No tags yet.
Does your hand always draw towards that last piece of chocolate you thought you would have tomorrow? Chances are you may be eating due to emotional reasons. These emotions may not be drastic in nature but are strong enough to drive you to binge eat. This may be causing your body trouble in some way or the other. Check yourself against the following symptoms that can tell you if you are an emotional hogger.
1. You're eating when you're stressed. This may be based on the situation at home or work. 2. You're eating even after you're done with your meal. 3. You're eating to make yourself feel better. 4. After you're done eating, you feel ashamed or regretful about why you ate. 5. You're indulging in your favourite foods too often that may be high in calories.
Emotional eating or eating for psychological reasons works like an emotional compensation. People who are foodies often end up using food as a mean to compensate for their emotions. It gives them a sense of gratification.
Emotional eating, however, should not only be linked to negative feelings, it may also be positive in nature. For example, we do not only eat when we are sad, we also indulge (and over indulge) when we are on a holiday with our loved ones.
This form of reward from eating may begin when we are young. Our parents may reward us with a chocolate when we did well in our exams or pacify us with an ice-cream every time they lost their temper. This way we end up rewarding/compensating ourselves with food.
A few basic solutions for binge eating include becoming more mindful about what you're eating. This can only happen if your emotions are satisfied. Some other ways of avoiding emotional eating are going for a walk, playing with your pet, or doing voluntary work. Divert your mind and indulge in these as soon as you feel an emotional binge drive caving in as this will shift your focus from food towards a better elsewhere.
Write a journal or a diary every day.You have a space where you can express yourself freely. Even an activity this simple can help you channelize your emotions in a healthier way and thus help keeping flab at bay.