Where Are You In the Eating Game?
Are you losing weight, gaining it back, feeling guilty about every mouth full?
Are you winning or losing?
Or, is this all too familiar territory that you have been through too many times?
Many of us can relate, but we all keep trying because it really is too important to our health, to how we look, how we feel, and who we are.
Lifescript focused on binge eating recently, telling us we may be eating constantly because we have forgotten what it is like to feel naturally hungry. Instead, we just keep reacting to emotional triggers, whenever and wherever they come up.
Recognizing emotional eating triggers
If you think about how and when you eat or overeat, this makes perfect sense. It shows up quickly in the absolute must, Friday night pizza, the quick candy bar after a very long, very trying meeting, the bag of chips and a movie when there is nothing else going on, or the handy bag of cookies that materializes as you wait for important news. Anxiety, stress, boredom, and favorite fast food rituals all just keep popping up and loading on the pounds, along with a big helping of guilt.
So how do we get off the push-the-button eating track and get back to real hunger?
One of my favorite ways is to slow way down, actually chewing every bite down to a watery consistency that makes it more digestible and fills you up with less food.
Another way to get back to natural hunger is to dine rather than gulp. Pick a good recipe, invite friends and linger over the meal as you savor them time out on the patio.
Tuning into your body helps too – how you feel when you are physically hungry, and after you eat, versus how you feel when you have just left a trying situation and gobbled a burger and fries. Eating out of emotional hunger always triggers another round of hunger later.
As you think about getting back on track, other ways may come to mind to help make this work. Keep the door open and try lots of approaches to defeat stress, boredom, anxiety and habit eating. Once you get out of the woods and feel the difference, you might love hopping on the scale, and for sure, you will love being in charge, instead of just being a pawn in the eating game.
If eating problems and weight persist, see your doctor and review the situation to find the best help.
Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Martin Cooper
