How to Stop Emotional Eating – Start with Your Mindset!
When I was in college I had a lot on my mind. Looking back, it seems like I was worried about just about everything in my life. So, every morning, over-stressed and sleep deprived, I would order a cup of coffee and a huge cinnamon bun, dripping with icing. I would devour my 800-calorie “breakfast” in less than five minutes. Honestly, it was almost an addiction.
The problem is that this kind of emotional eating creates a negative spiral.
How to Stop Emotional Eating – Let’s Start with the Problem
The more stressed out we are, the more we eat. The more we eat, the worse we look and feel. The worse we look and feel, the more stressed out we become. I can’t think of a more destructive pattern. Unfortunately, it’s a pattern that far too many women, including myself, are familiar with.
If you want to know how to stop emotional eating, it makes sense to start with your mindset. Can you think of the triggers that cause you to reach for that donut? For many women, the most common triggers are a lack of sleep, stress and a lack of fulfilment in our lives. Let’s look at each of these one at a time.
Sleep Better to Control Your Food Cravings
One trigger that affects many women is exhaustion. In a 2012 study, researchers at Columbia University found that when subjects were sleep-deprived, just seeing a picture of unhealthy foods activated the “reward centres” in their brains.
Why do we crave cake and not carrots (unless they’re in carrot cake?) The answer is simple. According to an MIT study, our brain knows that carbohydrates generate chemical reactions that boost serotonin (the feel good hormone) and carrots don’t.
Less Stress = Less Emotional Eating
Another eating trigger for women over 60 is stress. It is no secret that we eat more when we are under pressure. This is because makes our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol, which makes you think you’re starving. When we were cave men and women, this response made sense. But, our ancestors lived in a relatively donut-free environment, unlike us.
Using meditation or exercise to reduce your stress may not trick your brain into mistaking broccoli for chocolate, but, it may stop you from reaching for another cookie out of habit.
Food is not a Replacement for a Sense of Purpose in Life
In his book “What Are You Hungry For? The Chopra Solution to Permanent Weight Loss, Well-Being, and Lightness of Soul,” Deepak Chopra discusses how overeating is really just a symptom of an inability to find true fulfillment in our lives. The truth is that emotional hunger can’t be filled with food. You need to nourish yourself emotionally in ways that tell your brain it doesn’t have to switch on the cravings.
When do you tend to get strong food cravings? How do you stop emotional eating in your life? Do you think it is ok to have the occasional splurge? Please join the conversation.
September 19, 2014
I sure am
September 19, 2014
Yes!
September 19, 2014
… no… except when it concerns my choice of white wine… i.e. New Zealand Kim Crawford Sauvignon blanc…
September 19, 2014
veggies into donuts?
September 19, 2014
If I could I would eat sweets every day! But i don’t
September 19, 2014
I am the opposite – no appetite….
September 19, 2014
Yes
September 19, 2014
Oh yes.
September 19, 2014
no
April 28, 2014
Porridge.
April 27, 2014
… cooked oats covered with organic cereals, greek blueberry yogurt, fresh berries, and milk… yum!!…
April 26, 2014
cant eat donuts
April 26, 2014
Some years ago I had major food cravings, good and bad,they were not necessarily things in my regular diet. Sometimes it was kelp, sometimes it was potato chips or cookies. The female allergists recommended L-Glutamine supplements, which worked wonders. L-glutamine is the aminoacid one gets from a beef steak. Translated into breakfast, for me, it is eggs in some form.
April 26, 2014
Yogurth, müssli, otherwise fruit or a cup of tea.
April 26, 2014
some more fruits, after all we have a lot of them, but still some people prefer to eat rubbish early in the morning.
April 26, 2014
What some people call The green juice plus toast and cream cheese plus
April 26, 2014
My usual breakfast is oatmeal but I am taking a break and I now am having toast with wow butter(it is a soya butter that taste like peanut butter) I am really enjoying the change, so my body hahaha.
April 26, 2014
Boiled egg and wheat bread
April 26, 2014
Apple with peanut butter
April 26, 2014
Walnuts and a banana!
April 26, 2014
Crispy bacon in home-made bread rolls – yummy yummy in my tummy x
April 26, 2014
My mind is set on one of these donuts. Lol
April 26, 2014
Too sweet! Usually piece of toast
April 26, 2014
This picture is not very appetizing to me…….GROSS, Actually!
April 26, 2014
Spinache heated in olive oil with loads of lemon pepper and a couple of eggs thrown in. Filling and guilt free.
April 26, 2014
Usually porridge or yoghurt and a banana.
April 26, 2014
Soft boiled eggs ans ww bread
April 26, 2014
In the winter: oatmeal. Summer: Cranola with yoghurt and fresh fruit
April 26, 2014
vandaag oranje tompouzen
April 26, 2014
Oatmeal with fresh fruit.
April 26, 2014
not the above thats for sure
April 26, 2014
I start the day with a protein shake and follow up a couple of hours later with a piece if fruit.
April 26, 2014
I like Berry and oat cerial with banana. Yummy.
April 26, 2014
Well I think I’ll settle for a cup of coffee and I don’t know,maybe half a dougnut
April 26, 2014
I have more days with dinner for breakfast than days with breakfast foods.
April 26, 2014
Tea
April 26, 2014
W soft boiled eggs n 2 pc cream crackers with half cup coffee.
April 26, 2014
Fresh fruit followed by a boiled egg.
April 26, 2014
oatmeal.
April 26, 2014
Porridge.
April 26, 2014
Berry protein shake with fat free milk! Delish!
April 26, 2014
Just the colour of the icing on those doughnuts looks ghastly to me and wouldn’t make me want to eat them..
April 26, 2014
No! Go ahead!
February 2, 2014
those donuts look so GOOOOOD!! . . . especially the blue one . . .
January 31, 2014
Stress and feeling unhappy…but sorting it this year…:-)
January 31, 2014
Stress and feeling unhappy…but sorting it this year…:-)
January 31, 2014
When I am stressed I usually don’t eat. But when I do crave something I will eat it. Otherwise you will not stop thinking about it and eat other foods to compensate
January 31, 2014
At night watching TV
January 30, 2014
OCC
January 30, 2014
I think feeling blue, being depressed, or surviving a bad experience (such as a class full of snarky teenagers–I sub at high schools) triggers my “I deserve pepperoni pizza or a donut binge. I know that, but how do I stop it?
January 30, 2014
I get strong food cravings when I am bored or feeling down. Thank goodness I have learnt how to manage it most of the time now….still slip now and then but I get back on track again.
January 30, 2014
Well, I suppose ‘I deserved that!’ is good justification to enjoy a donut ;-)
January 30, 2014
I am a Weight Management Coaching and work with clients to overcome this sort of issue.