15th
April 2013
“If hunger is not the
problem, then eating is not the solution.”
Oh I do love a good
quote, if you read my blog you’ll already know that, quotes and affirmations
have helped me a great deal over the years, to think I can be so inspired by
one sentence is phenomenal. I love the wisdom of people and how they get me to
think about something with just a few words.
And the quote at the top of
this page is so true, because if you sit with a huge bowl of crisps because
you’ve got a problem and eating them is distracting you for a few minutes, by
the time you get to the bottom of the bowl – whatever you’re trying to ignore
is still there only now you’ve just eaten a large bowl of crisps and probably
feel a bit sick too!
I used to do it all the
time, you know how it goes, you go open the fridge to check the light still
works and stare, gazing mindlessly into the abyss, now depending on how bad
your problem is and where what mind frame of your diet you are in will depend
on whether you close the door and walk away or grab something, eat it and
return ten minutes later for a repeat performance!
So if you play the ‘what’s
in the fridge’ game a lot, then it might be time to address why? Cos I’m guessing hunger hasn’t got a fat lot
to do with the reason! Are you Bored?
Lonely? Stressed? Unhappy? Nervous? Apprehensive? Excited? Tired?
Now I’m a foodie, I’m also
an emotional eater, so learning the difference between the two eating
behaviours for me is vital. I love to
eat, no seriously do you understand quite how much I love the whole experience
of food, planning/shopping/cooking/preparing/eating/talking about it! All of it, everything that goes into
experiencing food makes me happy, and it’s a bit of a hobby. However I know I can do all this and lead a realistic
life which includes this pastime but doesn’t mean I have to gain weight because
I eat constantly. A stamp collector
doesn’t spend 24 hours a day collecting stamps and I don’t have to spend my
entire day eating food!
However the emotional
eating side of it is harder to nail down and control, a great place to start is
a journal, tracking everything you eat but also your reasons for doing so. Asking yourself if you are emotionally eating
is it helping you at all. Writing it all
down will help you remember your actions but also give you time to think about
them too.
I believe for long term weight loss success, it’s important to realise
that you are completely free to choose what food you eat, but if you want to be
healthy and take care of yourself, then there has to be a level of ‘self care’
involved and you need to realise that each food decision you make has either a positive or negative effect on
your health, and there is no right or wrong, good or bad. The food you
choose to eat sometimes might have an undesirable effect on your body but you
like the taste some much you will choose to eat it anyway, and that’s ok if
you’re doing it occasionally – if you’re choosing to eat that way all the time
then you know it’s going to have a negative effect on your body which in turn
will have a negative effect on your mood.
So how do you stop the emotional
eating? I don’t know lol, I still do it
;) just not as often, and when I’m doing it I’m aware of that fact. Mostly though if I find myself emotionally
eating, I face the problem! I
acknowledge the issue and feel the emotion, rather than trying to quash it down
with a doughnut or two. Some things are
easier to sort than others, if I’m stressed - I’ll go for a walk to calm myself
down, if I’m tired – I’ll go to bed, if I’m sad or a bit down – I’ll watch a
comedy. If I’m overwhelmed by the dump
that is my house – I’ll make myself tidy it up!
And if it’s a bigger life issue then I’ll work out what needs to change
– that’s the real scary one but it’s doable – honest. Xx
Yeah when I eat these days, 98% of the time
it’s because I’ve thought about it, planned it and I’m hungry. The other 2% I’m still working on.
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