Smart Tips on Ending Emotional Eating

Contrary to popular belief, emotional eating is not limited to people who are depressed. It’s also something that can strike if you are happy, furious or downright bored — any extreme feeling can bring about the emotional eater in you. In this article, you will learn how to put an end to emotional eating effectively.

Remember to share this article on your various social media sites especially if you have family members and friends who are self-confessed emotional eaters so that they may come across the following tips, too!

Know the Triggers

Emotional eating does not come out of the blue — it is always caused by something that you are feeling, whether you are frustrated because you failed to win that much-coveted promotion at work or you someone told you your boyfriend could be cheating on you.

If you are quite aware that you are an emotional eater, it’s a good idea for you to identify which emotions tend to unleash that monster in you that tends to devour anything that it lays its eyes on.

Many emotional eaters eat ravenously when they’re bored. If you are one of them, make sure that you look for things that can help put an end to your boredom — anything is better than doing nothing at all! Otherwise, you may find yourself ending that boredom by raiding the fridge or picking up the phone to have pizza delivered to your doorstep.

Do Deep Breathing

Just like what’s mentioned earlier, just about any form of heightened emotion can cause you to become an emotional eater. If there’s one thing that can help tame that strong emotion in an instant, it’s deep breathing. All you have to do is take slow, deep breaths for a few minutes until you finally feel relaxed.

In these day and age where so many people are stressed, smartphone apps that assist in deep breathing come aplenty. Download any one of those and use it to attain relaxation, thus preventing emotional eating from striking.

Aside from taking slow, deep breaths, feel free to engage in any activity that can help calm your mind — except for stuffing your face with sugary stuff! Listening to soothing music, painting your nails, doing yoga or tai chi, getting a facial, chatting with a friend — anything that allows you to relax is good.

Eat Mindfully

Worry not if it seems like there is no stopping your mind from convincing you to eat something each time you feel sad or happy or angry. That’s because you can actually control the emotional eater in you with the help of being a mindful eater at the same time.

Put simply, mindful eating is all about being in the present and paying attention to whatever you are doing — enjoying the food that is served in front of you, in particular.

To become a mindful eater, notice everything about the food you are consuming. What is its color? What is its texture? How does it smell? How does it taste? What sort of feelings every bite brings? Instead of unconsciously gobbling food, eating mindfully enables you to become fully aware of what you are doing.

Use Your Other Hand

Here’s a simple trick to keeping your emotional eating from lasting for several hours: use your non-dominant hand. Doing this helps you consume food very slowly, allowing you to feel full the moment that your stomach is already jam-packed — scientists say that it can actually take a few minutes before your brain gets the memo from your tummy.

Aside from using your non-dominant hand for fishing out chips in the bag or taking forkfuls of that red velvet cake, you may also try any other solution to slowing down your eating.

Some people swear by the effectiveness of putting the spoon or fork on the table after every bite. Others say that chewing their food 10 to 30 times works.

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