One sure detriment to your fitness success is emotional eating. It is a subject that I believe we can never talk enough about. It can sabotage every effort you make. So let’s do some digging into the makeup of an emotional eater, why it happens and how it looks.
This week I was talking to my hairdresser, who mentioned that her almost 18-year-old daughter recently joined the gym. She had put on some weight and I asked if she was an emotional eater. She replied, “No, she doesn’t just eat when she’s sad. She eats when she’s happy, bored, you name it.” Well that is exactly what an emotional eater is.
Emotional eaters aren’t restricted to one type of emotion. In fact, most of the times they tend to use virtually every emotion as a reason to eat. Happy? Well then you might as well celebrate with a pizza? Sad? Then drown your sorrows in a bowl of ice cream. Mad? You might as well stuff yourself with some greasy food.
So understand that emotional eaters do this because they base their decision on an emotion, not on true hunger. But there is more to this.
Emotional eaters also tend to give in to social pressures. Ever attend a party or get together with friends and you see all the delicious goodies spread out…you plan to only make healthy choices but then you begin to rationalize. It would be rude to not try your friend’s chocolate éclairs. Or you think to yourself, “What’s wrong with splurging once-in-a-while?”
It’s not wrong to splurge once-in-a-while. But the problem is that you know darn well you have splurged about a dozen times that week. Again, emotions are getting in the way.
Sometimes emotional eaters will be influenced by what they see on television. An advertisement for a new restaurant or a special (all you can eat shrimp) gets your mouth watering. You just have to try this new thing.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with eating some of these things once-in-a-while. But you know if you are going beyond that.
In my next blog we are going to talk about ways to combat emotional eating.
Related Articles:
Choosing the Right Eating Plan
Change Your Eating Habits One Meal at a Time
Photo by sh0dan in stock.xchng