is usually the point when you eat even though you aren't hungry.
Comfort foods are almost always high in calories, fat and carbohydrates such as the following examples.
Foods high in carbohydrates such as mashed potatoes or mac and cheese.
Foods that are high in fats such as potato chips, dips, crackers or even french fries.
Foods that contain high amounts of calories and added sugar such as cookies, doughnuts, shakes, cakes or ice cream.
While emotional eating is definitely something that can be cured, the first thing is realizing that a problem exists. Trying to lose weight and doing nothing about the emotional problems that you might be facing only increases feelings of misery, unhappiness and guilt. Which ultimately means gaining weight instead of losing weight.
Once you acknowledge the fact that your emotional problems and added stress are real and of concern, counseling is something that should be taken into account. Controlling your emotions is definitely your objective. While trying to lose weight either through dieting, exercise or healthy eating habits, gaining control over your emotions is your first step and seeking the advice of qualified counselors can help.
Emotional eating doesn't have to ruin your life and food shouldn't have to be a crutch that you become dependent on. Healthy eating habits and exercise will help with your mind and bodies immune system, increase circulation, improve muscle tone as you lose weight and ultimately give you a more positive outlook on life.
Written
by: K. Ho from fatloss.synthasite.com
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