Smart Weight Loss Edge

Emotional eating is one of the most dangerous challenges you might encounter when embarking on your weight loss journey.

After all, consider the following - when growing up, what did our parents do when we hurt ourselves? Now, true, some might have said, golly gee, when I was your age, I had a tractor fall on my toe but I then walked the 28 miles to school in the blinding snowstorm, so what’s your problem? but for the most part, they gave you ice cream or cookies to “make the hurt go away.”

Quite often, such comfort foods follow us into adulthood! Chocolate chip cookies when emotions are hurt, butterscotch flavored chips when you come down with the flu, caviar with gourmet coffee when (oops! Stop that! Sorry, that just snuck in there)….you get the idea.

The thing is, though, emotional eating can pour back in all the calories you’ve worked so hard to lose! After the pain is gone, the calories are still present within your body….searching out for all those nooks and crannies where they can hunker down and implode. And you deserve so much better than that.

What are some of the “triggers” of emotional eating? They include:

• Angst - Otherwise known as “Things that cause you to worry and give rise to feelings of anxiety.”
  • Angst can manifest itself in actual physical symptoms - your pulse starts to quicken, your palms might begin to sweat, your mind barrels away at a million miles per hour as you imagine the worst case of scenarios…but then somehow, a tranquil vision of carmel dolce ice cream flutters over your mind, seductively calling your name.
  • The Angst Emotional Eating Solution - I firmly believe that whenever angst or other powerful emotions pummel us unmercifully, it’s our guardian angels trying to get our attention so we can change our behaviors. First, SLOW DOWN! Take a deep breath and LISTEN to what your angst really means. You cannot control how people react to you…but you can choose to control how you react to them! You have to train yourself to realize you don’t need the crutch of emotional eating to deal with problems…instead, you have the inner strength within you to help out. Take all of that negative energy and put it into something positive - take your kids out to the park, build a new website, visit friends, dive into a workout DVD, etc. When you’re actually out doing something, it’s far more difficult to focus on your angst….and who knows, perhaps it will disappear. And some angst and anxiety resources include:
    • Social Anxiety Friends
    • Anxiety and Panic
    • Top tips for dealing with Anxiety

• Boredom - Otherwise known as “There’s nothing to do except eat!”
  • Boredom can make you feel like nothing is worth exerting yourself for. And you know, that’s really a shame - there’s an entire world out there bursting with things for you to do! But when you’re locked into your own mind that’s screaming at you, BORE BORE BORE I’m BORED BORED BORED!, sometimes it can be difficult to cut thru the hysterical noise and really look at the issues that can cause your emotional eating.
  • The Boredom Emotional Eating Solution - Physically pick yourself up and locomote yourself AWAY from the refrigerator or AWAY from those chocolate chip cookies or AWAY from anything (except caviar) that is beckoning to you. “Eating” for the sake of eating can be boring too, so instead of taking that easy way out, ask yourself, if today was my last day on earth, how would I spend it? Take a drive to exciting locations like Weird USA, treat yourself to a spa session, turn on your TV to shows on The Discovery Channel or the History Channel, or even….(get this!) throw in a workout DVD that makes you smile. Smiling will always contribute towards making you feel better.

• Sadness - Otherwise known as “I feel lousy, so comfort food to the rescue!”
  • Sadness is lousy, plain and simple. Left by itself, it can cause you to feel like the world abhors you and only double-chocolate layer cake can understand you! While you’re emotionally eating, the comfort-food aspect kicks in and temporarily, you start to feel better…until that comfort is happily gurgling in your tummy. Then…the sadness returns, kicking off within yourself a mission to find the maple fudge candy that would so well complement the double chocolate layer cake.
  • The Sadness Emotional Eating Solution - It would be too trite indeed to say, get happy! and you’ll never suffer from sadness emotional eating again. Alas, life just doesn’t work that way! Instead, if you’re the kind of person who shares, call a friend or family member who will talk it out with you, jump online to an online community etc. Validation of your honest feelings are important, and then hearing from others as to how they dealt with it can really make the difference. Some more resources for dealing with sadness include:
    • Sadness is not depression
    • Why am I so sad?
    • Dealing with sadness

• Setbacks - Otherwise known as “ARGH! I feel so frustrated!”
  • Setbacks and other frustrations leave you craving alternative satisfaction. Say, something like, oh, hmmmm, I don’t know….3 scoops of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream with Magic Shell Carmel toppings! When you feel kicked in the teeth by a setback, or frustrated that your goal wasn’t achieved, comfort food and emotional eating can always beckon you to change your mood. After all, you might have been frustrated by one area of your life, but you can command how you scarf down all those extra calories!
  • The Setbacks Emotional Eating Solution - My life’s experience now has shown me….setbacks and and other problems are merely misunderstood opportunities in life. As Richard Bach would say, “Every problem has a gift for you in its hands“….and my gosh, how true that is! So when you’re frustrated or feeling impeded by the world, instead of retreating to emotional eating, ask yourself, how can you re-direct all that negative energy into something positive in your life? The frustration you’re experiencing - what is it teaching you about yourself? Really take the time to be honest with yourself…and then slam all that energy into making things better. Some more useful resources include:
    • Dealing with frustration
    • Way 22
    • 3 tips for dealing with frustration

• Stress - Otherwise known as “I’m about to implode!”
  • Stress kills. It really can. When you’re stressing out over something, your blood pressure rises, your emotions get more unstable, you might find yourself doing things you’d never consider when you’re feeling at status-quo. To redirect you from stress, sometimes you’ll find yourself diving into the bakery or cookie aisle at your local supermarket. A short term answer indeed, because when you’re done consuming 8000 extra calories, the issues of the stress are still there.
  • The Stress Emotional Eating Solution - Embrace your stress. No, I’m really serious! I don’t mean, feed your stress and make it bigger and bigger, no indeed….I mean instead, accept the fact you’re stressing out and begin the recovery process immediately. Take a deep breath, understand what’s causing the stress, and then ask yourself, okay, this is where I currently am…to where do I want to go? How can I get there without causing myself more anxiety and pain? USE your stress! Make it work for you. Some useful stress resources include:
    • How to deal with stress
    • Stress management
    • Top 10 ways to destress and eat less

• Temper - Otherwise known as “Thar she blows!”
  • Temper, mis-directed, can really cause emotional turmoil. When you find yourself really really spitting mad, all you’re aware of is this horrendous craving to FIND RELIEF. And what better relief exists than Milky Way candy bars and coconut macaroons?
  • The Temper Emotional Eating Solution - Let….it…..go. When you’re in a temper, you’re actively giving drama rewards to whomever is observing you. In essence, you’re giving others control of how you choose to react! Temper and anger is emotional - there are root causes of what’s making you feel so lousy. Explore them! Take a deep breath and ask yourself, is this onslaught of emotion improving my day? What’s really causing this outbreak? And once you zero in on that, take steps to combat it. Some useful anger management resources that can help include:
    • Controlling anger before it controls you
    • How to get your anger under control
    • Anger management online

Emotional eating can really be devastating for your overall health. I hope the above has been useful for you! And don’t forget about all the great communities for Emotional Eating as well:

• SparkPeople Emotional Eating
• What do you do instead of emotional eating?
• Normal eating support forum
• Prevention.com Emotional Eating

Enjoy!

Staff

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