How many of us watch movies from time to time? How about those romantic comedy date night type of films? I bet most of us have seen at least a couple, right? Inevitably in those movies there’s a moment of heartache or loss and what does the character do? Usually sit down with a pint of ice cream and devour it. A scene most of us can relate to in some way. Here’s another scene I bet we’re all familiar with. Remember when you were growing up and you had a bad day at school and you’d come home and your mom would offer you cookies and milk to help make you feel better? What do these scenarios have to do with a healthy lifestyle? They are examples of emotional eating. Something we all fall victim to from time to time. Let’s take a closer look at what it is and how to clear this hurdle on your healthy lifestyle path.
If you’re like me you find it helpful to identify and define something before you worry about how to handle it. I mean, how can I solve a problem until I understand the problem, right? A general description of this situation is consuming large quantities of food – usually comfort or junk foods – in response to feelings instead of hunger. Seem a little too technical? Maybe this definition will help. Emotional eating is the concept of using food to make yourself feel better. In essence it involves the process of eating instead of handling emotions. Now there is one caveat to keep in mind. This is typically associated with negative feelings of stress, anxiety, anger or loneliness but it can also be from positive emotions and in celebration.
Now that you have a fundamental understanding of what Emotional Eating is let’s identify the differences between being truly hungry and succumbing to emotional eating. Emotional eating will appear suddenly. It hits out of the blue with a force as the emotions build inside. While true hunger slowly builds and you can feel it building inside you. If your tummy is growling then it’s most likely true hunger. Emotional eating is generally a very specific craving and it’s typically for something associated with comfort but if you’re physically hungry anything will do. Emotional eating is usually a mindlessly eating event. You grab that bag of chips and before you know it you’ve eaten the whole bag. If you are hungry you are generally more in control. You will sit down with your food and eat focusing on the act of eating. When you are emotionally eating there is usually no limit to how much you can consume. You will generally eat well beyond the point where you are full and continue eating until you are uncomfortable. Again, when you are truly hungry you can typically recognize when you are full and will stop at that point. When you are emotionally eating it’s not from a sensation in the stomach but a craving in the brain. A good indication of emotionally eating versus being hungry is if your stomach is growling or not. When we are eating your emotions there is a moment of satisfaction but when the meal is over you are typically filled with negative emotions of sadness, regret, or shame. When you eat out of true hunger those emotions will typically not exist.
You now have an understanding of what emotional eating is and what it looks like, but like we mentioned earlier if you want to avoid emotional eating it can be helpful to know what can cause or trigger that sensation for you. Here are some of the most common triggers for emotional eating. It can come from childhood habits. Did your mom give you cookies & milk after a bad day. Did you go out for ice cream if you did well? What about a pizza party if you won a game? Those are all habits we learn and in our minds become associated with eating. Socially we can be influenced. Maybe our best friend wants to celebrate so we overdo it to help them celebrate an achievement. Maybe they’ve had a bad day and we want to make them feel better. Again, this ties closely in with those childhood habits. It’s what we associate with eating so we do the same with our friends and family members. Boredom, loneliness and a feeling of emptiness are also triggers. How many of us have been at home watching a movie and after sitting for a while we suddenly crave something to eat or worse yet on those long Sunday afternoons watching sports we wander into the kitchen during a commercial break and bring a snack back with us to the couch just because it caught our eye in the fridge? Another trigger can be when we try to stuff down our emotions. It could be the loss of a friend or family member or maybe just some negative emotion we are trying to avoid dealing with. As we force those emotions down to avoid them we start to crave something to eat. Lastly and in the most general of terms can be stress. Anything from suddenly being unemployed, suffering from a health concern or financial pressures can cause stress and emotional eating. Stress from relationship conflicts, work stress or just being fatigued either mentally or physically can be triggers to cause you to emotionally eat.
Now you are armed with the knowledge of what emotional eating is and what can cause emotional eating ,we should also give you some tips and tools to combat this hurdle. For me, handling emotional eating is part of a process. Like most things in a healthy lifestyle its little steps built upon each other that can lead to success. So, here’s the steps to help fight emotional eating in your own life. First thing I recommend is to journal. We’ve talked about this before in previous posts and we will be revisiting it again in some upcoming posts but the same principle remains. Knowledge is power and journaling is a great way to gain both knowledge and power on your healthy lifestyle. By writing down a couple quick sentences about your day along with your food journal and you will quickly recognize when you were eating emotionally and you will be more aware as those situations reoccur in your life. The second step and it is far easier said than done for most of us but it is to accept your emotions. Don’t find them, bury them or try to hide from them. Confront them and come to grips with them will help take the power away from the food and put you in control of your process. Plus as an added benefit emotional wellness is just as important to a healthy lifestyle as physical or nutritional concerns. Also, look at ways to help tame the stress in your life. I’m not asking you to take on yet another line on your “to do” lists but instead incorporate things you’re already doing that can help handle stress. For instance, if you are looking for ways to be more active maybe look at something like yoga or meditation that way you can be more active and help handle stress in your life. I mean, we all love a good “2fer” right? Along these lines try making activity more of a priority in your daily routine. I’m not talking about adding another day at the gym but maybe making it a point to take the kids to the park to play for 30 minutes or to walk the dog around the block when you get home. You will be amazed at how powerful being more active is on your emotions and your stress. Another idea that is exceptionally helpful is to change up your focus. Don’t just worry about a number on a scale but focus on being healthier and about overall nutrition and not just calories. It seems like a small thing to do but that change in focus can remove the anxiety over what you are trying to accomplish and help you to be more accepting of both your stumbling blocks and struggles. Why do I bring this up? When we think of dieting we think of all the things we can’t have and the things we have to give up. Combine those feelings of deprivation with stress or anxiety and it becomes a Molotov cocktail that can derail the best of intentions. When you allow yourself those little indulgences it will become easier to stay on track and help manage those sudden emotional cravings because you haven’t done without your afternoon bottle of Coke or that bowl of ice cream on date night. Another tip to help is when you are feeling overwhelmed by a craving tell yourself to “wait 5 minutes”. Some people suggest to wait an hour or until tomorrow. Anything can work, only you can know what seems manageable for yourself. The basis of this theory is “instant gratification and delayed pain” versus “instant pain and delayed gratification”. Seem too scientific? Remember we said that emotional eating is generally followed by feelings of regret or shame those would be the delayed pain. How good does it feel when you withstand the temptation and at your next regular weigh in your weight didn’t change or maybe you’re down a couple tenths of a pound? It gives you the encouragement that you can do this. It helps to enforce that those good choices are paying off and it helps to build that momentum for other positive changes. One last tip about emotional eating. Don’t forget the importance of proper sleep. When we are increasingly tired and fatigued making those choices and resisting those momentary urges becomes increasingly more difficult.
I hope you are noticing the pattern, not just with emotional eating but, with all the concepts of a healthier lifestyle. That is the idea of interconnectedness. See how so many of these little things go hand-in-hand with others and how they build upon each other. This is a process and a lifestyle and just as your life is multi-faceted so is a healthy lifestyle. It’s not about just weighing less or about being a size smaller. It doesn’t happen solely from eating different or just working out. Don’t get me wrong. You will see results from doing any one new healthier routine but to truly see change on a dramatic scale then it needs to be changes made to all aspects of your life. I know that seems daunting and like a burden you can’t carry alone. We’re not asking you to. Stick around, we will help you get there. Hit the comments section or find us on Facebook and let us help you carry that burden and help you walk your own healthier lifestyle path. We can get there together.