How to Overcome Emotional Eating

Eating is a part of life. Your body gets its nutrients from food. Sometimes we can go overboard with our eating habits and it can result in gaining weight. One issue with food is emotional eating.

The problem of emotional eating may end with the scale but it begins in the mind. Stress takes its toll on your life. When your defenses are compromised your health takes a hit and so do your emotions.

Everyone has good days and bad days. How we deal with the bad ones brings emotional eating into play. You look for comfort for your hurts. People who turn to food for comfort find a coping mechanism that won’t judge them, hurt them or tell them “no.” To complicate the issue, eating pleasurable foods can stimulate the release of endorphins just like exercise. So, after you eat, you feel better.

Emotional eaters use food to relieve stress. They hide behind the food instead of seeking solutions to the problems. This is not uncommon when the stressor is something horrible such as physical abuse or a death.

But, how do you know you are using food in this way? The first sign is obvious. You will gain weight if you eat too much. In light of the weight gain, examine other areas of your life:

* Have you been under stress lately at work or at home?
* Has anything traumatic happened in the last year?
* Are you dealing with a problem but haven’t found a solution?

Answering “yes” to any of these questions could mean that you are an emotional eater. You eat but you are not necessarily hungry at the time. The foods that you choose are what we term “comfort foods”:

* High fat foods like French fries, fried foods
* High carb foods like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes
* Sugary foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies, cake

There is help for emotional eaters. The first step is recognizing that you have a problem. You’ll experience feelings of helplessness and guilt. The guilt is over potentially ruining your health and the helplessness lies in the fact that you don’t see a way out.

Secondly, seek counseling. There are many types of counselors out there that can meet your need. Emotional eating has nothing to do with dieting or changing your eating habits but gaining control over your emotions.

A counselor might suggest things like visualization, practicing problem solving skills, relaxation techniques and family support. Visualization helps you to see your problems in a realistic way and not blown out of proportion. You will also learn to see food as nutrition for the body and not an emotional crutch.

Thirdly, your family can learn your triggers for stress and be on the lookout for changes in your eating habits. They can help you be aware of the foods you are eating, assist you in making healthy food choices and exercise along with you. Proper diet and exercise increases immunity, blood flow and positive thinking. Yoga enhances the mind/body connection so you don’t eat when you aren’t hungry.

Finding new ways to solve your problems and deal with stress will push food out of the equation. You’ll feel good about finding solutions which will replace the dependence on food.

Please note the opinions expressed in the article above are in no way, explicit or implicitly, meant to replace the advice of a professional. Please refer to a professional for advice, assessment or management of your situation.

Eating Disorders in Kids

This is such a hard issue to find out about, we feel for anyone who has ever had to endure an eating disorder or dealt with a loved one who went through it. While it can be full of agony, you can pick up on many of the symptoms along the way. Listen, we'll give you a list of the tips, tricks, and methods to learning more about your child's eating habits in hopes that it helps you in your situation or keeps it from happening all together.

The Sports Athlete

We understand that it's great to get your children involved in extra curricular activities. However, there are a few sports that require you to watch your weight. Wrestling and gymnastics are just a couple, but you only need one to have a change occur. So if you can, keep them out of these sports and if you can't, at least sit down and discuss the possible problems. Keep in mind a good solid meal three times a day can keep them at an ideal weight.

The Disorders from Disorders

It's bad enough that we have things like anorexia, bulimia or others like binge eating. The biggest problem associated with any of this is they can create other disorders and continue the spiraling effect further damaging the body. So it's important to overcome the obstacles before they get too far out of hand. Where do you start? Finding the symptoms as soon as possible is the key.

If you see your child skipping meals, have this uncontrollable knack for excessive exercising, or see a substantial amount of weight loss then you should be concerned. There are other symptoms as well like noticing this binge eating happening or an odd realization that they are counting calories during each meal. All of them are symptoms, and even if you don't see them yet, talking about them could bring things out into the open.

Oh, and we didn't mention any of the other disorders before because we didn't want you to be distracted from the information. However, you do need to know about them so you can get educated on as much as possible. There are many, but we'll just give you a few. Dehydration, hair loss, gum decay, tooth decay, muscle loss, and even death. Routine check-ups are recommended if several of these are noticeable.

The Discussion

When talking with your children about eating disorders you will soon realize it's not easy. If they may become defensive which you will want to tread lightly. An easier way to deal with the situation is to call your family doctor ahead of time and talk about the concerns. You don't want your child to drift further away, especially if there is a situation. So take precautions so the end result will be a successful one.