Emotional eating means exactly that – eating in response to our emotions. Some of us eat in response to ‘negative’ emotions – anger, depression etc. Some of us eat in response to ‘positive’ emotions such as joy. (note the words negative and positive are in quotation marks because every emotion can be good or bad depending on the situation and the action it produces but thats a discussion for another day). So whether you eat when sad or when happy – you are an emotional eater and that needs to stop
Problems with emotional eating:
- This one I think is the most obvious one. Emotional eating makes you gain weight. Although eating can make you feel better for a bit, all the excess food is adding to your weight and then now you have two reasons to be sad – the thing that made you sad and the extra weight you are now carrying. Emotional eating is a temporary solution that has long term side effects. If you have been trying to lose weight for years and failed then emotional eating may be the culprit.
- When you emotionally eat, you are most likely to eat high fat, high salt, high sugar foods like chips, biscuits, chocolate, ice-cream etc. When we eat these foods emotionally, we eat large quantities of them, usually in one go and we do this regularly. Love them or hate them, these foods are not good for your health as they are also packed full of habit-forming chemicals – that is why you should only eat them once in a while as a treat or you run the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and all their cousins.
- Emotional eating – especially when going through ‘negative’ emotions, stops you from developing your ability to deal with your emotions. The more we go through our emotions properly, the more we are able to handle life’s pressures. If you run to food every-time you feel low, you will never develop a healthy relationship with your emotions and you will be more prone to feeling depressed every-time something doesn’t go your way or every-time you experience something bad in your life. Emotional eating feeds the ‘victim’ in you and starves the ‘overcomer’ in you.
- Sometimes, emotional eating can even affect your relationships. For example in marriage, if every time you get upset with your spouse you reach for a biscuit, you are just suppressing and building up those emotions and one day they will explode – especially since you will begin to blame your spouse for your weight gain. If you reach for food every time someone hurts your feelings – and that can be a friend, a sibling, a parent, a co-worker etc – then you might end up becoming a toxic person without even knowing it.
How to stop emotional eating
- Know your triggers. Do you eat when sad/happy/bored? The first step to fixing a problem is to identify it. If you don’t know what triggers your emotional eating then you will not be able to deal with it.
- Make it a habit to eat consciously – all the time. Be aware of what you are putting in your mouth. People say I just eat what is in front of me without thinking. Really? Would you eat raw goat’s eyes? No, right? So that means you choose to eat what is in front of you. If you develop a habit of eating consciously, it will be easy for you to resist the urge to emotionally eat.
- Find alternatives to deal with your emotions (murder is out of the question). Exercise – even a short walk – will give you the same feeling as eating a bar of chocolate minus the side effects.
- Communicate. If your emotional eating is triggered by being upset at someone, let them know. Sometimes we get upset at people who don’t even know we are upset at them or are unaware that they have hurt or offended us and when you nicely tell them what they have done, most (decent) people will apologise. Then you will feel better and not need to eat to feel better.
- Be kind to yourself. Once in a while you will emotionally eat. Forgive yourself if you do and continue trying. Remember its a process and processes take time (well, maybe not thirty years!)
Finally, remember, Ngatirambe TichingoMhanya.