Few people today have a completely healthy and normal eating behavior. Most of us don’t respect even the most basic rules for healthy eating, such as not eating at night or having a nutritious breakfast. But then there are those people who eat when they’re stressed or when they’re sad: the emotional eaters. One of the steps to happiness is to find your inner balance, which includes developing a healthy relationship with food. We’ve got 10 cures for emotional eaters that will surely help those who find themselves reaching for candy after they’ve been yelled at by their bosses. Read on and keep an open mind!
10. Find a Way to Relax During Work
While you are at work, it doesn’t mean that you have to work all day long, because if you do, stress will build up like crazy. Did you know that you should take a break and get up from your desk for 10 minute for every hour? During those 10 minutes, find a way to relax. Take a walk outside, have a piece of fruit, talk to your colleagues about fun things or even do a little meditation. Anything that will help you to relax and take your mind off eating.
9. Talk to Someone Who’s in the Same Position as You
It’s always great to have a friend to talk to, but if that friend is someone who is going through a similar situation, then be sure you two are going to help each other out. If you don’t know anyone you can reach to, try Internet forums. You’ll find many people who are emotional eaters and who’ve tried many things, some of which have worked, too!
8. Get Outside
If you’re an emotional eater, sometimes taking a break from everything is just the thing to do. If you’re stressed, angry or bored, a short walk will do you lots of good. It will give you time to reflect upon your feeling, it will help you put things in perspective and it will also give your body something to do other than eat.
7. Chew Gum
Whenever you feel the urge to put something in your mouth, try chewing on a piece of gum. It will make you forget, even for a moment, about your desire to eat. It’s also very good for releasing stress and consuming energy. Just don’t chew it for too long, all that chewing can make you hungry and well, that’s defeating the purpose.
6. Measure Your Servings
Never eat something directly from the bag or box. You won’t know when to stop! Even when you’re full, you’ll keep eating just because there’s more left! If you want potato chips, then have a handful of them on a plate and sit down at the table and eat them. Do the same for everything you put in your mouth and you’ll notice a difference in no time.
5. Talk to Yourself
Let’s say you’re angry and you’re about to indulge in a bowl of ice cream. You’re doing it because you’re angry, not because you’re genuinely in the mood for some ice cream. Why not talk to yourself about this? Ask yourself why you’re reaching for the ice cream. Have a conversation with yourself and you’ll be surprised to learn things that you probably didn’t know on a conscious level.
4. Don’t Eat Alone
One of the best cures for emotional eaters is to avoid eating alone, when possible. Eat with your friends, family and colleagues and you’ll see that you’ll have plenty of things to learn from their eating habits. Food will have more taste when eaten with people around and you’ll feel fuller afterwards.
3. Completely Unwind after Work
Another way of de-stressing completely, which helps emotional eaters, is to completely unwind after work. Once you get home, work is done! A lot of the hunger emotional eaters feel is not hunger, but tension built up from the previous day. Do something that will make you completely relaxed and your emotional eating will improve.
2. Make the Table the Only Place You Eat
Did you know that there have been studies that showed the brain doesn’t really register that you’ve been eating if you sit down in front of the television, at your desk or in the car. Or any other place that’s not a table meant for eating. Make a ritual out of any meal of the day and in time your brain will understand that and begin to associate food with real hunger.
1. Educate Yourself
The first and most important step for curing your emotional eating is to educate yourself about the food you’re eating and about your condition. Try to find out why it is that you’re doing it and how it can be fixed. Go to the root of your problem and only then can you say that you’ve begun the healing process.
Are you an emotional eater? Do you think cures for emotional eaters will help you? Have you tried any of these? Drop us a line and tell us about your experience, we would love to hear from you.
