Are Your Eating-Habits Out of Control? Healing Emotional Eating Habits

How often do you eat for comfort or overindulge?

When you feel sad? After you had an altercation with your spouse? You have to be particularly careful; this tends to lead to food addiction remarkably quickly. After eating, you will feel worse than before. Please don’t try to numb your feelings with food; it never works. Realizing you just ate a box of cookies will also lead to resentment and anger. Taking a walk to clear your mind or simply having an open discussion will make more sense and does not harm your body.

When you feel stressed out? The junk we eat when we feel stressed out does pack a punch! Some of the foods we choose are often sugar, fat, and flour. Something that will help with stress situations is to say: STOP! Breathe for a couple of minutes and take a break from life. I used to give myself a time out. Taking a couple of minutes to yourself and listening to relaxing music can make you feel better. My number one tip on dealing with stress is cleaning. Start cleaning your house! You see, frustration and stress just seem to melt away. A nice cup of hot herbal tea and exercise is truly a healthy solution to managing stress.

When you go out for dinner with friends? The best approach is to take your time. Don’t try to eat everybody under the table; it’s not a smart idea trying to keep up with your husband or other people, period. Take your time with eating, put the fork and knife down once in a while and chew thoroughly. You already know this fact I’m about to tell you, but I will say it anyway, (just try to stop me!) So here it goes, eat slower so you can eat less! In other words, your brain needs about 20 minutes to register fullness and satisfaction. It’s not your brains fault that you can empty a box of cookies in as little as 5 minutes. If fattening and toxic foods are your choice of “drug”, at least eat slowly to consume less of it. On bad days, I could inhale a family-size bag of chips without thinking about the consequences (and the consequences always come, don’t they?).
However, eating steamed or raw means eating fewer calories and more nutrients because raw food takes a whole lot of time to chew. I’m not kidding, have you tried to take a bite of an apple and swallow it without chewing? Impossible! Fresh produce contains colon-friendly fiber and waste-clearing water for a remarkably low calories count, which our system loves.

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