Emotional Eating

Why do you eat?

When I ask people this question the answers are pretty common,” because it’s there”, “I’m bored”, “it’s expected”, “it’s time”, “to cope”, “it’s a habit”.

Notice what’s missing?

No one, said, “because I was hungry.”

When was the last time you felt hungry?

If I follow up with this question I often get silence and maybe a chuckle. We don’t even remember the last time we felt hungry. Even if we are trying to lose weight.

 

It is not that uncommon.

We eat because it is a way to celebrate and socialize. We eat because of traditions, habits, cues. We eat to calm and soothe emotional states. We eat because it is what we do when we watch tv, go out with friends, work. We eat to relieve boredom, reduce stress, push back anger. We eat because food is available everywhere we go. We eat for many reasons. Sometimes because we are hungry.

If you are struggling with your weight ask yourself when was the last time I ate because I was hungry?

Hunger is a physical feeling.

It is not a craving. Becoming too hungry can cause overeating. Remember the last time you ate, was it a physical feeling or something else?

Mindfulness-based eating helps people to understand their emotional eating cues. Awareness can help change the response to emotional cues and allow us to make different choices, but that doesn’t always work.

A study published in Frontiers in Behavioural Medicine looked at how our environment changed our food decisions. They were interested in the idea that we have control over how and when we eat, but that is being constantly undermined by a constant stream of sensory overload. 

In other words, advertising and marketing of junk food.

These same researchers then suggest that using simple cues or reminders about healthy food choices could be all it takes to make better decisions. Finding ways to interrupt the regular cues to eat, the endless stream of cues, to eat unhealthy foods can make enough of a difference to stop the eating cycle.

Maybe if you are a lab rat. Which is how they did their research. It might be a start, but last time I checked it was easier to control your environment if you were trapped in a lab. To change a habit you need to keep the same cue and the same reward, but substitute the routine. This means understanding what is the reward? If it is not to satisfy hunger, then the solution is personal and only you know the answer.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla