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People need to eat to survive. Food is what fuels your body, but it can also be a pleasurable experience when you enjoy the aroma and taste of what you eat. It’s no wonder that so many life cycle events and holidays revolve around food.
But for many people, eating has become a way to cope with stress, according to MedicalNewsToday. This is what is known as emotional eating. There are other triggers for emotional eating that include eating when you are bored or fatigued.
For many people, emotional eating is a learned behavior from childhood when food was used as a band-aid for a tough time or as a reward for doing something good. That’s why it is difficult to change something so ingrained.
Real Hunger Vs Emotional Eating
It can be easy to confuse emotional hunger with physical hunger. Recognizing the difference is the first step in changing behavior.
Hunger comes on gradually after it’s been a while since your last meal and it originates from your stomach. Emotional hunger hits suddenly and originates in your head. Having cravings for specific foods like candy or chips, this is usually a sign of emotional eating.
Ways to Tame Emotional Eating
While everyone may give in to emotional eating occasionally, if this is your coping mechanism, it can negatively impact your health and your emotional wellbeing, stressed Healthline. Here are four ways that you can change your relationship with food.
Start an Emotion Diary
Keeping track of your emotions and habits can help you understand why you react the way you do. Record what was happening, what you felt, and if this triggered an urge to eat. Understanding is the first step to meaningful change,
Get Moving
Movement can be a great way to manage stress and anxiety because it helps to reduce the level of stress hormones in your body. If you take a walk, do some gentle stretches or a few yoga poses, you can calm yourself down without turning to food.
Practice Mindfulness
Emotional eating is mindless eating so turn it around with some mindful behavior. Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment and has been known to help manage stress and anxiety. Instead of turning to food when you are stressed, you can try some of these mindful practices instead by focusing on your breath or doing a micro-meditation.
Seek Help
Breaking the cycle of emotional eating isn’t easy and you may need help doing so, stressed MedicalNewsToday. Speak to a nutritionist or your doctor for information about creating healthier eating habits. If you are suffering from anxiety or depression, it can be helpful to start therapy so that you can learn better coping methods and put an end to emotional eating.
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