How to Quit Emotional Eating

When we eat highly palatable foods (foods high in fat, sugar, or refined flour), our brain’s reward circuitry is activated, producing pleasure and desire. These effects motivated our ancestors to load up on high-calorie foods in times of plenty in order to endure times of food scarcity. For them, taking advantage of available high-calorie food was a matter of survival. We, on the other hand, don’t usually need the extra calories. This reward circuitry motivates us to keep eating anyway, just as it motivates the drug addict to continue his self-destructive behavior. When we are surrounded by highly palatable foods, it’s easy to overuse this reward circuitry. We use the natural highs that these  foods give  us to comfort ourselves when we are stressed, anxious, bored, sad, frustrated, or depressed. We often eat to regulate our emotions, not because we are hungry. This is called self-medicating or emotional eating. While using food for emotional comfort once in a while is not necessarily a bad thing, making a habit out of it is a recipe for continued weight gain.

Finding better ways to manage your emotions can help you overcome a habit of emotional eating. In this chapter you will learn five ways to improve your emotional     well-being: focusing on the present, mental relaxation, healthy thinking, social interaction, and doing something productive.

Focus on the Present

Harvard  psychology  researchers did a study with over two thousand iPhone users to find out what kinds of thoughts and activities make people happy. The researchers created an iPhone app to prompt the study participants at random times as they went about their daily lives. Each time they were prompted, the participants reported what they were doing, thinking, and feeling. Participants who had been mentally focused on whatever they were doing or experiencing generally reported feeling happier than those whose minds had been wandering.

Even daydreaming about pleasant topics was less often associated with happiness than was focusing on the present task or experience.

Whether you are at your job, doing housework, playing a sport, or taking a walk, focusing your mind on your present activity or experience can help elevate your mood.

As you focus on the present, try to keep an accepting, nonjudgmental attitude toward whatever you are experiencing at the moment. This practice, called mindfulness, has been taught in Eastern traditions for centuries, and is increasingly used in Western medicine to treat anxiety, depression, addictions, eating disorders, and  stress-related conditions.

You can practice mindfulness now by taking a moment to look around and notice the colors, sounds, and other details of your environment. As you become caught up in the present, you free your mind from the worries and unhealthy thought patterns that depress your mood.

Try to practice mindfulness throughout the day. When you are actively engaged in a task, keep your mind on that task instead of letting your thoughts wander. When you are not actively engaged in a task, focus your thoughts on your present experience or surroundings.

The most difficult part of focusing on the present is just remembering to do it.

How to Quit Emotional Eating