An overwhelming majority of people, including me, are subject to eating food sources that derail our weight control efforts when we feel:
- Sad
- Happy
- Scared
- Angry
- Bored
- Anxious
The turning to devouring high caloric/high sugar foods when we experience these sensations is termed “Emotional Eating”.
Why do we find ourselves seeking these food sources when we feel these above-mentioned sensations? There are several reasons for this behavior, but probably the two most prominent reasons are:
- These food/drinks provide an immediate “feel-good”
- When we recollect fun times with our friends and families, many of these gatherings included those food and drink sources we remember as being a part of the fun and “feel-good”. By ingesting these food sources when we are emotional, we are hoping to bring back the “feel-good”.
Here are several suggestions as to how to stop or at last mitigate the damages of “Emotional Eating”:
- Start by NOT having these food/drink sources within easy reach, i.e. keep those foods out of your pantry, refrigerator, work desk etc. The chances are much less of you hopping into your car and driving to 7/Eleven to buy these snacks/foods than if they were in easy reach
- Try to develop a “Delay” mechanism as part of your behavior patterns. Obligate yourself to NOT reach for a derailing food/snack/drink immediately when you feel emotional. Try to take a few minutes to think through the behavior: Is eating that food really going to change the issues causing you to feel emotional? If anything, you will feel even worse for caving into a behavior that harms your weight control efforts
- Develop alternative means of handling emotional times: Meditation, going out for a walk, pumping some weights, putting soothing music on and/or whatever else can be done to ease your emotional toil.
We are all humans an d subject to human nature behavioral patterns. Emotional eating is a common human behavior but we must stop this if we want to have a chance of long-term weight control.
And here is Samantha Sang with the Bee Gees singing “Emotion”.
