As I’m sure you are all aware, the world is full of emotional eaters, and we eat when we are not even hungry. Sounds familiar right? We all know the drill, sitting on the couch watching TV and all you can think about is what’s in the fridge or the cupboards. Or in many cases, getting in to the car and taking a drive to the nearest burger or pizza place before it closes. Before you know it, you’re driving home with your newly purchased fast food and find yourself then taking a quick pit stop at the late night store to buy some potato chips and sweets. All the while, at no point during this whole escapade, have you been remotely hungry or even in need of any food.
So why do we do this and what can we do to stop ourselves doing it in the first place?
No doubt, a vast majority of you reading this will have tried to give up on the chocolate bars that rule supreme over all else in our life, but due to what we think is a ‘need’ for them, we just find ourselves back to square one. Stocking up our kitchen with the comfort food we so richly desire each and every day. We have all heard of that term right? Comfort food!
Emotional eating is a burden that many of us have to endure. It’s our safety blanket, our way of blocking out or emotional feelings that are built up inside. All the while, eating our way through a big bag of chips and dip while we’re not even hungry, right? We are feeding any unpleasant feelings or emotions we have with our comfort food, whether it’s fast food, sweets, cakes, chips or any other junk food for that matter. By consuming these great tasting treats, we are aiming to make ourselves feel better inside, blocking out the unwanted feelings. But this, as we are all too aware, is nothing more than a temporary stall to how we were feeling before the ”magical” chocolate bar graced us with it’s presence because once the high of the comfort food has passed, we are back to the feelings we had before, which are now coupled with guilt at letting ourselves get so down about whatever the underlying issue might be. For the worst sufferers amongst us, depression then comes knocking and we now find ourselves in free fall in to the abyss of negative feelings and emotions. It’s a vicious circle, right? First comes the bad feeling, then comes the unnecessary eating, then comes the high from the unnecessary eating, then the bad feeling comes back around, then comes the guilt, then comes the unnecessary eating again. We just cannot catch a break here!!
As I know only too well, this vicious circle doesn’t only affect us in a mental capacity, it also affects us physically. It’s a no brainer right? We feel bad, we eat. We feel bad again, we eat some more. We all know the issues many countries throughout the world have with obesity and other health issues due to over eating, but that’s not what we are here to discuss. What we are here to discuss is how to deal with what we are going through on a personal level.
Throughout the years, I have come to the conclusion that emotional eating is usually triggered off by a wide variety of hurdles that life puts in front of us. These can be anything from loneliness, health issues, marriage or relationship problems, anger, fear, our kid’s problems, financial troubles, a stressful life or a stressful job, boredom, a broken heart and many more. No one wants to have to deal with any of this right? So, instead of tackling these issues in a way that many others do, we instead indulge in our only known way of escape. At times, we won’t even realize that we are comfort eating.
So how do we recognize when we are emotional eating and when we are actually eating due to hunger?
The first sign would be the type of craving. Of course we are all different and deal with our emotional eating in our own ways. However, emotionally eating is generally centered around a craving for one or two particular types of food. However, if we are physically hungry, any food type that we enjoy would be enough to satisfy us.
The second sign would be the time frame. Emotional eating MUST be satisfied right there and then. Physical hunger is something that is built up as time passes by.
The third sign would be, knowing when to stop. Emotional eaters will eat their comfort food till the cows come home as we are trying to block out an emotion, not cure actual hunger. On the flip side, if you’re hungry, you eat, once you’re no longer hungry, you stop eating.
The fourth sign would be the guilt. After a session of emotional eating, we feel guilty and at times angry at ourselves. If we have simply just eaten due to hunger, there are no guilty feelings.
The fifth sign is one that may shock some of you as this kind of emotional eating usually takes place when feeling positive and in friendly surroundings. When on a night out with friends or at a family party etc, we find ourselves over indulging in the array of food on offer, whether it is at a restaurant or a birthday party. We also go way above our recommended daily calorie intake due to excess alcohol consumption due to the great atmosphere and celebrations going on all around us. For most people, this is absolutely fine as they won’t be stopping off for a late night pizza on the way home like we will.
When we are at our lowest, we use the junk food to take our minds off the issue. What we all need to learn to do is recognize when we are feeling low and when we are about to indulge in our comfort food. I mentioned many of the reasons why we emotionally eat earlier in this article, when we do find ourselves emotionally eating, write it down in a diary. Take down the time we ate, what we ate and more importantly, why we ate. Having this information to hand is a great tool for the coming weeks and months ahead. We can revert back to our diary every time we make a dash for the burger joint when we are feeling down and see how we we’re feeling last time. Then we can begin to address each situation as it comes. Once we understand why we do what we do, we can then start the healing process.
So what can we do to prevent ourselves from emotional eating?
First of all, have an activity in your life that will stop you from eating. There are lot’s of motivational ways to get through this. If you find yourself reaching for the chocolate cupboard because you’re feeling down, stop yourself, take a breath and realize what it is you’re just about to do, then go out for a walk, or call a friend or family member you trust whole heartedly who you can talk to in order to get your mind on to other more positive things, or join an online forum where you can talk to like minded people who are in the same boat as you and who can help you through with words of encouragement. You don’t have to deal with this on your own, because you’re not alone.
Secondly, remove all the comfort food from your home. If it’s not readily at hand, you’re making it harder for yourself to get the junk food and you have removed the urge to take a walk over to the fridge. Every little helps as they say.
Thirdly, always have lots of fruit and vegetables in your home. If an emotional eating craving comes on, recognize that it has and if you really must eat something, go right ahead and grab that apple. Heck, grab a banana while you’re there. It’s keeping you away from the unhealthy junk foods right?
Emotional eating can affect us all in many different ways. For some it can come and go without us even realizing, for others it is a life struggle where we just cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. However it doesn’t have to be this way! Most of us have what it takes to get out of this rut through sheer grit and determination. If you find yourself past the stage of helping yourself then perhaps seeking medical advice from your doctor is the way to go. However, my advice would be to give the diary and activities a go, you may even surprise yourself.
Enjoy and good luck guys!!