Food vs Feelings: How to gain control over Emotional eating?
How many times a day do we find ourselves lurking around the kitchen even if we have had our lunch or dinner to grab another meal just out of mere boredom because we feel like eating?
We reach out to food because it serves as a distraction to cope up with our negative emotions and stress coming from work, financial worries, health, family or relationships whenever we feel low, upset or angry and maybe regret it later which develops a cycle of emotional excessive eating.
(For a quick list of key takeaway, check towards the end of the article)
“Physical hunger develops over time whereas emotional hunger abrupts suddenly.”¹
Paying attention to when and how our hunger starts and how we feel after eating will help us differentiate between the two and give the craving some time to pass.
Most of us fail to understand that dieting or restriction of foods is NOT the solution to emotional eating but it rather exacerbates it. We do not understand the reason behind why we comfort eat and inaccurately label our feelings and emotions in a situation where one is required to explore them instead and develop effective coping strategies to deal with such emotions.
Giving in to boredom² is one of the most common reasons for emotional eating. One should distract ourselves to a healthier habit like going for a walk, reading, listening to music or watching a movie, talking to family or friends, painting or sketching etc.
Writing down what, how much, when, how we are feeling and how hungry we are helps us analyze our eating pattern and say no to unhealthy foods and to situations that sabotage our efforts for building healthy eating habits.
Healthy snack options like have fruits/ nuts/ yoghurt/ poha/ upma/ sprouts chaat/ corn chaat/ khakhra/ vermicelli/ paneer, chicken or egg roll/ fruit salad with nuts/ dhokla/ puffed rice bhel/ moong dal cheela/sabudana khichdi/peanut/ rajgira/ sesame seeds chikki/ makhana/ popcorn/ smoothies/ milkshakes/ laddoos etc can eaten be incase one feels hungry between meals. Avoid buying comfort food like pastries, chocolates, chips, cookies etc.
Relaxation exercises including yoga, meditation, deep breathing techniques or pranayam, counting on our family and friends for emotional support can lessen the amount of stress we put ourselves through.
Most importantly, we should forgive ourselves of the guilt of emotional eating, stop right there and start afresh from the next meal and try to learn from the experience to figure out what went wrong and what made us comfort eat in the first place. By taking a small step at a time, positive self-talk and giving ourselves credit, we will make positive changes that will lead to better health.
Key Takeaways:
- Physical hunger develops over time whereas emotional hunger abrupts suddenly and we reach out to food to deal with negative distractions or eat out of boredom.
- One must pay attention, writing down and analyzing how we feel when hunger starts and after eating as restriction of foods is NOT the solution to emotional eating and we must rather explore our emotions and build effective coping strategies to deal with them.
- Switching to healthy habits like walking, reading, listening to music, eating healthy, relaxation exercises and emotional support from our friends and family, keeping away from the guilt of eating, learning, engaging in positive self-talk and starting afresh will encourage positive changes in our health.
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