HealtH Matters 85
HealtH & well-beinG
food and the speed you are eating. this becomes a negative cycle where
Pay attention to the here and now. our overeating results in weight gain and
Don’t do other activities such as read, tV, more negative emotions – self-blame,
“by understanding the
computer etc. Before eating your next criticism, anger etc. By understanding
triggers to our emotional
mouthful, lay down your cutlery and pause the triggers to our emotional eating and
a few seconds – become mindful, that is using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
eating and using Cognitive
pay attention and eat mindfully. this is a skill (CBT) techniques we can learn new skills
and like all new skills, it takes practice and to deal with our emotional distress. With
behavioural therapy
persistence. these skills emotional eating, stress eating,
(Cbt) techniques we
night grazing and mindless eating with
Emotional Eating
subsequent weight gain are no more.
can learn new skills to
The following categories from CBT help
Know the role that emotional eating plays us identify triggers to overeating:
deal with our emotional
in your life. How you know if you are an • Emotions: eating in response to stress,
distress. with these skills
emotional eater? Do you “comfort” eat or tiredness, boredom, anger, anxiety,
do you eat “junk” food as a result of your depression as a way to self-sooth and
emotional eating, stress
feelings instead of hunger? comfort.
We learn from an early age that food • Situations: Overeating because of
eating, night grazing and
brings comfort. recently I brought my certain activities; frequent business
mindless eating with
two-year-old son for his swine flu vaccine lunches, watching tV shows, going to
and as a psychologist I was observing the the movies etc.
subsequent weight gain
behaviours around me. What happened • Thoughts: self-defeating eating as a
was very interesting; my son was crying result low self-esteem, self-dislike, guilt,
are no more. ”
after his injection and as I was comforting punishment and self-hopelessness.
him, the practice nurse gave him a • Body cues: Overeating as a result of
chocolate button. You see, from such a body cues. How many times have you
young age we are shown that our hurts can skipped a meal and over-compensated,
be healed by food. such as by eating in the supermarket
while shopping, eating in the car on the
think aBOut it… way home, eating while preparing your
Often during times of happiness (birthdays) meal, going back for seconds etc.
and sadness (bereavement) food plays such
a central role. Putting food in our mouths
can become a habit when we are dealing
with our emotional distress of boredom,
three steps tO tackling emOtiOnal eating
stress, anger, loneliness, depression,
relationship and communication difficulties, step 1: tracking
low self-esteem etc. In effect, our eating the key to tracking your emotional eating is to keep a food diary that identifies your
habit stops us from learning valuable skills negative emotions and distinguish them from feelings of hunger. What gets measured
to solve our emotional distress. gets done. With your food diary you will be able to identify your overeating habits.
step 2: Basic tools to breaking the habit of emotional eating
Instead of eating as a result of being emotionally upset tell yourself that “this food
will only comfort me temporarily”, “If I eat I will have two problems, the one that was
upsetting me and feeling bad about eating”. Keep in control, remember it’s a choice:
you can choose to eat or do a different activity – walk, swim, make a phone call and
take a soothing bath. so try to do something else pleasurable until the urge to eat
passes.
step 3: advanced tools for breaking the habit of emotional eating
Using distraction will help some people but for others, however, it’s not enough. For
more effective ways to manage emotional distress that leads to overeating, try relaxation
exercises, meditation or some counselling. therapy may help you identify underlying
emotional difficulties that are causing you to overeat.
HM Iss6.1 p71-128.indd 85 12/03/2010 15:25:06
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