Taking Control
The emotional and psychological links with food are an
important aspect of weight control and a big part of recognising these
mechanisms and applying skills and strategies to address the difference between
the need to eat and the desire to eat.
Research shows that the three main causes of people
eating when they are not hungry are; habit,
boredom and stress. Fill out a food and drink diary and answer
questions such as what you ate and drank, where you ate and drank, why you ate
and drank and score yourself with a hunger level (0 – not hungry, 3 – starving). Hopefully this will allow certain feeding
patterns to emerge enabling you to come up with strategies to combat eating
when not hungry. If there are certain
habits that have formed over a long period of time, then the aim is to replace
bad habits with good habits. Boredom and
stress related eating require a great deal of determination and different
strategies but as long as you recognise why there is a deviation from the plan,
then it is possible to work out a counter measure to get back on track.
In tune with hunger
People don’t necessarily know how to differentiate
between true hunger and emotional hunger i.e. unconscious prompting of trigger
foods, trigger situations and trigger feelings.
Emotional hunger is the hunger you shouldn’t give in to. You can feel emotional hunger without
responding to it. True hunger only
really occurs when you have not eaten for hours or have not had enough calories
to satisfy your physiological needs. Be
aware of desires, temptations and even compulsions.
How often do you emotionally eat? Try the below exercise which will help you to
identify the situations where you tend to eat when you are not hungry. So before you’re about to empty the fridge or
cupboards for an unplanned snack or meal ask yourself the following truthfully:
·
On a scale of 1(over full) to 10 (starving) how
hungry (real hunger) am I?
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· If you are eating something unplanned ask yourself
why am I eating when I am not hungry?
This identifies the mood or emotion triggering you to eat.
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·
What am I going to do instead of eating? This gives you possible alternatives that
you can do to help resolve those triggers instead of eating.
So if you
feel sad or lonely, call a friend. If
you feel anxious, go for a walk, listen to some calming music (or your
favourite music) or take a bath. This
will help you learn some positive ways of expressing and nurturing your emotional
need without food.
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·
When you think you are hungry, give yourself a
moment to check that what you are feeling is truly hunger before the impulse
to eat takes over.
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