Life is an up and down journey for all of us
And it can be quite a roller coaster ride at times. And during those low moments it may not be easy to believe that there is light along the way – there is, it’s just that we can’t see it yet, sometimes because we don’t know which way to turn or in which direction to look. The ‘moments’ when we don’t feel at our best might be stretched out over weeks or many months … or they could be, for want of a better term, ‘mini moments’. You know, a day when up to that point things might generally have actually been rather good, but for whatever reason, something is said, something is done or something is thought or felt, and we no longer feel alright … and we … eat! We’re not necessarily hungry, but ... Eating is an easy and enjoyable way of coping with the emotions of that moment … “hmmm, now, where did I hide that chocolate from myself?” No worries there, it will be in the same place it was hidden the last time! The flaw with the “I’ll eat my way out of this” approach is that it can leave you feeling, at best, no better than before you indulged, or you may be consumed with self-loathing, having done what you quietly promised yourself not to do again this week. A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips? Actually no, and for a number of reasons. What I think is an important takeaway here is the fact that we can’t gain more weight than the actual weight of the calories in whatever it is we’ve eaten. That 75g pot of Cadbury Flake Chocolate Dessert has a ‘calorie weight’ of around 37g, which is the combined weight of the fat, carbohydrate and protein it contains - the other half is water. To gain one pound of weight from eating this particular dessert, you’d need to eat around 17 of those pots – if there are 17 of these in the fridge, then there’s an entirely different discussion to be had around ‘planning to overeat’. Okay, so, this puts ‘unplanned’ eating, into some perspective. The next time it happens to you, put your go-to pick-me-up (if there’s any left!) on the bathroom scales and see if the number goes up – btw, how helpful is it to weigh ourselves and how often on our journey – a blog for another day, perhaps? That was a bit about the science around weight change after eating we hadn't planned, but emotional eating is about much more than waist size or numbers on the scales. It’s not just about chocolate, is it? We use all types of foods, and some may drink alcohol or do some other activity, such as go online to buy something, or obsessively clean the house to make us feel better. Triggers of emotional eating include stress, boredom, anxiety, anger, sadness, loneliness, exhaustion and many other things we’d rather not be feeling in that moment. Some of the reasons for choosing a particular food to make us feel better may be rooted in cherished childhood memories – and how comforting that can be, enjoying that ice cream the way we did when our parents used to give it to us out of love. What's the story around your emotional eating? Keeping a diary (there’s one on the Resources page) can be very helpful for building a story around the emotional eating pattern. When we know the circumstances leading up to that first mouthful of whatever we choose to soothe ourselves with and know what we are thinking and feeling before and after we take that last mouthful, we can develop a better understanding of why we do it. Is it when we’re with a particular person, time of the month, having to deal with finances? There are numerous possibilities, learn what your triggers are … The solution is to change how you decide to cope with the emotion itself Doing something physical is a distraction from the trigger emotion and has you burning addtional calories rather than eating them. That's a win-win. If anxiety is a trigger, get physical rather than 'feed' the emotion. Try playing some music and dancing (do it like the world isn’t watching!), squeezing a stress ball or going for a brisk walk - doing it in green space is particularly soothing. Or is being emotionally exhausted the trigger? Immerse yourself in some recovery ‘therapy’, by burning scented candles, relaxing in a warm bubbly bath whilst listening to music or podcast that is undemanding on the ear and soothing. Tackling the trigger head on ... A more challenging approach to the management of emotional eating is to change our mindset around the event that triggers the emotion that triggers the eating. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) can help with this and there is a lot of information about it out there – this might be a useful starting point. Getting a handle on emotional eating takes effort, as does any aspect of looking after our health and wellbeing. Knowing how to do it is that first step. HelpGuide has lots of information on the management of emotional eating – it’s a longer read than this short blog, but may prove useful to you. Tony Hirving Dietitian
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AuthorTony Hirving helps people achieve their diet, health and weight goals ... Archives
March 2024
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