Just as you get into the swing a new eating plan and begin to enjoy the results of this through a healthy weight loss, something can go wrong in your life and you can feel stressed and turn to food to help relieve this. The emotional eating busters below, will help you control your eating regardless of how you feel and help you stay on a calories loss diet that will lead you to a permanent weight loss and a healthier, happier life.
Learn the difference between being truly hungry and wanting to feel better is not always easy, especially if you have eaten in response to your changing emotions over an extended time. You need to learn to recognize that true hunger comes with feeling physically fatigued and can include a grumbling stomach. Make sure that before you next eat food that will help fuel your body that you permit yourself to get really hungry as this is the only reason you should ever eat.
Determine what sets off your emotional eating, making note of the times and causes of these occasions and look for a pattern around this to become apparent. Do you hanker after salty fatty food when the pressure is on at work instead of those calories loss lunches you know are nutricius and much better for you? Do you head for the cookie jar at the end of the day after a drive home filled with traffic jams or do you eat lashings of gravy on mashed potatoes when the kids are a nightmare after school?
Understanding the causes of and times when you have an overwhelming ‘need’ for certain foods is the answer to preventing your uncontrolled eating. When you can pinpoint these aspects of your behavior you can begin to change this by finding other ways to manage stress. Have alternative healthy foods that will satisfy you cravings for sweet and fatty salty foods on hand to eat or plan to actively do something like jogging or working out or, on a more relaxing note, playing your favorite music or asking for a back rub or head massage.
Do not buy comfort food because if it is not in the house, you will not eat it; it is just that simple. When you are feeling blue and you want something sweet or something fried as a comfort, if it is not in the house are you really going to take the time to drive to the store and buy this comfort food or go to the fast food restaurant to get something? Most people will not most of the time, so if you are craving something and you do not have it in the house you will look for a substitute rather than going out to buy whatever it is you are craving.
Find other means of comfort instead of food if you feel down, pressured and hyped up, like taking the dog for a walk, going for a bike ride, reading that book you have been dying to start, or meeting with a friend and discuss life over a low fat coffee. There is an endless list of what you can do when you are feeling sad or stressed apart from reaching for the munchies in those places you have always kept them. So start including these alternatives in your life as ‘pick me ups’ and keep on that calories loss diet at the same time.
Stack the shelves that used to store your junk food, with healthy alternatives to use every time you experience one of your cravings and need comfort. In place of those maple syrup pancakes high in calories, keep hummus dip and fresh vegetables, and if you simply must have something sweet, try a fruit salad. It is not a matter of stopping cravings, more a case of satisfying these differently with alternative foods that will in the long term be a way of re-programming your thinking and even your palate as well as accommodating the many foods that you will find on your calories loss diet.
Always allow 30 minutes to pass after your craving registers before you take any action. Time yourself to make sure that you do not eat anything for the full extent of this time. You should eat half of what you craved at the end of half an hour if you still want it but it is often the case that cravings disappear in that time especially of you have replaced them with another activity.
Replace your cravings with those activities you enjoy doing and that along with your calories loss eating plan will help to burn fat so you can lose those extra pounds. The additional benefit of exercise is that when you swim, jog, play ice hockey or work out at the gym, your brain releases endorphins and serotonin and this gives you a sense of euphoria that replaces feelings of sadness or frustration. So instead of reaching for the ice cream carton or the cookie jar when you are next under pressure or feeling low, ‘get down and boogie’ doing whatever activity you enjoy most, knowing that your weight loss and your emotional well being will improve as a result.
