How can you get rid of emotional eating?
When you’re feeling down and out, sit in front of the TV with a large container of your favorite flavour of ice cream. After a long, exhausting day at work, you come home and go straight to the refrigerator for a snack. While pulling an all-nighter before your exam, munching on comfort food. We’ve all been in similar circumstances and have found ourselves indulging in them at some point. Is this, however, a sign that you’re an emotional eater?
When normal eaters are happy, unhappy, or bored, they may find themselves overeating. Emotional eating is something that almost everyone does from time to time. However, if this occurs on a regular basis or on multiple occasions, you may be an emotional eater. This results in poor dietary decisions, an unhealthy relationship with food, and emotions of guilt and dissatisfaction.
What is the definition of emotional eating?
When you use food to deal with or cover overwhelming emotions, whether negative or pleasant, you are engaging in emotional eating. When you’re anxious, upset, in need of consolation, or celebrating something great, you might go for something to eat.
Food is frequently used as a reward or as a coping mechanism for people who are in an unpleasant situation. When people use food to cope with bad feelings, they are suffering from an eating disorder, which must be treated. The most important thing to remember is that emotional eating only provides a momentary relief from tough or unpleasant sensations. As a result, you may suffer feelings of humiliation, guilt, and increased physical and mental distress.
What factors contribute to emotional eating?
Unmet emotional and spiritual needs are frequently the cause of emotional eating. It’s a direct outcome of not being aware of what you’re eating and why you’re consuming it. The issue you’re facing or covering up within by using food as an excuse is often the cause, not the food.
How can you get rid of emotional eating?
Understanding the distinction between emotional and bodily hunger is the first step toward overcoming emotional eating. Emotional hunger occurs when a person has a strong desire for a specific food. Physical hunger begins with stomach grumbling and progresses to providing the nutrition your body need. It has nothing to do with the way you feel.
Using a hunger scale to determine whether your hunger is emotional or physical is a good way to start.
