Emotional eating is a more common problem than many people realize.
If you are an emotional eater, don’t feel bad, it is possible to control this misunderstood eating disorder.
This simple plan of action should help you quit comfort eating once and for all:
- Admit that you need help: Just by reading this article you are admitting that you have a problem turning to food when dealing with certain emotions. Now, make that admission more public. Begin to open up to the people in your life that 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 finish it and then the rest of the process will seem easier once you’re eating outside!
- Realize it’s not about the food: Eating comfortably has little or nothing to do with food. It’s really about avoiding feeling certain emotions, either because they’re too painful (for negative emotions) or because you don’t think you deserve to experience them (for positive emotions). The foods you are seeking are just a way to anesthetize yourself from emotional pain or pleasure. Many people choose cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, gambling or sexual addictions; your thing is food. The food is just the medium you have chosen. Once you realize this, it becomes much easier to break the emotional eating cycle and allow yourself to heal from the pain that you are hiding from.
- Give yourself permission to feel; perhaps you were raised to believe that experiencing feelings was weak or indulgent. Now is the time to give yourself permission to feel the full range of possible emotions, from the best to the worst, without looking for food to hide.
- 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 problem.