Discover the Link Between Emotional Eating and Weight Loss

How does emotional eating affect your weight loss?

Your emotions are an integral part of your day and affect not only how you may interact with others, but with yourself. One of the indicators of how you deal with your emotions would be emotional eating.

Have you ever come home from a stressful day at work and automatically headed to the refrigerator? Digging through and eating the left over chocolate cake.

In many situations you may have used eating as a way to deal with your emotions. 

Whether it be pain, stress, or loneliness. Your eating habits may have become your companion as a way to console yourself. And more often than not the food that you comfort your self with is unhealthy.

Such as... 

• Cakes
• Cookies
• Candy 

This is extremely important to recognize, especially if you have been a yo-yo dieter in the past. Emotional eating may have been the main reason for the weight gain.

You have already proven to your self that you are capable of losing weight. Now it is important to take the steps necessary to make sure that your weight loss will be permanent.

What Triggers Emotional Eating?

Stress

When you are under stress you are more likely to eat more. Once under stress the human body automatically releases more hormones that influence your metabolism and also produces cravings. Your body may have a craving for fatty, salty or sugary food.

Stress also changes your blood sugar levels, resulting in mood changes and fatigue. And last but not least, there is an increase of fat storage in your abdominal area. All of these factors will increase the chance of emotional eating and weight gain.

      

Worry

Emotional eating also occurs when may be concerned about events that are happening in your life. You may have lost a job or you are concerned about the debt in your life or a troubled child.

Since most foods that are eaten in these situations are normally sweet and salty. The pleasure of eating is a momentary distraction and brings temporary pleasure.

Comfort

There are times when you need someone to console or reassure you during a time of need. But you may find your self often in a situation where there is no one that you may be able to go to or who would support you. As a result food becomes your friend.

Using food as comfort may have resulted in childhood when ice cream and cookies are given in order to console a child when they are in pain or to make them stop crying.

       

The Past

Emotional trauma such as sexual, emotional or physical abuse may affect eating habits.

Regaining Control

Eating is a way that we can avoid dealing with our emotions. Realize that denying your emotions is only covering up wounds and making a situation worse than it needs to be. By dealing with your stress or anxiety from a truthful standpoint you can begin to uncover the real reason behind your weight gain.

Attitude

Choose to react from a stand point of strength instead of weakness. Remember that you are powerful enough to take action in your life and choose how you to respond to situations instead of becoming reactive. By remaining positive and solution oriented you will be able to overcome the emotions that you have been covering up with emotional eating.

Evaluate

Also take the time to listen to your self and your thinking. Write down your thoughts in a journal and take some time to decipher what they really mean.

By doing so, you are able to evaluate your thinking and determine if it is truly beneficial in assisting you in your weight loss.

                        

Does it make sense or is it truthful?

By taking the extra time to take dissect your thoughts, you are giving your self a chance to pin point if there are any truths in the way that you think.

If not you are able to reword the information and change it to a positive viewpoint.

Forgiveness

As you begin to evaluate things that may have hurt you or caused you pain it is important to put them behind you. As you continue on with your weight loss you will continue to uncover situations in which a person may have wronged you. In some cases, painful situation that may have occurred in your child hood are still impacting your life today.

Letting Go

To hold on to negatively is not only affecting your weight, but most likely your relationships as well. Forgiveness allows you to move on, and to leave the past behind.