Emotional or compulsive overeating is a problem that arises against the background of chronic anxiety and troubles.
Because of the pandemic, emotional overeating is flourishing more than ever. And, sadly, the acquired habit is often accompanied by harsh self-criticism, which makes it difficult to get rid of the addiction.
Getting rid of emotional overeating takes time and understanding the psychological background of the habit. Success won’t come overnight – tune in to a protracted battle, not with yourself, but with a stress trigger that triggered a “comforting” overeating strategy. Here are the main guidelines for overcoming the problem.
1. Learn to distinguish hunger from the desire to chew
Challenge number one is to reconnect with your innate ability to recognize hunger by paying attention to real, not imaginary, emotion-based signals. You know perfectly well that when you are hungry, the body gives unambiguous signs: your stomach growls, appetizing pictures pop up in your brain, you physically feel a lack of energy, a lack of energy. To get back in touch with your natural appetite, whenever you feel the urge to grab a snack, scan your body for hunger. If there is no physical evidence, wait, do not eat. Drink a glass of water, get distracted, change your activity. It can be difficult at first, but getting rid of the overeating is worth it.
2. Take care of a nutritious diet on a schedule
Love yourself enough to eat fresh and healthy foods that contain important vitamins and nutrients. The insidiousness of stress is that the hormone cortisol produced by an anxious body stimulates appetite and promotes fat storage. As soon as you eat something tasty (fatty, sweet), your blood glucose levels jump, triggering energy production and mood elevation. Hence the temptation to quickly “throw in” something carbohydrate, without waiting for a full dinner. An hour later, the desire for a snack arises again, continuing the vicious circle.
3. Identify the triggers that encourage you to eat too much
Once you figure out what causes emotional overeating, you can find alternative methods of dealing with this trigger – not at all related to food. Keeping a food diary is a powerful tool for digging deeper and identifying root causes. Write down frankly and in detail what you ate during the day, when and under what circumstances, what emotions you experienced, were hungry or did not feel appetite.
This way, you can recognize not only the stressful trigger of emotional overeating, but also a social cause: for example, you often eat for the company, because you find it difficult to refuse a treat offered by relatives / colleagues. Or are you used to seizing not only anxiety, but also boredom – when you spin all day like a squirrel in a wheel, and in the evening / on weekends you do not know what to do. Multitaskers tend to overeat, who find it difficult to watch movies without snacks, and socializing with friends is unthinkable without snacks.
