Emotional eating - What can you do about it?

I have struggled with emotional eating for YEARS. For me, it starts with a handful of crackers or fruit chalking it up to the munchies after a long day. Can't hurt, right? Then 20 minutes later I'm heading back to the fridge and grabbing some cheese, then 30 minutes later I'm hating myself but still shoveling left overs into my mouth and looking for my kid's Easter candy!!!

Can anyone relate?

I recently was sent into a tailspin by a death in the family and I had to confront my emotional eating once and for all. I felt myself slipping into old habits not caring if I gained weight and just really numb to everything around me. Even though I know I will need to proactively work on this forever, it helps that I have a few coping skills to keep me on the straight and narrow.

The first thing first, we need to understand WHY so many people struggle with emotional eating. There are so many people who turn to food in times of stress or sadness to cope with rising emotions and loss of control.

Food companies engineer their marketing campaigns to pull on your heartstrings. Nope, you're not crazy! You're just human, and our behaviors have been studied for years so we can be properly advertised to so companies can maximize their profits. Does that Popeye's fried chicken lady remind you of your aunt that tears it UP in the kitchen? Does a cold Coke remind you of happy summer days? Does a full meal covered in gravy remind you of comforting family dinners as a kid? Well, those are only a few examples of marketers honing in on your emotions to tie a link to their product.

But how can we change how we react to it?

There are several practices I have found to be very helpful and I use consistently to keep myself focused.

1. Have a come to Jesus with your hunger - Are you really hungry, or are you just pissed or sad? If you ate a short while ago and just have idle hands, drink a bottle of water and tell yourself to handle the negative emotions another way. Aim for 6 balanced meals a day - 3 meals and 3 snacks.

2.Keep a food diary - it sounds tedious at first but it becomes second nature and really helped me realize what I was putting into my body. I use my fitness pal which is a free app you can download and keep on your smart phone or use on your desktop. There are several others on the app store you can try or you can keep a handwritten log in a journal. I find the app is what works best for me because it also tracks calories consumed gives me a breakdown of carbs and fats also. I am not a nutritionist but I like to have some idea of what I'm taking in daily.

3. Fight boredom - My junk binges normally would occur when I was commuting or just getting home and sitting down. That down time enabled me to just fester on current woes and allow negative feelings to consume me. Unfortunately we can't just ignore the crap in our lives, but we can process it in a healthier way. Identify what triggers your binges and make sure you are prepared for them when they occur. Recently when I was stressing about things out of my control I made myself stay busy. I went for walks in the park with my family or took my dogs out for a longer walk. I also went to see a few friends I hadn't gotten to see in a while and did some more reading. Whatever you decide to do just stay engaged. Keeping your mind busy leaves less time to want to indulge in unhealthy habits.

4. Ditch junk foods at home - Time to clean out those pantries, people! If they're there you will eat them. It's a fact of life, like your period coming when you're wearing white pants and spontaneous rain when you actually do your damn hair. Sorry, I don't make the rules I just blog about them.

5. When you stumble, get back up and move on - Please please please do not beat yourself up because you are not perfect. It's so easy to get angry with yourself because you ate something shitty and just say "screw it" and devour the rest. But you are worth more. If you make a mistake correct the problem and try again. This is about sustainable solutions to emotional eating and breaking the cycle.

But what if self help solutions are not enough?

There's no shame in getting help from a counselor or other mental health professional if you need it. Honestly, I personally feel we should all talk to someone in order to process the crap in our lives. Without a healthy you there can't be a happy anything else. So love yourself and get the coping help you need if you need it.