Many women suffer immensely from emotional eating. These types of women often see foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, they often follow restricted dieting regimes that cut our whole food groups or macronutrients, and are stuck in a cycle of restrict, binge, restrict and gradually getting further and further away from their goals. Stress eating, or emotional eating, is a way of consuming food to help ease negative emotions or pain. Emotions such as sadness, boredom, stress, fear, worry, guilt, shame, or loneliness may feel overwhelming, especially if triggered by a major life event, such as:
There are a number of reasons why people are drawn to food in the midst of stressful situations, but many of them are related to the feeling of comfort that food may provide, hence the term 'comfort foods'. They may help relieve the tension of whatever feels stressful or worrisome.
So why do we emotionally eat? Emotional
eating is complex and generally involves reaching for comforting foods when
you are stressed, tired, sad, or exhausted. Often, this is developed by deep
feelings of not being good enough, being a failure, and not believing you can
get to your goal. These limiting emotions and beliefs are what pushes women
towards emotional eating when life gets tough.
When those emotions come up that trigger you to emotionally you might find
after you do something else that you know longer have that urge anymore. This
will take time and practice to disassociate your mind from emotional eating
and to connect to the new action plan. But overtime, it will become
automatic. It may not come easy to you, but take your time and really sit
with the feelings. |
· 2 things you are grateful for
· Something that made you smile
· 2 things you like about yourself
· Something you are proud of yourself for
Think ahead to how you may feel
When choosing how to process your emotions and learning how to control stress eating, ask yourself if your actions will make you feel better or worse in the aftermath. For example, choosing to go for a walk or taking time to read will have a very different effect on how you feel compared to consuming a large amount of food.
This simple exercise can help you to reconsider how your choices in the moment will make you feel in the long term. The key is to understand what the true cause of your stress eating is; and with this knowledge, you’ll find it easier to choose options that don’t focus on food.
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