Emotional eating, signs you're doing it and how to stop doing it that's what I'm
going to be talking about today. I'm Dr. Tracey Marks and this channel is
about mental health education and self-improvement. I publish videos every
Wednesday so if you don't want to miss one, click the subscribe button. Emotional
eating is defined as overeating to deal with negative emotions and our most
common association with this is someone who's sad and eating a tub of ice cream
to deal with it. And that's one example but there's also a more subtle way that
we connect our emotions to food. After all the real purpose of eating is for
nourishment. But have you ever eaten when you weren't hungry? Eating is a large
part of our socialization. We go to fine restaurants to enjoy the experience and
not just because your stomach is rumbling. Here are some examples of
emotional eating. Eating as a reward. This would be like having a celebratory
dinner or treating yourself to something nice if you accomplish something. Stress
eating. Do you need to eat something to help you think through something
difficult? Eating to fight fatigue or boredom. Do you eat something when you're
working on a tedious project? Eating for entertainment. Is that movie just not the
same without that bucket of popcorn or box of M&Ms? If I go to a Super Bowl
party I expect wings even if I just ate before I left.
just because you enjoy a nice restaurant or a celebratory dinner doesn't mean you
have an eating disorder. But in all of these situations eating becomes attached
to something emotional rather than it just being for sustenance. And what this
means is that anyone is vulnerable to eating in excess when it's based on an
emotional reaction. So if you have a problem with eating in excess, you need
to be able to recognize your triggers and learn how to manage them. So here are
three tips to control your emotional eating. Number one, know when you're
really hungry. Sometimes hunger can be mistaken as
thirst so first quench your thirst with something non-sugary to drink and then
re-evaluate whether or not you're still really hungry.
And also you want to eat when you're hungry and not when you're starving. And
remember, real hunger can be satisfied by anything palatable. So it doesn't have to
be just potato chips or Doritos. Theoretically even a carrot should
satisfy real hunger. Number two is eating mindfully. I mentioned this in a previous
video on mindfulness and I'll put a link to it up in the corner. But what this
involves is eating without distraction and focusing solely on what you're
eating. So you want to think about the experience of eating so that means no
phones. You're not eating and watching
television and you're thinking about the texture of the food the smell of the
food, just the experience of it going down your throat, how many times you need
to chew before you can swallow. Those are some of the things that you can think
about as you're - to direct you to be thinking about the eating experience and
the eating process. Also if you're eating with someone, don't eat while they're
talking and it has nothing to do with being respectful or anything like that.
It allows you to pause and give yourself a chance to feel full. If you're eating
alone, chances are you're not going to eat and
pause and eat and pause. But if you're eating with someone, that's the perfect
opportunity to eat slower and therefore ultimately eat less. So you may say well
if I don't eat while they're talking when am I gonna eat. Okay good point. The
point here is that it's not a hard and fast rule that you can't ever eat while
they're talking. It's just don't eat the entire time while they're talking so you
eat sometimes, then you talk while they're talking maybe this time you
don't eat and wait take a break. But the idea is that you're taking breaks while
you're eating rather than just scarfing down your food, getting it done real
quick and increasing the chance that you're going to eat more than you really
need to. The third tip requires a little more introspection and it's to pause and
think about what emotion you're experiencing before you eat or before
you grab for the food. And this is especially the case if it's not a time
that you would normally be eating. So if you do this and realize, well actually
you're bored, before you eat take a quick break five to ten minutes
and break up the monotony of whatever it was you were doing maybe you take a walk
around your home or go outside or something get some fresh air. And then
after that, doesn't have to take a long time, after that
see if you're still really hungry and then also if you are. I would take it a
step further and give yourself the boring food tests. So if you're not
really a carrot eater, you're more of a Doritos eater, see if eating the carrot
will satisfy that real hunger that you supposedly have. Let's recap those three
tips. Make sure you're really hungry, so drink something to quench your thirst
ahead of time it also helps fill you up. Eat mindfully, so you're gonna focus
only on the eating experience. Think about every aspect of your eating. No
television, no phone. And then address the emotion that you're experiencing before
you're grabbing something to eat especially if it's at a time when you're
not normally having a meal. I hope this was helpful for you thanks so much for
watching and leave me a comment and share this video too.
That'd be great.