Friday, February 15, 2013

Emotional Eating

Happy Friday Readers!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I've been asked to talk about "Emotional Eating". I used have this problem a few years ago but after reading many articles I was able to educate myself on a few things that I am going to share with you all.

Emotional eating is a relatively common problem for both men and women (believe it or not).  If you eat in response to your feelings, especially when you are not hungry, you are an emotional eater. Some emotional eaters binge when they are sad or confused; for others, eating can be a way of avoiding thinking about problems or taking the action required to solve them. Just think about the last time you broke up with your ex and how you grabbed a spoon and ate ice cream straight from the container or grabbed a bag of chips/chocolate because you were depressed or upset. 

How many people turn to a carrot stick or apple when they're feeling stressed? It's the high-fat, high calorie foods we love that make us feel better; the more fattening, sweeter or saltier the food, the better we seem to feel. 

I know for me I would feel ashamed or guilty after I ate. I can remember to my first years on the police force when I had a bad night and I was thinking did I make the right decision as to becoming a cop. After work I went home and ate ice cream then I topped it off with two slices of my mom's homemade pound cake. Afterwards I felt so guilty for eating all of that knowing I wasn't really hungry but it was how I felt that made it worse.

Ask yourself these questions and this will determine if you are an emotional eater:

* After an argument do you eat even if you aren't feeling hungry?
* Do you feel the urge to eat in response to seeing a food advertised on television?
* Do you eat because you feel there's nothing else to do?


~Wendy

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