Tips to Overcome Emotional Overeating

Eating is one of the primary survival drives in a human being. To eat is to live – we cannot go without food as our bodies get their nourishment from what we eat. But sometimes we can overindulge in food and it results in weight gain. This overindulgence is often due to emotional eating.

The problem with emotional eating is that it begins in the mind. Various stresses take their toll on your life and can lead to indulgence in food to take your mind off things or to comfort yourself. When your defenses are compromised your health takes a hit and so do your emotions.

We all have our good days and bad days. It’s how we deal with the bad days that can bring emotional eating into play. People who turn to food for comfort find it quite difficult to say ‘no’ even if they are full because they relate eating food to feeling good. To complicate the issue, eating pleasurable foods can stimulate the release of endorphins just like exercise.

But, how do you know you are overindulging in food in this way? The first sign is obvious. You will gain weight if you eat too much – as the body ingests more than it needs, so it starts to store extra kilojoules as fat. The weight gain is not only bad for your self-esteem, but if left unchecked, it can begin to affect your physical health as well.

If you feel you are in danger of giving in to overeating, examine other areas of your life:

* Have you been under stress lately at work or at home?
* Has anything traumatic happened in the last year?
* Are you dealing with a problem but haven’t found a solution?

Answering “yes” to any of these questions could mean that you might turn to emotional eating. You eat but you are not necessarily hungry at the time. The foods that you choose are what are commonly termed as “comfort foods”:

* High fat foods like French fries, fried foods
* High carb foods like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes
* Sugary foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies, chocolate, cake

There is help for emotional eaters who cannot see their way out of their problem. The first step is recognizing that you have a problem with food. You may experience feeling of helplessness and guilt, but giving in to these feelings will only keep you weak and unable to find a way out of the situation.

The second step to overcoming overeating is to seek counseling. There are many types of counselors out there that can meet your needs. Emotional eating has nothing to do with dieting or changing your eating habits but gaining control over your emotions in order to eat foods in healthy amounts.

A counselor might suggest things like visualization, practicing problem solving skills, relaxation techniques and family support. You will also learn to see food as nutrition for the body and not as an emotional crutch.

Thirdly, your family can learn your triggers for stress and be on the lookout for changes in your eating habits. They can help you be aware of the foods you are eating, assist you in making healthy food choices and exercise along with you. Proper diet and exercise increases immunity, blood flow and positive thinking. Yoga enhances the mind/body connection so you don’t eat when you aren’t hungry.

You could also keep a food journal for a month, then review the times and dates where you eat more recklessly, which may help you to identify problems with your lifestyle.

Finding new ways to solve your problems and deal with stress will push the compulsion to overeat out of the equation. Once you begin to take control, you’ll feel good about finding solutions which will replace your dependence on food.