On the way home from work, Kathy stopped to visit her mother.
She’d planned to stay only a few minutes, but then she noticed the plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
They smelled wonderful!
“I’ll have just one,” she thought. And she did. It tasted so good that soon she reached for another, then several more.
Suddenly she caught herself. “What am I doing?” she thought. “Get those away from me!”
But it was too late. Once more, she had slipped off her diet and consumed her entire day’s worth of calories in one sitting.
Emotional Eating!
Does Kathy’s story sound familiar? Do you ever follow your diet plan all day, then when evening comes, eat everything in sight? Are there days when you eat a lot of food but don’t know why?
What makes your dieting resolve disappear so quickly around a box of doughnuts or the restaurant dessert tray?
Most of us know that when life gets hard, food is an easy solution! We don’t really mean to eat every time we have a bad day or a lonely evening.
But it’s SO easy to reach for food when you feel angry, sad, lonely, stressed… even happy.
In fact, in my work, I’ve concluded that emotional eating is the number one reason why most diets fail. But it’s also an area of your weight-loss efforts that you can conquer.
I don’t believe you need a stricter diet plan to protect you from doughnuts or chocolate chip cookies. You won’t conquer emotional eating by avoiding food.
Instead, you need to tackle the source of the problem and begin to understand WHY you so easily reach for food when you aren’t hungry.
Why do you eat?
Think about all the reasons why you might reach for something to eat. “Because I’m hungry” will probably show up on the list. But what about all the times you reach for food when you aren’t hungry or physically needing nourishment? See if you’ve recently used any of these excuses:
* I just wanted something to eat.
* It looked good, so I ate it.
* Mom made it especially for me.
* I paid for that food and I want to get my money’s worth.
* I was taught to clean my plate.
* I love to eat and that food was my favorite.
Most of us would admit we sometimes reach for food when hunger has nothing to do with it. If you occasionally give in to an afternoon candy bar or take a second helping of lasagna, you probably won’t cause much damage.
But if you are trying to lose or maintain your weight, non-hungry eating has the potential to sabotage everything you’ve worked for.
Emotional eating, or using food to appease an emotional or psychological need can easily become a habit.
Without realizing it, you slide into using food to fix everything from anger and stress to depression and boredom. Over time, your eating plan becomes ineffective, your self-esteem drops, and your weight keeps going up.
What is one of your biggest reasons WHY you eat when you aren’t hungry? Mine is feeling unsure, anxious or unsettled.
Leave a comment and tell us about the reasons WHY you do emotional eating.