emotional eating
Health Tips, Mental Health

Emotional Eating and How to Stop It

In spite of the growth of technology and the ways of doing everything instantly, that would supposedly make lives easier, people now are more prone to stress. The most common way of coping up with stress nowadays is emotional eating. They are usually stressed from work, paying off debts, dealing with daily errands and schedules and sometimes from coping up with the expectations of other people. In short, people incur stress among themselves through their lifestyle without knowing the effects of it in their lives.

With different types of stress comes different ways of coping up with it. People tend to depend on food when they feel stressed out, sad, tired or even happy. Their eating habits solely depend on their emotions mostly eating large quantities of food, particularly comfort food. The bad thing about the comfort food is that it usually includes chips, chocolates, lots of starch and carbohydrates and sometimes alcoholic drinks that would make people overweight, unhealthy and sick.

The good news is that more people are aware of this dilemma and starts to be mindful of what they eat now especially if they are under stress or are currently undergoing something in their lives. People know how to fight against emotional eating and here are some ways on how they do it…

  • Avoid unhealthy food like chips, chocolates, alcoholic drinks and more by not buying it in the malls, grocery stores or everywhere. If you tend to be an emotional eater, never store these types of food at home.
  • Before you go for food, ask yourself if it is worth all the trouble of burning all the calories by exercising more. It is a huge effort on your part to exercise more just for a bar of chocolate or a bag of chips. Ask yourself if it is worth it.
  • Try exploring your neighborhood by going for a walk or jog. At least you are moving around and with this; you would tend to forget that you are craving for bad food.
  • Drink lots of water.
  • Distract yourself by reading a good book or your favorite magazine when you are not doing something. Sometimes emotional eating starts when you are idle and not doing anything.
  • Talking to a friend will also help. Look for a support group that will help you in dealing with stress which usually ends to emotional eating.
  • Relax and do breathing exercises. Sometimes after juggling everything in a day, we tend to forget that we need to stop and relax even for a couple of minutes. Breathing exercises will help a lot.
  • Don’t wear too much comfortable clothes while eating. It will let you think that you are entitled to eat more if your clothes are too lose and comfortable.
  • Channel your energies to other activities such as dancing, yoga, exercising or just squeezing a stress ball.
  • If you failed and gave in to the food, don’t fret and don’t feel guilty. It will just make it worst. Start all over again and this time, stick to your goals.
I believe that emotional eating can definitely be treated. If you analyze the triggers of emotional eating, your cravings as soon as you feel the need to eat and a way to combat against it, you have a chance of getting over this thing in any day. With determination and will, you will be able to fight and stop this and will live a healthier lifestyle from then on.