Emotional eaters understand the
struggle behind feeling stressed, turning to food for comfort, and then beating
themselves up for consuming lots of empty calories. It's a vicious cycle, and
many feel as if they don't know how to get it under control.
Stress eating is a common condition
amongst people of all ages and is done to assuage emotional needs and problems
rather than actual hunger. Those who identify themselves as emotional eaters
may view food as a type of comforting friend they can turn to when life becomes
too overwhelming.
While they eat they feel safe and at
ease, but the underlying problems are still there. Since much of this eating is
emotion driven, you may find it difficult to pinpoint what exactly sent you to
the fridge or the pantry in the first place.
An Eating Diary
Keeping an eating diary is one way
to help you gain insight into your behaviors and the emotional triggers that
set them off. By keeping an eating diary, you can identify important
connections between when you eat, how much you eat, and why you eat when you
aren't physically hungry.
An eating diary is simply a journal
that is used strictly to chronicle what you eat, when you eat, and how much
you've eaten. Those who keep such a diary include details such as:
- Meal times
- Portion sizes
- Feelings before, during, and after eating
- Nutritional value of the food
- Thoughts surrounding the process
When kept for a prolonged amount of
time and then studied, you may be able to find certain patterns and connections
surrounding your eating habits.
For example, an emotional eater may
find that immediately following a fight with a loved one, they have a meal.
They might see that before the meal their emotions were running high, and
afterwards, they felt comforted and calm. By simply keeping a log of these
events, what is really fueling your eating habits can become suddenly clear.
How Do You Know If You're An
Emotional Eater
We've all had those days when we eat
when we're bored, go out for ice cream after a bad breakup, or even visit the
pizza parlor to celebrate a victory, but does that make you an emotional eater?
The truth is that emotional eating
is much deeper than a snack or outing following a significant event. It is
often ongoing and accompanied by a severe influx or drop of emotions.
The following questions can help you
figure out whether your eating patterns are ordinary or driven by emotional ups
and downs:
- You eat when you feel stressed
- You eat despite not feeling hungry or even feeling full
- You see food as a reward
- You eat until you're stuff no matter what
- You eat in order to feel calm and at ease (usually when feeling sad, angry, anxious, bored, or agitated)
- You feel you have no power over food and how much your eat
- You immediately feel safe when you eat
If the majority of these indicators
applies to you, it is highly likely that you are an emotional eater. Keeping an
eating diary can help outline in plain English your emotional and physical
habits when it comes to stress and stress management.
When any patterns or connections
become clear, you can then move forward by changing some of your coping skills
to cut out eating when you aren't initially hungry.
Emotional eaters do not have to
suffer with the physical problems this condition can bring. Instead, they can
get themselves back on track through focused mindfulness and proactive steps
such as therapy, exercise, and other healthy coping practices.
