Emotional Eating: A Reason We Gain Weight
10 years ago I lost 105 pounds. Now before you stop reading because you think “this is another stupid weight loss story from someone who just ate mung beans and drank carrot juice. Now my life is wonderful.”, read on for one more sentence. I have gained back 45 of them.
So what business do I have writing a Healthy Living advice column? Primarily because I know what I’ve done wrong and the pitfalls of dramatic weight loss, I am qualified to speak about success and failure. Also I can talk about getting back on the horse – if you can just get the horse to stand still !
If you have read some of my more recent posts you can probably tell this has not been a great year -actually if I’m really honest I would have to say I’ve had better decades. Regardless of your age you are never ready for the loss of a parent, much less two, whether they had long illnesses or short (one of each), or to make end of life choices, living arrangements, etc. Add on a few more losses, a divorce, a move to a new city, new relationships, a decision to semi-retire and what you have is a great big incentive for EMOTIONAL EATING. So…. I AM AN EMOTIONAL EATER. Add to that the fact that I just plain like food, especially carbohydrates, feel good foods.
Emotional Eaters – You are Not Alone
BUT this is not about me – It’s about you. A UCLA study of 17,000 relapsed dieters found that most relapsed because of emotional issues. See? We are not alone ! Whether you have 10 stubborn pounds to lose (or that you lose but they keep finding you again) OR you have 100 lbs to lose, lets look at why this is soooo difficult for many of us and what we can do to start back on the road to success.
First let me say this : IF you are an emotional eater you need to Befriend it and Acknowledge it. Know thine enemy. It makes it more manageable .
It is said it takes three weeks of doing the same thing over and over again to make a habit. I can tell you it does NOT take three weeks to break something you thought was well in place. My healthy eating and exercise program, the one I I had been following religiously for 2 years went off the tracks when my father became ill and after a very short illness, died. There was a funeral to plan, my mother to care for, much younger siblings that I felt I needed to be there for. My running stopped. And I ate anything I could get my hands on. Ah yes, in a small town everyone brings casseroles and cake/desserts for the deceased family. And I never got back on the horse
Piling on the Pounds
Initially it was just a pound here and a pound there, 5 lbs in a year. My new clothes still fit. I’d start running next week, I’d tell myself. I’d eat better when I was back home and settled. To an emotional eater what does settled really look like? Any upset is a great excuse to grab a handful of cookies or an extra helping of mashed potatoes. That 5 lbs becomes 50 in 10 years.
How do you know if you are an Emotional Eater? Ask yourself these questions:
- Is the hunger sudden?
- Do you feel the need to immediately gratify that hunger or craving?
- Is the hunger for something specific, a craved food? Not just any food will do?
- Do you keep eating long after you should be full
- Do you feel guilty after eating?
All of these are symptoms of emotional hunger. Physical hunger builds over time and can wait to be fed. Any food works to satisfy physical hunger, not just a specific food. With physical hunger you stop eating when you are full or the hunger is satisfied. Feeding physical hunger does not make you feel guilty.
All Foods Are Not Created Equal
Emotional eating often centers around comfort food. We eat it to obtain a feeling. For women it is usually chocolate or cookies. Men use pizza and steak seem to fill the need more often. Then there are those of us who want the food of our childhood – macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes, ice cream.
According to an article by Dr. Roger Gould, we learn at a very young age to use food in several ways:
- reward for good behavior or a job well done
- to help us cope with stress
- comfort.
And why does it work? Very simply – Eating these comfort foods raises our serotonin levels (the feel good hormone).
Derailing Emotions
How do we break the cycle? First, as I said earlier acknowledge you are an emotional eater. Next have some strategies to learn your triggers. Dr. E. Abramson’s book Body Intelligence gives us a good place to start. On 3×5 index cards make 4 headings: Time, Location, Food, Emotion/Thought. Keep these cards with you in a pocket, your purse, the kitchen, your desk. Use these cards to track unplanned snacks/eating. This will give you insight into your biggest triggers and help you plan how to avoid them.
Some trigger emotions: Anxiety, boredom, sadness. Suggestions: Take a 5 minute walk. Get away from the place where the “hunger” was triggered. Move away from your desk, the TV, wherever you first noticed the urge to eat. Do some stretches, meditate, Set your watch and wiat 5 minutes. If you still feel the urge to snack choose one that is healthy- popcorn, a handful of nuts, flavored carbonated water. Frequently we misinterpret thrist for hunger. Drink, drink, drink. If I had to name one of the things that contributed to the success of my previous wieght loss it was always having a bottle of water with me.
If sadness is derailing you you may need more Vitamin D or B complex in your diet or as a supplement. Consider a light box or spending more time outdoors in the sunlight (don’t forget the sunscreen). Support groups are another good place to start. My initial weight loss started when I brought Weight Watchers at Work into my workplace for my employees. I also brought in a personal trainer to work with employees on their lunch hour. It was important to set a good example so I became part of both programs. 9 months later our office had lost a total of 350 lbs. We were the perfect example of an active support group.
So are you ready to get off the Emotional Eating treadmill? Send me your story and I’ll send you a pedometer!