It’s amazing how the human mind works! Today, as I was sitting in the clinic, idle, my mind started playing some nasty tricks on me. Images of assorted types of food started popping up. After all, eating was a sight better than staring at the medical journals or the newspaper. Aptly named Comfort Eating, I must say! The task of eating actually gives us something to do besides the mundane tasks at hand. Perhaps, we might be feeling down and that takes our mind off the issue troubling us.
Many people turn to emotional eating or comfort eating when stressed, depressed, bored or just plain lonely. Some love to munch in front of the television, and before they realize, the whole bag of chips is gone. The problem is that we tend to snack on unhealthy food laden with salt and saturated fat or sugar. It does not augur well with our weight loss efforts.
In the clinic today, I sat back and gave myself a few minutes. After that, I picked up my bag to go out for half an hour and by the time I came back, I felt much better. The cravings had passed. This set me thinking. I realize that a lot of people who want to lose weight have issues with cravings. Here are some tips to reduce emotional eating.
1. Plan Your Meals in Advance - “Failing to plan is planning to fail” as the saying goes. Planning our meals 1 week in advance, especially on a Sunday goes a long way toward reducing unhealthy food in our diets. Most people tend to stick to meal plans if they have written them down. Initially, keeping a food log may help. This tells us our trends and even reveals snacks which we have forgotten we ate. Gradually, our food log will be the same as our meal plans at the beginning of the week.
2. Make a List For Grocery Shopping - The next step is to make a list for grocery shopping according to your weekly meal plans. Go groceries shopping once a week and stick to the list at hand. Buy only healthy food. Chances are that if you do not have these unhealthy snacks at home, you will not eat them. Do not go out to buy food when hungry.
These tips of planning your meal and then going grocery shopping may initially take some time but once you get used to it, you can actually recycle a lot of the lists.
3. Keep To A Balanced Diet - Eating a balanced diet with healthy snacks in between can go a long way to reducing cravings. If the calories consumed per day are a lot less than the requirements, we tend to be hungry. Hunger usually leads to cravings of our favorite food. Eating 3 main well balanced meals with 2 snacks in between keep you satisfied the whole day.
You also need to learn to recognize true hunger. If you have just had a meal, it is likely that this is not true hunger.
4. Use a Buddy System – Keeping to a weight loss regime with a friend is a very effective method of weight loss. Numerous studies have shown that people tend to keep to a prescribed diet and exercise when they have a buddy. When faced with cravings, you can call your buddy to distract yourself or motivate yourself to stick to the planned meals. It gives you some time to sit back and think of the consequence of your actions. Sometimes, that is all we need.
5. Keep Busy - Go shopping for clothes or go for a movie with friends when idle or feeling down. Shopping for clothes generally gives me motivation to lose more weight so I can fit into a smaller size. Keep yourself busy. This gives us less time to dwell on food.
6. Exercise regularly - Regular exercise not only helps with weight loss but also releases endorphins or the “happy hormone”. This elevation of mood helps to reduce cravings. Moreover, people who exercise tend to be more conscious of what they eat, preferring to choose healthy food.
7. Associate with Health Conscious People - Associate with people who are conscious about their health, exercise regularly and are mindful of what they eat. It makes it easier if the people around us have the same goals and ideas like us. Joining a group or association with the same objectives also helps.
There may be times when despite all these measures above, you still give in to the cravings. We should not beat ourselves up over this. Get right back on track. After all, tomorrow is another day. Remember “Do your best today and tomorrow you will do better”.
Tags: emotional eating, weight loss, weight gain, meal planning, shopping list, buddy system, exercise, endorphins
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