Post by lizlor on Dec 2, 2023 17:12:17 GMT
Eliminate Emotional Eating
Today’s Thought:
Once I start using strategies other than eating to calm down, dieting will be easier.
Just about everyone with a weight problem eats for emotional reasons from time to time. Like many dieters, you might soothe yourself with food because you don’t like feeling distressed or bored. Food can certainly be an effective distractor—temporarily. But eating doesn’t solve the problem that led to your distress in the first place. In fact, eating emotionally creates another problem: You feel bad about straying from your diet. In chapter 9, Beck goes into detail about why emotional eating happens and how you can help stop it. She says you’ve already developed many of the skills you’ll need for dealing with emotional eating.
Technique: Use Mindset Techniques
Apply the same kind of thinking techniques you previously learned to combat emotional eating: Label how you’re feeling. Tell yourself, I’m just feeling upset ... I’m not hungry. Stand firm. Tell yourself you’re absolutely not going to eat just because you’re distressed. Remind yourself that you don’t want to strengthen your giving-in muscle and weaken your resistance muscle by straying from your food plan. Think about how eating at this point will undermine your confidence in your ability to stick with your diet. Don’t give yourself a choice. Once you say to yourself with conviction, NO CHOICE ... I’m definitely not going to eat, you’ll stop struggling. You will struggle, though, if you waver and say to yourself, I hate feeling like this ... I don’t know if I can stand not eating. Imagine the aftermath of giving in. Visualize eating. How long does the pleasure of eating really last?
Emotional eating involves a desire to distract yourself from an unpleasant feeling. When you find yourself eating for a reason other than true hunger, ask yourself, How was I just feeling emotionally? • Was I feeling sad, lonely, worried, embarrassed, frustrated, angry, guilty? • Was I feeling at loose ends, unsettled, bored? • Was I trying to avoid doing something I didn’t want to do?
How much of the above sounds familiar? Do you eat emotionally? Why? What do you do to stop it?
Today’s Thought:
Once I start using strategies other than eating to calm down, dieting will be easier.
Just about everyone with a weight problem eats for emotional reasons from time to time. Like many dieters, you might soothe yourself with food because you don’t like feeling distressed or bored. Food can certainly be an effective distractor—temporarily. But eating doesn’t solve the problem that led to your distress in the first place. In fact, eating emotionally creates another problem: You feel bad about straying from your diet. In chapter 9, Beck goes into detail about why emotional eating happens and how you can help stop it. She says you’ve already developed many of the skills you’ll need for dealing with emotional eating.
Technique: Use Mindset Techniques
Apply the same kind of thinking techniques you previously learned to combat emotional eating: Label how you’re feeling. Tell yourself, I’m just feeling upset ... I’m not hungry. Stand firm. Tell yourself you’re absolutely not going to eat just because you’re distressed. Remind yourself that you don’t want to strengthen your giving-in muscle and weaken your resistance muscle by straying from your food plan. Think about how eating at this point will undermine your confidence in your ability to stick with your diet. Don’t give yourself a choice. Once you say to yourself with conviction, NO CHOICE ... I’m definitely not going to eat, you’ll stop struggling. You will struggle, though, if you waver and say to yourself, I hate feeling like this ... I don’t know if I can stand not eating. Imagine the aftermath of giving in. Visualize eating. How long does the pleasure of eating really last?
Emotional eating involves a desire to distract yourself from an unpleasant feeling. When you find yourself eating for a reason other than true hunger, ask yourself, How was I just feeling emotionally? • Was I feeling sad, lonely, worried, embarrassed, frustrated, angry, guilty? • Was I feeling at loose ends, unsettled, bored? • Was I trying to avoid doing something I didn’t want to do?
How much of the above sounds familiar? Do you eat emotionally? Why? What do you do to stop it?
