Emotional Eating Another Look

Submitted by: Aaron Rastan

What s emotional eating? Most people eat in reply to a psychological trigger. We are content, sad, celebrating, discouraged, upset, frustrated, or scared and we eat. Does that sound familiar?

If it doesn t you could be in the majority of men and women who don t acknowledge the emotional facets that gets into eating habits. It isn t strange not to be aware of the factors that influence emotional eating. In fact the vast majority of our choices have a causal emotional element prior to a rational choice.

We’re unconsciously trained through many years of exposure to loved ones, friends and advertisements that foods simply make us feel good. Sure, they fill an actual biological need in us so the body has energy to burn. But, as we move into emotional eating we are using food to fill another void. We are utilizing foods to fill an emotional need that should be filled elsewhere.

There’s a difference between emotional eating and a full-blown eating disorder. A binge eater or obsessive eater goes beyond the basic behaviors of an emotional eater. How do you tell which category into which you fall?

There are particular traits which are obvious in folks who suffer from full-blown eating issues. These people regularly binge or eat a lot of food, swiftly. Individuals with eating problems will feel unmanageable about food or feel they’re obsessed about food.

Additional behaviors that distinguish a person with an eating disorder vs. emotional eating is that they conceal foods around the house or even may try to eat in hiding. As an example, I they are the main person who does the shopping, they may hide some from the rest of the family and then consume it after everybody else has gone to bed.

Folks who suffer from both eating disorders and who will be avid emotional eaters also have at times experienced a traumatic occasion in their lives – either physical or sexual abuse for instance. The percentage of people with eating disorders that have experienced this abuse is greater than those with simple emotional eating.

People affected by binge eating have several challenges, not the least of is that the condition isn t as well popularized as anorexia or bulimia. People might not exactly know there could be a medical problem. People who are suffering from eating disorders shouldn’t attempt to go on a diet but should, as an alternative, seek counsel of a trained accredited therapist.

While individuals have significant emotional eating patterns aren t at the medical and psychological risk like people with full-blown eating disorders are, they don t suffer any less.

Control of emotional eating begins with self-awareness of the problem and then self-management. Self-awareness is the hardest part because it involves the acceptance that you’ve a weakness that has turned into a problem with being overweight and you weren t simply born like that.

Start to recognize your emotional eating habits by maintaining a brief 4-5 day diary. Write down each time you eat. Not what you eat but the time of the day and how you’re feeling any time you reach for another morsel of food. If you first recognize that there is a feeling there for you to discover, you will then notice that discovering that emotion becomes easier each day.

At the end of the 5th day it is possible to look through your log and note how many times you ate simply because you thought you were hungry when you were not. Consider that number, the times of the day and other emotions that seemed to be involved in the automatic reach for food. Be honest honesty without being judgmental is your greatest ally.

Self-management is the next step. Like everything in life, the longer you do something the easier it gets. Practice makes things, if not perfect, at the very least easier. You may decide to do this part by yourself however you could may have better results should you work with assistance from a partner – or at least a calendar.

Continue to write down the times you eat, along with your emotional reasons why. As you’re forced to write, before you decide to eat, and read your reasons, you can be encouraged to put that food down when you’re annoyed, frustrated, or on an emotional high. The act of emotional eating will reduce and you ll be pleasantly surprised to yet again feel actual hunger!

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