Emotional Eating

 

 

Eating to feed a feeling, and not a growling stomach, is emotional eating.

 

Emotional eating or stress eating whatever you feel comfortable in calling it is REAL. I have to admit that I am an emotional eater. When I feel overly stressed and not sure how to handle life the first thing I reach for is comforting food such as Twix bar, cookies, and anything I can get my hands on. For some reason for that second that comforting food makes me happy and not think about everything that is going on around me for that split second. The problem is- I regret it as soon as I finish. Emotional eating is a big reason on why I feel that I haven’t lost as much as I could have this year or even last year. I swore that I was going to be at my goal weight at least by June 2014 yet I still have around 60 pounds to go. I have defiantly gotten better with emotional eating but it is still times where I give in!

       I am the type of person who does not handle stress well and sometimes I let the stress consume my life. I typically hold so much in and then once one more thing gets added to the top it just overwhelms me to the point where food is basically my outlet. Being an emotional eater and being addicted to food in general is two different things. I have never been addicted to food but I defiantly have that feeling when I am in a stressful situation. It is common for food to be the first thing that a person reaches for. It is a mental thing that you have to train your mind to stop doing. I have figured out way to handle my stress better such as just going to the gym, going for a walk, calling up and friend and venting about my issues. The top thing that I have done is not to keep bad food WHAT-SO-EVER in my home. If it is something that I want badly I would have to go out to eat it which is not likely. I’m still learning about dealing with it while I am at work since I have a vending machine basically in front of me but I usually do not keep cash/change on me at all to prevent myself from going to it. Food is never the solution to handle your issues because after you eat it you will still have the SAME problems! We have to find a way to deal with our issues instead of trying to avoid them!