Emotional eating is a more common issue than many people realise.
If you're an emotional eater, don't feel bad - it is possible to control this misunderstood eating disorder.
This simple action plan should help you stop comfort eating once and for all:
- Admit you need help - just by reading this article you are admitting that you have an issue with turning to food when faced with certain emotions. Now, just make that admission more public. Begin opening up to the people in your life who you trust to help you overcome your emotional eating habits. Tell them you are determined to change things and ask for their support. This is the hardest step - so get it over with and then the rest of the process will seem easier once your eating is out in the open!
- Realise it's not about the food - comfort eating has little, if anything, to do with food. It's actually about trying to avoid feeling certain emotions, either because they are too painful (for negative emotions) or because you don't believe you deserve to experience them (for positive emotions). The foods that you are reaching for are just a way of anaesthetising yourself from emotional pain or pleasure. Many people choose cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, gambling or sex addictions - yours is food. The food is just the medium you have chosen. Once you realise this, it becomes much easier to break the emotional eating cycle and allow yourself to heal from the pain you are hiding from.
- Give yourself permission to feel - perhaps you were brought up to believe that experiencing feelings was weak or indulgent. Now is the time to give yourself permission to feel all the range of emotions possible, from the best to the worst, without reaching for food to hide behind.
- Seek professional help - if you feel that your comfort eating is too complex for you to overcome alone, seek the advice of an emotional eating specialist to help you address the issue.
About this Author
For more help with this, we recommend using The Emotional Eating Workbook; a physical book written by specialist Katie Williams. This book will help you work through the cause of your emotional eating and take control of your life. Learn more: http://www.healthynutritionexpert.com/?page_id=249
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Katie_Rebecca_Williams
