Why you eat when your not physically hungry

 Why you eat when your not physically hungry

Many people are under the misconception that emotional eating only happens in response to stress and to cope with negative emotions such as sadness, be alone, disappointment, feeling empty, or grief.  However many people eat for many other reasons that have nothing to do with physiological needs including the following:

• Boredom
• To socialize
• Recapture a feeling or memory
• To celebrate a special occasion
• To fill a void or missing need
• To feel good
• To feel safe
• To feel comforted
• As a reward
• Out of habit (as you sit in front of the TV)

Sometimes eating for nonphysical reasons happen it's life we have parties, weddings, holidays, and etc. You can do this for sure I call this having a cheat meal once a week.  A glass of wine a piece of cake, what ever it is as long as it's once a week and one meal.  It's when we take the entire day off, that it becomes very hard to get started again.  A bad day can turn into 2 bad days and before you know it you did not workout all week and ate garbage all week.  We are human and yes to totally not have an unhealthy meal once a week is unrealistic.  Sure you can do it for a few weeks or even a few months but what end up happening you are just hanging on and put yourself under soooo much pressure to not "mess up" that it becomes tiring and undoable. 

On the other hand, bingeing at home after a stressful day and using food for nonphysical reasons is another story.  The irony is that emotional hunger can never be satisfied with food.  The solution begins with awareness. Once you're consciously aware of the reasons you eat you can catch yourself before eating emotionally.  At those important moments you can make a decision, you will need to reframe yourself from the situation.  You will need to talk yourself out of it and lets face it walk away form what ever you want to eat in that moment.  Get busy!! Take the kids for a walk, start a load of laundry, run up and down the basement steps 15 times, drink 2 large glasses of water,  What ever you need to do to remove yourself from the situation.  

According to research by D. Brian Wansink author of Mindless Eating, you can make as many as two hundred decisions about food in a day, ranging from  what to eat for breakfast, to weather to eat every time you pass by the plate of cookies on the counter.  If you want to make your decisions about food emotionally, the impact on your weight and health can be very destructive over time.  That's why I find it so important to meal plan and stick to it.  Less choice need to be made because you already made them and have the food bought and prepped.

To catch yourself from making impulsive decisions, a good first step is to recognize the difference between real hunger and emotional hunger. These are some very distinct differences between physical and emotional eating hunger.

• Physical hunger builds up over time and does so gradually.  Starting with a small grumble in your belly and then continues to a full blown hunger.  Emotional hunger happens suddenly.
• With physical hunger, you can wait to have something.  With emotional hunger it seems to demand you satisfy it right away.
• Physical hunger usually appears about three hours after your last meal or snack.  Emotional hunger can happen anytime.
• Physical hunger is usually a general desire for food.  And emotional hunger is usually demands a certain food.
• After eating for physical hunger, the hunger goes away.  After eating for emotional eating the hunger persists.
• After eating for physical hunger, you get a sense of satisfaction.  After eating for emotional reasons you feel guilty.

Eat until you are 80% full contrary to what most Americans do by eating until the plate is empty or not wanting to waste food.  But in reality by eating more then 80% you are wasting food.  May I suggest a different option, if you continue to eat and waste food because fullness is fairly dependable signal that you have already hit your energy needed and are ready to go.  Fuel your body don't drown your body.  Treat yourself like a Rolls Royce not a junk car.  If you owned a top of the line Rolls Royce I would think you would put the best fuel in it, also you would take care of it by getting new tires if needed, waxing it, washing it and etc.  It's the same way with you as a person if you want to feel better, have more confidence then it's a must to take care of yourself.  Invest the time and money into yourself because if you don't know one else is going to.  You have choices to make every day and this just happens to be another choice.  Why not set a good example to your family your worth the hard work need to and the time that goes with it.

If you would like more one-one with how I'm able to help others get threw these things then ask about when my next challenge group is starting and see if it might be a good fit for you.