Breaking the cycle of emotional eating

Emotional eating is often found in women more as compared to men. The cause of this gender biased eating disorder is many times just increased sensitivity to outer stimuli. We grew up as kids using food as a way to deal with psychological stress. Well emotional eating is not a problem till it is controlled by your will but as soon as you become active emotional eaters you need help. According to psychologists emotional eaters find certain food more comforting because there is a release of certain neurotransmitters in the body when they eat such food. But emotional eating habit is very harmful for your health. Here we are going to discuss how you can deal with the problem effectively.

Write it down

Snacking or munching on fast food may calm you down for few moments but it is not the right way of solving the underlying issue. You have to find a healthier way of dealing with stress and other problems. Binge eating is triggered by certain emotions and you need to identify them first hand. Writing down what you ate, how were your feelings before and after eating and how long the sense stayed can help you to know a lot about your emotional eating habit. It will help you to figure out what actually triggers emotional eating in you.

Prevention

Plan four to six meals a day to avoid any hunger session. Do not rely on emotional triggers to tell you when to eat. Develop a food chart and include all sources of important nutrients like carbs, proteins, fibers and multi vitamins in your food plan. Stick to your eating plan as this will make you less vulnerable to emotional eating.

Making physical activities part of your daily life will also help you a lot. In a study it is found that people who are active in their lifestyle are less dependent and not easily triggered to eat emotionally when under stress. Walking and weight lifting are great ways to include physical activities in your life.

You can try to make a to-do list where you substitute your emotional eating attacks with some constructive tasks. For instance each time you are struck by stress and want too much on a candy bar instead try some soothing activities like taking a bath.

Some binge busting techniques

Remember before you eat anything it is important to write it down. This will force you to think what are eating and will break an auto pilot emotional eating habit.

• Put snacks in smaller packages
• Replace large serving plates and bowls with smaller ones
• Keep tempting food out of your sight
• Never try to eat straight from ice cream tub or a package
• Best you can do if you can’t resist high calorie food is to throw it out of your house
• Small 4-6 servings are best to keep your hunger afloat

These are some simple yet highly effective techniques to curb the emotional eating habit and bring a healthy change in your diet.

Resource box: Orlando Abortion Clinic. Dr. James S. Pendergraft opened the Orlando Women's Center in March 1996 to provide a full range of health care for women, including abortions, physical examinations, family planning and counseling. Abortion Clinic.

Dr. James S. Pendergraft opened the Orlando Women's Center in March 1996 to provide a full range of health care for women. http://www.womenscenter.com/