Control Emotional Eating
I’m sitting in a hotel room in Syracuse NY right now. Exciting, for sure. It’ 45 degrees here. It was 75 when I left Louisville. No offense to Syracuse, but I’m sure glad this is a short trip.
And while I was sitting my hotel, I could see a bunch of restaurants and shops nearby.
It was the middle of the afternoon. Nice and sunny, but cold.
I wasn’t hungry. But I was kind of bored and wanted to move around a bit since I’d been on a plane for awhile.
So off I went across the street to see what was around.
Something smelled really good – some kind of pastry or other sweet baked good.
But remember, I wasn’t hungry.
Then I get a text from my brother, who is in Miami for his first triathlon. And he starts telling me how he was out with the guys on his team and they just had the BEST meal and dessert.
I suddenly became hungrier. Hearing about the meal and dessert, coupled with the smells of the bakery. I felt like I NEEDED food.
But I still wasn’t really hungry. So I rationalized in my head that I would just get something small – it smelled really good, I would try this new place in a place I’ve never visited, and then head on back to my hotel.
Unfortunately the pastry wasn’t quite as good as the bakery smelled. A waste. And then I got mad at myself for doing that because it wasn’t even good.
Sound familiar?
We’ve all heard the term “emotional eating.”
It brings to mind the heartbroken woman who got dumped and is now elbow deep in a bag of Doritos; the busy mom who is struggling to make time for herself while helping everyone else and ends up finishing off a pint of Haagen Daz for dinner or the stressed out med student who finished off an entire pizza while pulling all nighters prepping for the boards.
Or apparently me when I’m traveling and bored in my hotel.
But while these examples may be a bit more extreme, it’s the daily food battles that make those stubborn last 10 or 15 lbs seem impossible.
Emotional eating is basically eating for psychological reasons vs. physiological ones. It’s eating when you’re stressed, bored, lonely, tired, sad, anxious, or even happy. But you’re not physiologically hungry.
And all of these calories add up. Quickly. Especially when these little “binges” become fairly regular habits.
So how do you break this streak to finally reach your goals you want to reach?
Since most emotional eating binges are associated with negative thoughts or behaviors, they’re like a short term “fix.” The problem, though, is that when you’re done eating …
…you usually feel even worse. You’re now feeling bad about the earlier event that upset you AND the binge and beat yourself up. This then becomes a viscous cycle and you continue to “medicate” your feelings with food.
But at the end of the day this is like rewarding a screaming child with a treat. It’s a learned behavior – they scream, they get what they want.
In your mind is that screaming child in the form of some emotional behavior. And she's rewarded with a high sugar, high fat food, which release “feel good” chemicals in the brain.
Ahhh, pleasure…temporary pleasure.
But at the end of the day the underlying issues need to be resolved, otherwise sugar and fat will be used to fix problems.
Try these 3 Strategies to Control Emotional Eating
- Find alternate activities to take your mind away from the situation. Call a friend and meet up with her to talk. Exercise, either with or without a friend. Simply find something that you enjoy that isn’t centered on food.
- Rate your physiological hunger. Are you TRULY hungry? Keep a tally going and rate your level of hunger on a scale of 1-10 – if it’s 6 or below, you’re not truly hungry. Go back to #1.
- Give Yourself Time. As time passes, your desire for food will go away – like an ocean wave. Ride the wave and if you’re still hungry after 20ish minutes, eat something. Otherwise it was a passing thought. And the more you do this, the weaker the association will be between eating and emotions.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I always have gum handy if the desire ever hits. Mint types are effective but I find the fruit flavored gums actually tend to increase my desire…..for whatever reason.
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