Do you always eat simply to satisfy hunger or do you sometimes eat as a way of filling periods of boredom, reducing your stress levels or using food as a reward.
Let me tell you now, if you’re eating when you’re not actually hungry and you’re not eating a nutrient dense diet when you are, then you will get fat.
Let me also tell you that eating will not cure your boredom, reduce your stress levels and definitely should not be used as a reward. If your board you need to do something that excites you, if your stressed you need to take time out to rest or relax and if you do well in an area of life and feel you need a reward, then congratulate yourself in a non-food way, rather than treating yourself like a pet dog.
If you eat food in an attempt to feel better it may make you feel better for the duration of the meal, but when you look yourself in the mirror afterwards and realise that in actual fact by doing so you are actually reducing the quality and possibly the length of your life it will only cause your mood to dip even lower.
So please follow this advice and the quality of your life will vastly improve;
Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are not, if you go out for a meal and by the time it comes to pudding time, you are no longer hungry, do yourself a favour and don’t order one, this is emotional eating, you don’t actually need any more food, you are just eating to full fill your emotional needs.
What we need to realise is that emotional hunger can never be satisfied via food.
If we are board, what we really need to do is decide what we are interested in and start making a conscious effort to do more of these activities. This could be playing a sport / joining a sports team, it could be going to the cinema, learning a language, craft or new skill, hanging out with friends, spending time with family, whatever you like or could like to do.
If were stressed we need to determine what is causing our stress, is our body crying out for nutrients because our diet is not particularly healthy, is our body crying out for more sleep as we are over prioritising our waking hours, are we constantly turned on and really need some down time / relaxation time, are we dehydrated, are we worrying about things that really we don’t need to, are we spending our precious time doing things that really we would rather not be.
If were lonely is it because we would like a partner / soul mate, maybe we would like more likeminded friends of the same sex, maybe we would like to make more of an effort to spend more time with our families.
You can start to address emotional eating by first realising what events, Places or feelings cause you to reach for food, is it stress, boredom, loneliness, childhood habits that have persisted through to adulthood, the influence of other emotional eaters?
Start to keep a food diary documenting everything you eat for a few months, this will allow you to see when and why you eat what you eat.
You may find that you always eat after seeing your boss, maybe after sitting on your own for a lengthy period of time, maybe when you haven’t had enough sleep and are feeling tired.
Realise now that you are the boss of your body, you are the boss of your mind, and you are the boss of your emotions. Take control of your body NOW and give yourself the things you really need and want and say bye to emotional eating forever.
Seek the source of your emotional eating and give yourself what you really need and want.