Thursday, October 1, 2009

10 Thoughts You Must Catch to Beat Emotional Eating


"Emotional eating" seems to have entered the vocabulary of the everyday person. We are aware of it in an anecdotal level, same way as we are of other modern over-indulgences - TV, electronic gadgets and Internet. Yesterday at the snack vending machine I heard a coworker say: " I am such an emotional eater!". To which I replied: " Who isn't?"

There is no denying it - food has comforting qualities. We crave food for reasons other than pure energy restoration. We all over-indulge from time to time, but when the degree of emotional eating is very high, it is stops being a clandestine mid-night affair between you and that pint of ice-cream; the results are evident in the plan daylight in spite of artful efforts to cover it with layers of clothes .

Emotional eating is deeply embedded in our psyche, it is not impervious to change. There are ways in which you can train your mind to tell real hunger apart from the emotional eating.
To break away from this dangerous habit we have to learn to recognize when we "eat our emotions".
Pay attention to the way you think when the thoughts of food enter our mind.
When we think like this:

- I have to eat before I tackle this pile of documents on my desk...
- I just worked though a huge pile of documents on my desk and deserve to eat...
- I am bored, I will eat now, since there is nothing better to do...
- I am in pain, if I eat I'll feel better...
- I am happy, I am going to celebrate it with my favorite meal!
- I feel shy, out of place, I better eat all this food....
- I feel dissatisfied with myself, my marriage, my job...eating makes me feel better...
- I feel guilty, eating makes me forget that...
- I really want to please my host/mother/mother-in-law and eat even thought I am not hungry...
- I feel pressure to lose weight and I will eat to show them who's boss...

It is time to stop eating and address the issues at the root of the problem!
The good new is - you can start working on changing this habit right away - all you need to do is carry this list around with you and check it every time your reach out for your refrigerator: am I really hungry or am I eating my emotions again?
I guarantee that combining this approach with other healthy choices will lead you to losing those extra pounds and improving overall outlook on life!

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