Almost everybody struggles with emotional eating to some degree. If you have ever found yourself eating food (usually tons of it, and usually the worst kind) in response to your feelings as opposed to hunger, you've probably experienced emotional eating too. It can be a huge obstacle to weight loss because even if you have a strategic plan in place, your irrational behaviors can sabotage it. Here's how to kick emotional eating so you can lose weight fast!
The most important thing you need to do is to figure out your main source of stress. The most common causes of emotional eating are anger, hopelessness, lack of control, boredom, and feeling underappreciated. Use a daily food diary to find yours. At every meal and snack, write down exactly how you feel before you eat. After you find your main stressor, you need to come up with a plan for eliminating it.
To do this, you need to become a more mindful eater. Zone in on your physical sensations and only allow yourself to eat when you're moderately hungry. Now, for your stress. Simply stopping yourself from emotionally eating doesn't target the root issue and isn't a recipe for long-term success. Come up with a replacement behavior for emotional eating. When you feel yourself wanting to turn to food, get in the habit of doing something else. For example, you might try reading a chapter, writing in a journal, doing some stretching or yoga, or going for a walk. Changing your habits is hard work, but practice makes perfect, so why don't you start now?
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