Comfort eating can feel necessary or be a subconscious action, but we need to learn to control these cravings.In college, there is so much pressure from school, extracurricular activities, and relationships. Usually, people go to food because it is a resource that is always around us.
We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort, stress relief, or as a reward. Unfortunately, emotional eating doesn’t fix emotional problems. Instead, it usually makes you feel worse. Afterward, not only does the original emotional issue remain, but you also feel guilty for overeating. Learning to recognize your emotional eating triggers is the first step to breaking free from food cravings and compulsive overeating, and changing the habits that have sabotaged your diets in the past.
Comfort eating is something that is instilled in us from birth. When we were babies we cried and our mothers comforted us with their milk. As we grew older we were given treats when we hurt ourselves. We were also rewarded with sweets or the occasional ice cream when we were on good behavior.
We were learning the lesson that food could make us feel better. And the early lessons in life always stick with us. But unfortunately for many of us, these comfort-eating lessons often come back later in life and cause weight loss havoc!
When we feel under pressure or when we get upset or worried, those old comfort-eating buttons get pressed and no food is safe! When we are eating for comfort, food becomes a way of making ourselves feel better. It might just be caused by a stressful day or by something that is worrying us. Or it may to down to something more significant, such as:
• Poor relationships
• Lack of love
• Lack of confidence or security
• Low self-esteem
The important thing to realize is that comfort eating is not about being greedy and not being able to cope, it is a learned behavior. It is a way of trying to make ourselves feel better with food. We therefore come to associate some foods with comfortable feelings.
If you've seen the Bridget Jones movies you'll have seen a wonderful example of modern day comfort eating. When she's upset, Bridget eats. When she's angry, she eats. When she's lonely, she eats. It's hilarious because there is so much truth in it. So many people identify with it.
If you don’t know how to manage your emotions in a way that doesn’t involve food, you won’t be able to control your eating habits for very long. Diets so often fail because they offer logical nutritional advice, as if the only thing keeping you from eating right is knowledge. But that kind of advice only works if you have conscious control over your eating habits. It doesn’t work when emotions hijack the process, demanding an immediate payoff with food.
In order to stop emotional eating, you have to find other ways to fulfill yourself emotionally. It’s not enough to understand the cycle of emotional eating or even to understand your triggers, although that’s a huge first step. You need alternatives to food that you can turn to for emotional fulfillment.
Emotional eating tends to be automatic and virtually mindless. Before you even realize what you’re doing, you’ve reached for a tub of good ol’ Ben & Jerry’s and polished off half of it. But if you can take a moment to pause and reflect when you’re hit with a craving, you give yourself the opportunity to make a different decision.
All you have to do is put off eating for five minutes, or if five minutes seems unmanageable, start with one minute. Don’t tell yourself you can’t give in to the craving; remember, the forbidden is extremely tempting. Just tell yourself to wait. While you’re waiting, check in with yourself. How are you feeling? What’s going on emotionally? Even if you end up eating, you’ll have a better understanding of why you did it. This can help you set yourself up for a different response next time.
Comfort foods can be fun for a girl’s night, or necessary after a bad break-up, but if emotional eating becomes a regular thing, you need to cut that bad habit!
