Strategies to Avoid Emotional Eating

Hi everyone! With the holidays coming up, I thought I'd share a quick article about how to avoid emotional eating. Hope you can take away at least one or two tips to help you through. Hugs, Carla Strategies to Avoid Emotional Eating Posted by Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. The holidays can be stressful... and unfortunately, many people reach for food as comfort. If you find yourself regularly eating in response to stress, anxiety, sadness, boredom, anger, loneliness, relationship problems, or poor self-esteem, try to break the habit with some of my strategies below. Learn to recognize your hunger. Before you automatically pop something into your mouth, rate your hunger on a scale of 1 to 5 -- 1 being ravenous and 5 being full. Make every effort to avoid eating when your hunger is a 4 or a 5. Find alternatives to eating. Make a personal list of activities you can do instead of eating. Perhaps go for a walk, call a friend, listen to music, take a hot shower/bath, exercise, clean your house, polish your nails, surf the Internet, schedule outstanding appointments, watch television, look through a photo album, etc. Keep a food journal. Logging your food will help to identify your toughest timeframes. It also will make you accountable... so perhaps you'll be less apt to reach for unnecessary food. Three-food interference. Make the commitment to first eat three specific healthy foods before starting on caloric comfort foods (i.e., an apple, handful of baby carrots and a yogurt). If after that, you still want to continue with your comfort foods, give yourself permission. However, most of the time, the three foods are enough to stop you from moving on. Exercise regularly. Daily exercise relieves stress and puts you in a positive mindset, which provides greater strength to pass on the unhealthy fare. Get enough sleep. Research shows that sleep deprivation can increase hunger by decreasing Leptin levels, the appetite regulating hormone that signals fullness. With adequate sleep, you'll also be less tired and have more resolve to fight off the urge to grab foods for comfort.

Hmmm, I was surprised to find this tried and true technique for avoiding emotional eating in the above: Repeatedly slamming your hand in the door of the snack cabinet until drawing blood- thereby making it impossible for you to reach for snacks. It works for ME! LOL. JK- of course (uh...- kinda) What I really wanted to say is that I have a great technique to share- whenever I'm 'hungry' -or so I think- I will automatically drink 6 to 8 oz of some beverage (whatever you've got that is calorie free is fine!) And then I wait about 10 minutes and see how I 'feel'. If I still feel hunger- then I give myself the OK to have a snack. 9 times out of 10, I'm not hungry afterward at all. Hope somebody find this helpful! Give it a try- it works!! Best, Lisa C

Hi Lisa! Love the drinking before snacking technique and use that a lot myself. Of course the slam your hand in the door technique is also very effective! Great advice and thanks for the chuckles! Hugs, Carla

Hi Carla, I have found that Eating at home before going to partys has kept me "Honest" thru all the holidays! Just have to put on a good show and walk around with a few pieces of cheese on a plate. It's a "Death Sentence" to go to a family party and not eat! LOL. Thanks for the tips! Julio

Julio! LOL - a hear ya on the 'death sentence'!!! Excellent tip on the pre-eating. I try to get in at least 1 protein serving before any holiday function so I don't get the big eyes syndrome. Big hugs! Carla

Hey Carla I missed my favorite dessert Magic bars which have coconut, chocolate chips and nuts but I do not want touch any desserts again. This is very good advice for us to go through Holidays esspecially at work..... They always bring holiday desserts at work so I will bring my healthier dessert to work WINK! Hugs Kathy K