Thursday, June 25, 2009

Are You An Emotional Eater?


Feelings of stress, anxiety, sadness, anger and loneliness can send many people straight to food. Here are some tools that may help you to deal with emotional eating.
Try keeping a food journal. Writing down what you eat and when you eat can help to make you aware of patterns of mindless eating.
Find alternative activities. When you know what triggers emotional eating, you can replace eating with something else. What helped me was to grab pen and paper and write down my feelings. It served as a release instead of grabbing something to eat. Other things you can do, take a brisk walk, grab a good book, put on your favorite music and just dance, take a hot shower or bath, or just exercise. Do something other than eat that makes you feel better.
Get on a regular eating schedule. Having a set meal and snack schedule can help you to avoid impulse eating.
Most people turn to food when they are emotional. You are not alone. What's important is managing those emotions in a healthy manner.

2 comments:

Gutsy Living said...

I agree with your post. I think exercising regularly makes you stabilize your weight and realize that overeating isn't worth the trouble.

A Fitness Minute with Pat Anderson said...

You are right. When you realize how much exercise effort it takes to maintain a healthy weight, you start thinking twice about what you do eat.

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