4 steps to deal with emotional eating
Emotional eating can often be one of the biggest challenges faced by anyone trying to lose weight, today Faster Fitness trainer Sally Pears shares her expert advice.
The interesting thing about emotional eating is that it’s not necessarily having negative emotions per say that’s the problem, but rather the suppression of those emotions.
A few years ago I worked on a research project looking at the suppression of cravings and one of the main findings in craving research was that suppressing a craving may well work for a short period of time, but later people often experienced a ‘rebound’ effect, where the number of thoughts about the craved substance increased dramatically and to a greater level than if the thoughts had been ‘allowed’ in the first place.
I believe that in some cases the self-perpetuating cycle of severe restriction followed by overeating is what can lead people to be permanently ‘on a diet’ but never experience any weight loss. It might actually even cause them to gain weight as the excess calories eaten during the ‘binge’ period can be greater than the calories ‘saved’ during the dieting period.
So what can be done to help prevent or at least limit emotional eating? Well unfortunately there’s no easy answer to that question. However, attempting to really get to know your emotions and understand the thoughts, beliefs and attitudes that are underlying them might be a much better tactic than trying to simply suppress them and pretend they’re not there.
Follow these 4 steps to help deal with emotional eating
Step 1: Awareness
Be aware of your emotions. If you find yourself tempted to eat something even though you’re not physically hungry, take a few moments to sit quietly and try to identify what emotion is prompting you to eat – is it Boredom? Guilt? Anger? Anxiety?
Step 2: Acceptance
Accept your negative emotion rather than trying to push it away. Again, take some quiet time to just ‘sit’ with the emotion. Really feel it, allow it and accept it.
Step 3: Identify the Negative Thoughts that underlie the emotion
Ask yourself where the negative emotion has come from, e.g. what has happened in your life and what thoughts have you been having as a consequence.
Step 4: Re-appraise your Negative Thoughts
Ask yourself questions such as “Is this really true?”, “Am I overreacting?”, “Would other people react this way?”, “What can I do to improve the situation?”, “Am I being too pessimistic?”, “What are the positive things I can focus on?”
Some of these questions may be tough questions to answer, or even ask, but in doing so you’ll be approaching your negative emotions head-on, and that in itself might just keep you from heading to the cookie jar for comfort.
Another, slightly easier-to-implement strategy that can also be helpful when you’re craving something, and you think the craving might be driven by my emotional state, is to ask the following questions:
- Will eating this make me feel less lonely/angry/bored etc.?
- How will I feel after I’ve eaten this?
- What can I do instead of eating this that will help me feel a little better right now? (e.g. going for a walk, calling a friend, having a bath, or doing a task that you’ve been putting off).
The first two questions really help you to recognize that the food you’re craving won’t actually help you feel any better. The third question is looking for a distraction, and while this isn’t really a long term solution it can help you to avoid the guilt that follows a binge!
Sally Pears is based in London, get in touch with her for a free consultation at sally_pears@hotmail.co.uk or visit pearspersonaltraining.com for more information
