Emotions

Are you someone who finds themselves sometimes overeating, when not even hungry? Do you sometimes feel you reach for food if you are stressed, bored, worried, happy, celebrating, angry etc? Especially high calorie, high sugar, junk food! If so, then you are an emotional eater. A recent study found that 88% of us are emotional eaters! We tend to overeat when it is our emotions driving our hunger, and not actual real hunger.

If we humans were emotionless, then we would not have as many problems with weight and overeating!!

However, we are full of emotions, (some more than others!). Therefore, the trick is how to not let our emotions dictate our food choices!

Yes, it is easier said than done! When you really, really, really want some chocolate, even if you know you are not actually hungry, you are just craving it, it can be damn hard to deny yourself. You have got to muster up all your willpower and step away... But, if you do manage to step away, you have got to give yourself a pat on the back for using all your willpower!

Sometimes, I think if you make sense of your cravings and emotions, and how they are linked, you might be able to talk yourself out of your craving. It's worth a shot anyway!

Here are a few examples of emotional eating from a personal point of view!!

1.  Stress.

You are tired, and cranky. The kids are tired, and cranky. They are bickering over something and this turns into tears for one child, if not all of them. You lose your cool, and get angry with them. Your stress hormone cortisol at this point is racing through your body. What does cortisol do? It turns your blood sugars into a rollercoaster, having highs and lows. When your blood sugars are low, you crave sugar! So you are reaching for a quick fix of sugar. Problem is, it won't solve anything. The kids will probably still be fighting once you have satisified your craving!!

Cranky kids + cranky mammy  = stressed mammy + sugar craving !

How to avoid this:  (again from a personal point of view!).
Ok, you can't help being tired, the kids can't help being tired. They are non changeable factors in the equation.
What you can change, is how to deal with the stress! Instead of giving into the sugar cravings, as they will pass in a few minutes, is to walk away from the situation if you can! Go to your bedroom and flick through a magazine for a few minutes, if you can get out of the house, get out for a quick walk and fresh air, watch tv for a few minutes, phone a friend....just do anything to deal with the stress rather than reach for a quick sugar fix!

2. Boredom.

You are a stay at home mammy. Or you are home at the weekend or days off from work. You have a spare few minutes / hour. You don't feel like reading a book, you have already gone for exercise, there is nothing on tv to watch, all your chores are done, the kids are happily playing away. What do you do? Start looking in the presses / fridge for something to nibble on! Or make a cup of tea and of course with that you have to have a little treat, don't you?
No, you don't ! Just have tea, or herbal tea/water, (even better!), and have it on it's own! Break the habit of having to have something with your tea, it tastes perfectly good on it's own, trust me:)
And don't keep looking in the presses or fridge for something to eat, this will only kill a few minutes of your time and what do you do then?
Of course, the alternative is not to go near the kitchen at all. As above, in the stress situation, there are lots of things to do rather than eat!

3. Worried: Food isn't going to solve any problems. Try to deal with problems without using food as a crutch.

4. Anger: again, the stress hormone cortisol is at play here!

5. Happy: Ok so, you have gotten great news, you are celebrating something. It doesn't have to involve eating lots of sugar laden food! If you are at a party and there is lots of treats tempting you, it does take a lot of willpower if it is sitting out in front of you, just tell yourself you can't have any, and stick to it! Have a pint of water or some herbal tea. Or have an apple or some sugar free yoghurt instead!.

To sum it all up: A lot of us are emotional eaters. Once we are aware of this, you can try to talk yourself out of using food as a way of dealing with our emotions!!

Good luck!