In the “Healthy 4 2000″ section of Vol. 1, Iss. 4, Bob Greene, Oprah’s fitness guru, writes an article about emotional eating and how to get a handle on it. Perhaps if I’d paid attention 7 years ago, I wouldn’t have had to spend a bunch of money going to a weight loss center (though, I’ll be honest with myself–I love what the weight loss center has done for me, and it’s been much more effective for me than going it alone).
The key to this article can be summed up with this sentence: “Overcoming emotional eating isn’t about depriving yourself; it’s about comforting yourself in a way that helps relieve the real problem.”
Greene uses the pie chart technique here (didn’t I just think about pie charts?)–make a circle on a piece of paper and make wedges for different areas of your life (like work, family, health, etc.). Then cross off the ones you think are going well. The parts of your life that aren’t going well or are particularly stressful are potentially causes of emotional eating–and by “emotional” Greene says it’s both eating too much and also not eating at all because of stress. He believes both of those are equally as harmful.
To help rein in emotional eating, Greene recommends paying attention to what triggers your eating or lack of eating. Then you’ll be able to see what areas of your life need fixing so that you don’t automatically reach for the chips or ice cream. When you know you’re working toward a goal, you can see how the eating can distract you from reaching that goal, and that will supposedly start getting you focused on your goals rather than the eating.
Greene notes that you may slip up–and that’s normal to do–but you should see that as a learning experience and try to improve in the future.
Do I eat emotionally? Yes, of course I do. I’m a good 25 pounds overweight, so there is emotional eating at play somewhere in there. I’m big on eating with friends, eating to keep up with the Boy (the tall and skinny type). This article is useful because it reminds me to think about when/why I eat. Mainly though, I do need to listen to my body and eat when it wants something. Of course, it’s starting to growl right now. Why, I don’t know because I ate a good breakfast about 2.5 hours ago (Kashi cereal, banana–lots of protein and fiber). How can I possibly be hungry now? Oh well, I’m going to think about it before I actually eat anything. Luckily, I’m off to work out, so I can’t eat much before I go.
I am a emotional eater and I’m having a hard time stopping it. I’ve lost 65 pounds and I turn around and gained 15 pounds of it back. How can I resolve this problem? I need help really bad. I can lose what I gain them turn around gain it back. If there is somebody out there that can help me?
Margaret, in my other blog, I chronicle my time spent in a hospital-supported weight loss program. Part of the program had me talking to a psychologist and working out my mental issues related to food. Perhaps this post will help you out (also check the categories for “Fat Camp” and you can read the entire experience).
One tip I learned was that any time I automatically reached for food, I had to stop and ask myself why I wanted food. If I was physically hungry, I could eat it. If I was eating just to eat or because I was stressed out, then I had to find some other positive way to channel that emotion.
It’s really difficult to change behavior, and it means you have to repeat yourself over and over and over until you finally get it. Try to be patient with yourself though. You’re strong enough to get over this hurdle! Good luck!
Ahhh….the website may not have come through. It’s http://www.divaplatform.com/?p=203
How to stop emotionally eating – I was an emotional eater but found great substitutes after identifying what foods I was addicted to. Water has become my best friend and I lost 4 pounds this month through what I learned from http://www.totellwellness.com .
“Greene recommends paying attention to what triggers your eating or lack of eating…”
This part of your article is great advice because I used what my program calls “Emotional Ammo Cards” to take with me every where I go so I can document what I am feeling when I get cravings and a mantra of how to overcome that craving.
Thanks for the article, I am glad this has become a trend because I really do feel that this works better than traditional diets.
-Sophie