During my time at Renfrew I spent a LOT of time learning about some of the reasons that people have difficult relationships with food and their weight. One reason is emotional eating. Emotional eating is when a person eats for reasons other then hunger. Some people celebrate with food - think about after a child hits a game winning home run and you go out for ice cream. Other times people deal with painful emotions but trying to stuff them down with food. Perhaps you might eat because your bored. Whatever the reason, if you aren't eating because you're hungry, your eating because of your emotions.
According to the University of Texas Counseling and Universal Health Center there are telltale signs of "emotional eating."
1. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, unlike physical hunger which comes on more gradually.
2. When you are eating to fill a void in your life, only a specific food will meet your needs (for me, it's always been ice cream or fro-yo). When you are actually hungry, you are more open to options because your eating to fill a physical need.
3. Emotional hunger needs to be instantly filled (I once remember disconnecting my husband from a business call because I needed to go for something at that moment and I couldn't wait). Physical hunger can wait.
4. Even when you are full, emotional eating tends to continue. When you are eating only from physical hunger you will stop when you are full.
5. It's typically emotional hunger that will leave a person with guilty feelings, not physical hunger.
Comfort foods can also be included in emotional eating, though often eaten to maintain a positive mood.
It's important to remember that when you're eating for reasons other then physical hunger, chances are your body doesn't need those calories - calories which get stored as fat and will often cause a weight gain, and with it potential health risks.
So what can you do to deal with emotional eating?
Wednesday we'll take on the task of creating a "Tool Box" just for this!
Until Next Time...
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