Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer
Most people are guilty of emotional overeating at one point or another. Food that tastes good offers a sense of comfort and well-being that can be hard to find when you are feeling down.
Still, there are those of us that emotionally overeat on a regular basis without even realizing it.
Let’s take for example a small child. What is a child offered when they are crying? Normally what’s offered is a bottle of milk or a snack because it is our instinct to comfort with food. In another situation, when someone falls ill you bring them food. These are unconscious instincts instilled within all of us but some I don’t think we should ignore.
The truth is that we have a lot of instincts and they aren’t all in our best interest. Eating a pie will not solve your debt issues, and having a double burger will not mend challenges in your relationships.
I think you’ll agree with me in that all that overeating does is give us a stomach ache and a guilt hangover.
That is why I have created this easy list of tips for you to run through to conquer your overeating and something you should definitely keep in mind next time you are faced with a bag of brownies or large plate of nachos.
Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer Tip 1: Am I Really Hungry?
A lot of times we interpret boredom or other extreme emotions with hunger. It is not that our brains can’t recognize the difference in these emotions, but it is more that food offers a comfortable distraction from negative feelings.
Deciding what to eat, how to prepare it and then sitting down to eat it all takes time and thought which means we escape other thoughts and feelings for a while.
Before starting to cook or sitting down to eat stop yourself and decide if you are actually hungry or just avoiding something else.
Are you eating food that provides the best nutrition to fuel your body so tomorrow you feel proud and good about how you are fine-tuning your intake. Trust me on this one, this feeling is far better then the small short-term pleasure you get from junk foods including most baked goods.
One food to help you with uncontrolled emotional cravings is whey protein powder, with only 140 calories per serving a high quality version like Optimum Platinum Hydrowhey not only provides a great smoothie texture but the swiss chocolate flavour is like a rich dessert!
Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer Tip 2: Control Your Eating Environment
This one is simple. If you know you crave donuts at midnight then don’t have donuts in your house at midnight.
If you don’t buy junk food then it will be less in your face and you will have to go through a lot of trouble to get it. Remember this next time you are in a store. Tell yourself that if you ever have the craving you will leave it to that moment to make the effort to get it at that moment.
This one tip will really set you up for success because more times than others you will reach for healthy foods instead and even get creative with making these more fun (like adding spices, lemon juice, etc).
Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer Tip 3: Keep a Food Log
Keeping track of the food you eat will help you to see the food in a different way. I know this sounds like work, but writing down what you eat brings it to consciousness and prevents you from tripping into emotional overeating landscape.
It will make you realize that food is not really the solution to the argument you had with your boss, colleague or spouse. A food log will also bring to realization the sheer amount of junk that was piling up in your belly.
I’ve made it super easy for you and provided you a Free Printable Food Log.
Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer Tip 4: Get Busy
Busy people don’t have time to sit around and think about what they wish they could eat. They eat to refuel and then move on.
The other part of the equation is that you have to plan ahead and make sure that you feed your body the best fuel possible.
Make it easy for yourself and check out my grocery shopping lists:
Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer Tip 5: Enjoy Your Food
Instead of sitting in front of the television with a gallon of ice cream take something healthy and delicious to the table and really enjoy each bite.
Most of us don’t pay attention to what we are eating and this doesn’t allow our brain to fully realize the amount of food we consume.
If you can’t bring yourself to do this all the time, pour out a reasonable portion before you sit down and take the time to chew your food. If you have scarfed down a sandwich in 5 minutes slow you know you are one of these people…try adding a few minutes each time to how long it takes you to eat.
Emotional Overeating: How to Conquer Tip 6: Be Consistent
Emotional overeating is simply just an accumulation of bad habits. If you create good habits you can avoid overeating. So put the tips above into place day by day and you will have a strategy which really crushes these overeating bad habits.
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Thank you for visiting! Weight Loss and Training is a health blog which features all the best weight loss tips that I have learned over my 20 years of training. My background includes a degree in Kinesiology from the world renown Simon Fraser University, certification in nutritional sciences from UBC, and Personal Trainer Specialist certification from Can Fit Pro.